A delightful, warm and moving story about Art, a thoughtful boy who learns to celebrate his individuality and uniqueness. From the CBCA Victorian vice president and beloved author of All The Little Tricky Things

Twelve-year-old Art and his younger brother Hilary are great friends, best friends.

When they move to Melbourne from a small town in Queensland things seem to be easy for Hilary, who is still in primary school, but Art struggles to fit in, and he’s become a target for school bully Jack. His dad is too busy to give him much attention, but Art has his stepmum, Sally, who is always ready to listen.

And there’s the paperbark tree. Art and Hilary climb into its branches and hold a secret meeting whenever they need to sort things out.

The only problem is Art’s not sure he still wants to be part of the paperbark tree committee. He’s getting older and he thinks he needs to solve his problems on his own.

The Paperbark Tree Committee is a heartfelt story about growing up and leaving childhood behind; it’s about family and being a good brother, fitting in and finding friends, and about making mistakes and learning from them.

Details

ISBN13: 9781921520280
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 208
Edition:
Publication Date: 28 Sep 2009
Publisher: Text Publishing
Publication City, Country: Melbourne, Australia
Dimensions (cm): 20(H)x13.1(L)x1.4(W)162
Weight (gm): 162

Author Biography

Helen Garner writes novels, stories, screenplays and works of non-fiction. She is the winner of the Melbourne Prize for Literature, the Windham Campbell Prize for Non-Fiction, the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature and the Australian Society of Authors Medal. Her books include Monkey Grip, The Children's Bach, The First Stone, Joe Cinque's Consolation, The Spare Room, This House of Grief, The Season, How to End a Story- Collected Diaries, which won the prestigious Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, and The Mushroom Tapes, with Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein.

Reviews

‘Garner’s gradual awakening to her unadmitted anger is what gives her best book, her novel The Spare Room, much of its shattering power…The novel closes: “It was the end of my watch, and I handed her over.” Helen has done as much as she can do. It is a typical Garner sentence, a writing lesson (all novels should end as completely) and a life lesson: spare, deserved, and complexly truthful, both a confession of failure and a small song of success.’ -- James Wood * New Yorker *
‘I see why people rave about her, I will now too.’ * Samantha Harvey *
‘It’s so lucid and real and sharp and interesting and subtle and well observed and devoid of filigree and puffery and any wasted anything. It’s so efficient and glorious.’ * Julia Turner, Slate Culture Gabfest *