australian history – Page 2

The River Charm, by Belinda Murrell

‘Wh…who are you?’ asked Millie, her mouth dry, her heart thumping. ‘What are you doing here?’
The girl stared at her, quiet and mysterious, her dark eyes shining in the dim moonlight. Behind her, Millie thought she could see a shadowy forest of grey-green gum trees and silvery bark. A glimmering river flowed behind her.
‘Are you a ghost or a dream?’ wondered Millie out loud, hugging herself against the pillows.

Millie loves to paint, but when she paints a picture of a girl who appears to her in a dream, it is something special. When her mother takes her and her sister to visit a long-lost aunt in the country, Millie is amazed. The dream girl appears to her again. Could it be that she is somehow connected to the girl?

The River Charm is the story of Oldbury, a colonial estate, and of the Atkinson family, its original owners. In 1839 Charlotte Atkinson, the ghost girl from Millie’s visions, lives in Oldbury with her mother and siblings. Life is difficult. the children’s father has died, and their mother has remarried. their stepfather is a cruel alcoholic, and the entire estate is at risk. Fortunately for the children their mother is determined to keep them safe.

Charlotte Waring Atkinson was the author of the first children’s book published in Australia. This fictionalised account of part of her life is particularly special because it is the work of her great-great-great-great=granddaughter, author Belinda Murrell, whose historical tale makes use of a time slip motif to contrast past and present, as well as making links between the two time periods. Set in the Australian bush, the story will appeal to readers aged 10-14.

The River Charm

The River Charm, by Belinda Murrell
Random House, 2013
ISBN 9781742757124

Available from good bookstores or here.

You can read more about the writing of this book in Belinda’s blog post here.

Caroline Chisholm: The Emigrant’s Friend by Tania McCartney

Young Caroline Jones tucked a auburn curl behind one ear and arranged a chain of tiny wooden dolls on the windowsill of her family’s front room. Her tongue played at the corner of her mouth in concentration. Outside the window, faded roses crowded the sill. Through the petals, Caroline caught a glimpse of her father, William Jones, working in the garden.

Caroline caught sight of her father sprinting across the yard towards two local men who were lifting a wounded soldier from the carriage. The soldier had a rickety old crutch splayed at his side, and as her father helped lift him the soldier’s face twisted with pain. One of his legs was missing.

Caroline Chisholm was born into a large, loving and socially liberal family in England in the early 1800s. From an early age, she was aware that life was different for many other people. She developed a keen interest in travel, but also in guiding those who she was sure with a little help could improve their own lives. Her work started on a small scale, helping her mother support families around their home. After she married, she lived in India for a while before travelling to Australia. There, as in India, she found girls and women who lacked the skills necessary to gain meaningful work. For a year, she helped train and place women in towns and regions around Sydney. But her work broadened over time so that she could help more and more people. Her policies helped bring families to Australia. Most openings are accompanied by colour illustrations from Pat Reynolds.

‘Caroline Chisholm: The Emigrant’s Friend’ is a new offering in the Aussie Heroes series from New Frontier Publishing. Each showcases an influential Australian, who may or may not be well known to a present generation of young readers. ‘Caroline Chisholm’ introduces the child Caroline, showing the foundations that led to her adult work. A time line at the end of the book provides the ‘facts and figures’ allowing the narrative to read like a story without being bogged down with numbers. The narrative mixes non-fiction with fiction, providing a warm introduction to a character who has sometimes polarised historians. There are hooks here that will encourage further research and exploration. Recommended for mid-primary readers.

Caroline Chisholm: The Emigrant’s Friend, Tania McCartney ill Pat Reynolds
New Frontier Publishing ISBN: 9781921928482

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

Escape from Cockatoo Island by Yvette Poshoglian

Olivia has been sent from the orphanage in Newcastle where she grew up to Biloela on Cockatoo Island in the middle of Sydney Harbour. At Biloela, she is to learn the necessary skills for a house servant, before being placed with a Sydney family. The industrial school is more like a prison than a place of learning and Olivia struggles to survive here. The only compensation is that she meets new friends. Her needlework skills may be improving, but she is a long way from the school’s version of ‘employable’. Her writing skills must remain hidden, so she writes her diary at night under the covers. As her friends find families, Olivia begins to believe she will never escape from this island. Historical Notes at the end of the novel give background to the existence of this prison school on an island, and the reason there were so many girls there.

Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour

8^th August 1879

Tonight I clutch you to my heart, dear copybook. Thankfully your soft leather folds and my precious quill and ink were protected as we rowed from Kelly’s Bush and pulled ashore at the Fitzroy Dock.

Although the water was choppy and my petticoats got wet, I had you tucked safely into my bodice so that no one could find you. Your pages stayed dry and my name, Olivia Markham, hasn’t blotted on the front page where I wrote it last Christmas Day.

Escape from Cockatoo Island is a new offering in Scholastic’s My Australian Story series. Each title puts a fictional character in a particular place in Australian history. Escape from Cockatoo Island is told in first person and the reader has the opportunity to travel with the main character through their experiences. Olivia has been fortunate to be able to read and write, as so many of her companions cannot. Although she has been very accepting of her life so far, she begins to long for more. Other possible outcomes for Cockatoo Island residents are showcased in her friends and acquaintances. The reader also learns a little about ‘street arabs’ and other children who end up at the school. Recommended for upper primary readers.

Escape from Cockatoo Island , Yvette Poshoglian Scholastic Press 2013 ISBN: 9781742832456

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

Available from good bookstores and online .

Australian Story: An Illustrated Timeline, by Tania McCartney

ith such a huge time span to cover, and much of it predating written history, author Tania McCartney still manages to cover a wide array of events

Once there was nothing.
Then there was something.

So begins this wonderful nonfiction offering, which uses this simple. yet powerful, introduction to then explore Australia’s history, from Earth’s beginnings, to the time of the dinosaurs, Indigenous Australia pre European exploration and settlement and through the stages of history since then to the modern day. With such a huge time span to cover, and much of it predating written history, author Tania McCartney still manages to cover a wide array of events and, imporrtantly, to acknowledge important aspects of Aboriginal history such as the Dreamtime, and the impact of European settlement on the original owners. Post settlement history includes key dates such as Federation, exploration and Australia’s involvement in war, as well as Australia’s sporting, industrial and artistic achievements, as well as natural disasters, economic development and more.

The timeline is supported throughout by illustrations including photographs and artworks from the National Library’s collection, as well as new illustrations by Peter Shaw. Young readers will enjoy exploring the visual material and the overall design of the book is excellent, being both accessible to young readers and visually pleasing.

This is an outstanding classroom or school library tool, but is also likely to be enjoyed at home for private reading, being the sort of book that can be either read cover to cover or simply browsed and dipped into.

An excellent resource.

Australian Story: An Illustrated Timeline, by Tania McCartney
NLA Publishing, 2012
ISBN 9780642277459

This book is available in good bookstores, directly from the National Library of Australia’s bookstore, or online from Fishpond.

Desert Boys, by Peter Rees

The two World Wars were just a generation apart. It was not uncommon to find sons following fathers to fight, like them, in the desert. To some observers the Australians were madmen; others thought they treated war as a bit of a lark. But there there is no doubt that the Australians as soldiers won respect.

Of the many stories told of Australians’ involvement in the two World Wars, there seem to be fewer about their battles in the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East than about Europe, the Pacific and, of course, Gallipoli. Whilst some famous actions are well documented -such as the siege of Tobruk – others are relatively unknown. In Desert Boys author Peter Rees redresses this imbalance by focussing on the stories of the soldiers, sailors and airmen who fought in the desert campaigns of the two wars, providing a detailed and moving account of their actions.

Whilst this is a historical text and, as such, necessarily documents dates, places and details of campaigns, it is also a very human account, with Rees making extensive use of letters, diaries, memoirs and interviews to tell the stories using the words of men (and, occasionally, women) who were there. It is this that really takes the reader into the midst of the action and of its very rel human toll, with final letters home, recounts of key events, amazing stories of survival and equally moving tales of those who did not survive.

At over 700 pages in length, including notes and acknowledgements, this weighty offering is a must for lovers of military history and inspiring for any reader.

