The Rocket-Powered Racing Caravan by Clare E Hayes

Title: The Rocket-Powered Racing Caravan

Author: Clare E Hayes

Genre: Humour

Publisher: Scholastic Australia

Published: 1^st March 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 144

Price: $15.99

Synopsis: A laugh-out-loud, rapid-fire story about imperfect families, enemies, friends, and loyalty Growing up in rural Australia is anything but boring. Just ask 12-year-old Earl Grey. Dead mice on dinner plates, horses in hallways and goats in the lounge room are all part of the experience. Earl’s parents aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer either, but with his best mate Bruiser by his side, Earl can navigate almost any situation. The question is: can Earl outrun his arch nemesis, Division A basketball captain Slam Dunk, before he’s beaten to a pulp? To stand a chance, Earl decides he’ll need a solar-powered racing caravan with rocket boosters. When he takes a job shovelling horse poo at the racecourse for a mobster who quit the mafia to take up antiquing, Earl learns the value of good connections and finds out how far $27 goes towards a survival plan.

~*~

Earl Grey (yes, that is his name) lives in a small country town, in a very imperfect family. He lives with his parents, who don’t always register that things go wrong, and his genius sister, Fuzzball who gets frustrated with her not-so-smart family, and her brother who always seems to be getting up to mischief. The novel takes place over one school term, and is presented as a first person, very active story that seems outlandish – how many random things can happen to one person? Well, a lot, if you believe Earl. From the dead mouse on a dinner plate, and the departure of an exchange student, to farm animals anywhere but where they should be, and arch nemeses on sports teams in a higher division. But Earl knows he has to make the most of what he has, and takes a job shovelling horse poo – and earns $27 – which he uses to create his rocket-powered caravan, whilst following the mystery of new student Flick and her connections to the mafia, or so he thinks – is Earl right – and how much mischief can he get up to in one school term?

This fun, light-hearted book is perfect for fans of Paul Jennings and Morris Gleitzman – it would sit well alongside their books, as it takes a child’s experiences and catapults them into the silly, bizarre and unbelievable – but as a child reading this, these sorts of things would surely happen. And when you live in a town where not much happens as Earl does the things that don’t seem likely to happen but in his life do – are the ones that will stand out to you and allow you to see the world in a different way.

What I enjoyed about this book was that it gets kids. It gets their imaginations and how they see the world, it gets how they can and do exaggerate things. And it allows the child characters to be who they are without shame, without compromising anything. I loved that Earl and his friends were so loyal to each other. It was delightful to see this celebrated using humour that makes sense to kids. It’s something that I think lots of kids of all ages will connect with.

This would be great for all ages – it’s got layers of complexity within the easy to understand language, so I feel like it will be accessible to a broad audience and might be a good bridging between some of the junior fiction and denser middle grade books for some readers, and a fun jaunt for other readers – as it was for me. And  even though it had a very contemporary feel to it, I did feel like it could take place at any time, in any small town. It had that sense to it, and I think Clare has captured a childhood experience perfectly. This felt like a stand-alone novel but I can also see Earl being a series character – even if it is a short series. And I loved the ending – it suited the story so well!