Rainfish

Aaron, 12, lives with his mother and older brother, Conner, in Queensland, the northeastern state of Australia. Possessed of a vivid imagination, Aaron is good at entertaining himself, but he longs for "cool" friends. So when when Conner's friend Damon invites him to hang out, Aaron jumps at the chance. Unfortunately, Damon's idea of hanging out is to burgle the church, taking a handful of small items, including the priest's gold rosary. Sworn to secrecy, Aaron is immediately wracked with guilt. Later, when torrents of rain flood the town, he feels as if it is his fault. Finally, when Damon stands by when a "cooler" boy bullies Conner, Aaron finds his courage to stand up for Conner and for himself. Told from Aaron's point of view, the novel is both tender and funny, conveying Aaron's struggle with his conscience, which he envisions as a black panther stalking him. Surrounded with characters who are quirky but convincing, Aaron realizes that his life is what he makes of it, and his dilemmas have a universal quality.

An impulsive decision weighs heavily on a boy living with his mum and brother in rural Queensland, Australia. After socially awkward Aaron is swept up in the hijinks of an older boy, he becomes mired in guilt over their theft of a gold rosary from the local church. His big brother Connor's determination to find those responsible for the theft dogs Aaron even as both boys struggle with sorting out how they feel about Mum's new boyfriend Pete's abruptly moving in with them. Pete takes Aaron and Connor fishing for mudcod; later, their neighbor Byron, whose grandmother is an Aboriginal woman, relays a legend that says catching these fish, which she calls rainfish, will bring floods. When disastrous flooding hits his town, Aaron fears that he is responsible. The main characters are White, and the treatment of the Aboriginal legend is through this lens. Aaron's lack of knowledge about Indigenous Australians has resulted in his absorbing racist ideas, shedding light on racial dynamics of the time. Awash in references to 1980s pop culture (The A-Team, Star Wars, Transformers), this quiet, lyrical novel is as much a snapshot of a specific place and time as it is an introspective look into Aaron's intense feelings. Aaron's perspective feels filtered through an adult's remembrance of youth; as a result, adults may connect more easily to this story than young readers. A meditation for patient readers on one boy's experiences. (Historical fiction. 12-adult) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.