Gabrielle Wang & Lucia Masciullo
SYNOPSIS:
It's1941 and the war is changing Pearlie's life every day. Darwin is full of soldiers, there's a spy on the loose, and people are turning against Pearlie's best friend, Naoko, just because she's Japanese. When everything falls apart, will Pearlie be brave enough to stick up for what's right, or will her old fears get the better of her?
Meet Pearlie and join her adventure in the first of four exciting stories about a courageous girl in a world at war.
Our Australian Girl is a series of historical novels for 8- to 12-year-old girls, inspired in part by the highly successful American Girl series, but with a unique local flavour.
Set in different eras in Australian history, the stories are strongly character driven by plucky girl protagonists, and will provide readers with a sense of life in another time as well as developing an understanding of our country's past.
Each character has four short books about her that together span roughly one year in her life. With the National Curriculum's focus on history and literature, the series has had fantastic feedback from parents and schools.
WRITING STYLE / EDITORIAL COMMENTS
Pearlie's story is a fantastic springboard for talking about war, racism, the internment of people from overseas during times of conflict, prejudice, the bombing of Darwin and cultural differences.
Readers will fall in love with timid and compassionate Pearlie, who loves animals. Her adventure covers one of the most dramatic periods in Australian history, and young readers will be drawn in by Gabrielle Wang's luminous prose.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gabrielle Wang is an author and illustrator born in Melbourne of Chinese heritage. Her maternal great grandfather came to Victoria during the Gold Rush and her father from Shanghai. Her stories are a blend of Chinese and Western culture with a touch of fantasy.
Gabrielle's first children's novel, The Garden of Empress Cassia, won the 2002 Aurealis Award, was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards and was a CBCA Notable Book. The Pearl of Tiger Bay was shortlisted for the 2004 Aurealis Award and The Lion Drummer was a Notable Book in the 2009 CBCA Book of the Year Awards. A Ghost in My Suitcase won the 2009 Aurealis Award, was a CBC Notable Book, was shortlisted for the 2011 Sakura Medal and received a Highly Commended in the 2010 Prime Minister's Literary Awards. Her first young adult novel, Little Paradise also received a Highly Commended in the 2011 Prime Minister's Awards. Gabrielle's picture book The Race for the Chinese Zodiac (2010) illustrated by Sally Rippin and Regine Abos was a Notable Book in the CBCA Awards for 2011 and shortlisted for the 2011 YABBA and WAYBRA awards. Her latest books are part of the highly successful 2011 Our Australian Girl series published by Penguin - Meet Poppy, Poppy at Summerhill, Poppy and the Thief and Poppy Comes Home. Gabrielle is an ambassador for the Victorian Premiers' Reading Challenge.
The Wishbird is Gabrielle's latest novel for children.
gabriellewang.com
Lucia Masciullo grew up in Livorno, Tuscany, among smells of saltiness and rosemary. She always loved painting and after graduating in Biology she decided to pursue her dream career as an artist. In 2006 she moved to Brisbane and since then has been happily working as a fine art painter and freelance illustrator. She has recently illustrated Sonya Hartnett's The Boy and Toy.
STUDY NOTES/ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHERS
PRE READING:
· We tend to think of both World Wars as European wars in which Australians went away to fight. Yet Australia was far more directly involved in the second World war.
· Research the impact of the war on Australia.
· What happened in Darwin and Sydney?
· Why were American troops stationed in Australia?
· Students could watch the movie ‘Australia’ as background knowledge of Darwin at this time.
CHARACTERS:
Pearlie
Pearlie is the daughter of a Chinese tailor and a part-aboriginal mother. She and her family live in Darwin during the Second World War. Pearlie is an inquisitive girl who likes to learn about her own culture as well as European history. She and her best friend, Naoko, are subjected to bullying and ridicule from Dulcie McBride and the ‘snow whites’ who regard themselves as superior because of the colour of their skin. Pearlie is a hard worker who wants the best for her family and friends and unwittingly gets caught up in what may prove to be a very dangerous situation.
