It is a sad and too common aspect of modern life that children are separated from their families by adults deciding that they know best for “the child”. The effect on the children is often traumatic as Australia’s own recent past can show.

These two books each focus on the thoughts of an early teen girl swept unwillingly away from home by adults certain they are doing “the right thing” for her. Both are by well respected authors and present the story from the girl’s perspective, but reach quite different conclusions. One works very well, the other only in patches.

*******

A Secret Place sees twelve year old Maria and her six year old brother Charlie whisked away from their Edinburgh school to Spain by their Spanish father as part of a custody dispute. At first it seems to be the holiday promised by their exciting, flamenco dancer father, but when they are left in a tiny, remote village with elderly relatives, Maria starts think of their mother and the future.

The reader is able to follow Maria’s growing unease through her diary like observations. Like so many children in such a situation, she is torn between her two parents, but also angry that she and Charlie are being used as weapons in the fight between the two.

Encounters with her father’s new girlfriend, a tourist family from Scotland and a Spanish girl her own age, all help her to build an understanding of the tangled threads of the situation: how each parent must feel, Charlie's and her rights and needs, and the importance of an agreed resolution.

Joan Lingard’s writing is clear and straight forward as she lets Maria’s voice talk to us. She does not wallow in the emotions or over-embellish the situations, but leaves the reader to build an understanding with Maria.

The resolution that Maria and the elderly aunt develop is a compromise for the two parents, requiring both to give ground and recognize the other’s point of view. This is one of the key points that Lingard makes in this book, that the rights and wrongs of such custody battles are not clear cut, and that everyone involved must consider the perspectives of the others, whether they are parents, children, or even relatives and friends.

This is an excellent story about a difficult situation.

*******

Bloomability by Sharon Creech does not work quite as well. The book’s main character, Domenica Santolina Doone or “Dinnie” is taken, without much choice, from her struggling family by relatives to give her an “opportunity”. Her dad cannot hold a job, her sister is pregnant and her brother is in gaol. So she is taken to an exclusive school in Switzerland.

Through her diary reports, we follow how she has a year reminiscent of many Enid Blyton school stories: fluctuating friendships, external dangers, discoveries about life and growing up. She grows in confidence in herself and in sympathy for others. Several of the other students are the best drawn characters of the book: unfailingly enthusiastic Guthrie and tempestuous, troubled Lila particularly.

Indeed Sharon Creech’s characterizations are the strongest part of the book. They are realistic, they have strengths and weaknesses, and things do not always work out for them.

But the whole situation of the story seems unlikely. Apart from the basic question of why the well-meaning relatives only help Dinnie and not the rest of the struggling family, Creech leaves too many story threads unfinished. We never find out Lila’s trouble, or Dinnie’s father’s Great Plan, or visit her Italian grandmother’s home village, even though much is made of these details in the story.

A happy-ever-after ending is good for the characters, but could leave the reader unsatisfied because of the unanswered questions. At the end Dinnie has no more control over her life than she had at the start, but she has had a delightful year in Switzerland. Social issues like wealth, family unity, independence, privilege are raised but never really addressed.

Bloomability is good in parts. Well created characters and an active story line keep it an interesting read. But unanswered questions and incomplete themes, in the end, might leave it unsatisfying. 

Review by David Beagley

© 1999 David Beagley