Twins Alex and Emily are facing their worst nightmare. Their father has been diagnosed with a brain tumour. His best friend Jack Price is a doctor and is the one that breaks the news at Dad’s bedside.

Alex refuses to believe they will lose their only parent, and won’t discuss it with his twin. Emily has always been the emotionally stronger of the two, and her father asks her to look out for her brother. Emily begins to pour her story out in a memoir essay school project over the seasons of that year.

Alex keeps himself busy in his tree hut in a huge gum nearby. The family call it The Lorikeet Tree because of the dozens of the colourful screeching birds that populate its upper branches. With a fear of heights Emily doesn’t venture up the tree house ladder, which gives  Alex a place to flee to and be on his own.

As they have grown, they have all planted and nurtured native trees into a small forest. This is to replace the original Australian bush that was razed to the ground in early colonial days. The years pass as the twins grow and native bird life and animals return to the area. Caring for this bush is sacred to the family, so when Alex wants to keep a kitten from the feral cat’s new brood under their house, Alex is mortified.

Juggling school, home, her own grief at the inevitable passing of her father, a crush on the local animal ranger and looking out for Alex begins to take its toll on Emily. Her project is the only way she can pour out just what she is feeling. When a stranger appears from Dad’s past, Emily is unsure how she should feel. How can she keep her father happy in his last months, her brother settled and her beautiful forest safe?

Paul Jennings has a simple style of writing which is always engaging while packing a punch at the same time. This story of a fifteen year old girl travelling through a minefield of emotions as her known world crumbles around her is beautifully written. Having a sick parent is hard enough, without adding a terminal diagnosis, a twin who refuses to accept the news and the expectation she will keep everyone on an even keel.

Her maturity but young adult vulnerability is beautiful on the page as she shares her story throughout the seasons of the year and into the next. The Lorikeet Tree is perfect for those teens who baulk at larger texts or are reluctant readers in general.

The text is clear and in a slightly larger font than most YA novels, the chapters short, and the story broken into four parts and an epilogue.

Accessible for any reader 10+

Author – Paul Jennings

Age – 10+

(2023, Allen & Unwin, Australia, Forest, Bush, Reforestation, Twins, Siblings, Family, Brain Tumour, Terminal, Illness, Sickness, Responsibility, Crush, Lorikeets, Animals, Cat, Predator, Loss, Grief, School Project, Memoir, Seasons, Mystery, Secret, Tree House, Belief)