Throwback to when we didn’t have Toilet Paper
Book Review: A Humorous Reflection
We’ve all heard the stories. COVID-19 descending like the crack of a whip, lashing the world with its sickness and most notoriously, destroying the supply of toilet paper in Australia. It might be difficult to imagine how a disease drove entire communities to clear supermarket shelves and bicker over something as common as rolls of paper, but that is exactly what happened in March of 2020.
Fear unseated confidence and people began stocking up as homes transformed into domestic bunkers.
In its wake, COVID stripped Aussies of sense and order, and turned the tables – or rather, toilets across the nation. According to Frances Mao from BBC News, eyeing down the last square while stuck on the toilet was perhaps “the worst doomsday scenario” ever. The resulting frenzy featured toilet roll towers on trolleys, disputes on the end of flailing knives and even 3-ply paper giveaways on radio stations. Let’s not forget the insane price for rolls across online platforms.
Admittedly, Australians (and Americans) had some odd fears. Thankfully, we’ve surpassed them but can we really blame the creative imaginations of our people? Maybe things would have been different if we had a guiding hand, someone to look out for us and act in the interest of Aussie bums. Maybe Australia’s toilet paper crisis of March 2020 wouldn’t have happened the way it did if we had a superhero.
In fact, our minds don’t have to wander too far to imagine what could have been. There’s a book about it.
In his motion-packed adventure, Zac’s Magic Legs, Jed Hart takes readers for a spin of the ‘SNAZZIEST, COOLEST, TOUGHEST’ mission in Australia. Zac Hart stars as a strange youngster with a unique ability and problem. His world is anything but normal. He hears voices, and not just any voices. On his ninth birthday, Zac meets two special characters: his right knee and left foot. And no, that’s not weird at all. Every superhero needs a sidekick, of some manner. Zac just happens to have two along with the power to run really fast. And they believe Zac can help solve a great toilet roll heist – because clearly, not everyone is born with the ability to save innocent toilet-goers from the last square.
The mix: self-aware body parts and a sudden mission to rescue Australian bottoms from a less-than-glamorous loo experience. This is without a doubt, the strangest blend of events to cape a kid’s heroic story. And it doesn’t end there. Amid the toilet paper heist is an exploration of values and friendship. Zac not only navigates right and wrong, he even maintains his friendship while trying to problem solve Australia’s toilet roll shortage. Zac wants to do more than enjoy life. He wants to challenge himself and the people in his community too.
So a Flash-like kid with superhuman abilities and a country’s toilet roll shortage to deal with? Sounds like just the children’s book the young generation needs. We can’t have our youth forgetting such a momentous page in Australian history, after all.
Zac’s Magic Legs is published by Feather Knight Books, a new Australian publishing company based in Gippsland Victoria. To buy a copy of Zac’s Magic Legs visit www.featherknightbooks.com. Global distribution for booksellers is also available on the Feather Knight Books site.
Reference article: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51731422