Nips XI, by Ruth Starke, is a well written contemporary realistic fiction novel that we all like reading and is for children over the age of 10. The novel Nips XI is about a young boy called Lan Nguyen, who wanted to assimilate, and to be part of Australia, not separate. So he decides to start up a cricket team full of nips like Lan.

 

They all lack self-confidence and they decide to play against the undefeated champions, Kings College who are full of bad sportsmanship and racist attitudes.

 

Lan encounters lots of obstacles throughout the story, such as not being able to find a coach and not having a rich family background which encourages cricket. Lan also didn't have blond hair and white skin which other people told Lan he needed to have to be a good cricketer.  Another obstacle also was that Mr. Drummond (their principal) was against the idea. These obstacles showed the reader that you can overcome obstacles if you keep trying and don't give up.  We thought that this was one of Ruth Starke's main messages.

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Another one of her messages is that winning the game is not the only thing, it's your attitude and how you play the game.  No matter what your background culture or skin colour is, you can do anything if  you put your mind to and stick at it. We thought Ruth Starke's writing was creative and exciting because of the way she thought of North Illaba Primary Schools initials being N.I.P.S!  We like the way she used exciting sentences at the end of each chapter making you want to read on.  We liked all the characters because they did things that were believable and life like, so that this could happen in any multicultural school in Australia.  We think that this story is well worth a read if you just want to read something easy going and enjoyable.  We recommend this story by Ruth Starke and give it a rating of 8/10.

 

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