Star Jumps

Lorraine Marwood (author)

Walker Books, Australia: 2009; 123pp

ISBN: 9781921150722

Genres: poetry, realistic fiction, verse novel

Issues: determination, drought, family, resilience

CBCA Notable Book, 2010

‘I love a Keely starjump Saturday./It's arms, legs wide and jumping/through the long/thick/wild/weed/of the paddock kept fresh for new calves.'

But as Ruby, the youngest of three kids on a drought-struck dairy farm discovers, even her life has to be about more than marshmallow weed tunnels and star jumps.

The light rain that is enough to start the marshmallow weed they play in is not enough to bring essential feed to the paddocks. And their farm has been drought stricken for years. When the children realise that things are so bad that their father is going to have to sell some of his precious dairy herd, the cows they've helped raise from calves, generations of careful breeding to produce good milkers, the children decide it's time to take a hand. But can three youngsters make a real difference in the battle against the drought? Or are they deluding themselves?

Another eloquent, emotive verse novel from Lorraine Marwood, Starjump Saturday shows the drought from a child's perspective. Marwood has an incredible ability to build strong characters and convey complex relationships and subtle emotions within terse lines of freeform poetry. As with Ratwhiskers and Me, in Starjump Saturday she has created a world that draws the reader in to experience the small joys and intense pain of those who fight an environment they cannot control.

Highly recommended.