Title: Little
Brother
Author: Allan
Baillie
Publisher:
Puffin Australia
Publish
date: 1985
ISBN: 978 0
14 330174
YA texts
appear to fall into a dichotomous pattern, in my limited sampling. Either they
blow me away with lively characters and sparkling and age-appropriate text, or
they’re condescending, lacklustre and confused. This book falls into the latter
category.
Story:
Cambodian kid makes solitary and heroic journey through war-ravaged country to
make it to the Thai border and is whisked away to a (more or less) happy ending.
I was going to say there’s nothing wrong with the premise, but I did find the
white-saviour thump at the end more than annoying, despite some feeble attempts from the author at covering up the evidence. It reads like an account of an
unconnected person being told a story and imagining themselves in that
position, and turns out that’s exactly what it is. Had the language been
better, or slipped into inappropriate vocabulary less often, it might have been
more palatable. But it wasn’t. And now it’s a text recommended at schools.
Can’t say I’m
inspired to spend any more time on it. Not recommended, one moose hoof up out
of five. I can’t think of a reason to give it two.
