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'Alex
Jackson Grommet' by Pat Flynn.
Queensland University Press, 2001. |
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Alex
Jackson, a student in Year Eight with advanced skateboarding
skills, is entering the throes of early adolescence. This
means he is learning how to assert himself, how to obtain
his first girlfriend and how to successfully negotiate
fights in the schoolyard. In an unusual twist in an adolescent
novel Alex's father freely converses with his offspring
and acts as a counselor to his son. A surprise indeed!
Alex gets even more mentoring assistance from Casey, an
older skateboarder with a laid-back philosophical take
on life, while his Year Eight Coordinator, in many young
adult novels an intimidating brute, also treats him with
understanding. The young man is almost overwhelmed by
a surfeit of male role models while his working mother
is kept in the background.
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All
novels can teach us something and this book is no exception.
Those uninitiated in the arts of skateboarding can learn
all about 'ollieing' — a board jumping technique,
and how to recognise a 'vert' — the large U-shaped
metal skating ramps which are beginning to colonize neighbourhood
playgrounds.
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Alex
falls for the attractive Becky but discovers through some
email subterfuge that his girlfriend is troubled by a
grave secret concerning her disgraced father. I assumed,
which is surely a sign of our times, that the father's
wrong doing involved some form of sexual abuse. It was
a relief to discover that Becky's dad was merely guilty
of misappropriating funds from his business which nowadays
merits a substantial goal sentence in Queensland.
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Alex
Jackson Grommet is an amiable, light-hearted book that
should secure it a fair share of younger readers. There
are no unsettling social problems to torment Alex Jackson
and his mates, nor are there any challenging 'adult concepts'
to provoke unease in librarians, parents and sundry other
book buyers. I initially thought this book would appeal
mostly to upper primary and junior secondary boy readers.
However, after outlining the gist of the novel to some
year seven students, it was the girls who approached me
asking to borrow it.
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