Driving a Bargain

by Fleur Beale

Thomas and Jimmy spend the holidays learning to drive an old Morris. They put their new skills to good use when they have to perform a rescue. Suggested level: intermediate, secondary.

92 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Fleur Beale is the author of many award-winning books for children and young adults, best known for her novel I am not Esther which has been published worldwide.

Beale was one of six children of a dairy farmer Cedric Corney and of a teacher and author Estelle Corney (née Cook). She was born in Inglewood, Taranaki, New Zealand, on the farm where her father was born. Beale grew up in the town before attending Victoria University, Wellington and Christchurch Teachers' Training College, where she met her husband. Since 1985 she has taught at Melville High School in Hamilton, Waikato and in Wellington. Beale's first stories were written for the children's radio programme Grandpa's Place. Her first book was a small reader and picture book for young children and she started to write for teenagers in 1993. Her stories often involve troubled adolescents engaged in outdoor activities.

Beale was a finalist in the Aim Children's Book Awards (junior fiction) and her 1998 novel I am not Esther was shortlisted for the senior fiction section of the 1999 New Zealand Post Children's Awards. In 1999 she was awarded the Children's Writing Fellowship at Dunedin College of Education and quit teaching to write full time. Her 2001 novel Ambushed was a finalist for the Junior Fiction section of the 2002 New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards. Her 2004 account of how an indigenous girl discovers how her education can save her tribal lands (My Story A New Song in the Land. The Writings of Atapo, Pahia, c.1840) received a Notable Book award in 2005 as did Walking Lightly.

Reviews

[G Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me think about how money can't buy you true friendship and that it's often beneficial to spend time with a variety of people, and not have just one best friend. The main character, Thomas Hill has been best friends with Hamish for years, but their friendship is somewhat toxic. One of the biggest factors that makes their relationship toxic is that Hamish uses money to get his way. “I kept hassling him. I knew he’d tell me in the end, but he likes his games. Once, when I'd got sick of it and told him to go jump, he hadn’t invited me along-and that was the day he and his parents had gone to Mayor island.” This quote shows that Hamish uses money to manipulate Thomas into being friends with him and to get him to do anything he wants. How he holds out a prize and waves it around hoping Thomas will try and get it, and if he doesn’t play along, he gets disregarded. The author's purpose in the novel Driving a Bargain is to show that money should not be the reason you are friends with someone. Throughout the novel she shows how hanging out with a wider group of people is always beneficial and often helps to see how toxic some relationships can be. “I’ll go ask my dad to get a decent engine in it, " he said, kicking the poor old Morrie. I could see his mind working and his face got brighter. It'd go faster then, too. He turned to Luke, "Come with me and we'll go and find him.” As soon as Thomas stopped playing along as his puppy, Hamish moved on to the next person he could dangle a prize in front of. Thomas finally saw that Hamish was a bad friend after he turned around and asked Luke to do something with him after previously not even being close friends and leaving him out. Because Thomas spends time with other people, he is able to see some of Hamish's bad habits and sees what friendship should really be. When Hamish returns from his holiday, Thomas notices how beneficial it is to hangout in a larger group of friends with Hamish, because Hamish understands that he can't always get what he wants when he wants it. Overall, this novel taught me that you should never be friends with someone just because they have money and offer to give you things or take you places. This is a really toxic relationship as it shows that they see you as something they can buy with temptation and physical objects instead of true friendship qualities such as loyalty and support. The Hamish in those sorts of relationships will always have a fishing rod with bait on the end, and if you don’t bite or play along with their games, they'll move on to the next person. This happens at all ages in life as people who are like that as kids, grow up and believe they can buy people's affection and friendship with money. Some people choose to be friends with people like this because of what they get out of it and use those people to get social status and “gifts”. This shows to me that true friendship should not be based around how much you can physically buy that person or get out of them, but if you give them unbuyable qualities such as loyalty, kindness and support.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was an interesting book to read, I enjoyed it as well. The author made the book, suitable, fun, ups and downs and many more! Driving a Bargain, this book added many personalities of characters into it, which made it more interesting. I have to admit that it took me a couple of pages to get hooked in, but overall it was a good book it read, and I think anyone who enjoys adventure might like Driving a Bargain.