australian history – Page 3

Dame Nellie Melba. by Gabiann Marin

Six-year-old Nellie crouched up in the tree branches, peering down at her father as he approached the dam. She knew she would be in trouble if he found her sitting in the old gum tree, sopping wet, so she decided the best thing was to stay very quiet until he passed.
Suddenly, her father looked up into the tree, straight at Nellie. She shrank back against the smooth bark, but she knew it was too late, she’d been spotted. At that moment, she heard the humming, a favourite song of hers that her mother used to sing when she was a baby. After a moment of listening, Nellie realised the humming sounds were coming from her!

When Nellie was a child, in the 1860s, singing in public was not considered a ladylike thing to do. But Nellie was determined, from an early age, that singing would be her life. Not long after she finished school, her mother and young sister died. Nellie, her father and a sister moved to Queensland where strong-minded Nellie married an Englishman. Nellie tried to put aside the notion of singing but found it impossible. She sang in Melbourne and achieved some success. But before long she found Melbourne too small for her ambitions and sailed for Europe. There she achieved the success she’d dreamed off and returned to Australia a star.

It’s often difficult to comprehend that famous people were once just like all the rest of us, doing normal things, dreaming big dreams. Dame Nellie Melba, international singing star, was once a small child hiding in a tree to avoid getting into trouble. With a good voice and a great deal of determination, she showed that it is possible to make dreams come true. Dame Nellie Melbasets out to tell Nellie’s story, from her origins, through sadness and wrong-turnings to her world-wide triumphs. It makes Nellie real, and her story meaningful and accessible to children today. Aussie Heroes Dame Nellie Melba is the first in a new ‘Aussie Heroes’ series from New Frontier Publishing. Recommended for upper primary readers.

Dame Nellie Melba, Gabiann Marin, Rae Dale
New Frontier Publishing 2010
ISBN: 9781921042645

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author
www.clairesaxby.com
This book can be purchased online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Tasmania's Convicts, by Alison Alexander

Convicts: hardened criminals, petty offenders, shiftless tramps, ordinary people? Ancestors to ignore, to defend, to hide, to boast about? A shameful past, or an interesting and novel one? A history to deny or sensationalise? One that had no effect on the present, or left an indelible stain?

Tasmania’s Convicts: How Felons Built a Free Society is, as the title would suggest, a nonfiction offering, exploring the role of convicts in the settlement and development of Hobart and all of Tasmania.

With 72 000 convicts transported to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) between 1803 and 1853, and approximately 74 percent of modern day Tasmanians descended from convicts, the contribution these often unwilling settlers made to shaping Tasmania is undeniable. Historian and author Dr Alison Alexander explores this contribution, peppering her text with anecdotes and examples of the convicts, the lives they left behind, and their new lives in the colony.

For anyone with an interest in Australian history, this is a very accessible offering.

Tasmania’s Convicts: How Felons Built a Free Society, by Alison Alexander
Allen & Unwin, 2010

This book can be purchased online from Fishpond, Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

The Hunt for Ned Kelly, by Sophie Masson

I do not think that anyone alive in our time will ever forget Ned Kelly. I know I never shall. Was he a hero? Was he a villain? I cannot say, even now. But he will live in my memory forever, the dark and the bright, together.

It is 1879 and 12 year old Jamie Ross and his older sister Ellen are travelling through Victoria. The Kelly Gang is on the roam, but Jamie and Ellen are not afraid. Rather, Ellen is hoping to have the opportunity to photograph them and make her fortune.

But their encounters with the Kelly’s and their supporters are not as they expect, and when the chance to take the photo arises, the chance to make money is no longer as exciting as it seems.

The Hunt for Ned Kelly is a diary format story exploring the life and times of Ned Kelly through the experiences of a child character. Like other titles in the My Australian Story series, the story combines fiction with history to give young readers a personal experience of this piece of history.

The Hunt for Ned Kelly will appeal to upper primary aged readers.

The Hunt for Ned Kelly (My Australian Story), by Sophie Masson
Scholastic, 2010

This title can be purchased online from Fishpond . Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Battlefield, by Alan Tucker

‘BANZAI!’
The Japs charged, but I wasn’t scared. Even though they had me outnumbered three to one, I knew I could do them. I’d beaten them every other time.
I stood my ground, watched their rifles and held my bayonet at the ready. Dad had taught me the drill: ‘Stick them in the ribcage under their leading arm, son.’
He learned to kill during the last war. He never got to bayonet anyone, although he tried the day the Germans captured him. If he hadn’t been blinded with gas he’d have been able to see straight and jab one or two of them. He says gas is a coward’s weapon. But I’d use it to free my brother.
‘BANZAI!’

