Available:*
Library | Collection | Collection | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Betty Rodriguez Library (Fresno Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Teen Fiction Area | KWAYMUL AM Things | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Chowchilla Branch (Madera Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Young Adult Section | KWAYMUL | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Clovis Branch Library (Fresno Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Teen Fiction Area | KWAYMUL AM Things | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Lemoore Branch Library (Kings Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Young Adult Fiction Area | YA KWAYMULL | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Visalia Library (Tulare Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Young Adult Area | YA FIC KWAYMULL AMBELIN | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
This brilliantly written thriller explores the lives--and deaths--of two girls, and what they will do to win justice. Sure to be one of the most talked-about books of the year!
Nothing's been the same for Beth Teller since the day she died.
Her dad is drowning in grief. He's also the only one who has been able to see and hear her since the accident. But now she's got a mystery to solve, a mystery that will hopefully remind her detective father that he needs to reconnect with the living.
The case takes them to a remote Australian town, where there's been a suspicious fire. All that remains are an unidentifiable body and an unreliable witness found wandering nearby. This witness speaks in riddles. Isobel Catching has a story to tell, and it's a tale to haunt your dreams--but does it even connect to the case at hand?
As Beth and her father unravel the mystery, they find a shocking and heartbreaking story lurking beneath the surface of a small town.
Author Notes
Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina are a brother-sister team of Aboriginal writers who come from the Palyku people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. They've worked together on a number of short novels and picture books. The Things She's Seen is their first joint young adult novel. They believe in the power of storytelling to create a more just world.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up--Beth Teller is dead. A biracial Aboriginal Australian, she was recently killed in a car accident, and now only her detective father can see her. Beth feels she needs to guide her father through his grief and help him reconnect with some of their family from whom he disconnected after her death. Soon, a case takes them to a small Australian town where a fire has left one person dead and multiple people missing. A witness, Isobel Catching, has a very interesting story to tell. As Beth helps her father through the investigation, they realize things aren't what they seem and question Isobel's reliability, while making realizations about themselves along the way. The narration by Miranda Tapsell feels authentic and she smoothly transitions between points of view. The elements of magical realism are reminiscent of The Life of Pi. VERDICT Fans of thrillers with deeper social themes will enjoy this mysterious, intriguing, and well-narrated audiobook.--Megan Huenemann, Norris High School, Firth, NE
Horn Book Review
Tapsell provides a gripping performance of the Kwaymullinas' Australia-set crime story about a mysterious fire at a children's home, which is being investigated by a grieving detective, a most unlikely sidekick (his deceased daughter, now a ghost), and a mysterious witness named Isobel Catching. The narrator is adept at modulating her voice to fit two distinct female points of view while capturing a wide range of diction, from teenaged defiance to suspenseful whispers to horrified realizations. The surprising ending turns this expertly narrated edge-of-your-seat thriller into a captivating metaphorical story of the historical separation of children from their Aboriginal families. An author's note touches on Aboriginal storytelling methods. Julie Hakim Azzam November/December 2019 p.126(c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Beth Teller may be a ghost, but she is hoping to solve a mystery and heal her father's broken heart. Beth is a biracial Aboriginal (no nation is specified) girl from Australia who remembers very little about the car accident that took her life. She can't fathom why her spirit hasn't moved on, but she suspects it might have something to do with her love for her grieving white father. He's a detective who always did right by her mother and siblings after being rejected by his own parents when he fell in love with an Aboriginal woman. Dedicated to serving justice, her dad has fallen into a deep depression after Beth's death. When he finally heads back to work, he must investigate a possible arson: the charred remains of a children's home. What Beth and her father find are secrets far more complicated than the mere burning of a building. A legacy of violence sits at the heart of this important novel, yet artful language softens the blows of pain and fear. The only interviewee the two detectives can consult is a witness who speaks in riddles: Isobel Catching. Who is she, and what does she know? Crimescommon yet unspeakablerise to the surface in this fast-paced thriller with a supernatural bent.An #ownvoices story that empowers its female heroines, giving them pride in their lineage and power in remembering. (Thriller. 13-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
One way to heal is through storytelling. As Catching knows, it is stories that get you through and bring you home. Sibling authors Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina pack an astonishing amount of storytelling and intensity in their relatively short novel. Beth's story begins right after her death from an automobile accident. Since Beth's father, a police officer, is left to grieve alone, Beth finds herself still stuck on the mortal side of death, unable to interact with anyone but him. Until, that is, she discovers a key witness in the arson case that has brought them to the remote Australian town can see her. In between Beth's narration are chapters told in verse from the point of view of Isobel Catching, a girl who has a heartbreaking but vital story to tell that ultimately reveals an evil embedded deep within the town's roots. Devastatingly beautiful magical realism drives Isobel's poems and sheds much needed light on the history of abuse perpetrated against aboriginal girls.--Caitlin Kling Copyright 2019 Booklist