Finding David Book Reviews
"Doesn't back away from the hard questions"
For high school student David, life has become a series of changes. First he had to deal with the issues surrounding his mum, then he moved house and now he's starting a new school. The big question is, how can David possibly make friends and settle in while he's keeping an enormous secret?
Complete with genuinely funny humour, believable dialogue and an intriguing storyline, Finding David is an excellent read. Never clichéd, it presents a Christian world view through contemporary eyes and doesn't back away from the hard questions.
With surfing and mountain bike riding as key components, Finding David will appeal particularly to teenage boys. The pace is fast, the characters engaging and the writing tight. Watson combines skilful storytelling with top-quality prose, which puts Finding David among my favourite contemporary Christian novels for young people.
- Review by Karen Collum, author, reviewing for Focus magazine, Queensland
Finding David will draw you in
David and Jessica Matthews have moved with their dad from Foster, NSW, to Wyee to be close to their Mum. Much has changed in their lives—a new house, new school, new church, new friends and new enemies—all because of her. The question hangs over every conversation at home and infiltrates their school life: “What’s wrong with Mum?”
It’s all very hush-hush. The family doesn’t talk about it, except in indirect references. In the first two-thirds of the book, a couple of hints are given through the telltale phrase, “before it happened.” Something occurred quite suddenly and drastically in their mum’s life. The one thing the book does reveal is that she is in medical care. Is she in hospital?
Is it something else? It isn’t until later that the picture becomes clear. As the book is only 188 pages in total, the purpose of the story is clearly to explore how the family deals with their mum’s illness, rather than the illness itself.
The author always refers to David and Jessica’s dad as “Mr Matthews.” This creates distance, in the readers mind, between the kids and their father. When the kids refer to him by name, which is rare, they call him Dad. Their mother, who is out of the home but at the heart of the plot, is always referred to as Mum. This usage of names is a subtle but effective tool for hinting at the way the children are feeling about their parents.
While Mr Matthews is involved in the kids’ lives—driving them to the beach, eating meals with them, taking them to church—in conversation, he is often distant. He occasionally ignores the many issues around him and comments made to him. Something is wrong with Mum, and Dad is hurting because of it.
As the title suggests, the main character is David. David is a high school student who likes being outdoors. He enjoys riding his mountain bike and playing football but more than anything, he loves to surf. Things start to come together when the removalists finally deliver David’s surfboards.
The need for a surf-term glossary at the end of the book demonstrates David’s passion for surfing and the surf culture. Surfing is where David finds solace. He is completely comfortable in the water. He knows the rules and what the waves will do, and lives for the next time he can paddle out.
The most exciting part of the book revolves around a surf competition between David and his newly-acquired nemesis, Anthony. The book builds toward the day David will face Anthony on the waves. And when the day arrives, the swell is huge—"Massive,: according to David’s friends. But they surf it nonetheless.
If only David was as comfortable and courageous out of the water. Both David and Jessica struggle with fitting in at their new school. David is so caught up in his own struggles (both internally about his mum and externally with choosing friends) that he fails to concern himself with his sister and her struggles with making new friends. While Jessica finds the situation as difficult as David, the book, as its title suggests, focuses on David’s journey. He struggles with low self opinion and spends a lot of time talking down to himself. This affects the way he treats his family and friends.
When David is invited to a peer-mentoring group at school, he is challenged to set a goal. The goal he finally sets, commenting that it will be very difficult, is to treat his father and mother with more kindness.
This is a telling admission and the crux of the book. Finding David is about a teenage boy who struggles with family, illness, peer opinion and personal achievement. All in all, David’s journey is the journey of every teen—finding place and purpose in a world of unpredictable events and relationships.
Finding David will draw you in—into its pages and into your own story. Then it will send you out with a desire to heal your world.
- Review by David Edgren, chaplain, Lilydale Adventist Academy, Victoria.