Once in a while a book comes along with a character so real that you think, "This can't be fiction." Cameron Wolfe is one such character. He isn't exceptional, just another dirty boy next door. But he has a heart that spans oceans and the loyalty of a wolf.
The Underdog
First published in 1999 by Omnibus Books. This is the beginning of Cameron's story. Told in first person, it opens with the irony of a Jane Austen novel by introducing our hero as a delinquent and a thief. The irony continues as Cameron's feelings of dirtiness and inadequacy are contradicted by nobility of his thoughts and emotions. The youngest of the four Wolfe children, Cameron doesn't yet see his own potential. He wants to love and be loved. He fights to prove himself. And he dreams, because he hasn't yet let go of his fear. Cameron is an underdog but he won't be taken down.
Fighting Ruben Wolfe
Published in 2000 by Omnibus Books. The story continues in this exploration of the bonds of brotherhood. Ruben Wolfe has all the outward charisma that Cameron seems to lack. He is older, tougher and not afraid to talk to girls. In the past they had been equals, as much as two brothers can be, but now Ruben is making a name for himself and Cameron is moving further into his brother's shadow. Ruben is becoming a winner, but Cameron will never give up and one day he'll prove that he is more than he seems.
Getting the Girl
Published by Arthur A. Levine Books in 2003. Also published under the title When Dogs Cry. The third and last title in the series focuses on the theme of teenage love. Cameron has got so much to offer but he hasn't yet found a girl who's willing to accept. He's always been a watcher, standing beside the action, but the time has come for Cameron to jump in. No one said getting the girl would be easy but the most worthwhile things never are.
Markus Zusak
Markus Zusak is an award winning author from Sydney, Australia. He began writing when he was just 16 and was first published with The Underdog at the age of 24. He is best known for writing The Book Thief, a best-selling novel about a young German girl who loses her family but manages to find love, friendship and tolerance within the harshness of Nazi Germany. He has also written The Messenger.
There is a raw honesty within Zusak's early writing that imbues his characters with a life and realism that is astonishing in a beginning writer. The reader is drawn into Cameron's mind and his world and cannot help but be captivated by the good intentions and hopeful potential of this ordinary boy who is yet to discover how truly exceptional he is.
Jodie Wells-Slowgrove - You might say my life has revolved around kids. At university I studied teacher-librarianship. Working in public libraries on the ...
