Sonia Hartnett,
Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf .
Walker, 2004.
ISBN: 0 7445 6594 4

Satchell O'Rye and Chelsea Piper are oddballs, marooned in an Australian backwater; the world is passing them by. When Satchell tells Chelsea about a creature he's seen on the mountain, she becomes convinced it is the last-ever Tasmanian wolf and that finding it will, somehow, save them both. When he is forced to decide whether to stay and support his eccentric parents or grasp the opportunity of a new life elsewhere, Satchel's own survival becomes inextricably intertwined with that of the wolf. Hartnett's precise, graceful writing is imbued with the geological, the historical and the personal, and explores mistakes made and chances not taken. A hugely-absorbing book that repays slow reading, in which even small events are momentous, and where Satchel, like the wolf, is seeking a way to be 'just the way he need[s] to be'.

RA 13+/IL 13+
Reviewed by Helen Simmons
Spring 2004