Appleblossom the Possum

Holly Goldberg Sloan's Appleblossom the Possum is a story for 8 year olds told by the smallest of thirteen possum babies.

What happens

She's the last one into her mother's pouch and she very nearly doesn't make it. She's less than an inch long at the time. That's the first page.

Mama Possum runs the family like a theatre company. There are acting lessons. There are death scenes. There's a lot of talk about being convincing.

Appleblossom doesn't understand why any of it matters. She gets distracted. She asks too many questions. She's not the best actor in the family and she knows it.

Then Mama explains what the acting is for. Playing dead is how a possum survives a dog.

And it turns out that being the easiest one to frighten is actually rather useful. Appleblossom faints beautifully, because for her it isn't acting at all.

The voice is what will get your reader. It's told in short bursts, and it stays inside Appleblossom's head the whole way.

Her brother Antonio has facts about everything. Amlet wanted to be called Hamlet. There are thirteen names beginning with A and the roll call of them is very funny out loud.

The best stretch is Appleblossom up a tree in broad daylight, watching a girl and a dog through possum eyes. A ball is thrown. The dog goes completely mad about it. Appleblossom decides he's not a very complex life form.

Now, this one's braver than its cover suggests, and that's worth saying up front. Mama Possum tells her babies in plain words that a dog can rip a possum's head off. An owl attacks one of them and their mother is hurt saving him. Later she walks away to make them live alone, and the brothers and sisters start disappearing, one by one, and nobody explains where they've gone.

None of it is gory. But the feeling of a family getting smaller is right there on the page, and a child who has recently been upset by a lost pet or a departure of their own might find it a lot.

For a child who takes that in their stride, it's a proper adventure with real stakes, and the three who stay together are lovely company.

What to read next

If this one lands well, there's another animal telling her own story in The One and Only Ruby. Ruby's an elephant living in a wildlife park, and an old friend from Africa turns up at the fence one afternoon and starts her remembering.