Louisa will be spending the next six weeks at her mom's family's bush camp located in a remote Tasmanian rain forest. She has left behind her parents who are spending their summer in the wetlands of Southern Ontario so her mother can study Fowler's toad, an endangered species. The camp will be bulldozed soon to make an access road and bridge over the rive to the service the tin and iron ore mines. Louisa doesn't want to be in Tasmania. She wants to be practicing her violin so that she can earn a spot with the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra.
In the morning, Louisa and Uncle Ruff head over to the Northwest Eco Lodge. There Louisa meets Mel and her son, Colin. While waiting for Mel to finish talking to a group of tourists, Colin tells Louisa about Convict Rock, an island in the middle of the river. Local legend holds that two escaped convicts were believed to have gone to the island, starved to death there and now haunt the place.Colin impresses Louisa with his knowledge of the bush and the animals.
When they return to camp, Louisa asks her uncle about the strange smell she experienced during the night. He tells her it was either a Tasmanian devil or a Tasmanian tiger called a thylacine. But Louisa has just learned from Colin that the latter are extinct. Uncle Ruff asks Louisa if she knows about the camp and Piggy who is a pig-footed bandicoot - an animal that is supposed to be extinct since the 1950s. He tells her that Piggy is a descendant of some pig-footed bandicoots given to Louisa's great-grandmother, Eleanor in the 1940s. She ran a breeding program that had limited success, with Piggy being the last one.
Uncle Ruff tells Louisa that the story begins with a Tasmanian tiger named Shadow who was Eleanor's first tiger. He gives Louisa the remnants of her great-grandmother's journal to read so she can understand what the bush camp was really about.
As Louisa reads Eleanor's journal she comes to realize that there is much more to the rundown bush camp than it first appears. Her great-grandmother used the camp as a way of saving thylacines by keeping them safely at Convict Rock. When Uncle Rufus learns that he must now vacate the camp so it can be demolished for the mining road, he reveals that there maybe a female Tasmanian tiger hiding out on Convict Rock. Despite his efforts, he has been unable to trap her so that she can be moved to a more remote area of the forest. But Louisa may hold the key to capturing Ellie, as Ruff has named her, and helping
Discussion
Music for Tigers combines a diverse number of themes to create an interesting story in a unique setting. Set in the Tarkine region of Tasmania, the novel focuses on the possibility that an extinct animal, the Tasmanian tiger or thylacine, may still be alive. In reality, this carnivorous marsupial was listed as extinct in 1936 with the death of the last surviving thylacine in captivity. In recent years however, there have been a spate of reported sightings but no firm confirmation that thylacines still exist.
Kadarusman, a native of Melbourne, Australia, builds a believable story around this idea using a diverse cast of characters. There is Louisa, a young teen who has been sent to her family's old bush camp. Louisa plays the violin and is determined to earn a spot on the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra. However, she suffers from anxiety which will hamper her audition. There is Uncle Rufus, who has been the caretaker of the family bush camp and an animal conservationist. And there is Mel's son, Colin, has autism spectrum disorder.Colin isn't good at reading nonverbal cues and he has trouble with social interactions.
Although Louisa's relationship with her uncle frames the story, it is Louisa and Colin's relationship that is most interesting. The author uses Colin's autism to provide readers with many interesting facts and information about a wide variety of topics including thylacines, Tasmanian poisonous snakes, the stars in the Southern Cross, the Tarkine forest. Some readers may find the details boring or distracting from the story, but Colin's behaviour and mannerisms are an accurate portrayal of someone with ASD.
Within the larger story of Louisa, Uncle Ruff and Colin's mission to find a thylacine they have named Ellie, on Convict Rock, is the story of Louisa's personal journey. She arrives on Tasmania, distracted by her worry about getting a spot in the youth orchestra back home. When Mel announces that Colin will be coming to stay at the bush camp, Louisa is panicked. " 'Oh no, I don't think that will work, ...I have to practice a lot while I'm here. I have a big audition when I get back to Toronto. I really don't think I'll have time to- to-..." Louisa's initially put off by the roughness of the camp, and the presence of Colin who comes to stay at the camp. She's terrified of the large Huntsman spiders that inhabit her cabin and is fearful of the Tarkine forest.
However, reading her great-grandmother Eleanor's journals, helps Louisa understand the purpose of the bush camp and to learn about the Tasmanian wildlife. She gradually begins to see the beauty in the forest and in the animals. For example, when Louisa returns to her cabin to practice for when she will be playing to attract Ellie, she spies another Huntsman spider on the wall. But her reaction is very different this time.
" 'As I begin to play I see something move in the corner of the cabin, near the top of the doorframe. A large creature with long hairy legs, but I don't scream.
"I guess it's going to rain again, huh?' I ask her.
The spider settles herself on the wooden beam.
I take a deep breath. 'All right,' I tell her. 'I guess you can stay this time.' "
By the end of her stay, Louisa becomes good friends with Colin, as she learns to accept who he is. She comes to admire his amazing knowledge of the forest and his courage in trying to make friends in high school. Her fear of the forest is replaced by a love for its beauty as seen when she goes for walk before leaving. "I reach the mossy log and sit down after checking for snakes. For once, I don't have my violin. I want to hear the music of the forest instead. I sit and listen to the currawongs sing their Vivaldi chorus and the rhythmic swish and sway of the towering giants above me.I close my eyes, breathe in the lemon myrtle, and listen carefully. I want to imprint it all in my memory forever."
Kadarusman offers her young readers a map showing the location of Tasmania and the Tarkine Region in the country. There are also notes at the back of the novel about the Tasmanian Tiger, Tasmania's Convict History and Species Extinction.
Music For Tigers is a novel that will appeal to readers interested in the natural world and conservation. Those readers looking for a novel that's a bit different will enjoy this story.
Book Details:
Music For Tigers by Michelle Kadarusman
Toronto: Pajama Press Inc. 2020
189 pp.
No comments:
Post a Comment