An Excerpt From a Letter
The weather is getting very hot here now and between the flies in the daytime and mosquitoes and several other insect pests at night a fellow gets a fairly lively tmie of it. I thinka ll the plagues of pharoah’s time are still here. We killed a couple of snakes just outside out tent a couple of nights ago and talk about dogs, there are thousands of the mongrels here of every size and colour. It is quite a common thing to wake up in the night with a great big mongrel dog sniffing in a fellow’s ear, but there are not so many lately as they make good targets to practise on. Frank Willis, 1916

Desert Boys: Australians at War from Beersheba to Tobruk and El Alamein, by Peter Rees
Allen & Unwin, 2011
ISBN 978174114292

This book is available in good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

My Father's War, by Sophie Masson

It scares me a lot, thinking of Dad out there, far away in that dangerous, terrible place, wondering how it will be when he comes back – if he comes back, that is…

Annie’s dad has been away fighting in the Great War for two years leaving Annie and her mum at home in Australia. But Dad’s letters have stopped coming, ad Annie’s mother is sick with worry, so she’s decided to do something about it. She will travel to France to find him. Soon Annie and her Mother, who is French, are in France trying to find out what has happened to Dad. As she pieces together the clues to her father’s disappearance, Annie finds out for herself what war is like.

My Father’s War , part of the My Australian Story series, presents a fictional first person account of the events and impact of the first world war on a twelve year old girl. Told using diary format, Annie’s mixed parentage and feisty nature enable the reader to experience the war first hand as she travels through the war zone in search of her father.

Excellent historical fiction for primary aged readers.

My Father’s War , by Sophie Masson
Scholastic, 2011
ISBN 9781741698282

This book can be purchased in good bookstores, or online from Fishpond .

Fromelles, by Carole Wilkinson

The guns have been going all day long. It’s enough to drive you crazy…the waiting to see if this is the shell that is going to blow you to pieces… (Private Walter McAlister, 60th Battalion, 15th Bridgade)

The Battle of Fromelles began at 11 am on 19 July, 1916 and lasted less than 24 hours, but when it was over more than 5000 Australian soldiers were either dead, wounded or taken prisoner. More died in this died than in the Boer, Korean and Vietnam wars combined. Yet this, Australia’s bloodiest day at war, is not as well-known as campaigns such as Gallipoli. Fromelles: Australia’s Bloodiest Day at War attempts to redress this by providing young readers with both the facts of the battle and a glimpse at the human face of the battle.

Factual chapters are interspersed with fictional chapters telling the story of an underage soldier who enlists in Melbourne and finds himself fighting in Fromelles. There are also visual aids including maps, photographs and fact-boxes.

Carole Wilkinson has a wonderful knack of making history come alive for young readers.

Fromelles: Australia’s Bloodiest Day at War, by Carole Wilkinson
Black Dog, 2011
ISBN This book can be purchased from good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Meet Grace, by Sofie Laguna

Grace screamed as men grabbed at her legs. She heard whistling and shouting and then she fainted as she fell, half-dragged, into the arms of a runner.
When she came to, the policemen hauled her into a cart. Grace didn’t need to ask where she was going. She already knew. To the gallows to be hanged.

It is 1808 and orphan girl Grace lives in London, surviving by working daily as a mudlark – scouring the muddy bottom of the Thames for things to sell. Her one joy in life is watching the horses on Fleet Street. But one day Grace’s hunger gets the better of her and she steals an apple. Even her horse friend can’t save her from being arrested, and soon she finds herself in prison facing the possibility of a death sentence.

Meet Grace is the first of four stories about this convict girl and forms part of the Our Australian Girl series from Puffin books. The series traces the lives of four girls in different periods of Australian history, with each girl the heroine of four books, and each set of four written by an eminent Australian author.

Meet Grace not only introduces Grace, enticing young readers to sek out the next instalment, but is self-contained enough to be satisfying on its own.

Meet Grace (Our Australian Girl), by Sofie Laguna
Puffin, 2011
ISBN 9780143305286

This book can be purchased from good bookstores, or online from Fishpond.

