Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf

by Sonya Hartnett

Overview

"A complex, introspective novel with vivid characters. . . . Hauntingly beautiful." — School Library Journal

Ever since Dad went off the deep end and decided he didn't need to work anymore — insisting the Lord would provide — Satchel O'Rye has felt stuck for life in his dying country town. A high school dropout drifting from one small carpentry job to the next, Satchel can see nothing beyond his own dreary duty to help keep the family afloat. But things start to change when he spies a strange doglike animal at a nearby mountain — and mentions the fact to Chelsea Piper, an awkward young woman considered the local pariah. Could the animal he saw be a Tasmanian tiger, a marsupial thought to be extinct? And if they found it again, could it give them both a new chance at life?

From the brilliant author of Thursday's Child and What the Birds See comes a mesmerizing tale of a young man fighting his future, a young woman fighting her past, and a mysterious creature who teaches them something about survival.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536208825
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	12/10/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	1010L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Sonya Hartnett is the author of THURSDAY'S CHILD, WHAT THE BIRDS SEE, and several other acclaimed novels, the first written when she was just thirteen. She is the recipient of many prestigious awards in her native Australia as well as the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the Commonwealth Prize.

Editorial Reviews

Living in a bypassed Australian town with people "sunk by the dislocation" wrought by a new highway, hardworking 23-year-old Satchel O'Rye is coping as well as he can with his overshadowing mother, Laura, a nurse, and his fanatically religious father, William. Years earlier William suddenly stopped running the local gas station and began creating religious miniature watercolors, becoming increasingly odd and threatening. Laura's longsuffering nature simply serves to "[draw] the bars around [Satchel] tighter." Even his long-time friend, Leroy, finds work out of town, leaving Satchel with Leroy's outcast sister, Chelsea, and his own beloved dog, Moke, as his only companions. In a rather forced subplot, Satchel spies a strange animal in the mountains, and Chelsea speculates that it is a presumed extinct Tasmanian tiger. The day Satchel accidentally hits Moke with his car and then fights back against his father's rages, he again spots the animal and becomes determined to begin his own journey. Published in Australia in 1999, Hartnett's novel is challenging and may be ultimately less rewarding for readers than the ones that followed (Thursday's Child; What the Birds See). Yet the book is characterized by the same graceful prose, unusual protagonist (though somewhat older than is typical for young adult audiences) and keen sense of place that carry the story to its hopeful conclusion. Ages 12-up. (Feb.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 9 Up-This hauntingly beautiful story pits 23-year-old Satchel O'Rye against the world that is his and the world he might have. He lives with his father, mother, and beloved dog in a dying town in rural Australia. Satchel's dad, who closed his service station when his son was 15 and took to his room, believes that God will provide. Despite physical problems, his mother tries to keep the family going with her nursing job. Satchel helps out, but work is hard to find and usually short-lived. While he's cutting firewood, he sees a strange, striped animal. He describes it to a friend's older sister, who recognizes it as a sidestep wolf, or thylacine, an animal that is supposed to be extinct. When Satchel hits his dog with his car, he must decide which is more important: capitalizing on the existence of the animal that has "sidestepped extinction," and thus perhaps earning enough money for his dog's medical bills and his family's survival, or protecting the freedom of the thylacine and her cub. The plot flows gently as Satchel tries to come to terms with his life and to decide whether to stay in his rut or find a different future, a decision made difficult because of his loyalty to his family. A complex, introspective novel with vivid characters.-Janet Hilbun, formerly at Sam Houston Middle School, Garland, TX Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Satchel O'Rye, 23 and going nowhere fast, lives with his parents in a dying Australian town. His father suffers from a mental illness that has convinced him that "God will provide" and has consequently sworn off all paid work; his mother, a nurse, has returned to work to provide for the family, but her job-crushing pills for geriatric patients-has reduced her hands to cracked, swollen shreds. Into this bleak landscape drifts a strange creature, doglike but not a dog-possibly a Tasmanian wolf, thought to have become extinct in 1936 and, if Satchel could capture it, might end his community's inevitable decline. Hartnett has crafted a characteristically minimalist narrative that sets up a contrapuntal relationship between Satchel, whose determination not to abandon his mother has caused him to reject opportunity after opportunity, and the animal, whose very survival rests on the fact that the world has forgotten it. It's a quiet, complex work, whose themes of sacrifice and redemption work their way throughout; if some characters are little more than symbols, readers will nevertheless find it a memorable, haunting experience. (Fiction. YA)

Kirkus Reviews

The possible sighting of a thylacine, an extinct wolf-like dog, provides the backdrop for this story of 23-year-old Satchel O'Rye, the son of a mentally ill father and a long-suffering mother. The family lives in a hardscrabble town in Australia. Satchel struggles to cope while the family sinks deeper into debt. The search for the extinct animal offers a way out of this stultifying life. Suzi Dougherty's Australian accent is appropriate to the setting, and her matter-of-fact reading is well suited for the bleakness of Satchel's life. Though her portrayals of different characters are not as varied or distinct as those of some readers, her sympathetic tone is pleasant and easy to listen to. M.H.N. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

APR/MAY 08 - AudioFile