pamela rushby – Aussie Reviews

Lizzie and Margaret Rose, by Pamela Rushby

But I did, I did! There was no way I was letting go of it. It was my scrapbook, my scrapbook about the little princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret Rose – the one I’d been named after. I’d been keeping it for years, cutting out and sticking in pictures of the little princesses and all their doings from magazines and newspapers. It was very special to me, that scrapbook, and I wasn’t letting go of it for anything.
It was the reason I was still alive.

It is 1940, and Margaret Rose lives in London, far away from her cousin Lizzie in Australia. But when Margaret Rose’s family home is destroyed in an air raid she finds herself bound for Australia on a ship. Lizzie’s family are happy to take Margaret Rose in, but Lizzie isn’t so sure. Her cousin is getting all the attention, and Lizzie’s life is changed by sharing her bedroom and her classmates.

The war takes a little longer to reach Townsville, in Australia’s far north,and Mrgaret Rose is safer there. But as the war rolls on, it also draws closer to Australia, and both girls share the realities of war time life.

Lizzie and Margaret Rose is a story of war, of family and friendship set both in London and in Townsville, as well as on the ship travelling between the two countries. Told in the alternating first person voices of the ten and eleven year old cousins, it provides an inside look at the effects of war, and particularly World War 2, on children and on day to day life.

While thoroughly researched and complemented with back of book notes, the story is front and center rather than being used to string together lots of facts,, making it really satisfying.

Lizzie and Margaret Rose, by Pamla Rushby
Omnibus Books, 2016
ISBN 9781742991528

Princess Parsley by Pamela Rushby

It’s not that easy being a princess, you know.

I mean, you’re flat out finding anything even resembling a decent prince to go to the Year Eight disco with.

And you just try shopping for a nice new tiara in downtown Mullumbimby. As if. Not to mention anything like glass slippers: non-existent. Nothing more exotic that Super softs and hush Puppies ever hits the Mullumbimby shoe shop.

And what do you do when the kids at school don’t curtsy to you? Have them exiled?

Or executed?

Being a princess? I tell you, it’s nothing but problems.

It’s not that easy being a princess, you know.

I mean, you’re flat out finding anything even resembling a decent prince to go to the Year Eight disco with.

And you just try shopping for a nice new tiara in downtown Mullumbimby. As if. Not to mention anything like glass slippers: non-existent. Nothing more exotic that Super softs and Hush Puppies ever hits the Mullumbimby shoe shop.

And what do you do when the kids at school don’t curtsy to you? Have them exiled?

Or executed?

Being a princess? I tell you, it’s nothing but problems.

What do you do when your parents decide it’s groovy to call you Parsley? And your sisters Sage, Rosemary and Thyme? How much worse can life be as you head off to secondary school on the bus? Well, much worse. When her Dad declares their property the Principality of Possum Creek after a feud with a neighbour, her school life goes straight to the dogs. The trio of ‘blondes’ have a field day. It’s not that she wants to be a ‘blonde’, more that she just wants to get along with everyone and fit in. But if that’s going to happen, she’s going to have to find a way to adjust to her new status. Retreating to the drum class is not going to cut it.

‘Princess Parsley’ is hilarious. When you’ve spent your primary years at a school in Mullumbimby, and your parents are, ahem, alternative, there was always going to be waves when you hit the bigger world of secondary school. Parsley is open and honest, responsible and well-loved and it is a surprise to her that not everyone else views the world from that strong platform. Parsley’s year is full of ups and downs and she carries the giggling reader with her through all her trials and travails. Hidden deep inside the hilarity are themes around family, belonging, bullying and more. Recommended for mid- to upper-primary readers.

Princess Parsley, Pamela Rushby Omnibus Books 2016 ISBN: 9781742991610

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s author and bookseller

www.clairesaxby.com

Sing a Rebel Song, by Pamela Rushby

The men seemed to be having a vote. They raised their hands. Dad came back to Mr Callan. ‘Every man here is a member of the Shearers Union,’ he said. ‘We have agreed that we can only shear under the verbal agreement of our union. If we sign your Shearing Agreement we will not be upholding the union. We’ll be blacklegs.’
The men muttered angrily among themselves. ‘We won’t sign!’ someone shouted.

Its 1891, and Maggie McAllister, whose dad is a shearer, gets a firsthand experience of one Australia’s most dramatic events: the Shearer’s Strike, where shearers fought for better pay and conditions and the pastoralists in turn tried to get them to work for less. While Maggie’s Dad and his fellow workers strike, march and protest, Maggie and her mother help to report on events and distribute notices.

But Maggie’s friends don’t all agree with the strike – or with her actions. Her friend Clara is the daughter of a wealthy farmer, and her other friend Tom needs work to help support his family. It seems that friendship doesn’t always survive. And for Maggie, witnessing the events of the strike make her aware that both sides have some valid viewpoints – and some questionable tactics.

