MEET ASH THE FLASH
Review by Veronica
Blake Carnegie
Ash the FLASH
Hazel D. Campbell
& Nattalie Gordon
Sand Pebbles
Pleasure Series
Carlong
Publishers. 2014
Hazel Campbell,
veteran writer of children’s stories and one of her past students, Nattalie
Gordon, have come out flashing with a Jamaican superboy whose superman hero is
none other than Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the real world.
The writers inspiration
is not a comic book hero dressed in red and blue cloak, floating over
sky-scrapers and bridges but a hero; decked in T-shirt and shorts and track
shoes on seemingly flying feet that race on the ground and who wins gold medals
for himself and his country.
This action packed
fantasy features boys, Ashton and Kenroi, their all-male team and coaches,
fathers, uncles, male teachers, watchmen, and grounds-men.
The protagonist is
a primary school boy, Ashton Longmore, who, with his best friend Kenroi
Donaldson, get into big trouble when they disobey orders. Left for a brief while
in Uncle Norman’s old lab, despite a warning not to touch anything, they begin
to investigate its contents. Ashton opens a suspicious looking bottle with a
fragrant, green potion and, as if in a trance, drinks its mysterious contents. In
shock, Kenroi is witness to the instant transformation of Ashton who shoots out
of the lab like a bolt of lightning.
Eventually, Kenroi
and Uncle Norman, catch up with him. Uncle Norman, who is a very absent-minded
scientist, explains that the potion was the result of experiments he had
carried out on the Trelawny yams that people were saying caused Usain Bolt to
run so fast. He had forgotten about the bottle and it seems that the potion had
strengthened with age and that was why Ashton could run so fast. But he begs
the boys not to tell anybody as it would mean trouble for him. He now plans to
try to find the antidote.
But the boys are
elated. Ashton's speed now means they can challenge the rival school in
athletics and win. A side effect of the potion is Ashton's ability to belch for
a long time. Ashton and Kenroi get up to all sorts of antics as they try to capitalize
on his spectacular speed. But the long belches are herald to a complication
they didn't expect. If the effects of the potion wear off, can Ashton still win
the crucial final race at the county games?
His school is depending
on him to lift the trophy. As the story progresses, they find out that the rival
school's star runner had been unbeatable because his father had been giving him
drugs. In the end, an exciting 100 metre race is the spectacular climax of the
rivalry.
Ashton's speed, publicized
by the news media earns him the nickname Ash the Flash.
Few girls appear
in this story. Two of them, as passersby, watch Ashton run and are intrigued by
his spectacular speed. Kenroi chases them away. The girls classify both boys as
‘weirdos’ and giggling, point out how Ashton’s ‘foot-dem favour mosquito foot’.
Raquel and Nichole
are in the boys' sixth grade class. Raquel is Ashton’s special ‘girl-friend’
and Nichole is the prim and proper tell-tale-tit who runs and reports the boys
to the Principal and cause the break-up of a well-planned Belching Contest.
This is a really
fast moving, action-filled, often humorous boys’ story. Something exciting happens
on each of the101 pages of this book. Can we hope to see this compelling story
on the big screen in the future?
Christmas is coming. Get a copy for your son, nephew, etc. Girls will like this story ,too
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