Lamb has lived in rural places most of her life: Whitemans
Valley, Reikorangi and the Wairarapa, so she says it’s no wonder she’s written
about a girl who lives with her grandfather on a rundown farm. His stingy ways
drive her nuts – he cooks up possum stews and turns the neighbours’ chicken scraps
into school lunches – but then he gets a dangerous girlfriend with a mysterious
past and the girl, with the wonderful name of Summer Rain, has to do
something.
She calls on Apple who works at the crystal shop and knows a
thing or two about love potions (and un-love potions), and Juanita who has real
sandwiches in her lunchbox and rescues greyhounds.
Anyone who’s spent any time in rural New Zealand will
recognise the life Julie describes and might even think they recognise some of
the characters! ‘The people in Summer Rain tend to be based on someone
from somewhere I know or once knew,’ says Lamb. ‘I think it gives them
credibility, a depth, perhaps not so easily conjured up entirely from the
imagination.’
Moving to Melbourne in 2014, Lamb says she appreciates more
than ever the life she lived in the New Zealand countryside because it gave her
so much to write about. ‘The terrifying storms and rising rivers, flooding in
the blink of an eye,’ she says, ‘the heartbreaking and devastating droughts,
lambing heralded by the usual murderous cold snap, the back-breaking hay
season. Then there are the farm animals – what is more hilarious than a
chicken? – and the old timers and their old dogs; and the farm kids out
on quad bikes and tractors, and killing possums or rabbits, all before reaching
double digits.’
Lamb says she loves returning to the Wairarapa especially to
Greytown, where she lived with her two children. Back then she was known as
Julie Charman; her children, Louis and Bella, attended the local schools, and
Bella especially enjoyed hanging out at Greytown library.‘You walk out from the
town centre in any direction,’ say Lamb, ‘and in ten minutes you hit paddocks,
and there are the hills and a huge sky. The place I live now has no horizon,
just fences and roof tops, which is probably why coming back I can’t take my
eyes off it.’
The Discombobulated Life of Summer Rain is to be
published under the Makaro Press Submarine imprint, and was launched yesterday
(April 6) at Greytown Library, by leading author Fleur Beale, who has
also worked as Julie’s mentor. The launch is in association with Wairarapa Word
and Almo’s Books and all are welcome.
Summer Rain is a smart, funny tale for smart, funny 8
to 13-year-old readers. About crazy families and weirder
friends, it has a good dose of mystery and mayhem, and a hint of magic.
Publisher Mary McCallum also has Wairarapa links with a
family olive grove near Martinborough.
Mākaro
Press
Our books
speak for themselves
No comments:
Post a Comment