Identical twins Ashley and Aiden are products of a privileged family. Aiden has been his sister’s protector from birth. At twelve, they have just begun face-to-face learning at an elite school, having had tutors and School of the Air till now.
Their mother is the richest person in NSW. An Artificial Intelligence (AI) designer and producer of drones, robots and other computer operated species, she has raised her children totally unaware of, and protected from, the real world., away from poverty and child homelessness.
The rich ruling class now governs the world. The frightening difference between the haves and have nots continues to expand. A silent war of survival is being fought by homeless children of which the rich twins are unaware. Until they come across them in a park.
A camp excursion is agreed to by the twin’s parents. During kayaking day, Ashley’s kayak is overturned by a mini tornado. Aiden falls in to the swirl to save her and is severely injured. He returns from hospital totally different.
Ashley’s world is splinted. All that she believed is a lie. She is torn between her love for her parents, and the decisions they make, and her love for her brother. This becomes the shattering moment in her life and in the book, when the why is revealed.
Jonsberg with his slight reference to Alan Turing, and John Searle and the Chinese Room experiment, offers a depth of knowledge and understanding about his novel to the reader, without saying a word more.
I loved this book as I am a Jonsberg fan. He awakens in the reader, areas of their mind, and the world, which perhaps they have never explored till the moment they opened one of his books.
Title: Catch Me if I Fall
Author: Barry Jonsberg
Publisher: Allen & Unwin, $
Publication Date: 3 November 2020
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781760877613
For ages: 10 – 12
Type: Middle Grade Fiction
