posted on 03 Aug 2024

Where the Water Takes Us by Alan Barillaro

Alan Barillaro may be a new name to you but it’s very possible you already know other things he’s done because “he’s worked on numerous Pixar animation films including A Bug's Life (1998), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), WALL-E (2008), Brave (2012), Monsters University (2013) and Incredibles 2 (2018). Best known for his work on animated short-film Piper, that earned him wide spread acclaim and Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film which he shared with producer Marc Sondheimer.” (Moviepedia)

Where the Water Takes Us is his debut children’s novel and demonstrates the strong, engaging storytelling that characterises the work he’s been associated with in the world of cinema. 

Eleven-year-old Ava’s parents are expecting twins and the young girl has been sent to stay with her grandparents while her mom and dad stay at home. Ava’s Nonna and Nonno (the pet names she gives her grandparents) live near a lake in a ramshackle cottage that’s off-grid and, although Ava is used to visiting them for holidays, this time it’s different because the young girl is full of anxiety and an unspoken foreboding over her mother’s health. Somehow, she thinks, disaster is just around the corner and she somehow feels she’s at the centre of it all.

Her grandparents try and keep things as normal as possible and give the young girl plenty of licence to explore the islands around the lake – after all, she’s an excellent swimmer. However, what no-one expects is a major storm and Ava finds herself trapped on a small island where she witnesses the death of a bird – an event that Ava interprets as somehow her fault and for which she is obliged to do some kind of penance to appease fate. At this moment she does something that will haunt her – she asks fate to keep her mother safe even if it means her as yet unborn twin brothers have to be sacrificed.

Ava’s life is made more complicated by the presence of a young boy, Cody, who is also visiting the lake on holiday and she finds him popping up at unexpected moments. He’s the same age as Ava but he’s confident and quite cocky and at first the girl is annoyed by him but the two will later develop a bond and an understanding. The two of them come across two bird’s eggs that have fallen from a nest destroyed by the storm and Ava convinces her grandmother that she should try and hatch them and look after the fledgling birds – and this becomes the metaphorical conduit for the girl’s anxieties over her mother and the twins that are due to be born at any moment.

Then another storm sweeps in…………..

And I’m not saying any more because you’ll want to read this for yourselves.

Barillaro has perfectly captured the sort of anxiety youngsters feel about their parents and the way they can internalise their anxieties when events that might threaten their family’s wellbeing are out of their control. After all, aren’t we all looking for some magic to protect the ones we love the most?

Available from Walker Books, you will be able to get a copy from your local independent bookshop – who will be happy to order it for you if they don’t have it on their shelves.

 

Terry Potter

August 2024