Into The Blue

Cristy Burne

Fremantle Press, 2024

112pp., pbk., RRP $A12.99

9781760993870

School holidays and Blair’s mum has decided that snorkelling lessons would be something “fresh and exciting” for Blair to do, even though it is September and the water is freezing.  But here he is, with his cousin Drew, about to dive on the Omeo, an old wreck that must surely have been a pirate ship filled with treasure.  To record his adventures, Blair has taken his brother’s Go-Pro camera, the one that Marcus got a job and worked hard to save for, has Marcus’s skating footage on it, the footage that is going to win him the video competition, the one that Marcus doesn’t know he has taken…

 So when Blair gets distracted in the middle of a school of tiny fish swirling around him, and suddenly he realises he no longer has the camera, he knows his life is over.  Marcus is going to kill him, his mum and dad are going to be angry and disappointed, he’s going to be grounded forever and die of boredom (if Marcus hasn’t already killed him)… So how can he confess the truth?  Especially when he tries, something prevents him and Mum blames Marcus for being careless? Thus, when the opportunity does arise, Blair tells a fib to get himself off the hook – but then he discovers the consequences of lying,  Suddenly his head is full of guilt and he is too scared to go out but he is also too scared to stay in…  

Can he find a way out of  this mess or is he doomed to be either consumed by guilt or punished for being so careless and deceitful?

This is contemporary realistic fiction for younger readers at its best with a story with both relatable characters and situation.  Who hasn’t been in a similar circumstance where you see yourself damned if you do and damned if you don’t? So many will relate to Blair’s dilemma that they will want to read to the finish to see how it is resolved.  What would they do if they were him?