Reviewed by
Dianne Bates
This book is
told in first person by 13-year-old Scott who at the start of the book is in
shock on reaching his family’s new ramshackle home in an overgrown garden on
the outskirts of town. To make matters worse, it’s school holiday time but
instead of enjoying it, Scott and his sister Natalie and father, whom he calls
Leo, and his eccentric stepmother Sally, are fully engaged in gardening and
renovating the home while taking care of toddler twin girls. The garden is a
jungle guarded by a concrete gnome which the family dog Prawn is fascinated with
and which unexpectedly starts talking to Scott. The gnome says his name is Ian.
He also adds that Prawn feels demeaned by his name: it is Count Antoine de
Cappaliere the 26th, of the Woodland Brethren. ‘We communicate with
the animals, with the birds and trees,’ Ian adds as Scott runs away.
Unfortunately,
Ian is accidently smashed which causes Prawn to howl, whine, refuse to eat, and
to bear his teeth at Scott. A séance on a Ouija board with his friends unleashes
harmful spirits which Ian calls faeries. Scott has vivid nightmares and strange
and scary things start to happen, the least of which is electrical appliances
malfunction and Sally is injured.
In this
book, the narrator’s voice is strong and energetic. Scott is an outspoken boy
who uses a lot of bad language which might offend some readers (and their
parents). But the book rockets along at a fast pace as the family work to repair
their home and garden, complete with a fowl yard (and talking chickens). There
is much humour in the book (such as a restored Ian talking with a lisp until he
tears a glob of glue from his mouth).
You’ve
Let Them In, aimed
at readers aged 9 to 12 years, is Transit Lounge’s first book for young
readers.
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