Boomerang! - Neville Bagnall

Eleven-year-old KATTY and her younger brother JAKE come together to form the 'Enviro Kids', but they still play, bicker, and fight. MUM and DAD do their parenting duties but only when they are not bickering themselves over the chocolate brownies. Mum is going to miss her chocolate brownies. So too is Dad! SERGIO complains about chopped down trees and burning fires of destruction of the forest. Animals perish in the fires; animals are orphaned in the chaos and destruction. Soot clings to everything; trees die forever. The rainforest is disappearing - the lungs of the Earth are wheezing. This is everybody's environment and everybody's planet. Katty and Jake are on a mission, and the battle is on against the filthy pollutants. With the help of their school science teacher, MISS VIOLET, things were going to change before it was too late. Miss Violet conducts pollution experiments, and they begin a crusade to help the Amazon rainforest and to start their tree planting campaign. Katty is one small girl in a very big world who witnesses deforestation. There are a handful of suspects and a lot more baddies.The rainforest is filled with eerie chitter-chatter whispers. All aboard the journey of discovery, where nothing is as it seems! Everything is burning out of control. Time is running out. Seriously! The trees are burning; the forest is disappearing. A mystery story that is not actually a mystery! Get it? Oh, you defo will get it. Boomerang! is a children's story detailing the adventures of Katty, her brother Jake and their parents as they travel to the Amazon rainforest. Amongst other things, they discover magical trees called the Mystrees, come face to face with a caiman crocodile and meet a talking owl. With these mystical elements, the story has many aspects that are enjoyed in children's stories in the current market. But what is unique here is the way the author delicately, but with conviction, addresses the issues of climate change in a way that children will understand. This is the biggest strength of the story. The writing goes up a gear when the animals, the pollutants and Katty talk about the environmental issues and so it's clear that this is something the author is passionate about. Overall, it's a fun story about family but also about standing up for the environmental issues you believe in.