Seven Days

Winner of a Young Australian Best Book Award (YABBA) for her debut YA novel *Risk, *Fleur Ferris has subsequently built a reputation for dark and compelling YA thrillers. Ferris’s second middle-grade novel after the environmental fairytale Nullaboo Hullabaloo is thematically much closer to her YA novels. Seven Days is a peculiar mix of gothic tropes, ‘boys’ own adventure’ and introspection in rural Australia. The only child of distant parents, Ben Parker is sent to stay with his father’s family for a week in the home town of generations of Parkers. Ben and-with reluctance-his cousin Josh soon find themselves uncovering generations-old family secrets and on the hunt for buried treasure. There are a number of major twists and the novel is action-packed, with Ben and Josh making decisions as extreme as breaking into the zoo in order to solve the mystery in seven days. However, the novel’s greater purpose is exploring the ongoing effects of wrongs committed in the past. The book’s implication that the children of today can make up for the actions of previous generations is a very timely one. It’s a bit of a bumpy ride, but *Seven Days *will suit readers aged 10 and up who enjoy fast-moving adventure stories like Jack Heath’s ‘Liars’ series. Ilona Urquhart is a children’s and youth services librarian on the Surf Coast and has a PhD in literary studies.

Fleur Ferris spent the first seventeen years of her life growing up on a farm in Patchewollock, northwest Victoria. She then moved twenty times in twenty years. During this time, Fleur sometimes saw the darker side to life while working for a number of years as a police officer and a paramedic. She now lives a more settled lifestyle in Moama, southern New South Wales, with her husband and three children. Fleur’s colourful and diverse background has given her a unique insight into today’s society and an endless pool of experiences to draw from. When she isn’t weaving this through her latest story, reading or spending time with her family, you will find her with friends, talking about art, books and travel. Fleur’s first YA novel, Risk, won the Australian Family Therapists’ Award for Children’s Literature, the Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards for Best Young Adult Novel and Best Debut Book 2016, as well as a YABBA in 2017. She has also written Black, Wreck and Found for young adults. Nullaboo Hullabaloo and Seven Days are Fleur’s novels for young readers.

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