Oscar's Way - Elizabeth Mellor

Photograph: Samantha Lo http://samlophotography.blogspot.com

   
Oscar's Way by Elizabeth Mellor is a book of adventure and fun that has the reader turning page after page. Suitable for both the young and old, the imagination is taken on a journey through the Australian bush with characters that touch you with their charisma and soothing style.

   Oscar is a blue tongue lizard who lives beneath the house of the Brown family, but he is no ordinary blue tongue, he loves to spend his days pondering and mulling over the meaning of life and why he was placed in this world. Oscar realizes he is different to other blue tongue lizards and although he has tried hard to be like the others he just hasn't managed it. Knowing this about himself Oscar makes an important decision.He will call himself a creature rather than a blue tongue lizard and refer's to himself as a b-t-l.

   Jambie is a bedraggled, just out of the nest, possum who won't sleep during the day so is left under a tree by her mother to 'work it out'. This is were Jambie is standing, sobbing and unhappy, when Oscar finds her. Feeling Jambie may be a 'creature' just like him Oscar befriends the possum, inviting her to his place for a cuppa. So begins a friendship between two unlikely creatures who set out on an adventure of a lifetime, “to the hill a long way off in the distance past the creek that has a couple of trees on the top.”

   The adventures of Oscar and Jambie are ones of friendship, trust and positive messages. Written with a meditative style Elizabeth takes the characters through many tests and trials as they meet other animals of the bush. There is Samuel a copperhead snake, Gus a white cockatoo, Claude a wedge tailed eagle and Jax a kookaburra, to mention a few. Each have their own personality that not only fits their description but allows them to play important roles in the messages the book holds.

   Full of positivity and enlightenment, Oscar's Way provides important messages about being different, accepting  ones self, and others, and about finding your way in life. With lines like “ I am who I am and I will be who I will be” and  “Your life is valuable, so take care and don't waste it.” messages are clearly  directed at the reader but woven into the character.

  Written simply but with depth Elizabeth Mellor has created a work of art that is sure to become a classic as the years pass. This is a book that will be handed down through generations of families and shared together by young and old.

  I loved this book. I became engrossed in the words, the characters and the plot. I eagerly turned page after page relating to both Oscar and Jambie on different, but personal, levels. As character became part of their lives they also became part of mine. This book has it all – adventure, spirituality, enlightenment, love, hope and unity.

ISBN: 1-920892-91-5
Available online at: www.awakeningnetwork.net

review: Jennifer Deaves