The Other Shadow by Tania Ingram

Tania Ingram is a talented South Australian children’s author who has released a number of fabulous books over the past 12 months. The Other Shadow, published by Scholastic Australia, is her latest middle-grade novel. A contemporary story about eleven-year-old Thomas and his little sister Tilly, it draws you inside Thomas’s complicated world and inside his head, as he grapples with the loss of his dad and the increasingly difficult experiences of his mum’s mental illness.

Ever since Thomas’s dad died from cancer, his mum has been struggling, often leaving Thomas and Tilly to fend for themselves. When she’s on her bi-polar medication things are better. But when she stops taking this, things slide into disarray. There’s no food in the house, she goes out without telling them where or when she’ll be back, sometimes doesn’t get out of bed, and they have to make their way through each day the best they can.

Since his dad died, Thomas has found a new ‘friend’ who he calls the Other Shadow. This shadow appears in all sorts of situations, and in all sorts of poses, outfits and moods. He supports Thomas, makes him laugh, distracts him, comforts him, and makes him feel less alone. Tania has cleverly woven the shadow character into the story as a voice for Thomas – often speaking the thoughts, feelings and words he finds difficult to say, and often, to even acknowledge.

Life has not been easy for Thomas since his dad died. His mother is acting strangely, he needs to care for his younger sister and things at school aren’t great. And then there’s the Other Shadow. The shadow that doesn’t belong to anyone. The shadow that wants to be Thomas’s friend. But who can you really trust when your world is falling apart?

At school, Thomas is teased and bullied. He feels alone in the world and reponsible for Tilly. When their mum hits rock bottom and is put into hospital, he and Tilly are sent to a series of foster families – some who are not so great, one who he feels instantly at home with; where he feels safe. Thomas finds a sense of peace here, as does Tilly. The foster parents are lovely and as he opens up to teenage Em, another foster child, he begins to feel as if life might take a more positive turn.

But when Thomas’s mum gets better, and Thomas and Tilly are to be sent back home, Thomas experiences resentment and fear. He wants to stay in the foster family. Flung back into the uncertain rollercoaster of his mum’s emotions, he must find a way to cope with the fact that this is where he must stay. Through everything, the Other Shadow is there for Thomas, even when he wishes it would go away and leave him in peace. The shadow character enables Thomas to process and feel his emotions, and to eventually work out where he fits in the world.

As a clinical psychologist, Tania had much experience to draw on in the writing of this book. She mentions the children she worked with in the past, and how their stories shaped this one. The impact of mental illness and the foster care system are not often talked about in children’s books, but they should be. Tania has woven these experiences in an age-appropriate manner, addressing the fear, loneliness and uncertainty that children whose parents are struggling with mental illness may experience. The idea that a child may prefer to stay in a foster family, rather than returning to the mum they love, is a hard theme, but one that can be a reality. Having worked in the child protection and foster care system myself, I connected with this conflict and the very difficult choice of keeping children in their birth families when there are such a huge amount of potential dangers.

A beautifully written book, with a perfect, gentle pace to soften the very difficult themes, this is an excellent book for children aged 9+ and one for libraries and classrooms.

Helen