Summer of Shipwrecks by Shivaun Plozza
Published by UQP
“How to Stop My Holiday Sucking: A Plan by Sidney Sackbridge. Step one: do something about Hailey.
Maybe Hailey really is the absolute coolest person for real but do the math. When it’s just me and Lou, I get one hundred per cent Lou-time, which equals the best holiday ever. With Hailey, I have to divide my best friend’s attention in half. Mum and Dad used to be a unit but now they’re divided – one in Irrewillipe and one in Brisbane – and it sucks.” (Summer of Shipwrecks)
Guest author post about Summer of Shipwrecks by Shivaun Plozza
Summer of Shipwrecks is a perfect summer read for 10-13 year olds who long for the beach holiday of their childhood but have to deal with growing up, a distracted best friend and a blended family.
Shivaun is a gifted storyteller who conjures her characters expressively and with verisimilitude.
In her guest author post, she tells us beautifully (and wistfully) about beach holidays and the writing Summer of shipwrecks.
Thank you for speaking to ‘Joy in Books’ at PaperbarkWords, Shivaun.
SHIVAUN WRITES: When I was a kid and the school year was (finally!) winding down for the summer holidays, my friends and I would start the incredibly important task of ‘getting our feet summer ready’. This meant walking around bare foot as much as possible in order to build up resistance to the rocks, the hot sand, the even hotter bitumen and the prickly grass we would soon be running around on all day long while on our annual summer camping trip to the beach.
While adult-me finds the idea of walking around barefoot (even inside the fish and chip shop!) somewhat gross, kid-me and her friends took this transition from school uniforms to summer carefree-good-times very seriously. The ability to navigate the world only in bare feet and without even a twinge of pain was a badge of honour. And it was a crime to arrive at the beach with soft, tender feet, mostly because it meant you would be left stumbling behind the others as they raced over the scrub and rocks with their toughened feet.
It’s fascinating to me, the things that are important when you’re a child but not-so important as an adult. These days I work hard to keep my feet as soft as possible all year round but the one thing that is just as important to me now as it was back when I was a kid is friendship. While romantic relationships often get the spotlight, friendships are just as integral to our lives and are just as heartbreaking when they end.
One thing I’ve been thinking about for a long time is the transition from childhood to tweendom and how everyone takes a different path as they grow up. While some of us linger in the carefree joys of childhood, others dive headlong into teenagehood. The question on my mind has been: how does this stark difference in how we grow up impact our friendships? From my own experiences, I found myself being left behind; my soft, tender feet simply couldn’t hope to catch up to the friends who raced ahead without me.
I’ve been wanting to write about this for a while and I finally managed to do so in Summer of Shipwrecks. With Sid, I created a character who, like me, is fond of make believe and stories and thus she thrives in the imagination-rich world of childhood. Her greatest passion is the Penlee, a ship that well over a century ago wrecked off the coastline where she camps every year, leaving behind a tale of impossible heroism and missing treasure. Each year Sid and her best friend, Lou, return to Penlee Point and search for the missing treasure, making up plenty of stories (Ghosts! Pirates! Sharks!) to spice up their adventures.
At the beginning of the book, 12-year-old Sid arrives at the beach with her feet summer ready and her heart set on finding the treasure. But Lou has arrived with a cool new school friend who thinks shipwrecks and treasure hunting is for babies. Lou, unfortunately, agrees.
Poor Sid.
Always feeling three steps behind the others girls and worried about losing her best friend forever, Sid tries desperately to grow up, too. To leave the interests of her childhood behind in order to follow Lou into teenagehood. But with her heart constantly leading her back to the treasure hunt and Lou’s own heart leading her further and further away from Sid, can their friendship last?
When I was in Sid’s place, I did not follow my heart. I let go of my fondness for make believe (no more pretending to be an Ewok on Endor, saving the galaxy) and did everything I could to catch up to my friends. In fact, I remember the exact moment I decided to be ‘less childish’, that instead of make believe I would become interested in the things my friends were interested in. Clothes. Boys. Make up. Grown-up things. I remember how it broke my heart. But I didn’t want to be left behind.
I gave Sid other troubles. Her mum’s new boyfriend and his sulky teenage daughter that have crashed their annual camping trip. A rival also looking for the missing shipwreck treasure. A ghost story that might be real. But the heart of the novel is very much about friendships. And a choice: to follow a friend or to follow your heart?
Meet Me at the Moon Tree and other books by Shivaun Plozza at PaperbarkWords blog
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