Bungawitta is the latest creation by Emily Rodda of Deltora Quest fame and this title is another great one.
The town of Bungawitta has been hit severely by the drought. The residents have left in droves so that it was "like Noah's Ark in reverse" ... until there were only 12 people left in town. The folks would gathered every morning at the general store to drink tea and to watch the morning news. One morning they decided that enough was enough, even if the rains came tomorrow they still needed money to help keep Bungawitta alive. And a festival would attract city tourists with money to spend. But can such a small band of enthusiast pout on a festival?
Our Australian Girl Series.
This is a fantastic new series. The books are un-put-downable. They are history, wonderfully written, about girls and the development of early Australia. Each of the four titles Meet Poppy, Meet Grace, Meet Letty, Meet Rose, are the first books and each character has four titles in the series telling their stories. Each title also has as sample chapter from the next title and a few pages of facts about the period of time that each character is in. Must reads that will make history real!
Our Australian Girl: Meet Poppy Gabrielle Wang (Penguin)
It is 1864 when we meet Poppy. She is a young Chinese Aboriginal girl, who lives on a Christian mission with her brother Augustus and other children. When she discovers a letter about her brother's removal to a new home in a room she was dusting in the Mission Office she immediately warns Augustus who flees that night. But poppy is also to be moved, so using the secret Her brother told her about a secret passage behind sacks in the Darkling Room Poppy to flee ... in search of her brother of freedom and a better life and the gold that will save them.
It's 1808 when we meet Grace who soon becomes a convict girl. She is living with her uncle in London. Her Uncle sends her daily to scour for anything that he can sell for money. She is barely fed and lonely. But Grace loves talking to the Fleet Street horses and so when one day, when she has hunger pangs after her uncle has drunk all the money from her latest find she takes an apple and then more from a grocer's cart fleeing on the back of horse. She is pursued and in a hopeless escape she is caught. What will happen to her? Will she be sent to prison and hanged ... or worse.
Other titles:
Meet Letty (1841) and Meet Rose (1900)
see the terrific website (http://ouraustraliangirl.com.au/) for lots more information and fun!
