Chasing Charlie Duskin

Cath Crowley (author)

Pan MacMillan, Australia: 2005; 225pp

ISBN: 0330421603

Genre: realistic fiction

Issues: death, family, friendship, giftedness, grief, identity, isolation

CBCA Shortlist, 2006: Book of the Year,Older Readers

Charlie Duskin is a loner. An isolate. Someone who will always be different, but at an age when being different is a terrible state of mind.

Her mother died when she was a child and for the past seven years she's been living virtually on her own, as her grief-stricken father seems unable to relate to her at all. Without friends and uncertain of who she is as a person, Charlie is desperate to be part of the group. A group. Any group. As long as it will mean that she's not alone any more.

Rosie Butler is bright, popular, successful and terribly jealous of the fact that Charlie lives in the city. Rosie lives in the small country town where Charlie's grandparents own a sandwich shop. Rosie's determined to take the scholarship she's been offered at a city high school but knows her parents won't let her go unless she can stay with someone they trust. Rosie decides that Charlie is the perfect solution. Charlie will get a friend and Rosie can live with her in the city. But things don't always go quite according to plan - people are not chess pieces, to be moved at will.

Told from two rapidly changing perspectives - those of Rosie and Charlie - the novel keeps the reader off balance. Although Charlie is at first the more sympathetic character, it becomes easier to see Rosie's point of view. This is an interesting novel that explores different kinds of giftedness, as well as the more usual reasons that cause children to feel the pain of being different. It acknowledges the extreme sensitivity of some gifted children as well as the self-centredness of others, without passing judgement on either.

This is a touching story, to the point of being emotionally distressing for some readers, who will find Rosie's apparently cold blooded manipulation of Charlie quite disturbing. The strong presence of other characters, especially two friends of Rosie's who are quite aware of her flaws, provides balance and gives the novel a strong and realistic conclusion that should satisfy even the most sensitive readers.