Sing a Rebel Song is an exciting, moving account of the strike, and of the part one fictional character plays in it. It also provides an insight into Australian life in the late nineteenth century, and the birth of the union movement through an accessible story.

Rushby has a knack of making history come alive for young readers.

Sing a Rebel Song, by Pamela Rushby
Omnibus Books, 2015
ISBN 9781742991344

Flora’s War by Pamela Rushby

We can always smell them before we see them.

Today it’s bad, really bad, but not as bad as the first time, because then we had no conception of just what we’d see when the wooden doors of the train slid back. Then, that first time, we’d all surged eagerly forward as soon as the train stopped, ready to help, prepared to assist those who could walk and carry those who couldn’t.

Cairo, 1915

We can always smell them before we see them.

And then it hit us.

It was overpowering. It stopped us dead in our rush forward; made us stagger back. It wasn’t heat, or dust, or blowing sand – in Egypt, we were used to those – but a smell. It was more than a smell. It was a stench. So strong it grabbed deep into our throats; made us cough and choke, made our eyes pour water. I’d never smelled anything like it before; couldn’t begin to think what it was.

I know now.

Flora and her archaeologist father regularly travel to Egypt, but this time things are different. From the moment they arrive and are collected in a motor car, Flora knows this trip is going to be full of new experiences. After all she’s almost sixteen and it’s 1914. She’s looking forward to a summer of helping her father and parties with her friend Gwen, if only her father, Gwen’s mother and her brother Frank would stop trying to cosset them. They are modern girls and are ready for all that life will bring. But nothing has prepared Flora or her friends for the upcoming war and how it will affect their lives. Cairo is awash with soldiers, many of them Australian, training in the desert and spending their leisure time in town. They are waiting to go to war. And then they do. Flora and her friends discover that the war is closer than they could have thought possible. Close enough to touch all of them.

Flora is excited that this year in Cairo, she will be treated as an adult, not a child. She will experience everything, sharing it with her close friend Gwen, whose family also spend time every year in Cairo. Being treated like an adult means that she can learn to drive, a wonderful rite of independence. But with independence comes responsibility and Flora learns that casting aside childhood means learning about the ways of the adult world. War accelerates this and Flora’s Warexplores themes of love and loss, fear and bravery. Excitement is tempered by danger, archaeological discovery by moral dilemmas. For Flora, war is a rite of passage that alters her, her friends and her world in ways she could never have imagined.

Flora’s War, Pamela Rushby Ford St Publishing 2013 ISBN: 9781921665981

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

When the Hipchicks Went to War, by Pamela Rushby

When I went to Vietnam, I packed a suitcase full of satin bikinis trimmed with fringes. A pair of knee-high white boots. Mini-dresses, ultra short, sparkling with spangles. A platinum-blonde wig. False eyelashes like hairy back caterpillars. Tap Shoes. Heaps of Max Factor make-up.
I was sixteen years old, and I was going to a war.
I didn’t have a clue.

Kathleen is sixteen. She thinks she’s got it sorted. It’s the swinging 60’s and the world is exciting. She is bright but sick of school, ready for the next stage of her life. And as one of eight children in the family, Kathleen is fairly practised at getting what she wants too. Her best friend introduces her to the Folk Centre and she enjoys the music without listening too closely to the words or paying much attention to the Vietnam War protest plans. She gets a job at The Cave where the music is more upbeat and the patrons watch her dance. A hairdressing job is abandoned when she scores an opportunity to travel to Vietnam to dance and sing for the troops. Her friend Cheryl is horrified, but Kath has little interest in and less knowledge about the war, seeing only excitement. But reality is quick to shake her. While protesters at home shake their placards, Kathleen discovers the realities of war.

The title, When the Hipchicks went to War, manages to immediately locate this novel in time and mood – the frivolity of ‘Hipchicks’ sitting alongside ‘War’ alerts readers to a conflict before the opening page is turned. Kathleen is keen to ditch school and get out into the wide, wild world, never imagining it as anything other than exciting and wonderful. She and two new friends become the ‘Hipchicks’ and are booked to entertain the Australian troops in Vietnam. When they arrive the Vietnam War is in full swing, but it’s not the party they expect. They must quickly adjust to war and its casualties. The show must go on. Naïve she may be, but as a main character she is also feisty, proactive and adaptable. Written in first person, When the Hipchicks Went to War follows Kathleen as she makes and loses friends, tastes the world and her first kiss, seizes every opportunity. Pamela Rushby gives the reader a different look at the 1960s – the freedom and conscription, opportunities and challenges. Recommended for 13-16 year olds.

When the Hipchicks Went to War, Pamela Rushby
Lothian Books 2009
ISBN: 9780734410917

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