Park's Quest

Parkington Waddell Broughton V wants to know, more about the dead father his mother refuses to discuss. This overworked plot is here given a new, if predictable, twist when Park meets his father's family and discovers Thanh, his Vietnamese half-sister. The irony of this child, as the product of a union with a member of the race which caused his father's death, is not lost on Park and yet his acceptance of her is carefully and convincingly handled. This book shouldn't work, but its Arthurian parallels and Thanh's quirky humour give it an irresistibility which carries the reader along. Third-year secondary readers of both sexes might warm to this one.