Harry Hodby describes his hardscrabble Australian town during the 1950s and 1960s in a series of free-verse vignettes. Ranging in tone from comic to tragic to bitterly realistic, his vivid, precise language evokes the landscape, the seasons, the dangers of fire and flood, and most of all the people made real through action and gesture. In a story line that meanders through this portrait of a town, Harry makes a surprising and poignant discovery about his closest friend. 2007 USBBY Outstanding International Books List, Children’s Books of the Year, Honor Book for Older Readers by Children’s Book Council of Australia; Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature. mac