The Last Week in December

by Ursula Dubosarsky, Amy Golbach (Illustrator)

"They were coming back! Did they suspect? They must. Just by looking at her, anyone would know she had something to hide.…”

Ursula Dubosarsky’s classic comedy about a young family who move from the city to country Australia. Eleven-year-old Bella settles into her new way of life, but her guilty conscience gets her into all sorts of tangles with visiting relatives! A personal and classroom read-aloud favourite. Shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year awards.
“Destined to fall into the canon of classic Australian works for children.” Magpies
“Noisy, opinionated and delightfully eccentric. I hope Ursula Dubosarsky writes a thousand books.” The NSW School Magazine

URSULA DUBOSARSKY was born in Sydney and is the author of over 50 books for children and young adults. She has won multiple national literary prizes and has been nominated for both the Hans Christian Anderson and Astrid Lindgren international awards for children’s literature.
Cover illustration and design by Amy Golbach

Genres: Fiction, Childrens

158 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2015

About the author

Ursula Dubosarsky is an award-winning author of numerous books for children and young adults. About The Golden Day, her first book with Candlewick Press, she says, "The little girls watch, wonder, respond, change, and grow — and then their childhood is gone, forever. This element of the story, I suppose, is at least partly autobiographical. But, as I say — all of our teachers come home safe and sound in the end." Ursula Dubosarsky lives in Australia.

Reviews

[Celena · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, the best part of this novel was the top and tail - the way the author fleshes out the relationship between child peers - what's weird and what's normal. The plot revolving around the theft of a tobacco pouch by our 8 year old protagonist Bella, shows the consequences as she is forced to face up to her actions three years later.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this YA novel. It was well written with meaningful quirky characters and a nice little wrap up to end.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a children's novel written by an Australian author; I thought it would be appropriate to read some Aussie literature (even for the younger set) while I'm here.

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I'm not taking any courses pertaining to Australian literature, so I really don't know what characteristics define the category. I've been in the country quite a while now, so I can understand some of the basic sentiments and attitudes, and am hoping to better explore them through at least a little outside reading. I don't know if I would have liked "The Last Week in December" if I read it when I was younger. It was the story of Bella, an twelve-year-old Australian girl who stole her grandfather's tobacco pouch when she was eight. As he lives in England, she hadn't seen him since the theft when he, her grandmother, and her aunt (who is only two years older than Bella) visit Bella's family during, you guessed it, the last week in December. Relatively mellow family hijinks ensue, and the ending is fairly surprising, if only because children's lit rarely ends on such a sullen note.

I loved the quasi-Outback setting, and the fact that the action took place around Christmas; I've always wondered how exactly Aussies deal with the fact that it's blisteringly hot at Yuletide. Dubosarsky uses some of the best similes I've ever read, making the story very poetic at times. I think I liked Bella, as she was a sharp and independent thinker. I got a little sick of her paranoia regarding the tobacco pouch, but this is pretty reflective of normal pre-teen thought. Bella's aunt Lettice is pretty hilarious in her moody fifteen-year-old way, especially when she starts speaking nonsensical Latin phrases for days. There were a few subtler themes, such as the fact that your dad's family might be a little ridiculous and your mom might not like them very much at all, that I didn't think would resonate with kids, or that really fit into the story. I was also frustrated by whatever moral the book was attempting to convey, partially because I couldn't quite pin it down; it seemed to waver between the importance of 'fessing up and the futility of doing so: the damage has already been done.

Overall, the book had a great sense of place and some interesting characters, but it didn't seem to know exactly what to do with them.

[★ Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very good start, but the book slows down and drops off.

THE LAST WEEK IN DECEMBER had a huge amount of potential, yet failed to deliver