Charlotte
is twelve and fascinated by death and decay. At school she is called a freak. Only
Jeffrey, an Indigenous boy in her class, understands her. Both are outcasts. Both
are shattered by grief.
Charlotte
lives with ghosts. Her sister Annie drowned at six years old in her Oma’s dam.
Since then, Annie’s ghost accompanies Charlotte everywhere.
Her mother died in
childbirth and remains a ghostly shadow in Charlotte’s memory. Her father’s
twin brother also dies.
More ghosts than living occupy the family’s lives. In
Father’s and Oma’s memory, Loveday Internment camp for enemy aliens houses even
more ghosts.
As
her father refuses to speak about her mother or the past, Charlotte has no
roots from which to draw strength and direction. She finds comfort in searching
for dead things that she can restore and renew.
This pursuit is horrendous to
her Aunt Hilda who is trying to fill the
space that her mother left behind. Father simply accepts that Charlotte has
inherited his taxidermy genes.
These
‘unnatural’ interests are allegories for Charlotte’s longing to reclaim any
part of her mother that she can. As her mother’s room is untouched since her
passing, Charlotte secretly enters this sacred realm, to dress in mother’s
clothes and take what she can to wear beneath her own. But it’s mother’s fox
stole that is her lifeline; her embrace. She wears it everywhere, even to
school.
Things
come to a head when Aunt Hilda burns her ‘ghoulish’ specimens and removes all
trace of mother from the house, an act which forces reaction in her
grief-stricken father.
The
stylish and pared back prose is immaculate and impressive. Themes of grief,
loss and renewal are vivid exhibits. This is a book not to be missed.
Shortlisted
for the Children's Book Council of Australia, 2019, Australian Book Design
Awards, 2019, Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature and more, The Art of Taxidermy set in post war
60s, is a stunning verse novel full of tragedy, yet full of hope. It touches upon
and alludes frequently to, the internment camps that housed Australian
Germans from WW2 from various states in Victoria. This compels readers to
rethink the physical and emotional outcomes of war.
Title: The Art of Taxidermy
Author:
Sharon Kernot
Publisher:
Text Publishing, $19.99
Publication
Date: 2 July 2019
Format:
Paperback
ISBN: 9781925603743
For
ages: 14+
Type:
Verse Young Adult Fiction
