Land Down Under

Book ten brings us to Australia and the first reading response journal entry to reference the movie Red Dawn. Tenth in a series of fifteen.

Marsden, John (1993). Tomorrow, When The War Began. NY: Houghton Mifflin Company. 286 pages.

Evaluation and summary: Ellie and her best friend Corrie plan a camping trip into the wilds of rural Australia, and invite along five more of their friends. They pack up the Land Rover and drive it into ‘the bush’ and then hike deep into a remote valley in the mountains known as ‘Hell’ by the locals. After a week of camping, Ellie and company pack up and return to their homes in the small town of Wirrawee, – but something has happened during their absence, something awful. Ellie arrives home to find the dogs are dead, the power and phones out, and her parents missing.  Things are no different at her friends’ homes.  Soon they learn that the seemingly impossible has happened: Wirrawee has become the staging ground for an invasion of Australia. Ellie, Corrie and company take to the hills – and soon they turn to resisting the invaders.

In a lot of YA books parents are removed as protagonists through some contrivance or plot twist. In Dr. Franklin’s Island Semi, Miranda are on a trip abroad when their plane goes down; in Peeps Cal Thompson is in New York ostensibly to attend college; and in Boy Meets Boy and Weetzie Bat the parents remain agreeably off-stage for the most part, much like Ms. Othmar in Peanuts (except for Weetzie Bat’s dad, who conveniently removes himself from the storyline).  Seen in that light, having your main character’s parents interned by invading soldiers is an effective way of removing them from the action while setting up the story to come.*  John Milius thought so too, as anyone who has seen Red Dawn can attest, and as I read the book I couldn’t help compare it to the movie.** Tomorrow, When The War Began is not nearly as ‘gung ho’ as Red Dawn, although there is certainly plenty of action.  What the book lacks is any sort of political subtext. The invading country is never identified and there are no clues to its identity presented in the story; we are only told that the enemy envied Australia’s wealth and prosperity.  Nor does Marsden use the book to promote any sort of personal political ideology.  He focuses on the character’s efforts to survive, as well as their efforts to cope with the after-effects of they violence they witness and are a part of.

On a side note I should mention that this title (or at least my wife’s copy) is an ‘import’ and as such is full of Australian slang.  The slang terms are easily understood in context and add to the overall flavor of the story. I have no idea if there is a bowdlerized American edition but I hope not. I don’t have any use for such ‘Sorcerer’s Stone’ nonsense.

Booktalk hook:  I would think this story would kind of sell itself – I might read one of the more exciting passages out loud to drum up interest.

*I’m trying to think of other YA books in the ‘resisting invasion’ genre and can only come up with two other series – Lloyd Alexander’s Kestrel books (which also deals explicitly with the effect of violence and combat on soldiers) and John Christopher’s Tripod series.
**Tomorrow, When The War Began is being made into movie, scheduled for release in 2010. I think you could combine it with Red Dawn for interesting double-bill.