Lost Property

James Moloney (author)

Viking, Penguin: Australia: 2005; 268pp

ISBN: 0670029432

Genres: adventure, realistic fiction

Issues: family, grief, identity, relationships

Shortlisted, CBCA Book of the Year, Older Readers, 2006.

Josh Tampling seems to be a normal teenager. He's doing well academically, is lead singer for a rock band he and his mates have put together, and he has a very pretty girlfriend. It is not until he spends four weeks of his holidays working in the Lost Property Office at the railway that Josh even begins to realise just how badly the departure of Michael, his older brother, has affected him and his relationships with both family and friends.

Maybe if he can rescue him, bring him back home to fill the hole in his mother's heart - maybe then Josh will be able to work out what it is that he really wants, become less concerned with trying to please all of the people all of the time. Rescues don't always turn out the way people expect and the past can be seen from many perspectives.

This is an interesting novel that examines the consequences, perspectives and dynamics of family relationships and roles. It identifies the very different problems that offspring can have in their relationships with their parents and looks at the difficulties faced by children who have similar talents to a famous mother or father. Josh's sympathetic, almost omniscient first person narrative viewpoint is only believable because it is written in such a way that the reader is allowed to see the gradual maturation of an intelligent, sensitive personality.

As he listens to people saying things he has previously given no thought to, becomes aware of memories and views so very different to his own, Josh learns to think more empathetically. It is this that allows Josh to develop some understanding of his brother's anger at his father, with whom Josh gets on quite well. Particularly interesting, and not often explored in children's literature, is Josh's loss of faith, the thought process behind it, his fear of living without a religious belief system and the development of a different approach to personal responsibility.

Worth reading.