Dave Hartley (text) and Serena Geddes (illustrator), Dare to Bowl (Pat Cummins Howzat Pat! #1), HarperCollins Publishers, October 2024, 192 pp., RRP $15.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781460764688
Dave Hartley (text) and Serena Geddes (illustrator), Mission Wildlife Rescue (Pat Cummins Howzat Pat! #2), HarperCollins Publishers, October 2024, 192 pp., RRP $15.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781460764605
Apparently, this series was created by Pat Cummins, but the author seems to be Dave Hartley with Serena Geddes as illustrator, but it’s a bit hard to tell from the title page, publication details and NLA catalogue entries. Suffice to say it’s about cricket but also some life lessons.
In Dare to Bowl, the Cummins family is moving out of the city to the lower Blue Mountains. It means leaving behind the house where they’ve always lived and their schools and friends – in other words, everything familiar. For Pat, he has to choose between being accepted by the ‘cool’ kids who don’t always behave well or making friends with those whose values are more closely aligned with those of his own family. Signing up to play in the Glenbrook-Blaxland Cricket Club helps him to become integrated into the local community, as well as developing his cricket skills.
Mission Wildlife Rescue is perhaps not as well-developed. The plot involves Pat and his two best friends discovering illegal ground clearing for the development of a burger shop. Between the three of them, they track where the kidnapped koalas are being held, take a video of a platypus in a nearby stream and make news headlines about the local council’s shady activities. The plot has a few holes in it and the talks about leadership feel a bit preachy.
The presentation is attractive with colourful covers showing a photo of Pat Cummins’ face, humorous black-and-white cartoon-style illustrations and varied font sizes to emphasis certain words. This series should appeal to young readers keen on sport, particularly cricket. There are teaching notes on each page of each book on the Publisher’s website.
Reviewed by Lynne Babbage
