“You don’t have to carry the weight of the world on your toolbelt …if you’re too busy looking for things to fix, all you ever see are problems, and you miss out on the stuff that already works.”

Runt is a novel for young readers by award-winning best-selling Australian screenwriter and author, Craig Silvey. The text is enhanced with delightful illustrations by Sara Acton. Eleven-year-old Annie Shearer is well aware of the terrible effects of the drought on the farms of Upson Downs, but it’s when she overhears her parents’ concerns about the overdraft on the overdraft that it really hits home. Annie has always been a fixer: see her leather toolbelt? (Grandpa Wally’s) But there’s nothing in the toolbelt that will fix this.

A few days later, though, at the Woolarama Show, while her mum Susie is trying to sell (horrible) humble pies, grandma Dolly is hoping for love at the Kissing Booth, dad Bryan is checking out the floral display and older brother Max is planning his death-defying feat, Annie stumbles on a possible solution. She watches dogs running the Canine Agility Course, and she knows her best friend, Runt could easily blitz the competition. But only if no-one is watching.

Runt is quick and clever, but stubbornly refuses to perform with an audience. One effective distraction (Max plummets to earth like a meteor wearing a long scarf) and a quick run later, and Annie and Runt have won $500 and a chance at the National Title. With a bit of training, Runt could surely win that too, and then they could compete in the Krumpets Dog Show in London. The quarter-of-a-million-dollar prize would fix her family’s problems. But what to do about Runt’s crowd shyness? And how would they ever fund a trip to London?

Things become more urgent when greedy landowner Earl Robert-Barron issues an ultimatum. And something else they haven’t factored in, because they’re mostly unaware, is the determination of one Fergus Fink to win this coveted prize. He has pedigree: every Fink since the 1920s has won this. Pedigree, though: “It doesn’t matter how pressive your parents are, you can still be a dud. The opposite is also true: the most woefully odious and awful people can produce delightful, talented and kind-hearted children.”

This talented author gives the reader a wonderful cast of characters in a family and a town that brims with clever ideas and lateral thinking and support and care. There are moments of high drama, many of the laugh-out-loud variety and a few that will have the reader choking up with emotion. This is a story with a whole lot of love and maybe even a bit of magic.

Silvey has lots of fun with the English language, his tongue-in-cheek character names and organisation titles, playing word games, and throwing in the odd dad joke, all of which make this an entertaining read, not just for the target reader age, but for those well beyond their first decade. This is a book that will have you constantly chuckling and reaching the final page with a big smile on your face. Thank you, Mr Silvey!
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Allen & Unwin.