June Colbert

Sara is fifteen and secretly in love with Kel Pearson. Her dad is a Meatball. Kel’s dad is a Meatball too. ‘Meatballs’ like to jump into earthquakes and climb inside volcanoes to take their temperatures. When they clamber out, shoes burning and hair smoking, they pass their findings on to Coneheads. ‘Coneheads’ analyse data and make recommendations to local governments. Together they make up an ‘AusDAR’ team – Disaster Assessment and Relief (Australian Division) – experts in Disaster Casualty Minimisation. They’ve just been asked to go to the exotic Andes to gauge the safety of the new gas and oil pipeline being dug through the base of a sleepy little extinct volcano called Mt Cumbal. They are all set for the adventure of a lifetime – after all, the volcano is in no danger of erupting. But what about that murky, brown water coming out of the tap in Sara’s caravan? It’s not supposed to smell like sulphur … June Colbert, bestselling author of THE KING OF LARGE and THE LAST BOY, masterfully weaves together teenage themes of identity, pride, secret ‘crushes’ and the sense of belonging in her well-researched, detailed and fast-paced novel VOLCANO.