But now it’s the last week of year six and Tash is
standing in Leo’s front yard with a misdelivered letter – and a favour to ask.
It’s a request that will set off a chain of events in Noble Park, their little
suburb that is changing, and fast…
A big, hopeful coming-of-age middle-grade book that
features complicated families and life-changing summers.
Tash and Leo have been friends forever, until they’re not (one day, Tash simply starts hanging out with different kids and Leo is left wondering what he did, what he said, and why he was dropped like a hot potato).
So it’s no surprise that Leo is confused and a little suspicious when Tash arrives out of the blue to ask him a favour. But still, he rises to the challenge and so begins a new episode of their journey together.
This book is engaging and compelling from the get-go. We
care deeply about the two main characters who are both expertly crafted, with
satisfying character arcs and revelations that continue to be exposed over the
duration of the wonderful, complex storyline.
I really loved Leopold with his neuro-diverse vibe and
crippling anxiety. His inability to articulate what was important to him, even
when we as the reader knew, was completely endearing. (And if this was an
old-time melodrama, readers the world over would be yelling ‘behind you!’ as
Leo turns the wrong way to see what all the fuss is about).
And I really
loved Tash, with her thoughtful, deep inquiry into her own life challenges and
serious illness, along with her strong sense of responsibility to self and
others. She shone and sparkled and was cracked open at various moments within
the narrative, too.
A third and perhaps equally important character to
feature in this story, was the Melbourne suburb of Noble Park. It’s always
fantastic to read stories set in real suburbs of real cities, and this one
contains so many references to local landmarks and infrastructure that it was
very hard not to continually google them!
Six Summers Of Tash And Leopold has all the strong feels, and it ticks all the boxes for inclusion. There’s physical and mental ill-health in people young and old, absent family members, newly arrived neighbours and long-standing residents. There is a diversity of culture and gender in amongst misunderstandings, community meetings and young people who are doing it tough before they dig down deep, to find a way through.
This is really a book that displays the human condition at its best and worst, and we just love the characters all the more, for it. Both Tash and Leopold are authentic kids who we care deeply about, and they live on long after the book is finished. Fabulously for a YA novel, the conclusion makes you re-open the book at the first page to read again what you have already absorbed – a genuinely brilliant inclusion.
Thoroughly recommended.
Title: Six Summers Of Tash And LeopoldAuthor: Danielle Binks
Publisher: Hachette, $17.99
Publication Date: 28 Aug 2024
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780734421890
For Ages: 11 +
Type: Middle Grade