Pamela Rushby, Lizzie and Margaret Rose, Omnibus Books/Scholastic Australia, Oct 2016, 272pp., $16.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781742991528
Here’s one of those books that hooks you from the word go. It opens in London, in 1940, where we meet 10-year-old Margaret Rose who has just survived a deadly air raid that destroys her family home. Across the world, in Townsville, Queensland, her aunt decides to take her in, so she is forced to venture across the sea to navigate life in a strange country with her aunt and uncle and three cousins she has never met, including 11-year-old Lizzie.
Told alternately through the eyes of Margaret Rose and her 11-year-old cousin, Lizzie, the book details Margaret Rose’s new life in a place where the war is also encroaching. Pamela Rushby is adept at taking a little-known section of history and breathing life into it in a way that beautifully balances fact with fiction and makes history accessible to a young audience.
This story is cleverly constructed, with the rising tension between the two cousins mirrored in the increasing impact of the war on an Australian town and its inhabitants.
Rich with powerful prose, endearing characters, humour and poignancy, this is the perfect classroom resource for primary students investigating the effect of World War II on a local level.
Reviewed by Penny Harrison