Barney and the Secret of the Whales by Jackie French

Sydney Town, October 1791

The snake raised its head three feet from where I stood, turning the roosters on the spit above the fire.

Brown snake. Deadly.

I froze.

A boy can run faster than a snake can slither. A brown snake can strike faster than a boy can move.

Birrung had taught me that snakes sleep in the winter. This one must have just woken up. Hungry. Ready to bite.

https://i.harperapps.com/covers/9780732299446/y648.pngSydney Town, October 1791

The snake raised its head three feet from where I stood, turning the roosters on the spit above the fire.

Brown snake. Deadly.

I froze.

A boy can run faster than a snake can slither. A brown snake can strike faster than a boy can move.

Birrung had taught me that snakes sleep in the winter. This one must have just woken up. Hungry. Ready to bite.

It’s early days for Sydney Town. Supplies are still short and the townspeople are still adjusting to life in Australia. Barney Bean is excited by the possibilities offered by the new colony but to take advantage of them, he needs money. An unexpected opportunity presents itself and he signs on as crew on one of the Third Fleet vessels, the Brittania. He is ready to make his fortune. Nothing could have prepared him for the realities of living at sea, hunting whales. He calls on everything he has learned from his friends, Elsie and Birrung, and from his mother so he can survive his three year contract. Author notes include information about the Third Fleet, about whaling and its role in the survival of the fledgling colony.

Barney and the Secret of the Whales is a second title in a new series from Jackie French about the very early days of Sydney Town. Readers first met Barney in ‘Birrung the Secret Friend’. The idea of ‘secrets’ is connected to stories that are untold, or less told and which form an integral part in the development of the colony. Barney has held his secret about whaling for a long time and only now has he decided to tell his story. Barney is bright and passionate and despite a tough start to his life, is determined to achieve independence and to look after his friend, Elsie. Barney and the Secret of the Whales offers a glimpse of childhood circa 1791 – it was a very different experience to contemporary childhood. Barney’s connection with the absent Birrung gives him a connection to Australia that few of the early residents shared. Recommended for mid-primary readers.

Barney and the Secret of the Whales , Jackie French

Angus & Robertson 2016 ISBN: 9780732299446

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s author and bookseller

www.clairesaxby.com

My Name is Lizzie Flynn, by Claire Saxby & Lizzy Newcomb

All I own in this world is my name: Lizzie Flynn. 
It’s all I take with me as we are hustled aboard the Rajah, a cargo of convict women.

Convict Lizzie Flynn is leaving London, bound for Van Diemen’s Land. All she owns is her name. When the women on the boat are given sewing materials to make a quilt, she is reluctant. She doesn’t know how to sew. But Molly encourages and teaches her, and soon Lizzie a part of the sewing group. By the time the boat reaches Australia, the women of the Rajah, have completed a beautiful quilt and Lizzie has new skills and new friends, though sadly her friend Molly has not survived the journey.

My Name is Lizzie Flynn: A Story of the Rajah Quilt is a beautiful historical picture book, fictionalising the story of the Rajah Quilt, made by convict women in 1841 and now housed in the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.

Saxby has a skill for creative nonfiction, and her text manages to convey both the emotions of Lizzie and her fellow travellers, and the essence of the era of convict transportation. The acrylic illustrations again capture the mood, with the drab colours onboard the ship in contrast with the e blues of the seas and sky beyond. In the scenes of land a clever contrast is created by portraying England in grey tones as the women leave it behind and Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) with rolling green hills, and gently colourful houses suggesting a level of hope.

A beautiful book, suitable for school and home

My Name is Lizzie Flynn: A Story of the Rajah Quilt, by Claire Saxby & Lizzy Newcomb
Walker Books, 2015
ISBN

Available from good bookstores and online.

Australians At The Great War – 1914-1918, by Peter Burness

The rough and ready fighting spirit of the Australians had become refined by an experienced battle technique supported by staff work of the highest order. The Australians were probably the most effective troops employed in the war on either side.’ Major General John O’Ryan, US 27th Division.

Between 1914 and 1918, 250,000 Australians joined up to fight alongside soldiers from the Allied nations. 60, 000 of these men never came pack, and countless others were wounded. As Australia marks the one hundred year anniversaries of these terrible years, Australians at the Great War – 1914-1918 brings them to life with a stunning collection of photographs, paintings, diagrams and other images, along with commentary to help understand their significance.

