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Autobiography (revised February, 2005) In October 1997 I received a letter from Stacey Cornelius, a student at Mt Carmel College in Hobart, mentioning that she'd really enjoyed my novel EYEING EVEREST and asking for information about me and the few young adult novels I've written. Not so unusual, except that she hinted at feeling some frustration in not being able to get the desired information from the INTERNET. This came as a revelation to
me. White-haired, perennially sore in the knees, yet still feeling more at ease with a bush walking track than keyboards and screens, I've
never been the sort of person who shared Stacey's comfort with web
sites, e-mail and internet. But at the time, I did share her
enthusiasm for the types of young adult novels she was reading. So,
hoping there might have been one or two others like Stacey out there, I
took the plunge and asked some friends to help me organise a
simple web page. I migrated to Australia in 1969 and since then I've taught English, Social Science and Indonesian in high schools in Sydney, Derby (W.A.), Perth, and at various places in Tasmania. In June, 2001 I bought a Bernese Mountain Dog / Labrador cross pup and retired to feed it. My other big interest continues to be Asia. For a long time I’ve hoped Australian students would feel inclined to learn more about the region. Hence, my stories have strong Asian themes and tend to deal with spiritualism, racism, culture clash and cultural adjustment. In her letter, Stacey noted that my books were always "deep and meaningful". It pleased me to read that.
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My first book, CHANNEARY, was published by
Addison, Wesley, Longman (now Pearson Publishing) in 1991. It was
immediately short listed for the Multicultural Book Award and has sold more
than 20,000 copies. High schools around Australia continue to use it as a
set text, primarily for Grades 7-9 classes. It's the story of Channeary, a
young Cambodian girl who is tragically forced to leave her home when the Khmer Rouge take over her village.
Channeary flees to the Thai border where she arrives sick and starving. At a Buddhist monastery she is nursed back to health, then has no option but to live and work for years in a refugee camp. It's here she meets the Australian nurse who eventually brings her to Tasmania. How she copes and doesn't cope, and the help she gives and receives from an old solitary South Coast fisherman serves as the basis for the remainder of the story.
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SETTLING
SOUTH is loosely-based on a tragic incident that took place in a bush
house close to Hobart's Mt Wellington some years ago. The story was
published by Addison,Wesley, Longman in 1995. It's my only story
set entirely in Australia. But it still has strong Asian
themes. When Tim's mother dies of cancer at Lakes Entrance,
Victoria, he has to go live with his reclusive, Vietnam War-traumatised
father above Bright in the Snowy Mountains.
There Tim finds that his father and a local policeman are still fighting the war, but now it's against each other. Still under legal driving age, Tim nevertheless is taught how to operate a motorbike that is hidden away in a bush shed. While that's going on, Tim witnesses how the conflict between his father and the policeman escalates until the eventual blow up occurs. When their bush house comes under siege, Tim is forced to use the motorbike to flee south to Dover, Tasmania, while avoiding apprehension by the police. o |
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EYEING
EVEREST is a semi-autobiographical story that was published by
Addison,Wesley,Longman in 1996. Fifteen year old Meika lives with
her mother in the northern suburbs of Hobart, but spends many of her
weekends at her aunt's place in the Derwent Valley. It's here Meika
is told stories about her father, a man with a love for the wilderness
who left Australia for Nepal after Meika's mother left him fourteen years
earlier. When yet another affair ends for her, Meika's mum commits suicide and Meika is left with the task of trying to unravel her mum's last hours. What she finds out sends her life into a tailspin. She gets involved with Hobart street kids and soon is in trouble with the police. It's Meika's aunt - her guardian now - who assists her again. She arranges for Meika to travel to the Everest Track in Nepal to meet a father she has never seen before. What transpires on the Everest Track, in the Himalayas, forms the bulk of the story. . |
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STEPPING BACK was published at the same time as EYEING EVEREST. It's a romance set largely in a Red Cross Hospital south of Phnom Penh. In 1996 it was judged a Notable Book in the CBC Book Awards. Somaly is a sixteen year old part-Cambodian girl
who has lived with her mother on the remote west coast of Tasmania since
she was a toddler. Somaly's mother was a nurse in post-Khmer Rouge
Cambodia when she gave birth to Somaly. Shortly after that, Somaly's
father was killed by a land mine and Somaly and her mum left the country
for Tasmania.
