Look, Ma, no maps
Aided by drone-like powers, four parentfree siblings go on a make-or-break quest.
Lost in transit: one mother. Missing in action: one father. It’s a classic formula in children’s fiction – think Swallows and Amazons, the Famous Five, anything by Eva Ibbotson. Yet in our risk-averse society, parent-free kids are an endangered literary species.
Wellington writer Eirlys Hunter’s Sal, Joe, Francie and Humphrey Santander make a fine crew. As the children of explorer parents, they’re smart, resourceful and great team players. Each has a particular gift: Francie’s is the ability to envision the landscape from above – a valuable aid when mapping uncharted territory.
When Ma goes missing on a railway platform, the Santanders set out to uphold the family tradition and enter the race to map a railway through the mountains, even if it is not, as the local mayor proclaims, a race for juveniles. The prize, though, will save them from financial ruin.
Every day is a challenge – physical and mental – for the Santanders, who are accompanied by teenaged beanpole Beckett, a pair of donkeys and Carrot the parrot. The landscape is laid out for readers (target age eight to 12) with one alluring double spread per chapter by illustrator and cartoonist Kirsten Slade.
There’s a strong historical feel to this adventure – Lewis and Clark’s expedition through the US midwest is brought to mind – although Hunter says her imagined landscape is a blend of the South Island and Snowdonia in North Wales, where she grew up.