"In the 80th anniversary year, Jackie French explores the dropping of the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, which ended World War 2.
1942.
Japan has bombed Sydney Harbour. Sixteen-year-old Ossie lies about his age to protect his country, even though it means abandoning his only family, a one-eyed dog named Lucky.
Kind-hearted Mrs Plum is already looking after forty-six dogs belonging to soldiers who've gone to war. She can't possibly care for another. But just when she's becoming desperate to find a way to feed them, help arrives: thirteen-year-old Kat Murphy volunteers to take Lucky and persuades the girls at school to help, too.
As Kat and Lucky grow closer, Kat realises he can still see Ossie, the master he loves. And somehow, Kat and Ossie catch glimpses into each other's lives, too. This extraordinary connection helps Ossie survive when he is taken as a prisoner of war to Japan. There, he witnesses a strange mushroom cloud rise above Nagasaki - the result of a bomb that will take, save and change lives, and forever leave the question: was it worth it?
Taken from first-hand Japanese accounts of that momentous but often misunderstood time, this is a story of quiet heroism and endurance in the face of an unimaginable horror that continues to resound to this day."
"This is the story of women who fought during WWI, but not as nurses or ambulance drivers.
In 1917 sixteen-year-old Jean McLain is working as a post-office assistant in England. But when she wins a national Morse code competition, the British army makes a request Jean cannot refuse - to take a secret position as a signaller in France.
If Jean can keep the signals flowing between headquarters and the soldiers at the Front, Britain might possibly win the war.
But the British army are determined to hide its desperation - and will go on to burn every document that showed how women and girls were working behind the scenes, in the trenches and even in battles during World War I.
Decades later, an old woman tells the story of 'the telegraph girl': the friends she lost, the man who loved her, and the happiness she so surprisingly found again.
Based on true events, this story of adventure, courage and unshakable loyalty restores women and girls to their place in history that the authorities tried to erase.
AWARDS
Longlisted - 2024 Book Links Award for Children's Historical Fiction"
"An empowering and exhilarating look at the girls who went before us, and the way they shaped the world.
Ming Qong is convinced that girls have changed the world throughout history.
So when Ming is thrust back in time to Belgium during WWI, only to be rescued from a burning cellar by Marie -- an experienced spy at only twelve years of age -- she finally has her proof. Marie is involved with a female secret resistance group who risk their lives to outwit the German troops.
But Ming now faces a tough choice: will she send coded messages and risk her own life in this war on which the future depends?
As Ming learns, change is never easy, so how can one girl change the world?
From one of Australia's favourite writers comes an inspiring series for all the young people who will, one day, change the world.
AWARDS
Book Links 2023 Award for Children's Historical Fiction - Longlisted"
"An empowering and exhilarating look at the girls who went before us, and the way they shaped the world.
Twelve-year-old Ming Qong is convinced that girls must have changed the world, even if they are rarely mentioned in history books.
So when Ming gets the chance to go back in time, she imagines herself changing destinies from a glittering palace or an explorer's ship. Instead, she ends up in Australia in 1898, living a tough life as Flo Watson on a drought-stricken farm.
Luckily, Ming is rescued by Flo's Aunt McTavish. Wealthy Aunt McTavish belongs to Louisa Lawson's Suffragist Society, who are desperately and courageously fighting for women's rights. And Ming is determined to get involved, to make a difference.
But change is never easy, so how can one girl change the world?
From one of Australia's favourite writers comes an inspiring new series for all the young people who will, one day, change the world.
AWARDS
Notable - CBCA Younger Reader's Book 2023"
"The amazing story of Australia's first surgeon and the boy he adopted.
It's 1789, and as the new colony in Sydney Cove is established, Surgeon John White defies convention and adopts Nanberry, an Aboriginal boy, to raise as his son. Nanberry is clever and uses his unique gifts as an interpreter to bridge the two worlds he lives in.With his white brother, Andrew, he witnesses the struggles of the colonists to keep their precarious grip on a hostile wilderness. And yet he is haunted by the memories of the Cadigal warriors who will one day come to claim him as one of their own.
This true story follows the brothers as they make their way in the world - one as a sailor, serving in the Royal Navy, the other a hero of the Battle of Waterloo. No less incredible is the enduring love between the gentleman surgeon and the convict girl who was saved from the death penalty and became a great lady in her own right.
AWARDS
Honour Book - CBCA 2012 (Younger Reader's Book of the Year)
PRAISE
'[Jackie] is one of few masters who can embed historic characters in rattling good tales, and her meticulous research is seamlessly inserted so that you live the detail rather than learn it. Irresistible for history buffs of any age.' - Good Reading Magazine, five stars
'If every Australian history class in the country could be taught by Jackie French, we'd have an entire generation of kids with an enormous thirst for knowledge about our early European settlement and a whole lot more compassion for those who already called this country home.' - Sunday Tasmanian
'I've been telling all my friends to read this book, and to give it to their kids to read. It's absolutely engrossing.' - Herald Sun"
"Six mysterious passengers and seven dark secrets. Who can be trusted?
It's a dark and dangerous journey for the Cobb and Co night mail coach, but when his coach-driver father is injured, young Jem Donovan must take the reins.
Surely a boy like Jem can't handle a team of four horses and guide the coach on a rough bush track through fog and untold dangers?
But there are six passengers on the coach tonight, each with a secret.
And if Jem can't get them all to their destination by morning, the seventh secret could be deadly ...
