The Grey Beret’s Guide to Surviving the Odds (Anna Battese, illus Erin Reeves, Simon & Schuster Australia)

Anna Battese’s debut middle-grade novel, The Grey Beret’s Guide to Surviving the Odds, illustrated by Erin Reeves, is the first in a planned trilogy. The book perfectly fills a gap for big-hearted adventure stories for readers aged 8 and over.

Odie Gusberry-Smith is used to things going wrong, especially after her famous mother, a biologist, disappeared 3 years ago. Since then, she has been homeschooled with her cat and pigeons, barely leaving her room even to speak to her dad. When a mysterious package containing a survival guide arrives at her door, her dad suggests they go on a cruise.

Despite thinking she might be prepared for disaster, Odie is overwhelmed with anxiety when the cruise ship begins to sink. Escaping to a life raft with other children, she is forced to confront her “very loud, extremely busy and mostly focused on terrible things” thoughts and make friends to survive on a delightfully strange island.

The cast of characters includes an unassuming mix of representation – one character with they/them pronouns, one with two dads, and another with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

Reeves’s pencil illustrations temper the adventure with warmth, allowing for emotional breaks in each short chapter.

Reminiscent of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and evoking the gentleness of Anna Zobel’s Little Gem and the adventure of Charlie Archbold’s The Sugarcane Kids, Battese’s trilogy is one to watch.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Clare Millar is a writer, editor and children’s bookseller. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Category: Friday Unlocked reviews Reviews