Barry lives on the family farm near Cowra, with his parents and six sisters. Battlefield is set in the final months of the second world war. Barry’s only brother, Jack joined the army but is now in a Japanese POW camp. Cowra has it’s own POW camp. Firstly it had Italians but now it has the hated Japanese. They don’t follow the rules of war. They don’t surrender, they play by their own rules. Barry is desperate to enlist, and in the meantime, he practises being a soldier. His teachers are his father, and his sister’s girlfriend Jack who trains new recruits and reckons he’s as good as any of the recruits. His army and enemy are his little sisters. But there are rumours of a Japanese breakout from the camp and Barry wants to be ready.

Battlefield is set a long way from the war in the Pacific and even further from the war in Europe, but both come to Cowra in their own way. Barry is isolated by his father’s silence about war and by his brother’s absence. He’s a very determined character, and will be ready for anything when his turn comes. Barry’s father teaches him to shoot, but also teaches him about the dangers of guns. Jack teaches him about tactics and strategy. Barry practices soldiering every day and plots ways to get closer to the interment camp. He wants to skill himself for the real thing. Battlefield is told in the first person which brings the reader very close to Barry, but also allows the reader to experience his fallibility. There are themes about war, family, gender roles and more. Recommended for upper primary- to early secondary readers.

Battlefield, Alan Tucker
Scholastic Press 2010
ISBN: 9781741695519

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

This book can be purchased online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Aussie Legends, by Tom Baddley

The story of Australia is full of wondrous facts,
Of men and women, young and old, and their amazing acts.
But there’s one name that seems to stir opinions good and bad
Ned Kelly – wild bushranger – was he marvellous or mad?

Australia’s non-indigenous history is very short, but is peopled (and horsed) by some memorable characters. Before books were widely available and affordable, many stories were circulated by oral storytellers. Rhyme was also used by some of our most famous storytellers like Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson to capture the stories of Australia. And Tom Baddeley has chosen rhyme to tell the stories of six Australian legends. Each story begins with a map showing where the legend lived and is accompanied by full page illustrations. Aussie Legends is a sturdy hardback, with a green and gold cover.

History is fascinating, but it’s not always accessible to younger children. Tom Baddeley has combined history with poetry to bring stories to new generations of children. These stories are teasers, tasters. The stories are an introduction to non-indigenous history and will hopefully inspire further reading, further curiosity about other times and other people. The illustrations show the times as well as the legends. Stories like those of Phar Lap and Don Bradman also reflect the nationalism and pride Australians felt for their heroes. Others, like the story of Ned Kelly, talk about the continued challenge of deciding whether Ned was hero or villain. Recommended for primary readers.

Aussie Legends, Tom Baddeley ill Tracey Gibbs
Fremantle Press 2009
ISBN: 9781921361609

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

this book can be purchased online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Bluey's War, by Herb Hamlet

The officer barked a command and the escort began beating the prisoners with the bamboo canes. Bluey fell to the floor. Digger lasted a little longer before he too collapsed from the brutal onslaught. Bluey closed his eyes.
I can’t survive this.

Since he stood up for her in primary school, Bluey and Ellen have been friends, but in the years following school their friendship blossoms into romance. When war is declared, and Bluey knows he must answer the call, Ellen is left behind, waiting for the day Bluey will return. He does come home, and his feelings for Ellen are unchanged, but the war has left him scarred, and there are some battles that Ellen can’t help Bluey fight.

Bluey’s War is the tale of one man’s war – both his experiences of wartime, as well as his battle afterwards to deal with the memories of those terrible experiences. It is also the story of his wife Ellen’s own war – to overcome a troubled childhood and the trauma of seeing her husband changed by the war.

Bluey’s War is a moving tale which will resonate with Australian readers.

Bluey’s War, by Herb Hamlet
Penguin Books, 2009

This book can be purchased online at Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

The Other Anzacs, by Peter Rees

‘I had my right arm under a leg, which I thought was [the patient’s], but when I lifted it I found to my horror that it was a loose leg with a boot and a puttee on it. It was one of the orderly’s legs which had been blown off and had landed on the patient’s bed. The next day they found the trunk about 20 yards away.’

When Australian and New Zealand men went to fight in the Great War, they entered the pages of Australia’s history, rightly earning the tag of heroes. But wherever the men fought, there were also women, bravely risking their lives to tend the wounded, the ill and the dying. Few modern day Australians are aware of the extraordinary courage and compassion shown by these women, who have been largely forgotten.

