Author(s): Jack Lasenby

Young Adult Fiction

'You wait till Constable Cuff hears about this a We're going to tell everybody in the district you sold your children for sixpence.' In WHEN MUM WENT FUNNY, the cry of mothers everywhere is heard loud and clear. This is war-time New Zealand and with Dad away, Mum has to run the farm and feed four children. Sometimes the stress of it all gives her funny ideas. Ideas like trying to sell off the children, making nail soup and sleeping out in a haystack to catch whoever's 'bandicooting' the potatoes. The children make plenty of their own fun riding to school four-in-a-row on Old Pomp the Lancaster bomber, eeling, and reading the NZ Woman's Weekly but when Mum gets that look in her eye, they go on high alert. They watch Kate, to see how worried they should be, because Kate, the eldest, is an even match for her Mother. Their frequent battles of wit and will-power keeps everyone entertained. In spite of Mum's tricks and grumbles, she never loses control; the children know they can rely on her, even as they try to frustrate her at every turn. Mum's mischievous tugging at the rug under her children's feet provides lots of delicious fun and fretful anxiety.
In this gently comic novel, Lasenby draws a heart-warming but unsentimental portrait of a family and community under duress, and of a mother who channels her exasperations into inventive ploys that not only help save her own sanity, but bring grist and intrigue to family life.