Ash Road
![]() First edition | |
Author | Ivan Southall |
---|---|
Illustrator | Clem Seale |
Language | English |
Genre | children's fiction |
Publisher | Angus and Robertson |
Publication date | 1965 |
Publication place | Australia |
Media type | |
Pages | 154pp |
Ash Road (1965) is a novel for children by Australian author Ivan Southall. It won the Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers in 1966.[1]
Plot outline
Three fifteen-year-old boys are for the first time allowed to go on a holiday together without adult supervision. But an accident with a faulty heater causes the surrounding area to catch alight and a bushfire ensues.
Critical reception
Reviewing the novel in The Canberra Times Susan Fuller is full of praise: "There are few children's writers who steel themselves to bring reality, with all its overtones of pain, injustice and frustration, into their stories. Fantasy and even horror, yes, but they seem to find cold, stark real life too strong a meat for their tender readers. Ivan Southall is not of this school...Ash Road is a frightening story of bush fire run riot, and Mr Southall does not pull any punches. The fear and tension is real as the dry brittle forests sigh under the weight of a hot north wind, waiting for that tiny spark to burst into inferno."[2]
See also
References
- Articles with short description
- Short description is different from Wikidata
- Use Australian English from August 2016
- All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English
- Use dmy dates from August 2016
- 1965 Australian novels
- 1965 children's books
- Australian young adult novels
- Novels set in Australia
- Children's books set in Australia
- Works about wildfires
- CBCA Children's Book of the Year Award-winning works
- Angus & Robertson books
- All stub articles
- 1960s young adult novel stubs