AWARDS
Longlisted - ARA Historical Novel Prize 2021 (Children's and Young Adult Category)
CBCA Notable Book 2022
Shortlisted - Davitt Awards 2022 (Children's Crime Novel Category)"
"From Australia's best-loved storyteller comes the final book in the bestselling Matilda Saga
This is a love song to our nation, told in a single sweeping story
Jed Kelly has finally persuaded her great aunt Nancy to tell the story of her grandparents. The tale that unfolds is one of Australia's greatest romances - that of Clancy of the Overflow, who gave up everything for Rose, the woman he adored, and yet still gained all he'd lost and more.
But Nancy's story is not the history that Jed expects. More tales lurk behind the folklore that surrounds Clancy - the stories of the women hidden in Australia's long history, who forged a nation and whose voices need to be heard.
It is also a story of many kinds of love. Clancy's growing passion for the bush, immortalised in Paterson's poem, which speaks to him in the ripple of the river and the song of the stars, and Nancy's need to pass on her deep understanding of her country.
But perhaps the most moving love story of all is the one that never happened, between Matilda O'Halloran and Clancy of the Overflow. And as Jed brings all of these stories to life in her book, Matilda and Clancy will once again waltz beside the river and the forgotten will be given a new voice.
PRAISE FOR THE MATILDA SAGA
'An engrossing mystery story, an ode to strong women, and a moving exploration of the private wounds we carry ... The Last Dingo Summer is a must for your summer reading list' -- Better Reading
'The perfect read for anyone who loves immersing themselves in Australian fiction. Gripping, emotional and moving, Facing the Flame is a great book to curl up with' -- New Idea
'Highly recommended ... this was a complete binge, read in one night because it was just too good and too gripping to put down ... a cracking story filled with rich characters both old and new and imbued with all that we hold dear about Australian love of country and mateship' -- ReadPlus"
"'Gripping, emotional and moving'-- New Idea
There have been fires before, but not like this.
In 1978, as the hot wind howls and the grass dries, all who live at Gibber's Creek know their land can burn. But when you love your land, you fight for it.
For Jed Kelly, an even more menacing danger looms: a man from her past determined to destroy her. Finding herself alone, trapped and desperate to save her unborn child, Jed's only choice is to flee - into the flames.
Heartbreaking and powerful, Facing the Flame celebrates the triumph of courage and community, and a love for the land so deep that not even bushfire can erode it.
PRAISE'The perfect read for anyone who loves immersing themselves in Australian fiction. Gripping, emotional and moving, Facing the Flame is a great book to curl up with on a warm spring night.' -- New Idea"
"It's 1972 in Gibber's Creek, and across the nation, the catchcry is, 'It's time'.
As political ideals drift from disaster to the dismissal, it's also time for Jed Kelly to choose between past love, Nicholas, the local Labor member, and Sam from the Halfway to Eternity commune. It's time too for Matilda Thompson to face her ghosts and the life that took a young girl from the slums of Grinder's Alley to being the formidable matriarch of Gibber's Creek.
During this period of extraordinary social change and idealism, modern Australia would be born. And although the nation would dream of a better world, it would continue to struggle with opposing ideas of exactly what that better world might be.
Jackie French, author of the bestselling To Love a Sunburnt Country, has woven her own experience of that time into an unforgettable story of a small rural community and a nation swept into the social and political tumult of the early 1970s. A time that would bear witness to some of the most controversial events in Australian history; and for Matilda, a time that would see her vision made real, without blood spilled upon the wattle.
PRAISE FOR TO LOVE A SUNBURNT COUNTRY
'a book about love of country that is heartwarming and heartbreaking, and hard to put down'
--The Advertiser, 4 stars"
"The story behind Banjo Paterson's iconic Australian song.
'Once a jolly swagman camped by a Billabong
Under the shade of a Coolibah tree
And he sang as he watched and waited till his Billy boiled
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me...'
In 1894, twelve-year-old Matilda flees the city slums to find her unknown father and his farm. But drought grips the land, and the shearers are on strike. Her father has turned swaggie and he's wanted by the troopers. In front of his terrified daughter, he makes a stand against them, defiant to the last. 'You'll never catch me alive, said he...'
Set against a backdrop of bushfire, flood, war and jubilation, this is the story of one girl's journey towards independence. It is also the story of others who had no vote and very little but their dreams.
Drawing on the well-known poem by A.B. Paterson and from events rooted in actual history, this is the untold story behind Australia's early years as an emerging nation.
PRAISE
'Jackie French has a passion for history, and an enviable ability to weave the fascinating minutiae of everyday life into a good story.' -- Magpies Magazine"
"A prizewinning novel for readers of 8 to 12, told through the voice of a contemporary child, as she weaves a story about a secret child of Hitler.
The bombs were falling, the smoke was rising from the concentration camps, but all Hitler’s daughter knew was lessons with Fraulein Gelber, the hedgehogs she rescued from the cold and infrequent visits from her beloved Duffi, her father.
Was it just a story? Did Hitler’s daughter really exist? If you were Hitler’s daughter, would it all be your fault? Could you still love your own father if he had done what Hitler did? Mark, a contemporary child, starts to question his own beliefs as he listens to the story that Anna weaves.
A wonderfully sensitive and gripping time-slip novel that will sit well with When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit; Number the Stars and Big Tom. WW2 is a major historical topic studied in in UK primary and secondary schools, but this novel also deals with questions children so often ask of the ‘What if?’ variety."
