Mayken must not say a word about the baby because it shouldn’t have been up there in the first place. She has practised with her nursemaid. Q: You created such a varied cast of characters. Was there one character who was your favorite to write about? If so, why? It’s the way of long journeys,” says Creesje. “They alter what people think and see.” 1628 - Mayken van der Heuvel heads out on a long, exciting, but very dangerous adventure. She is setting sail on the grandest ship of the era, the Batavia, to a place with the same name, the capital of the Dutch East Indies. Well, in 1628, anyway. Today, we know it as Jakarta, Indonesia. Her journey is not being undertaken by choice, though. Mayken’s mother died giving birth to a child not her husband’s. The girl is being sent to her father, accompanied by a nursemaid, the kindly, but very superstitious, Imke. Mayken is nine years old. There are many layers to this child: undergarments, middle garments, and top garments. Mayken is made of pale skin and small white teeth and fine fair hair and linen and lace and wool and leather. There are treasures sewn into the seams of her clothing, small and valuable, like her.

You poked her.” The nursemaid turns to the child. “What are you? A stoat? A rat? A puppy? Put your teeth away.” Mayken, woken by the change in the ship’s movement, slips out of her bunk. She peers at her nursemaid. The old woman sleeps on, mouth open, breath evil, cap crooked. Gil’s new life, like Mayken’s is one without many - if any - friends. Those they turn to tend to be adults who either try to make them see how it is ‘their fault’ - they are too different, too unusual, and not acceptable to be a friend, where others try to encourage them to not listen to ‘those’ people who would try to make them change. In an echo of Mayken’s enjoyment of playing as a cabin-boy, Gil enjoys dressing in his grandmother’s old clothes: Each child has parental figures who step in at different times in their journeys (for examples, Imke, Holdfast, Dutch, and Silvia). How would you describe these stand-in parents? In what ways were these adults important for Mayken and Gil?Overall, it was a really interesting book reading about the Batavia in fiction, but it just wasn’t for me. I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. Dutch shines his torch to illuminate their burrows. He talks about the stars and points out constellations. Gil pays no attention. He would rather the stars stayed wild and not become something else he has to know about.” Mayken hasn’t forgotten the expression of terror Creesje was wearing when she first saw her—the fine lady being hoisted up the side of the ship like a bag of flour! Now terror has been replaced by a customary expression of dismay. As Imke puts it, she’s probably not had to wash in her own piss before.

Mayken loves the sailors instantly. The daring of them, their speed along the ropes, the heights they climb to! The predikant is pointing out the Dutch East India Company cadets and officials gathering at the top of the stern castle. Look, there is the upper-merchant in his red coat and plumed hat. Flanked by the under-merchant, also well hatted, and the stout old skipper, hatless. Three men entrusted by the Company with a cargo richer than the treasuries of many kingdoms, the lives of hundreds of innocent souls and this wonderful ship, newly built – her maiden voyage! Imke nods as though she’s interested. Mrs Predikant stares ahead with her mouth turned down, trout-like, abiding. The frustration of the wait builds to the excitement of the leaving, now that her final treasure has been loaded. Twelve coin chests of considerable weight and ridiculous worth have been rowed to the ship under guard, hoisted under guard, lugged by six men apiece into the Great Cabin in the stern, and set down with a guard to watch over them at all hours. Kidd has based her latest novel on the historical sinking of the BATAVIA off the west coast of Australia in 1629. Decorating the stern of the ship is a row of great wooden men. Great in that they are almost life-height and full-bearded. Great, too, in that they wear long robes. Tension ratchets up for both Mayken and Gil. While we know the fate of the Batavia, we do not know the fate of all those she carried.Mayken must not say a word about the baby because it shouldn’t have been up there in the first place. She has practiced with her nursemaid.

Lying brings bad karma. Even a small lie can make something really bad happen and the karma will grow to match it.” Day dresses, belted, with Granny Iris’s slippers shoved inside to make dramatic shoulders. Glitzed with brooches. Textures of silk and lace and dazzling man-made fibres. Fun with scarves: bandeau, bandana, sarong. How far can human cruelty reach? There are no limits to rage depths or even no matter what time in history it happened, not really! Mayken rolls her eyes. “ Lucretia Jansdochter is giving out to Zwaantie Hendricx on account of the maidservant giving encouragement to sailors old and young.” I was particularly interested in reading this because I recently read The Islands by Australian author Emily Brugman, a historical fiction novel about the Finnish immigrants who came to the Abrolhos to fish for crayfish, so I was aware of this area already.Mirroring Mayken’s life on the Batavia in many ways is that of another nine year old, Gil in 1989. Both children have recently lost their mothers and while Mayken is being taken by her nursemaid to her father in the East Indies, Gil is sent to live with his grandfather, a cray fisherman on the Abrohlos. Both are unusual children with active imaginations and have imaginary monsters lurking nearby. In Gil’s case it is the Bunyip, luring children into its waterhole and in Mayken’s case it is the Bullebak who she believes lives in the bottom of the ship. However, neither is yet aware that there are real monsters even closer who mean them real harm. It was a complete surprise to me, I did not expect such things at all. Unfairly extremely sad. I enjoy the author's writing style; the short chapter and the story narrated by two young children make it more bitter. I will definitely try other Jess Kidd books to torture myself.

She is beautiful. Her upper works are painted green and yellow and at her prow—oh, best of all—crouches a carved red lion! His golden mane curls, his claws sink into the beam. He snarls down at the water. Both are outsiders, in peril from people in their community. There is plenty more. But both come into possession of a stone with a hole in it, that is supposed to have special properties, a witch-stone, or hag-stone. The very same one. It is a link across three hundred sixty years, connecting their parallel experiences. As children, neither has control over much of anything, so they are both at the mercy of the adults around them, not all of whom are benign. With limited immediate familial resources, they are trying to create a kind of family for themselves. Imke’s second sight has likely rubbed off on Mayken. The old woman vows to be more circumspect with her visions. Another time, Imke took Mayken to the Church of Saint Bavo, the jewel of Haarlem. The old nursemaid told her to open her eyes and take notice. Mayken opened her eyes and took notice. Even so she missed the grin of a stone gargoyle and the wink of a wooden toad on the choir stall. Another recent book about this area is The Brink, by Holden Sheppard, which I just read and reviewed here. It's a modern story of young school-leavers "holidaying" on one of the islands.

Jess Kidd

Mayken is the child, a young Dutch child, nine years old. Her mother has died, so she is sailing aboard the ‘Batavia’ with her nursemaid, Imke, bound for Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia), where her father lives. Half of the book is her story, a fictionalised account of the true voyage in 1628. This story is set in two timelines, 1628 and 1989, and shares the lives of two 9 year olds, Mayken’s story set in 1628, and Gil’s in 1989.