Review for Damean Posner and Jules Faber’s Helix and the Arrival (Random House Australia), by guest reviewer Ella Sharpe, bookseller at The Younger Sun Children’s Bookshop in Melbourne.
Helix is a caveboy on the verge of becoming a caveman. His Arrival is only a few weeks away, where he will go into the woods to hunt a beast to bring back to Rockfall. But how will he be able to pass when all he’s managed to hunt so far is a rock gerbil (which he then released)? Helix should be preparing for his Arrival but he is more interested in the forbidden world outside of his home in Rockfall. Is the Dark Side, where people are banished, really as terrifying as they say? Are the people from Newstone, where the caves are bigger and the people cleaner, really as dumb as the keeper of stories would have Helix believe? And do the River People from the Lowlands, sworn enemies of the mountain folk, really grow from mud?
When Helix’s friend’s father, Ugthorn, is seriously injured Helix makes the decision to travel to the Lowlands to find help. With his friends Ug and Saleeka, and a tale of miraculous medicine from the Lowlands beyond, Helix crosses the river into a world that is more different than he could have ever imagined. Helix, Ug and Saleeka’s adventure will have extreme consequences for their way of life, that will echo through the mountains for eternity.
This is a light-hearted, entertaining and engrossing read that is difficult to put down. If you like history, adventure and discovering the truth, then this book is for you. This is the first novel of Australian author Damean Posner and I can’t wait to see what he comes out with next.
Reading Age 9 +
Read Ella’s other reviews here:
The Bad Guys, Episode 1, by Aaron Blabey