There are pictures of destruction and misery, but also glimpses of quieter times, as well as maps, posters and more. This is an excellent visual resource, compiled by historian Peter Burness.

Australians at the Great War – 1914-1918, by Peter Burness
Murdoch Books, 2015
ISBN 9781743363782

Available from good bookstores and online.

Razorhurst, by Justine Larbalestier

Kelpie didn’t look at the card between her fingers. She could feel it there, but she was staring at the red splashes on the walls, on the mirror of the wardrobe, across the two paintings, at the blood sliding down them in rivulets. her nostrils flared at the smell from the dead man and she wished she could close them.
She did not see or smell apples.

Kelpie has been living on the streets of Surry Hills almost as long as she can remember. Her friends are mostly ghosts – she alone seems to be able to see and hear them – so she’s no stranger to death, but she is still shocked when she stumbles across the scene where Jimmy Palmer has just been slain. Unwittingly, she is now part of a turf war between mob bosses Glory Nelson and Mr Davidson. She also has a new, unexpected friend and protector – Dymphna Campbell – who was Jimmy’s girlfriend and Glory’s best girl. But Dymphna doesn’t know who to trust: she had Jimmy had been plotting to replace both of the mob bosses, and whoever killed Jimmy must have known that. Jimmy’s ghost wants to help, but he’s a bit hysterical over the turn of events. Kelpie’s only living friend, Snowy, also seems to want to help, but Jimmy says it was Snowy who killed him. Could sticking together be the thing that keeps both girls alive?

Set in 1930s Sydney, Razorhurst is historical fiction with a paranormal element, via the ghost characters. Set amidst the backdrop of a period where poverty was high, and gangs focused on prostitution and gambling preferred the razor as a means of enforcement and retribution, the story is fiction, but does draw on the lives of madams Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh, and 1930s prostitutes Dulcie Markham and Nellie Cameron as starting points for the intriguing characters of Glory and Dymphna.

Kelpie and Dymphna, who alternate as viewpoint characters, seem initially to be two very different people thrown together by circumstance, but it emerges that they have more in common than either thinks. this makes their relationship both complex and, for the reader, intriguing. The events that they endure, both within the short time frame of the book and in their pasts – which we see through flash backs – are violent and traumatic, yet both girls are strong, albeit in different ways.

Razorhurst is absorbing, frightening, and, at times, amusing. It is also utterly readable.

 

Razorhurst

Razorhurst, by Justine Larbalestier
Allen & Unwin, 2014
ISBN 9781743319437

Available from good bookstores or online.

Along the Road to Gundagai, by Jack O'Hagan & Andrew McLean

It won’t be surprising if you pick up this book with the tune and lyrics already in your head:

There’s a track winding back to an old fashioned shack
along the road to Gundagai…

However, what will be surprising to most readers will be to discover that the opening lines of the song are quieter and less jaunty:

There’s a scene that lingers in my memory
Of an old bush home and friends I long to see…

(You may be interested, as I was, after reading the book, to hear an old recording of these lines here).

Most surprising of all, is the visual interpretation of the song in this picture book offering. Andrew McLean presents the song from the viewpoint of a soldier, yearning for his beautiful home as he fights and suffers on the battlefield. The contrast between scenes of horror on the Western Front, and the beauty of Gundagai are confronting, but in a beautiful, poignant way. On one spread soldiers and their horses flee a gas attack, the soldiers wearing gas masks, the horses’ eyes filled with fear and a ghastly yellow light surrounding them. This is in stark contrast to the preceding spread which shows young boys playing in the peaceful shallows of the Murrumbidgee river. Further contrast is added with the wartime scenes filling the whole spreads, while the remembered scenes of Gundagai are framed like favourite photographs or paintings. Most of the song lyrics are also on these home front spreads.

This a beautiful, haunting book, outstanding for discussions of Australian history. With the song first written in 1922, McLean’s interpretation is true to the experiences of the war years not long prior, which would still have been very fresh in the public memory. For classroom use, it would be an interesting exercise to offer children the lyrics without the illustrations first, to highlight the contrast of what is then shown in the book.

