cover image Burnt Stick CL

Burnt Stick CL

Anthony Hill. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), $12.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-395-73974-7

John Jagamarra's mother is aboriginal but his father was white-and so he, like many aboriginal children in pre-1960s Australia, was taken from his mother to be raised at a mission school. Like the Indian Schools in the U.S., these institutions may have been designed with good intentions but their effects were not always salutary, a point that Hill drives home by describing John's restricted life at the mission before flashing back to the happy atmosphere of his home at an inland cattle station. In the central drama of the narrative, the ``Big Man from Welfare'' comes to take John from the station, but is fooled when John's mother darkens his skin with charcoal from a burnt stick. Later, the subterfuge is uncovered, and John returns home only as an adult, to find the people of his tribe long gone. John's feelings, sensitively distilled, pull the reader into his story. The format, much like a picture book, allows ample room for Sofilas's art. His realistic illustrations amplify the sometimes sparse text; they are rendered, fittingly, in charcoal. Ages 8-10. (Aug.)