Liam McKenzie is a 12-year old superhero. When he overhears fighting from the home of a beautiful young woman in his neighbourhood, and notices how sad she looks, he decides he will step up from his usual fodder of flat tyres and crooked gates, and save her. Liam is the protagonist of Craig Silvey's The Amber Amulet and the book is told through his superhero-charged personae. We learn from the start that he derives his power from the trapped potential energy that is all around us – in the minerals of his Amazing Powerbelt, and perhaps, though this is implicit rather than explicit, in the kindness we do for others.
This hardback book is beautifully illustrated by Sonia Martinez, with scrapbook style pictures, drawings, handwritten notes from Liam, and a very retro feel that puts you directly into Liam’s world. Of course Liam himself is a retro kind of kid, saving his neighbours instead of playing on an Xbox or PC, and using his powers of observation to do good. With his trusty dog Richie the Power Beagle, Liam, aka The Masked Avenger, makes it his business to help Joan, but it takes him several attempts to build up the courage, and when he finally does, he learns some difficult lessons about the way in which energy is distributed, about his own sense of self, and about the world around him.
It’s a lovely story, full of subtle and rich characterisation amidst the fun and bravado. Martinez's illustrations are vivid and strange and further adds to the character of Liam, as one almost feels as though we’re privy to some kind of journal, with bits and pieces that he’s culled to create his fringe physics (what he calls his geo-alchemy) and his superhero ethic. Though the book is written in the third person, one gets a strong sense of Liam’s voice throughout – the perspective and intensity of the precociously gifted but solitary only child:
Article comments