Jellicoe Road
Encyclopedia
On the Jellicoe Road is a young adult novel by Australian novelist Melina Marchetta
Melina Marchetta
Melina Marchetta is an Australian writer and teacher. She is the middle child of three daughters. Melina is best known as the author of Looking For Alibrandi. She has twice been awarded the CBCA Book of the Year for Older Readers, in 1993 and 2004.- Biography :Melina Marchettaborn in Sydney on 25...

. It was first published in Australia
Australian literature
Australian literature is the written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies, therefore, its literary tradition begins with and is linked to...

 in 2006 by Penguin Australia
Penguin Group
The Penguin Group is a trade book publisher, the largest in the world , having overtaken Random House in 2009. The Penguin Group is the name of the incorporated division of parent Pearson PLC that oversees these publishing operations...

 under the title On the Jellicoe Road, where it was awarded the 2008 West Australia Young Readers Book (WAYRB) Award for Older Readers. It was later published in the United States in 2008 under the abbreviated title Jellicoe Road by HarperTeen
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...

 and went on to win the 2009 Michael L. Printz Award
Michael L. Printz Award
The Michael L. Printz Award is an annual award in the United States for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a school librarian from Topeka, Kansas, who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association...

 from the American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....

.

Summary

The story is set around the life of Taylor Lily Markham, the 17-year-old leader of the boarding school on the Jellicoe Road (country NSW/ACT). Taylor was abandoned at the 7/11 on the Jellicoe Road by her mother when she was 11, and her only recollection of her father is a brief memory of standing on his shoulders. The only adult influence in her life is her mentor/guardian Hannah, who lives in the unfinished house by the river, and writes stories about five kids who lived there in the 1980s and who has suddenly vanished into thin air at a time when Taylor really needs her.

To top all of Taylor’s problems off, there is a territory war going on between the boarders, the townies (kids from the Jellicoe Town) and the Cadets (Sydney boys who come for a six-week training exercise every year to Jellicoe). The leader of the cadets this year happens to be the very boy who Taylor ran away with when she was 14 in search of her mother. The one who betrayed her trust and she never wants to see again.

Running parallel to Taylor's story is the story that Hannah writes, about the five kids in the 1980s. As Hannah has not yet complied it , the story is shown in pieces throughout the novel.

Blurb

United States

"Taylor Markham is not a popular choice. She is erratic, has no people skills and never turns up to meetings. Not to mention the incident when she ran off in search of her mother and only got halfway there. But she's lived at Jellicoe School most of her life and as leader of the boarders that's her greatest asset. Especially now the cadets, led by the infamous Jonah Griggs, have arrived. The territory wars between the boarders, townies and cadets are about to recommence.

"But Taylor has other things on her mind: a prayer tree, the hermit who whispered in her ear, and a vaguely familiar drawing in the local police station. Taylor wants to understand the mystery of her own past. But Hannah, the woman who found her, has suddenly disappeared, leaving nothing but an unfinished manuscript about five kids whose lives entwined twenty years ago on the Jellicoe Road."

Australia

"I'm dreaming of the boy in the tree. I tell him stories. About the Jellicoe School and the Townies and the Cadets from a school in Sydney. I tell him about the war between us for territory. And I tell him about Hannah, who lives in the unfinished house by the river. Hannah, who is too young to be hiding away from the world. Hannah, who found me on the Jellicoe Road six years ago.

"Taylor is the leader of the boarders at the Jellicoe School. She has to keep the upper hand in territory wars and deal with Jonah Griggs- the enigmatic leader of the cadets, and someone who she thought she would never see again.

"And now Hannah, the person Taylor had come to rely on, has disappeared. Taylor's only clue is a manuscript about five kids who lived in Jellicoe eighteen years ago. She needs to find out more, but this means confronting her own story, making sense of her strange, recurring dream, and finding her mother- who abandoned her on the Jellicoe Road."

Characters

Taylor Lily Markham
Taylor is the 17-year-old leader of the boarders at Jellicoe School, which is located on the Jellicoe Road, 'where trees make breezy canopies like a tunnel to the Shangri-la', outside the fictional town of Jellicoe. (Located somewhere in rural New South Wales, north of Yass). Taylor was born in Sydney, but spent most of her childhood living on the streets with her mother and squatting from town to town. However her life changed when she was 11, and her mother dropped her off at the 7-11 on the Jellicoe Road, and then drove away. Minutes later, a young woman named Hannah came and picked her up, and then took her to the Jellicoe School - and it's where Taylor's been ever since.

Taylor's character is difficult to imagine. The memories of her past have changed the person she is today. Most of the time she is lost in her own world, but she is prone to depression, anxiety, asthma and being unfriendly towards others. She has no idea who her father is and her only memory of him is standing on his shoulders and reaching for the sky. Taylor's appearance describes her as being tall for her age with light brown hair and blue/green eyes.

Jonah Griggs
The leader of the Cadets from Sydney, Jonah is described as a 'ten foot tank.' He is tall, strong and attractive. He has had a violent childhood, from his father who used to verbally, physically and mentally abuse his mother, his younger brother Daniel and himself. When he was 14, Jonah's father was in one of his rages and so the young Jonah whacked him over the head with a cricket bat, which ultimately caused his father's death.
Jonah, who was traumatized by this act, attempted to commit suicide by jumping in front of a train, but, on the day he planned it, he met Taylor and he decided he didn't want to kill himself in front of her. So instead he catches the train with her, and they travel to Yass. Once they get off, they attempt to hitchhike with a postman to Sydney where Taylor's mother is supposed to be, but Jonah has a dream from his dead father saying 'if you go any further, you won't come back.' (although it is revealed later that the postman they rode with was the serial killer that is frequently referenced in the novel by Taylor's younger classmates) So that night, Jonah rings his school, and the next day the Brigadier shows up and takes them both back to Jellicoe.
Taylor sees this act as a great betrayal, and she refuses to speak to Jonah again.

Chaz Santangelo
The incredibly good looking Italian/Aboriginal leader of the Townies (townsfolk of Jellicoe), Chaz is the son of the Chief of Police, Sal and the Mayor, Clara. He is the eldest child and only son, with four younger female siblings - Mary, Elisha, Tilly and Sarah Santangelo who often drive him insane. He's a sentimental, wise and fair person, who eventually becomes good friends with Taylor and Jonah, and continues to have a highly complicated relationship with Raffy, his childhood friend and complicated love interest.
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