Books For Beginners
Tara Saldanha
WHEN THE MOUNTAINS ROARED by Jess Butterworth Orion Children’s Books, 2018, 282 pp., 399
November 2018, volume 42, No 11

When the Mountains Roared hits the ground running. From the very first page the book jumps right into the thick of the story, leaving you waiting eagerly for the next twist in the tale. The author, Jess Butterworth has fashioned an engaging narrative set primarily in the foothills of the Himalayas. The story follows young Ruby, her grandmother and father as they make a narrow escape from their home in the Australian bush. The trio sets off on a trip across the ocean to India, where they take up in a rundown hotel atop the mysterious Durga Mountain. It seems as though their attempts at starting a new life on the mountain are doomed to failure as misfortunes dog their every move. Praveen, a local boy who befriends Ruby suspects that the guardian of the mountain has taken offence at the goings on that take place deep in the heart of her forests. When her dad’s bosses show up and begin to take clandestine treks through the trees, Ruby dares to follow them. What she sees leads her down a path that will forever change the forest and the life of her family.

The novel’s protagonist Ruby is an adolescent girl who desperately misses the life that she has to leave behind—most particularly, the home her mum last lived in. The book is peppered with flashbacks that Ruby has of the fateful day when her mother died. The incident haunts her even as she tries to adjust to her new home in the Himalayas. Ruby, taking after her mum, is a budding wildlife photographer. Her regard for her mountain home is reminiscent of Ruskin Bond’s Rusty.

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