| Author | Mavis Thorpe Clark |
|---|---|
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Genre | children's fiction |
| Publisher | Lansdowne Press, Melbourne |
Publication date | 1966 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 206 pp |
| Preceded by | They Came South |
| Followed by | Blue Above the Trees |
The Min-Min is a 1966 children's novel by Australian author Mavis Thorpe Clark, illustrated by Genevieve Melrose.[1] It won the Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers in 1967.[2]
Plot outline
Set in a squalid fettlers' siding on the east-west railway just south of Woomera, this novel follows the story of Sylvie Edwards and her younger brother Reg. After Reg destroys a teacher's record player the two children set off across the desert to the Tuckers' homestead.
Critical reception
Reviewing the novel in The Canberra Times Elizabeth Bray was disappointed with the book: "The author seems to have attempted to write the story on two levels - as an adventure story, and as the portrait of a girl passing from childhood into adolescence. The second aspect is tenuously linked with the "min-min", a light seen in the desert night sky; as the blurb puts it "the gleam in the dark is symbolic of her life and future". In spite of this, Sylvie's character remains one-dimensional."[3]