A Bridge to Wiseman's Cove

Reader reviewed by Ellie

A Bridge to Wiseman's Cove is among my all time favourite reads. Once you've met the main character Carl, how could you ever forget his heart-wrenching journey of self discovery. The characters, their interaction and dialogue and the fabric of the story itself are all satisfyingly believable, which is, of course, one of Maloney's great strengths as an author. He doesn't pity his characters, yet his writing engenders real empathy for them. He calls a spade a spade, yet always gracefully. I encouraged my teenaged daughter to read this novel and she loved it. We both cried and cried during the story, yet came out at the other end feeling proud of the person Carl discovered himself to be. Don't be put off by our tears; it is not a soppy story, just very real and poignant.

Reader reviewed by KELSIE

Good morning/afternoon fellow class mates and Mrs Benjak today I will be talking about the plot, setting, characters and themes in the book a Bridge to Wisemans Cove by James Molony.

There was a family of 4 by the names of Kerry, Sarah, Carl and Harley. Their mother (Kerry) left her 3 children (Sarah, Carl and Harley) alone often, after a couple of days she would return. Many times Kerry had done this and one time she did not return home. Kerry left her three kids alone to defend them self.
Sarah the eldest child was left as their guardian and provided the basic things, Sarah eventually got tired of providing for her brothers and left overseas. Before Sarah left she sent Carl and Harley to the Aunty Beryls. Harley found things difficult at Wattle Beach and decided to hang around the wrong people, and got up to mischief. Aunty Beryl decided to kick them out from their behaviour, Carl told her if you do you will not get any money Aunty Beryl took the bribe and let them stay.
Carl also found it hard and did not fit in well, he always kept hidden until he saw a girl on the beach, that he was eager to met. Carl met the girl and her best friend he became closer to the girls and began to work at the barge. He was barley at the home he was staying at and began to defend on his own. Carl felt like he was never loved until he found that this was not true.

The theme that the Author James Molony is trying to produce is No matter what, Family and friends come first, keep them safe, try your best no matter how hard it is and never let anything or anyone come in the way of what you really want.
The mental illnesses in the book are, depression and non-self confidence. These examples come from Kerry followed by Sarah and Carl. Kerry often was depressed and the way she handled it was by running away, her daughter Sarah soon followed this. Carl did not have allot of self-confidence and also got depressed he was bullied about his look and weight and did not have many friends. Carl eventually made friends and felt like he was free when he found the truth and that people actually do care about him.

In the book the major development was, Carl he found some self-confidence and was not frightened in what he did anymore, he stood up to himself and when a challenge came along he began to cope with it. He found out the truth and didnt let anything come in the way of what he wanted.

The Author James Molony uses description language to make the book full of excitement and emotion. Some examples of the descriptive language are-

She blocked his escape and he bounced away like a dodgem car at 90 degrees.
The girl speared her knees into the beach beside him.
The pine forest fell silent.
&A single tear reached the tip of his nose.
The hand was moving more slowly now.
Carl changed allot through the book and the Author changed him to help people that felt the same way to escape reality. Carl was shy hadnt got much confidence and no friends. Carl began to realise what was happening and he learnt to deal with it.

The setting in the book was either at Aunty Beryls house, The Barge or at Wattle beach. The Author used these three settings mainly because the events that happened in the book related to these particular settings.

Reader reviewed by wogster

this was the best book i have ever read you people don't know how to wright reviews it has to be at least 100 word long not i like the book.

it is about a boy named carl who's mother goes on a holday and leaves carl, his younger brother and his sister together, but his sister goes on holidays and dumps them with there aunt beryl, which teaches them alot i life.

Reader reviewed by filo

this is a great book. i am reading this for school at the moment and i am doing a missing report eassy on kerry Matt but the only thing is that it is a bit hard because i cant 500 words!!! but overall i love reading it!!! it was a nice book to read, my friends say that they cant be bothered reading it so i am encouraging them to read it!! i think the author did a really good job writing this novel. most books i have read at school have been boring but this one made me really interested and makes me want to read more about it [wishing it was a series].

Reader reviewed by Jack

I read this book as a text at school. i really loved it. it has a really good storyline and some of the events that occur you can relate to. i love the way moloney describes emotions and feelings...you almost think your in the book!!
Anyway love the book **** 4stars

Reader reviewed by Matilda

Admittedly this book was pretty good.. athough i wouldnt tell my mum that..you see it was one of those books we had to read for school. most of them are pretty crap and you have to do a whole lot of questions on them...i still havent done mine and it was due 3 months ago.. but the book was good. it took me a while to get into it but once i did i couldn put it down...so please dont make good books school readng books it just ruins everything... thanx XoXo

Reader reviewed by jade n kates

i think the book was so good you don't know what was goin to happen next i would read it we are not people who would sit at home all day reading a book but this book was different i would read this book anytime we loved it and recomend it to any one from yr7 up it was awsome Katie and Jade

Reader reviewed by Brad meyers(CHUB CHUB)

A Bridge to wisemans is a book that is very emotional, sad and heart-breaking to me if i was carl and i would have to grow up as fast as he and mature so much in his young age as only a teenager.

I also did like the way that carl has so much courage and strength he showed that he can mature at a early stage of his life.

Reader reviewed by ratman

i reali dnt lyk this book
maybe coz i had read it at skool but the story is a reali sob sob story
but it has a lot of good messages in it
so i support it skool kids being made to read it
it shows a lot of emotions
it got alot out of this book such as no matter who you are you can follow your dreams and always redeem your self
and if you have loser/lowlife parents you can still be a great person

Reader reviewed by MAEGHAN

A bridge to Wisemans cove is a marvellous book by James moloney he writes what he feels and thats the best way to write. I normally dont read books because most books dont interest me but when I started to read this book I couldnt stop I sat up all ours of the night reading it and didnt want to put it down. It was a really good book and I loved the characters and how they all mature during the book even aunt beryl matures. The only thing I didnt like about the book was what had happened to Kerry and how aunt beryl treated Carl and Harley. this is the best book iv ever read and will defiantly not be the last book of James moloneys I read because he is a really good writer and I enjoy his books so I would like to recommend this book to other people whether their keen readers or not.