A surprising book, in the very best of ways. Stunning.

 

Along the Road to Gundagai

Along the Road to Gundagai, by Jack O’Hagan, illustrated by Andrew McLean
Omnibus Books, 2014
ISBN 9781862919792

Available from good bookstores or online.

To See The World, by Elaine Forrestal

This was not the great adventure I had anticipated. I wanted to swim back to my mother, to feel her arms around me, to smell the delicious spicy fish she would be cooking instead of this disgusting mixture of stale milk and filthy toilets. The wind roared in the rigging. The waves slapped the hull so hard that I knew I would be battered to death immediately if I jumped into the sea. My mother always complained that I would drive her crazy; I was so careless and afraid of nothing. But I am not stupid. Although my heart was aching and I desperately wanted to go home, I would never let the sea take me.

Jose has lived all of his life on the island of Mauritius, but his father has arranged for him to travel and work on board the ship Uranie. Jose anticipates a life of seeing interesting places and having adventures. He doesn’t expect to meet a woman on the ship. It is 1818 and women are not allowed to join naval expeditions, but Rose de Freycinet has decided she cannot bear to be apart from her husband, and besides, she wants an adventure of her own. Jose is not impressed. Rose wants to teach him to read and write and her very presence makes ship life more dangerous. But as their journey continues, a friendship develops between the two, and Jose becomes as loyal as most of the other sailors.

To See the World is the fictionalised account of the journey of French ship Uranie which attempted to circumnavigate the world and conduct scientific research. Rose de Freycinet, the wife of the expedition leader, Louis, became the first woman to write an account of such a circumnavigation, including their encounters with pirates, and cannibals, and their shipwrecking on the Falkland Islands. While this is a work of fiction, the character of Jose is based on a real boy, and the events of the story use real events, drawing on journals and other documents. Each chapter of the book opens with an image or painting from the time, from the National Library of Australia’s collection.

Suitable for middle and upper primary aged readers, To See the World is an intriguing tale of history, travel and an adventurous woman.

 

To See the World, by Elaine Forrestal
NLA Publishing, 2014
ISBN 9780642278494

Available from good bookstores and online .

Stubborn Buggers, by Tim Bowden

…there were far more brutal places than Changi.

While the stories of the suffering and survival of Australians at Changi, the biggest prisoner of war camp on Singapore island, are well known, the stories of Outram Road Gaol are far less so. This was where escapees and traitors were sent, including allied prisoners of war as well as Chinese civilians and even Japanese soldiers. It is estimated that thousands of people died here, many executed, others of malnutrition or disease.

Stubborn Buggers tells the stories of twelve Australian prisoners of war and their experiences in Outram Road Gaol as well as on the Thai-Burma Railway and Sandakan. It is not an easy to read book, because of its subject matter, but it is compelling, sharing not just facts, but stories of survival and perseverance, even humour.

Drawing on extensive interviews with the survivors, this is a moving and important look at a dark piece of history.

 

Stubborn Buggers, by Tim Bowden
Allen & Unwin, 2014
ISBN 9781743314425

Available from good bookstores and online.

Midnight Burial by Pauline Deeves

Diary of Miss Florence Adelaide Williamson, 16 July 1868

This is the last page of my diary and after I have written this, I will hide it. I don’t want to remember this day ever again. My big sister Lizzie died tonight. They say it was from fever so my papa and some of the men ar burying her right now, even though it is dark and cold.

I heard Papa tell the men to dig the grave extra deep and tomorrow they will cover it with piles of rocks. They save fever is catching so we cannot even wait for a doctor to come, or have a minister to hold a proper funeral service. It was so quick. Lizzie was perfectly well this morning.

Diary of Miss Florence Adelaide Williamson, 16 July 1868

This is the last page of my diary and after I have written this, I will hide it. I don’t want to remember this day ever again. My big sister Lizzie died tonight. They say it was from fever so my papa and some of the men ar burying her right now, even though it is dark and cold.

I heard Papa tell the men to dig the grave extra deep and tomorrow they will cover it with piles of rocks. They save fever is catching so we cannot even wait for a doctor to come, or have a minister to hold a proper funeral service. It was so quick. Lizzie was perfectly well this morning.

