Description
It's the start of an Australian summer, and a drought is raging in the bush. For strapping farm boy, Jack Riordan, swinging a cricket bat is his favourite escape from daily hardships. But what happens when an Indian family arrives in the small town of Stony Creek to begin a new life? Suddenly, Jack is no longer the top player in the district. That honour belongs to Ajeet Sharma who quickly becomes the star of the local school. Despite jealousies and misunderstandings, the boys must somehow work together on the field. As their journey progresses, they learn each has painful secrets that have affected their lives.
What are they? And what can the boys learn from them? The answers come from the strength of human spirit.
From the author of My Life: Brett Lee comes the story of Ajeet and Jack, and the unpredictable fortunes of the Stony Creek Public School cricket team.
Review
Jack and his family live on a farm at Stony Creek. Drought is making life really hard for his family so Jack escapes the difficulties by playing cricket. He always has a bat and a ball with him and practices whenever he can. He goes to the local primary school and he is the best cricketer, so when a new boy, Ajeet, arrives from India, Jack is happy that he also loves cricket. But Jack is not so happy when he realises that Ajeet is better at cricket than he is ...
The school principal signs the school up for a state wide cricket competition and everyone is really excited as the school has never entered a team before. As each game passes and they keep winning they have a chance to go to Sydney and play in the final. Tensions are rising between Jack and Ajeet as they are both fantastic players, but small things get blown out of proportion and they are both carrying a secret that is affecting them. Will they be able to work together to help the team as well as learn to trust each other?
This is a fantastic story of friendship, family and resilience all woven together through playing sport. Jack and Ajeet are the central characters and both have family issues that they are trying to deal with, but the other members of the team all play vital roles in bringing the story to life. It is a triumph of trusting each other, being open to accepting help and experiencing the new things that other cultures can teach us.
This is sure to be wonderful addition to your library and will be a favourite with your sports loving students. It would also be an ideal book for group or classroom reading as it covers many themes in a great way that would lead to interesting classroom discussions.
