"The Dead I Know" by Scot Gardner

Hi Cathy,
I entered the blog to do a second blog that Teena asked me to do and time ran out during my prac. I read your entries and wanted to tell you about...........

I have just read The Dead I Know by Scot Gardner and it was excellent. This young novel contains themes of death, family, mental health and workplace. The teachers notes from Allen and Unwin the publishers. describe it as:
"a book that celebrates life; of family and the power of friendship; love and trust; the affirming nature of life and its paradoxes and idiosyncrasies; and how the past affects us in ways often unacknowledged."
Above all it is a story of a young man finding his way and this unfolds throughout the book. It also looks at the heartache that Alhzeimers can cause to family members. (Very poignant for me as the morning after I finished it ,I went with my father to hear Sue Pieters-Hawke give a talk on her new book about Hazel Hawke, and my mother has Alhzeimers too.)
We have had Scot Gardner visit us here at Grammar and hewas absolutely excellent with young teens. He is a brilliant at getting young teen boys reading!
I was completely shocked to read on oztlnet that a principal had banned it from their library.

Although this is not in the top 50 reads I hope you will give it a go.
regards
Elinor