Volcano Boy: A Novel in Verse

by Libby Hathorn

A powerful verse novel from one of Australia's favourite authors.

Alone and grieving, Alexander feels ready to erupt. Can he find his way back to hope?

'A real volcano boy,' his mother had called him.

Placed in the custody of his puritanical but well-meaning Uncle Frank, Alexander moves from Brisbane to volcano-circled Rabaul in Papua New Guinea. There the dark powers of the rumbling volcano call to him as irresistibly as the dark eyes of Alice, his newfound love. Alexander records his experiences in a moving, candid journal that surfaces many years after the volcano's fury has settled to ash.

'VOLCANO BOY is beautifully written, and Hathorn is a beautiful writer.' - LITERATURE CAFE

Celebrating 25 years of Libby Hathorn, acclaimed author of the Australian young adult classic THUNDERWITH.

'Hathorn deftly injects a sense of wonderment into this intense, very real story. Readers cannot help but be swept up on the action and emotion.' - PUBLISHERS WEEKLY on THUNDERWITH

Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Libby Hathorn is an Australian writer who produces poetry, picture books, drama, novels, short stories, and nonfiction for children, young adults, and adults. Best known in the United States for her critically acclaimed novel Thunderwith, Hathorn has created works ranging from serious stories of troubled youth to lighthearted, fast-paced comedies. She writes of powerful female characters in her novels for junior readers, such as the protagonists in All about Anna and The Extraordinary Magics of Emma McDade; or of lonely, misunderstood teenagers in novels such as Feral Kid, Love Me Tender, and Valley under the Rock. As Maurice Saxby noted in St. James Guide to Children's Writers, "In her novels for teenagers especially, Hathorn exposes, with compassion, sensitivity, and poetry the universal and ongoing struggle of humanity to heal hurts, establish meaningful relationships, and to learn to accept one's self—and ultimately—those who have wronged us."

Reviews

[Rhiannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved some of the description of places in this ya verse novel.