Tripple Ripple

Brigid Lowry (author)

Allen&Unwin, Australia: March 2011; 236pp

ISBN: 9781742374994

Genres: adventure, fairytale, fantasy

Issues: bullying, family, friendship, social condition

Glory is sent to the palace to work as the princess' maid. Nova is the Reader of the story. And the Writer is trying to pull all the threads together to provide her characters with happy endings.

With three simultaneous storylines, Tripple Ripple is a complicated book that gifted readers will particularly relish. The focus of both the Reader and the Writer, Glory must learn about the curse that shadows her and how she can overcome it. For Nova, who's having a bad time with a school bully, the fairytale is an escape. For the Writer it is her creation and she shares the agonies that go with such work – loss of confidence, difficulty finding ideas, necessary rewriting, annoying interruptions, frustration and fear of deadlines. Young writers will find these insights most helpful, reassuring and inspiring, while the parallel storylines of Glory and Nova are absorbing in their own right.

A talented and award-winning writer, Brigid Lowry has crafted a fine novel that explores the nature of story and its impact on those who engage with it – readers and writers alike. An interesting novel, this would work well as guided reading for a middle-school English class, as it encourages analysis of character, plot and themes as well as the writer's role in positioning the reader to react in certain ways.

It's also great fun to read!