Tag: victoria

Yong, by Janeen Brian

I never wanted to come.
And now I’m probably going to die. Before this trip I had never been out of my village in Guangdong. Never walked past the banks of the rice fields or smelled the air beyond the dark hills.
Yet, here I am, aged thirteen, in a sailing ship that’s being hurled about in seas as tall as mountains, heading for some strange shore across the other side of the world.

Yong does not want to go to Australia. He wants to stay home in his village and look after his younger siblings and his grandmother. But he is the firstborn son, and has no choice: his father insists that he accompany him to the goldfields in Ballarat. There they are to make their fortune, to send money home for their family, and eventually return.

The trip by ship to Australia is long and tedious, and, when storms hit, dangerous too. Yong and his father are lucky to escape with their lives, but find themselves not in Victoria, but South Australia, and so begin another long journey – on foot. With other men from their village and an untrustworthy guide it seems they might never arrive.

Yong is a moving historical fiction tale set in 1850s Australia against the backdrop of the goldrush. Whilst gold is the goal for Yong and his father, however, the focus of the story is on unearthing the culture and type of people who came to Australia in search of gold, specifically the Chinese. Through the eyes of Yong we see his concerns about leaving behind his birth country and family, his bewilderment at his new country, and how his culture affects his experiences.

An engaging story, Yong is ideal for private reading and for schools and libraries.

Yong, by Janeen Brian
Walker Books, 2016
ISBN 9781925126297

As Stars Fall by Christie Nieman

‘Robin? Robin Roberts?’

This is what I imagined was happening in my form room at that moment. I imagined some old-time bespectacled schoolmistress reading my name out over and over from her roll, and in the silence after each call the crickets chirping, the tumbleweed tumbling. I had to imagine it because I wasn’t there. I was lost.

‘Robin Roberts’

Yes, that really is my name. You’d think that two parents with the surname Roberts would think twice before calling their only daughter Robin, wouldn’t you? You’d reckon. And when you heard that those two parents were Rodney Roberts and Roberta Roberts, you’d think they were just mean – like, if they’d had to suffer all those Rs, then they’d make their kids suffer too. But if you actually knew my parents, you’d get that giving me a Rolls-Royce name was just their cute way of including me in their club: the R&R club. Well, that was their thinking anyway.

‘Robin? Robin Roberts?’

This is what I imagined was happening in my form room at that moment. I imagined some old-time bespectacled schoolmistress reading my name out over and over from her roll, and in the silence after each call the crickets chirping, the tumbleweed tumbling. I had to imagine it because I wasn’t there. I was lost.

‘Robin Roberts’

Yes, that really is my name. You’d think that two parents with the surname Roberts would think twice before calling their only daughter Robin, wouldn’t you? You’d reckon. And when you heard that those two parents were Rodney Roberts and Roberta Roberts, you’d think they were just mean – like, if they’d had to suffer all those Rs, then they’d make their kids suffer too. But if you actually knew my parents, you’d get that giving me a Rolls-Royce name was just their cute way of including me in their club: the R&R club. Well, that was their thinking anyway.

A terrible fire sweeps through north-eastern Victoria. In its aftermath, Robin’s parents split up and Robin and her mother move to the city. In her first day at her new school, Robin meets Delia. Delia befriends Robin, although Robin sometimes struggles to understand why. Delia and her brother are also reeling from the effects of the fire, although they are not as able – or perhaps ready – to articulate their loss. A Bush Stone-curlew appears in the local park, far from its natural habitat and connects Robin, Delia and Seth. Life is challenging for each of the teenagers, but it may prove deadly for the out-of-place bird.

As Stars Fall is a gritty, real novel, with hints of magic realism. Three teenagers respond to major trauma in their lives caused by catastrophic fires. Their grief defines every aspect of their behaviour and their responses to those around them. The out-of-place curlew links them and forces them to think beyond themselves and their individual loss. Robin is the main character and her story is told in first person, with Delia and Seth’s stories in third person. Their stories progress, the novel progresses as fast and as intensely as any fire, sweeping all before it and building to an inevitable crescendo. Readers will be swept along too, holding their breath to see who survives. Recommended for mid- to upper-secondary readers.

As Stars Fall, Christie Nieman Pan Macmillan 2014 ISBN: 9781743517697

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s author and bookseller

www.clairesaxby.com