Save Our Playground

Reading this book is like watching one of those old musicals in which Mickey Rooney or whoever gives a spirited cry of 'Let's put on a show right here!' and suddenly everybody from the local cop to the caretaker at the neighbourhood school is singing and dancing their way towards Broadway. You know its schmaltzy hokum but you desperately want to believe the world can be so propitiously tilted towards the underdog. This tale of a bunch of youngsters on a bleak estate trying to raise money to restore a derelict playground has a realistically rougher edge than the old musicals, but the same heartwarming, if deluded, optimism. It's funny, touching and a very good read for upper primary children.