Ferris

By Kate DiCamillo
Reviewed by Mia Macrossan

Kate DiCamillo writes whimsical and thought-provoking stories that have delighted and enchanted readers for the last twenty years. Her books have been awarded the Newbery Medal (Flora & Ulysses in 2014 and The Tale of Despereaux in 2004); the Newbery Honor (Because of Winn-Dixie, 2001), the Boston Globe Horn Book Award (The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane,) to list just a few.

Ferris is another heart-warming tale that concentrates on a family and its community. At the centre is ten-year-old Ferris, who likes to follow the rules and tries to please everybody. Her younger sister Pinky is the opposite, a real daredevil who gets into all sorts of scrapes.

 Then there is her Uncle Ben who has had a midlife crisis and now lives in the basement. Upstairs is her beautiful Grandma Charysse who is ill and sees a ghost. Her Dad thinks there are raccoons dancing in the attic. ‘It turned out to be a serious time, in general, in Ferris’s world’, p 31.

So many things were mysteries but as matters gradually unfold Ferris realises that life is all about ‘telling the world who you are’. Other themes are about love, ‘every good story is a love story’. DiCamillo also touches on the transient nature of life.  She quotes Bede ‘we are like sparrows who fly through the great feasting hall of a castle…we fly into it and then, later, we have to fly on back out – into the unknown’. All are quite heady concepts for a ten-year-old and presumably for the young reader too, but Ferris and her family and friends are so warm, funny and engaging that serious and complex matters are accepted as a part and parcel of everyday life.

DiCamillo uses sophisticated words in this story – about every six to ten pages she will hit you with a zinger – intimation, monomaniacal, ignoble, caesura, quixotic, insouciant, iteration to list just a few. These are all part of Mrs Mielk’s vocabulary list that she made Ferris learn at school and they are all carefully explained in the text without interrupting the story.

The writing throughout challenges the reader often both emotionally and intellectually which results in a richly layered story that lingers in the mind and memory. It is also very funny.

Walker Books Australia 2024
Kate DiCamillo