''Ash Road'' (1965) is a novel for children by Australian author Ivan Southall. It won the Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers in 1966.Austlit - ''Ash Road'' by Ivan Southall
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Plot outline

Three fifteen-year-old boys are for the first time allowed to go on a holiday together without adult supervision. But an accident with a faulty heater causes the surrounding area to catch alight and a

bushfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

ensues.

Critical reception

Reviewing the novel in ''The Canberra Times'' Susan Fuller is full of praise: "There are few children's writers who steel themselves to bring reality, with all its overtones of pain, injustice and frustration, into their stories. Fantasy and even horror, yes, but they seem to find cold, stark real life too strong a meat for their tender readers. Ivan Southall is not of this school...''Ash Road'' is a frightening story of bush fire run riot, and Mr Southall does not pull any punches. The fear and tension is real as the dry brittle forests sigh under the weight of a hot north wind, waiting for that tiny spark to burst into inferno.""Bushfire's fierce reality" by Susan Fuller, ''The Canberra Times'', 20 November 1965, p12
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References

1965 Australian novels Australian young adult novels Novels set in Australia CBCA Children's Book of the Year Award-winning works Angus & Robertson books {{1960s-ya-novel-stub

Plot outline

Critical reception

See also

References