Juxtaposed with Somaly's life in Tasmania is the life of
Keo, a traumatised Cambodian who lost an arm and his girlfriend in a Khmer
Rouge ambush, and who now works as a hospital orderly on the Thai
border. About the time Keo is informed that he'll finally be allowed to
return to Cambodia, Somaly's mother in Tasmania finds out she has
MS. If she's ever to return to the country she has ached over for
years, she must do it soon. So Keo from the Thai border, and Somaly
and her mother from Tasmania step back into a war-ravaged country filled with stoical, quietly-spoken people who, despite
the legacy of Khmer Rouge rule, genocide, an estimated one million buried
mines and extreme poverty, are still to this day
strongly imbued with Buddhist warmth, graciousness and compassion.
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ESCAPE TO KALIMANTAN was published
by Addison,Wesley,Longman in 1998. As it contains a few sections of simple
Indonesian, it would serve as a nice adjunct to the study of that language. It tells the story of fifteen
year old Jack, who has been taught by his father, Arnold, to respect life,
to feel a strong compassion for it in all its rich and varied forms. But the
horror of 28 April 1996 changes all that. Jack's sister is killed in the Port Arthur
Massacre, and days later Jack's mother leaves for good. When his father's
mental state begins to deteriorate, Jack realises he's got to do something to help his father
get on with life again.
Wild places and wildlife are Arnold's passionate interests, so close contact with these, Jack believes, will provide his father with his best hope of recovery. He finds out about a place that has the richest animal and plant life in the world. It's called Kalimantan - wild Kalimantan. Like his poster filled room, the perfect place to escape to, Jack thinks. But reality is rarely captured accurately on picture posters. In today's world even the wild places and their inhabitants aren't safe from humanity bent on destruction, as Jack and his father unwittingly find out. |
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A month after Hyland House published
this novel, Fuller's Book Shop in Hobart set up a display of TRACKING
THE DALAI LAMA. They signposted the display and wrote -
'For younger readers who think like older ones'. Perhaps they could
have added 'and who have an interest in the Himalayas, Tibet, Tibetans,
the Dalai Lama and the Chinese occupation.' (An excerpt from Magpie Volume 16, No. 5, 2001) 'Desperately needing
a change of scene as she struggles to escape the malaise brought on by a
tragedy involving her best friend, Jess accompanies her father on a trip
to Northern India and later to Tibet. In Dharamsala they meet the Dalai
Lama and - incredibly - for a few very eventful weeks, their lives become
closely entwined with his. In the scoop of a lifetime, Jess's journalist
father is asked to cover the story of the Dalai Lama's secret return to
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DREAMING AUSTRALIA was published in January, 2005 by Ginninderra Press (www.ginninderrapress.com.au).
It tells the story of Soraya, a young girl from Masar e-Sharif, Northern
Afghanistan. After her mother is killed in a missile attack, she is sent
away with her brother and cousin to a people smuggler in Pakistan who will
arrange for her to travel to Australia. But the journey through the
mountains north of Kabul is dangerous, particularly after her two male
escorts are commandeered by the Taliban to work as porters. Fortunately
Soraya meets Muhammed, a rohani (or holy man), who guides her across the
border to the city of Peshawar. There she meets her people smuggler who
insists that Australians “will wave and shout their greetings and helpful
officials will be at the dock to assist her.” Upon arrival in Australia, Soraya is interned in the Woomera Detention Centre. In the words of Tasmanian author and manuscript appraiser, Rosie Waitt, Dreaming Australia’s author “seamlessly integrates his research into the story. Set in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia and Australia, the author convincingly evokes each place and succeeds in subtly illuminating the strong differences between spiritually and materially based cultures. Dreaming Australia is a dramatic, exciting and moving story of a young girl’s journey through terrible perils. Along the way she experiences huge losses and betrayals as well as unexpected, but heart warming friendships. By bringing to life one person’s story, the author succeeds also in humanising issues that are constantly at risk of being dehumanised by politicians and the media. Currently there is great debate about Australia’s position in regard to the rights of refugees, and this story is one that will help young adults understand some of the issues of intolerance, as well as the ability to step across the differences between cultures, differences which often act as the basis for fear and misunderstanding.”
