[Always Jack] by Susanne Gervay

[joyfulalice13]

Despite tackling some serious issues (war and serious illness), this is a sweet and rather endearing book, the third in Susanne Gervay’s ‘Jack’ series. Her 12-year-old protagonist seems pretty well adjusted—everything in his life is going along swimmingly. His family has just moved into a new house, with plenty of room for his soon-to-be stepdad, mum, nanna, sister and pet rat. There are only a few niggling concerns: Jack is not too pleased about having to be a penguin (in bow tie and suit) for his mum’s impending wedding, and is unsure about the position Leo, his future stepbrother, has in the extended family dynamic. Then comes the news about his mum’s breast cancer and Jack’s happy world implodes. The novel charts how a community of well-wishers rallies around to help support a suddenly shell-shocked family. With a light touch, Gervay portrays blended and multigenerational families co-existing with little friction. Jack’s best friends, Anna and Christopher, are from Italian and Vietnamese ancestry, respectively, so the novel also manages to explore different cultures, albeit in a neceassarily simplified manner to cater for a young teenage readership. Reassuringly for a YA market, there is a happy ending. But perhaps just a bit too cosy and rosy.

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine (September 2010, Vol 90, No. 2) is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2010, Thorpe-Bowker.