The Sailmaker

by Rosanne Hawke

Young Joel, the main character from "The Keeper", is windsurfing when he finds an abandoned tinny in the bay, one belonging to the detention gang on the local island; later, when Joel's sail is ripped he goes to visit the old sailmaker Vern, who tells Joel and Mail about the ghost that haunts the lighthouse ... For ages 8-12.

160 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2002

About the author

When little I ran around with a jotter and a pencil, pretending to write a story but not knowing how to spell any words except Dick, Dora and cat. My mother asked me to tell stories. A lot of my stories stayed in my head, as being the youngest and living in the country didn't bring many opportunities for an audience. I was born in Penola, in South Australia. We had a sheep farm until I was six, then we moved to a property in Central Queensland. I went to school at a one-teacher school in Banana, a little country town named after a bullock.

My first short story was published in the Moura State School magazine in 1967 when I was in grade 8. At 14 years, I moved back to South Australia and attended Gawler High School where I won an Arts Scholarship to complete Years 11 & 12. I started a romantic novel when I was 17 but I burnt it later.

It wasn't until I was working in the Middle East and Pakistan, teaching ESL, bringing up kids, when I started to write seriously. My kids loved the story game we played and one night after telling a story, my daughter asked me to write it down.

I have a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Adelaide and teach Creative Writing at Tabor Adelaide, South Australia, a Christian accredited tertiary institution. I have researched Cornish identity in Australian children's literature and enjoy writing about culture, faith, relationships, displacement and belonging, music and cats.

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a book for young people although I enjoyed the story and the 'messages' that were given to the reader - good manners, politeness, being nice to others, accepting other people are different for whatever reason .....
The story took the reader through all of these things, and more, and cause a number of emotions for me ... anger (at peoples' reactions when they just didn't understand, other children's meanness, the struggle of coping with what other people are saying, dealing with emotions, learning about the joy of innocent first love ....
A good book for anyone to read in my view ....

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hawke #1
Second of a trilogy, but I did not read book #1, to be fair I didn't know it was part of a trilogy, and of course nothing on the book anywhere indicates it is, because that is how publishers roll, as you know, they are about as useful as a pork chop at a bah mitzvah!
Anyway average fare, which probably would have been better had book #1 been read, and a greater appreciation of the story was allowed.