The Other Anzacs is an in depth account of the lives and contribution of the nurses who volunteered to go to war and provide nursing support to not just Australian and New Zealand troops, but also to the wounded from other Allied nations, and even enemy soldiers. Using the unpublished diaries, letters and photographs of these women, as well as carefully researched facts, author Peter Rees provides not just a history of these women, but an insight into their emotions and sacrifices as he provides their firsthand accounts of the war. With approximately 3000 Australian and New Zealand women having served during the war, and forty-five killed and over two hundred decorated for their service, this is an important piece of our history which must be preserved. Rees is ensuring this by not only documenting it, but also making it accessible.

An important, informing and engrossing book.

The Other Anzacs, by Peter Rees
Allen & Unwin, 2008

This book can be purchased online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

The Camel Who Crossed Australia, by Jackie French

I’ll tell you what, young camel. You lie there and chew your cud, and learn to smell the sky. What else is there to do while we wait for the clouds to drift in from the horizon, and for the rain to come? And I will tell you how I came to understand the world of men, and how I was once part of the boldest caravan that travelled the furthest in the world…

The story of Burke and Wills and their expedition to cross Australia from south to north and thus open up new land and new routes is one which most Australians should be familiar with. However, this retelling of the story is unique – because the narrator is a camel named Bell Sing who was part of the expedition, retelling his story to a young camel in the desert years later. The use of the camel as narrator offers a fresh, unique perspective on the story, which is complemented by first person narratives of one of the cameleers, Dost Mahomet, and of John King, one of the few survivors of the expedition.

This use of triple perspectives adds depth and allows the inclusion of historical detail which the use of the camel alone would make difficult, however it is the camel’s story which dominates the book, and which will draw young readers in to the story.

For a reader new to the story of Burke and Wills there is enough information, including back of the book author notes, for the story to be followed, and for those who already know the story, it provides a fresh viewpoint. At times funny, at others torrid or sad, The Camel Who Crossed Australia is excellent historical fiction for upper primary aged readers.

The Camel Who Crossed Australia, by Jackie French
HarperCollins Australia, 2008

This book can be purchased online at Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

The Great Arch, by Vicki Hastrich

In the workshops the noise was deafening.
When the mangle straightened the largest plates of steel, the land shook all the way to the beach at Manly. And up on the bridge, inside the chords in the sweltering dark, the riveters’ pneumatic hammers rat-tatted a black headache – decorated by small fires of glowing scale falling from the red-hot rivets. This is when you knew you were alive, in the roar of work.

When work begins on the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, it seems an almost impossible dream – to build a bridge which will finally unite the city of Sydney, and, at the same time, bring the whole of Australia into the modern age. As all of Sydney watches the bridge rise across the harbour, no one is more enthusiastic, more obsessed, than Reverend Ralph Cage. From his rectory he watches the building, and as his parish struggles through the Great Depression, and is torn apart by the demolition and restructure which the bridge necessitates, Ralph is too absorbed in the marvel of the bridge to be aware of those around him.

The Great Arch is a story of one man’s obsession with the bridge, but it is more. Set it two time periods – during the building of the bridge in the 1920s and 1930s, and in the weeks after Ralph suffers a stroke in 1967 – it shows Ralph as both a dreamer and a man of faith. Though often unaware of the needs of those around him, he is nonetheless a man of emotion, inspired by the greatness of the bridge with which he is so obsessed. Readers may feel frustrated with Ralph, but will also come to understand hi and perhaps even to like him.

An intriguing story of how an ordinary man attempts to live big.

The Great Arch, by Vicki Hastrich
Allen & Unwin, 2008

This book can be purchased online at Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

A Nation of Swaggies and Diggers, by Jackie French

Australia was booming, buzzing, clacking – and there was a lot of moo-ing and baa-ing going on as well. The colonies at the end of the world had grown!

A Nation of Swaggies & Diggers is an informative book on the early days of Federation in Australia. It details the early time of the colony from the end of the first gold rush in 1880 through to the end of the first Great War, charting the hardships and difficulties faced by the swaggies, and the diggers, the impact the war had on the population and way of life, and the development of the country.

Whilst this is not the first book written on the subject, for children it is certainly the most accessible. French has a humorous yet honest style, which doesn’t gloss over serious events. The text is complemented by the cartoon style illustrations of Peter Sheehan, putting his own funny spin on events.

This is history which kids can enjoy, even while they are learning plenty about this important part of Australian history. It is the fifth instalment in an eight-part series covering Australian history from prehistoric times to the Centenary of Federation.

Nice stuff.

A Nation of Swaggies & Diggers, by Jackie French
Scholastic, 2008