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SURFING FOR WAYAN AND OTHER STORIES was published
by Ginninderra Press in February 2006. It includes seven stories, six unique
settings, many divergent themes and characters: Seventeen-year old Jacob returns to Bali in Surfing for Wayan. Once terrified of surfboards, he’s there to surf wild for four people, including his brother killed in the 2002 Bali Bombing. In Summits, Lhotse speaks by cell phone to her father who’s dying in a blizzard on Mount Everest. Three months later she walks up Nepal’s Everest Track to view that mountain and share her thoughts. A young Afghan reflects on the event that spurred him into becoming a suicide bomber in Remembering Nurila. In Tunneling Cu Chi a Tasmanian boy, a Vietnamese-Australian girl and an American war veteran meet on a tour of Vietnam’s infamous Cu Chi Tunnels. Each is there to resolve their Vietnam War issues. In Another Door a friendship develops between a panic-struck girl going for her first driver’s license and an old widower who’s obliged to renew his license annually. During the bombing of Baghdad a young Iraqi-Australian boy struggles to make sense of media headlines in the prize-winning Sandy Heads. After his granddad dies in Fishing Manhattan, a boy learns that places change and it’s important to love what you have. For readers aged 12 to 112. (From
Irene McGuire, Fullers Bookshop, Hobart)
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Packing Smack, Talking Wombats (Ginninderra Press) was published in January 2007. The story is loosely based on recent cases of police corruption and gangland activities in Melbourne. Jackson is a seventeen/eighteen year old girl with future plans for attending university. Through her first boyfriend, Ben, she unwittingly becomes involved in a St Kilda heroin sale that goes wrong. In order to protect Ben, she flees with the heroin supply to the supposed sanctuary of Flinders Island. Here she meets John, an animal-fixated vet science student, and Pete, a recluse who has lost his family in tragic circumstances. When Jackson’s pursuers – in the form of bent, but entertaining Nick, and later, two employees of the corrupt Detective Inspector Michael Harris – arrive on Flinders Island, the entire island community is drawn into the sordid, violent world of gangland drug dealing. Thematically, city/country contrasts and traditional Aussie values, particularly in remote
areas, are strong. The novel would be highly suitable in a study of remote
places, or the study of values education using Values for Australian
schooling (www.valueseducation.edu.au/values/),
or in the study of illicit drugs in Australia. A study guide that focuses on
these three themes is available at the end of the website. But there’s more.
When appraising the original manuscript, The Manuscript Appraisal Agency
noted: From a review on
Packing Smack, Talking Wombats in Viewpoint - on books for
young adults - vol 15, no 3, spring 2007, pages 55, 56. After providing an
extensive plot description, the novel's reviewer finishes off by saying, A
Y/A novel that is O/A compatible. |
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For teachers wanting to use
the above novels with high school classes, I have study units for
CHANNEARY, SETTLING SOUTH, TRACKING THE DALAI LAMA
and DREAMING AUSTRALIA that I'd be pleased to send out to anyone who might
find them useful. Just e-mail me at -
stolbert@southcom.com.au. Download the DREAMING AUSTRALIA unit [MSWord 117KB] Download High school extension suggestions for the Surfing for Wayan anthology [MSWord 43KB] Download Extension ideas and references for Packing Smack, Talking Wombats [MSWord 68KB] View the unit developed by the Department of Education Tasmania for ESCAPE TO KALIMANTAN. The username and password to view this unit is sample Happy reading, Steve Tolbert
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