Ironbark

Gr 7 Up—A 16-year-old boy with intermittent explosive disorder and a fondness for the comforts of home finds the remoteness and lack of electricity at his grandfather's house in Tasmania an added hardship to his sentence for causing an episode in a Melbourne fast-food restaurant that resulted in thousands of dollars of damage. The setting is one with which most North American readers will not be familiar and adds to the boy's isolation. His grandfather, whose taciturn nature initially mirrors his own, becomes his best ally in his search to understand the disorder that has the potential to ruin his life. This is an unusual first-person narrative in which the teen, who is never given a name, becomes a fully realized character by virtue of his relationships with the people around him, notably his grandfather and the town's police officer, and his own thoughts as he journals about what occurred and his hopes for the future. This novel will appeal to readers who enjoy mysteries or psychological stories that look at what happened in the past, as they will be given the chance to consider the protagonist's guilt or innocence along with those who have prejudged him.—Betsy Fraser, Calgary Public Library, Alberta, Canada