Lucy Black reviews new junior fiction from Maria de Jong and Shelley Burne-Field.
Two short and accessible novels for young readers with themes of coming of age, exploration, independence and bravery. They both highlight the importance of friendship, slowing down and taking each moment as it comes.
Ride North, by Maria De Jong
Twelve year old Folly is on a mission. Her mother has died and she is not coping. Her grief has caused her to lose her friends and the only one who seems to understand her is her pony, Tooth. He quite literally understands her because Folly is something of a horse whisperer and carries on detailed conversations with her equine best friend. Folly’s dad has a new girlfriend, Audrey, and her brother doesn’t think Audrey is too bad. It seems like everyone else is moving on from her mum’s death, so Folly decides to get literally moving to farewell her mother.
The plot of this short and easy to read novel follows Folly as she leaves her Dargaville home and quests northward to Cape Reinga, where she misguidedly plans to scatter her mum’s ashes. Folly skips school and travels light, packing a pup tent into her backpack and riding Tooth along rural roads without much of a plan. Ride North is a horse book but it isn’t a horse book. It does have cute riding details for the pony girls but the focus is on Folly’s internal struggles and her daily adventuring.
… Folly is something of a horse whisperer and carries on detailed conversations with her equine best friend
The story follows the pair north and the short chapters track new characters and twists in path and plot. Folly meets friends like Ben the nature nerd;a kind but gruff hunter;smiley locals at cafes and helpful farmers who give directions. She also gets herself mixed up with not friendly people;—gangsters shuffling money around the country—and Folly, living up to her name, makes some bad decisions which set them on her trail.
Folly’s thoughtless decisions and mistakes are frustrating from an adult perspective—Please Folly just phone home!—but younger readers will likely find her impulsive nature quite relatable and sweet. Like many twelve year olds, Folly expects her plans to pan out with ease, she expects those around her to help her and her companions to have endless patience for her drive and mania. Many of the side characters are Māori and Folly is Pakeha. At times the way they provide Folly with entertainment and help comes across as undeserved and uncomfortable. It is refreshing to read a main character who is realistically not perfect though, and Folly is realistically twelve and confused.
Like many twelve year olds, Folly expects her plans to pan out with ease …
The friendship between Folly and Tooth is something quite special and a relationship not often explored in literature. Tooth is not her pet or her buddy as such, he is just Tooth, the pony that lets her ride him, for now. It is never explained why Folly can communicate with Tooth and it is the only magical feature of the story but it enhances it a lot and really adds to the atmosphere of the whole book. The passages about Tooth’s horse identity are fascinating, the way he engages with nature, the politics of a pack of horses and how he feels towards humans. He isn’t a cute character, this isn’t Sabrina the Teenage Witch’s talking cat or Donkey from Shrek. He is much more earthy and wise. Maria De Jong has really captured the wonder of wild animals and the tenuous but beautiful bonds we form with them.
Like The Hobbit or the Narnia adventures, Ride North is a quest book that lends itself to being read aloud—this would work well as a bedtime book or a class novel. There are many conversations to have around grief, adventure, friendship, safety, morals, New Zealand landscapes and if you could talk to animals what would you say? More importantly, what would they say to you?
Kimi The Kekeno’s Big Adventure, by Shelley Burne-Field
Kimi is a New Zealand Fur seal, a kekeno. He is growing from pup to adult and this short and sweet novel by Shelley Burne-Field invites readers to witness his coming of age from a seal perspective. Life on the foreshore is alien and rough but Burne-Field really captures all senses in Kimi’s wild life. She conjures the smells, sounds and feel of being a young kekeno, attached to his mum, wary of the bulls and comfortable in his blubbery body but unsure of his future.
Kimi and his friend Rata are weaning, they need to move away from the rookery. Kimi the Kekeno’s Big Adventure follows them as they journey into the ocean on their own for the first time. Burne-Field proposes that kekeno, like many cultures, have a coming of age quest. Kimi and Rata need to reach a stone circle in the ocean, at the right phase of the moon so they can be blessed by the moon goddess Hina and discover their dream. Kimi is torn, he wants to be brave and grown but he also wants to stay with his mother, he’s worried about her, she’s injured and just birthed another pup. The gentle and caring way Kimi interacts with his family is endearing, showing how adolescents aren’t just self absorbed and sulky.
… adolescents aren’t just self absorbed and sulky
The journey takes them up the east coast of the North Island and Shelley Burne-Field showcases a wide knowledge of local sea life. Kimi and Rata encounter squid, giant octopus, ray, gannets, seagulls and a threatening hammerhead shark. She expertly introduces Māori names and lore and backstories for each of the secondary characters. It’s admirable how educational the encounters are without reading as academic at all.
The kekeno encounter humans but they are looming creatures, not centred in the story. Without being preachy or didactic, Burne-Field reminds readers that our human enterprises always have an impact on the flora and fauna around us, and that bottom trawling is destructive and affects countless ecosystems.
When you are small and less concerned with time and schedules it’s easy to spend a few hours collecting shells, observing the life in a rock pool and clambering into a cave at a deserted cove. We are so lucky in Aotearoa to be able to spend afternoons lost in nature and walk home smelling of salt and wind. Kimi and his friends revel in this feeling. They lose track of time, nap on the beach, compete with each other and learn new skills. Kimi doesn’t know what day it is or what is waiting for him in the next bay. He has growing concerns and anxieties but his friends and Hina remind him that mindfulness is a gift, that it is important to hold onto our joy in the moment. A valuable message for adolescents who are often bombarded with talk about responsibility, growing up, glowing up, careers and hustle.
When you are small and less concerned with time and schedules it’s easy to spend a few hours collecting shells, observing the life in a rock pool and clambering into a cave at a deserted cove …
In an age of iPads, youtube and endless knowledge in our pockets it’s easy to forget the wonder and secrets of the natural world. This sincere novel captures the majesty of the ocean and its creatures. Aotearoa is made of islands—wherever you are, you are a drive’s distance from the beach but sadly many of us know very little about the underwater landscape. Kimi and Rata follow currents and skirt around coastlines, they form friendships and gorge on exciting new food. Reading this novel will make you want to spend time fishing, diving, swimming and rock pooling. Kimi’s love for and comfort in our environment is infectious. The perfect place to read this book would be at the bach, cuddled on the couch after a day of sea spray and adventure.
Lucy Black
Lucy Black is a writer and reading promoter. She splits her time between the cosy school library she manages and her book-filled home at the edge of the city.