The Family String
Denise Picton
Reviewed by Helen
This is such a great debut book, one that I would highly recommend, come along and meet twelve year old Dorcas, it is 1969 and she lives with her family in the suburbs of Adelaide, they are members of the Christadelphians religion, Dorcas is the second child after Daniel who is seventeen but not living at home at the moment then there is ten year old Ruthy and Caleb is eight.
Dorcas, Ruthy and Caleb have a tree house that they spend a lot of time in and Ruthy has notebooks that she likes to write in, they are her journals and each day they decide what sort of a day their mother is going to have, a Jesus day meant she was happy a head day was one where she spent it in bed and Dorcas was always trying her best to do the right thing and please her mother, this was hard for her, trouble seemed to be her middle name, these days. They have a string with different coloured beads on it representing each member of the family, mother at the top because you love your mother meant that Dorcas seemed to be further away from her mother’s bead because she wasn’t the favourite child and was always doing the wrong thing.
Their religion plays a big part in what they can and can’t do and their mother is very strict on the rules Dorcas seems to be getting further away from her mother with her request to have a pet which could make Caleb have an asthma attack, so Dorcas is very good at making up stories and very good ones where she is in armor and running a place called caramel run by girls and she can have her pets.
Life isn’t easy for Dorcas and Denise Picton has portrayed her life so well, this is a beautiful story of Dorcas coming of age and yes it is heart-breaking and heart-warming at the same time, there are many emotions throughout the book some that made me yell and scream some that made me very sad, and some that had me smiling there are some very witty parts. It is a compelling story that I thoroughly enjoyed and I look forward to many more books from this author, a must read.
My thanks to Ultimo Press for my copy to read and review.
Dorcas, Ruthy and Caleb have a tree house that they spend a lot of time in and Ruthy has notebooks that she likes to write in, they are her journals and each day they decide what sort of a day their mother is going to have, a Jesus day meant she was happy a head day was one where she spent it in bed and Dorcas was always trying her best to do the right thing and please her mother, this was hard for her, trouble seemed to be her middle name, these days. They have a string with different coloured beads on it representing each member of the family, mother at the top because you love your mother meant that Dorcas seemed to be further away from her mother’s bead because she wasn’t the favourite child and was always doing the wrong thing.
Their religion plays a big part in what they can and can’t do and their mother is very strict on the rules Dorcas seems to be getting further away from her mother with her request to have a pet which could make Caleb have an asthma attack, so Dorcas is very good at making up stories and very good ones where she is in armor and running a place called caramel run by girls and she can have her pets.
Life isn’t easy for Dorcas and Denise Picton has portrayed her life so well, this is a beautiful story of Dorcas coming of age and yes it is heart-breaking and heart-warming at the same time, there are many emotions throughout the book some that made me yell and scream some that made me very sad, and some that had me smiling there are some very witty parts. It is a compelling story that I thoroughly enjoyed and I look forward to many more books from this author, a must read.
My thanks to Ultimo Press for my copy to read and review.
5 stars
Published June 2nd 2022 by Ultimo Press (first published June 1st 2022)