Florence’s sister Lizzie has died suddenly and is buried without ceremony and with haste. There is not time for a funeral apparently, no time for anything. Florence is not sure what is going on but she knows it’s bad. Susannah is Lizzie’s best friend hears of her death and is immediately sceptical that fever is the cause of her friend’s death. These alternate viewpoints tell the story of the ripples from this unexpected and tragic death. When Susannah takes on the role of governess to the precocious Florence, the pair work to unravel the mystery of Lizzie’s death. Photos of the main characters accompany their entries/letters.

Midnight Burial is told in diary entries letters by Florence and via letters from Susannah and other characters. Reading between the lines of the diary entries, the reader discovers some of the challenges for girls born in early Australia. These challenges are made perhaps more intense by the remoteness of their sheep station home, and the expectations that come with wealth and education. Notes at the end of ‘Midnight Burial’ tell how a factual story in the National Library inspired this fiction. Extra photos and notes provide information about sheep stations, convicts and more. They also reveal the real identities of the girls whose photos appear. History is a huge cumbersome and confusing beast. Stories like Midnight Burial offer a way in to history for young readers. They allow the reader to step inside, feel, smell and understand a life so different from their own. Recommended for mid-primary readers.

 

Midnight Burial, Pauline Deeves NLA 2014 ISBN: 9780642278500

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s author and bookseller

www.clairesaxby.com

Burning the Bails: The Story of the Ashes, by Krista Bell & Ainsley Walters

When the ashes were ready, Russell put his hand in his pocket and pulled out one of his mother’s empty perfume bottles. It was porcelain and had two tiny handles.
‘How wonderful!’ laughed Miss Morphy. ‘It looks exactly like a miniature urn. Well done, Russell.’
‘This is perfect, darling,’ exclaimed his mother. ‘A real urn for our Rupertswood “Ashes”.’

When the touring English cricket team visits his family home in Rupertswood, Russell Clarke is delighted. He loves cricket and longs to be part of the fun. So when his mother and her companion decide to burn the bails from a match and present it to the English captain, Russell joins in by finding the perfect vessel for the ashes.

Burning the Bails is a fictionalised account of the true story behind the Ashes, the trophy for the cricket test series between Australia and England. While Russell’s involvement is imagined, the story is based on fact, and will give young cricket fans an insight into the origin and significance of the Ashes.

With the story supported by photographs, pages of historical facts, and the illustrative work of Ainsley Walters, and with the Ashes series currently being played in Australia, this is a wonderful offering for young cricketers.

 

Burning The Bails

Burning the Bails: The Story of the Ashes, by Krista Bell, illustrated by Ainsley Walters
One Day Hill, 2013
ISBN 978098731398

Available from good bookstores or
online.

In Great Spirits: The WW1 Diary of Archie Barwick

28th October 1916.
Oh a soldier’s life is a beauty in such weather but as soon as we get back into dry billets we forget all the hardships. It’ powerful in what good spirits the boys keep. They laugh and joke over it all, as if it was the fun of the world.

Archibald Albert Barwick was 24 years old when war broke out in 1914 and he joined the AIF. Leaving his job as manager of a sheep property in NSW, he trained with the expeditionary force in the 1st Battalion and travelled first to Egypt, then Gallipoli and later the Western Front. Along the way he rose to the rank of Sergeant, was injured three times and was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre. Significantly, he also wrote prolifically, filling sixteen diaries over the course of the war, detailing his experiences and insights.

In Great Spirits: The WWI Diary of Archie Barwick offers Barwick’s diary to contemporary readers. Condensed from the initial 400 000 words to around 130 000 words in order to make it manageable, the writing is otherwise only lightly edited, so that the sense of Barwick’s personality shines through, managing to be humorous, honest and heart-wrenching by turns, so that the reader can journey with him in a very personal way.

Of interest to historians of all levels, this is also a valuable read for any Australian to get first hand insight into Australia’s involvement in World War 1 and its impact.

 

In Great Spirits: Archie Barwick's WWI Diary - from Gallipoli to the By Archie Barwick

In Great Spirits: The WWI Diary of Archie Barwick
Harper Collins, 2013
ISBN 9780732297183

Available from good bookstores or online.