Lockie & Dadge

Rating:
Summary: A compelling story of challenge and the search for identity
Review: This book has been awarded a Bisto Book of the Year merit award and the Eilis Dillon Memorial Award 1996.

It is a gripping story of an orphan boy, Lockie, who flees from his uncaring foster parents. Through the twelve years of his young life the rebellious Lockie has been moved, like a piece of unwanted furniture from one foster home to another. All he needs is acceptance as a member of an ordinary family, but so far he has failed to get it. His flight is away from the past, from people, because amongh them his life has been misery, but he has no idea of where he wants to go.

Then he meets the vagabond, Dadge, and other ecccentric characters, including Pasha and Mammy Tallon, all hovering on the edge of society. In them he finds soul mates. With great generosity they give him the love and acceptance he has always craved. Now too he has a goal - to dwell with Pasha and Mammy Tallon in their old home on idyllic Tallon Island. But will the powers-that-be allow that to happen?

The story is enthralling as adventure, a superb read, and it is garnished with thoughtful intimations of the thick-skinned attitude of respectable society to the social and emotional needs of those on the fringe.