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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Carter Lawrance is cool. He's a city kid. His parents have just bought a run-down farm in the middle of nowhere, and Carter is not happy. Then he discovers the rotting barn in the swamp ... and the giant, white worms ... and the claw prints of the creature that feeds on them' (source: back cover).
Affiliation Notes
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This work is affiliated with the AustLit subset Asian-Australian Children's Literature and Publishing because it has an Indonesian translation.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Writing on the Edge: Gary Crew's Fiction
1998
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , December vol. 8 no. 3 1998; (p. 25-35) Mills gives an overview of Australian author Gary Crew's work, which she describes as 'characterized by doubt' and offering endings which remain unresolved rather than the formulaic 'happy endings' which permeate conventional children's stories (25). Crew has won many literary awards for his children's fiction, however his stories are decidely ambiguous and post-modern in their 'celebration of doubt' (34), which attracts criticism on the grounds that the texts are too 'difficult and demanding for young children' (25). Mills offers a succinct and insightful discussion which explores how Crew's narratives of child-adolescent maturation play with the conventions of the gothic-horror genre by refusing 'the guarantee of a revelation to come' (34). Mills says 'At his strongest, he brings to the reader's notice the human need to make sense of the world. The power of his fiction derives not from him meeting such needs but from playing upon them' (25). -
The Varied Talents of Gary Crew
1996
single work
review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , May vol. 40 no. 2 1996; (p. 40)
— Review of Caleb 1996 single work children's fiction ; The Lost Diamonds of Killiecrankie 1995 selected work prose ; The Barn 1995 single work children's fiction
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The Varied Talents of Gary Crew
1996
single work
review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , May vol. 40 no. 2 1996; (p. 40)
— Review of Caleb 1996 single work children's fiction ; The Lost Diamonds of Killiecrankie 1995 selected work prose ; The Barn 1995 single work children's fiction -
Writing on the Edge: Gary Crew's Fiction
1998
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , December vol. 8 no. 3 1998; (p. 25-35) Mills gives an overview of Australian author Gary Crew's work, which she describes as 'characterized by doubt' and offering endings which remain unresolved rather than the formulaic 'happy endings' which permeate conventional children's stories (25). Crew has won many literary awards for his children's fiction, however his stories are decidely ambiguous and post-modern in their 'celebration of doubt' (34), which attracts criticism on the grounds that the texts are too 'difficult and demanding for young children' (25). Mills offers a succinct and insightful discussion which explores how Crew's narratives of child-adolescent maturation play with the conventions of the gothic-horror genre by refusing 'the guarantee of a revelation to come' (34). Mills says 'At his strongest, he brings to the reader's notice the human need to make sense of the world. The power of his fiction derives not from him meeting such needs but from playing upon them' (25).
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