The Year the Maps Changed: A blog tour post
To celebrate the release of Danielle Bink's #loveOzMG- The Year the Maps Changed, here's my blog tour stop for the book! You can check other posts from this tour here!
Here's a brief synopsis:
I was eleven when everything started and twelve by the end. But that's another way maps lie, because it felt like the distance travelled was a whole lot further than that.
Sorrento, Victoria - 1999
Fred's family is a mess. Fred's mother died when she was six and she's been raised by her Pop and adoptive father, Luca, ever since. But now Pop is at the Rye Rehabilitation Centre recovering from a fall; Luca's girlfriend, Anika, has moved in; and Fred's just found out that Anika and Luca are having a baby of their own. More and more it feels like a land-grab for family and Fred is the one being left off the map.
But even as the world feels like it's spinning out of control, a crisis from the other side of it comes crashing in. When 400 Kosovar-Albanian refugees arrive in the middle of the night to be housed at one of Australia's 'safe havens' on an isolated headland not far from Sorrento, their fate becomes intertwined with the lives of Fred and her family, as she navigates one extraordinary year that will change them all.
My review:
As soon as I dived into this heartfelt book, I was hooked. This book at not only looked at friendship, it looked at hardship and refugees in a way that is understandable at a middle-grade level (but also for older folk like me!).
I adored Fred as a character, and how she reacts and slowly adjusts to her very fast-changing world- her dad's girlfriend and son move in and make them a family, the refugees, her period, Pop not being at home, the hospital- just to name a few. The way the other characters in the book help shape Fred's outlook on life shows how impressionable an 11-12 year old girl can be. I also found it super nice that Fred was a warm character towards those that are different such as her bestie Jed (I enjoyed the Star Wars reference here!) and Nora (one of the refugees).
I was also a big fan of how worldly this book felt, with not only the geography lessons Fred recounted; but also the quoting of lyrics from the Australian national anthem, the warmness of a lot of the characters towards people that are different or new (I'm not talking about Fred vs Sam here either!), helping them in their times of need.
The descriptions of Mornington Peninsula within the book were super accurate, and brought back so many memories of days I spent myself up there with my aunt (when she was still around)! Danielle truely made me feel like this book was just a home away from home. I also loved the mention of Farrell's bookshop- that is somewhat a childhood favourite, and reading about the trips Fred made brought smiles to my face!
Overall, this is a stunning #loveOzMG book, and I'm super excited to read more of Danielle's works in the future!
I adored Fred as a character, and how she reacts and slowly adjusts to her very fast-changing world- her dad's girlfriend and son move in and make them a family, the refugees, her period, Pop not being at home, the hospital- just to name a few. The way the other characters in the book help shape Fred's outlook on life shows how impressionable an 11-12 year old girl can be. I also found it super nice that Fred was a warm character towards those that are different such as her bestie Jed (I enjoyed the Star Wars reference here!) and Nora (one of the refugees).
I was also a big fan of how worldly this book felt, with not only the geography lessons Fred recounted; but also the quoting of lyrics from the Australian national anthem, the warmness of a lot of the characters towards people that are different or new (I'm not talking about Fred vs Sam here either!), helping them in their times of need.
The descriptions of Mornington Peninsula within the book were super accurate, and brought back so many memories of days I spent myself up there with my aunt (when she was still around)! Danielle truely made me feel like this book was just a home away from home. I also loved the mention of Farrell's bookshop- that is somewhat a childhood favourite, and reading about the trips Fred made brought smiles to my face!
Overall, this is a stunning #loveOzMG book, and I'm super excited to read more of Danielle's works in the future!
My rating for this book is 5/5
About the author:
Danielle Binks is a Mornington Peninsula-based author and literary agent. Her debut book 'The Year the Maps Changed' is out with Hachette on April 28 - a historic-fiction novel for 10-14 year-olds, set in 1999 it deals with the events of 'Operation Safe Haven' and Australia's biggest humanitarian exercise to-date.
Links to check out:
Website | Twitter | Insta | Goodreads
Links to check out:
Website | Twitter | Insta | Goodreads
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