Booms Busts and Bushfires, by Jackie French

Booms, Busts and Bushfires is the eighth title in this ‘Fair Dinkum Histories’ series from Jackie French and Scholastic. The series started with Shipwreck, Sailors and 60,000 Years and ends with this newest title. Jackie French casts her net wide, to touch on a wide range of subjects from the liberal environment that founded the Nimbin communities, through weather extremes, to politics, economics, technology and Indigenous rights…

Australia had changed before, but slowly – with hot, dry periods that lasted for years, decades, even thousands of years; with the slow spread of Indigenous nations across the continent, and the faster, but still gradual, spread of the colonisers after 1788.
Now everything seemed to speed up. So many changes had occurred in the US, the UK and Europe during the 1960s – all of them watched every night in Australian lounge rooms on the television news – that some people spoke of the 60s as a decade of social revolution. Different ways of thinking, new inventions and changing fashions still mostly came from overseas, but communications and travel brought information to Australians faster than every before. Once we had been at the end of the world. Now, with cheap plane tickets and TV, we no longer seemed so far away.

Booms, Busts and Bushfires is the eighth title in this ‘Fair Dinkum Histories’ series from Jackie French and Scholastic. The series started with Shipwreck, Sailors and 60,000 Years and ends with this newest title. Jackie French casts her net wide, to touch on a wide range of subjects from the liberal environment that founded the Nimbin communities, through weather extremes, to politics, economics, technology and Indigenous rights. Text boxes inserted throughout expand information where necessary. Peter Sheehan’s cartoon-like illustrations help to illustrate and lighten the text, although the tone is conversational and entertaining as well as informative. There are detailed Contents, Bibliography and Index pages for skimmers or re-readers keen to find particular information.

History is such a big topic that it’s hard to pin it down. Attempts to include everything must fail, because it is impossible to gather it all together. Particularly in books for children. Jackie French’s strength is surely in her ability to dance across the years landing lightly on events, minor and major. Social history is as important as politics in helping the world come alive to those who did not live it. Booms, Busts and Bushfires and the other titles in this series provide a tasting plate – enough of a look to get a broad sense of history, and enough details to encourage and support further reading. Peter Sheehan includes a wonderful series of caricatures of Australian Prime Ministers! Recommended for mid- to upper-primary readers and beyond.

Booms, Busts and BushfiresJackie French, Peter Sheehan
Scholastic Press 2011
ISBN: 9781741697865

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author
www.clairesaxby.com

This book can be purchased in good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop, by Hazel Edwards

‘Ready, set, go.’ Ernie Dunlop heaved the sack of grain onto his shoulder. His brother, Alan, was just behind him, struggling with a second sack. The two boys ran across the dusty farmyard, staggering under the loads. The hot sun was like needles on their skin.
‘You won again Ernie,’ panted Alan, dropping his sweaty sack on the growing pile. Ernie was taller than Alan who was 20 months older. Both boys had strong shoulders from the farm work. Often they made a competition out of the jobs around the farm, but long-legged Ernie usually won.

Ernie, who became known as Weary while at university, was born 1907. He and his brother grew up on a struggling family farm near Wangaratta. He was an inquisitive, spirited and very active child who knew early on that he wanted to be a doctor. He studied pharmacy then won a scholarship to study Medicine at Melbourne University. While studying, he became a skilful rugby player. When war was declared, Weary joined up, keen to put his surgeon skills to good use. But as well as being a skilled surgeon, he was a good administrator, good at solving problems and negotiating with others. These skills were to become instrumental in his survival and the survival of others when he became a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese.

Weary Dunlop was a big man, both in stature and in ability and in terms of his achievements. Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop is the second title in a new series from New Frontier Publishing. The first was about Dame Nellie Melba, and there are more titles on the way. Each introduces an iconic Australian and their life both before and after they became well known. Chapter headings outline stages in his life and a timeline gives an ‘at-a-glance’ summary of his life. Most openings feature a colour image. This is an accessible introduction to the life of a fascinating Australian. It covers his childhood, education, marriage, war experience and post-war life. A well-rounded summary of a remarkable man. Recommended for mid-primary readers.

Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop, Hazel Edwards ill Pat Reynolds
New Frontier Publishing 2011

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s author
www.clairesaxby.com