The Accident (Kate Hendrick, Text)

‘We can’t always control what happens to us, we can only control what we do about it.’ Though difficult to grasp at any age, Kate Hendrick brings this message home to teenagers in The Accident, a powerful coming-of-age story that was shortlisted for the 2011 Text Prize for YA and children’s writing. The narrative alternates between three characters living in the aftermath of tragedy: Sarah, who is slowly recovering from a devastating car accident; Will, who is struggling to keep afloat alongside his emotionally absent mother and sisters; and troubled teen mother Eliat, who just wants to escape. It is a bittersweet story about the terrible things that teenagers sometimes have to face. Though commercially appealing, it has strong potential for use in schools with both male and female students. For me, it brought back the raw sting of familiarity of reading John Marsden for the first time. Like Marsden, Hendrick’s writing shows that sometimes families can let us down. Her vulnerable characters voice our secrets, remind us we are not alone and offer a light at the end of the tunnel.

Meredith Lewin is a Sydney-based freelance proofreader and reviewer who has worked for a children’s publisher

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Category: Reviews