Tag: danielle wood

These are not, I should say at the outset, tales written for the benefit of well-behaved girls who always stick to the path when they go to Grandma’s…Rather, these are tales for girls who have boots as stout as their hearts, and who are prepared to firmly lace them up (boots and hearts both) and step out into the wilds in search of what they desire.

Rosie Little is a modern Little Red Riding Hood, who traipses (or perhaps tramps) through life in a pair of red Doc Martens. Her stories, about her own life and those of her friends and acquaintances, are whimsical, clever and mesmerizing. There is the tale of her cousin Meredith a large woman who is the unwitting (and unwilling) collector of elephants, and the tale of her friend Eve who moves to the country to pursue a career as an artist, only to find herself unable to start painting. But the stories which produce the most empathy with the reader are Rosie’s own stories – of love and of loss, of work and travel – each very different but each a gem, to be enjoyed by itself and, gradually, as part of a delicious whole.

From the award winning author of The Alphabet of Light and Dark, Danielle Woods, Rosie Little’s Cautionary Tales for Girls is a delightful offering.

Rosie Little’s Cautionary Tales for Girls, by Danielle Wood
Allen & Unwin, 2006

You can buy this book online at Fishpond.

When Essie’s grandfather dies, she returns to Bruny Island and to the lighthouse where her great-grandfather was keeper for half of his life. There, in the solitude of the now empty lighthouse and the keeper’s cottage, she unravels the stories of her great grandparents, her grandparents, her parents and herself.

Her grandfather has left her a box of memories – a postcard, a carved coconut and a tiny coin – and the memories of the stories he told her when he was alive. These are the fragments which she will explore and weave together to write the story of her ancestors and to try to make sense of her own life.

In the meantime, a childhood acquaintance has reentered her life. But Pete Shelverton has a history of his own.

The Alphabet of Light and Dark won the Vogel Literary Award for author Danielle Wood. Her writing has a wonderful richness which makes it both absorbing and highly accessible. A beautiful read.

The Alphabet of Light and Dark, by Danielle Wood
Allen & Unwin, 2003