She flung the fabric around her shoulders….and then everything went black.
Carly Mills, the main adventurer in Carly Mills: Pioneer Girl. A new World, is a young girl who lives on a farm in Apis Creek in Queensland but is about to start boarding school in Brisbane. As a summer holidays treat she has come to Sydney to visit friends and sight see but little does she know she will be doing a lot more than that!
As Carly and her friend Dora wonder around the city of Sydney they decide to visit Customs House. It’s a busy place with a lot to look at but when they pick up some very old looking shawls – their day changes drastically.
The shawls, once wrapped around their shoulders, are a portal to 1841 where Caroline Chisholm is busy looking after newly arrived women from Britain. Carly and Dora get to meet Caroline and visit the house she sets up for the women who arrive in Sydney before setting them up with safe jobs in the country.
This book is wonderful not only for the time travelling adventure children will experience but for the historical information they will absorb through this story.
Caroline Chisholm played a vital role in women’s safety and rights in the early settlement of Australia and without her, many young women would have been left in dangerous living conditions and employers.
History does play an important part of our lives but can often be wordy and tiresome for children – this book by Jane Smith brings it to life in a creative and fun way.
I was absorbed by this book, Carly Mills: Pioneer Girl. A New World, as was my 9 year old daughter – we read it in one sitting!
We both learnt quite a bit and with the final few pages dedicated to the history of what Caroline Chisholm did along with a Q & A with her, we learnt even more.
This is the first book in the Carly Mills adventures and we cannot wait to see what else Jane Smith has in store!
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