Naoko
Naoko’s Japanese family moved to Darwin three years earlier. Her father is a quiet, unassuming fisherman who loves tending to his bonsai. Despite the fact that they are good people, her family is targeted once the Japanese engage in the war, and they are branded as enemies simply because of their ethnicity.
Reddy
Fifteen year old Reddy craves the adventure of the war and wants to join up and fight the Germans like his father.
Dulcie McBride
Dulcie and her family were posted to Darwin from Sydney. She has a superior attitude and reflects the racist attitudes of the time. Dulcie believes Darwin to be a small, inferior country town and deals with her relocation by creating a gang of like minded, easily manipulated girls who target those they see as inferior.
Mr Hunter
Mr Hunter has only recently moved to Darwin and lives in the house vacated when the previous owners, the Thompsons were evacuated. As such he is a bit of a mystery and an enigma. The girls believe his behaviour to be unusual and, after following him, believe him to be a spy, selling Australian secrets to the Japanese.
Miss Lyon
Miss Lyon is Dulcie’s teacher. She teaches her students about their own country, but also about European society which many of them will never experience. Her fiancé is away fighting in France and she is clearly distressed when she receives word that he has been injured.
THEMES:
Darwin in the 1930s
· Why might Dulcie’s father have been sent from Sydney to Darwin? Why was Darwin so significant at this time?
· Why would Dulcie have referred to the girls in Darwin as ‘country bumpkins’?
· How would Darwin have been different from Sydney?
· Make a list of all you learn about Darwin from reading the story. How is it different from Sydney? (This may be represented as a venn diagram).
Multiculturalism
· Pearlie has Aboriginal, Scottish, Macassan, Afghan and Chinese ancestry. What does this suggest about the mix of people living in Australia at this time?
· Why might Naoko’s family have moved from Japan to Australia? What problems might they have experienced as migrants in Darwin?
· What nationality is Mr Spiros?
· Make a list of all the different nationalities of people in this book. Why might they all have been drawn to Australia?
· Dulcie McBride and her gang are called the ‘snow whites’. What was their attitude towards people such as Pearlie and Naoko? Are they better people simply because of the colour of their skin?
· Do Dulcie and her friends have any more right to be in Darwin than others such as Pearlie and Naoko?
· Why might people be suspicious of others from different cultural backgrounds?
· What does it mean for a society to be truly multicultural?
· What was the attitude towards foreigners in the 1930s and 1940s? Have these attitudes changed today?
The European Influence
· How much would students in the 1930s and 1940s have known about Europe? What methods did they have of learning?
· Why was Australia involved in what was essentially a European war?
· How and when did World war Two change from being just a European war?
· How did Australia’s involvement change?
Japanese threat
· How did Japan become involved in World War Two?
· Why was Darwin vulnerable to a threat from Japan?
· How did Japan’s involvement change the war, especially for the Australians?
· Why might there have been Japanese spies in Darwin?
· Who might the Japanese have used to spy for them? Would they be likely to use Japanese spies? Why?
· Why might Naoko’s family have to leave Darwin?
· Why were all Japanese children marched away? Did they really pose a threat to Darwin and to Australia as a whole?
Spies
· What ‘evidence’ do the girls have that Mr Hunter is a spy?
· If there was no war, would Mr Hunter’s behaviour have been viewed so suspiciously? What does this suggest about the way we interpret things?
· Why might there have been spies in Darwin?
· Why is Naoko’s family threatened?
· What would happen to those accused of spying during the war years?
· Why would Naoko’s family be targeted?
· Is it fair to assume that just because they are from Japan that they would be selling secrets to the Japanese?
Enlisting
· Why would Reddy have been so keen to join up and fight in the war?
· Why would Australians have been keen to go off and fight the Germans in a European war?
· Given the horrors of World War One, why would boys still have been eager to enlist?
· What could enlisting in war offer to boys?
· Reddy says he will say he is 18 even though he is only 15. Why would boys have enlisted when they were under age? Why would the recruitment officers have allowed them to do so?
Impact of War
· What is the impact of young men going to war, both on the boys themselves and on society as a whole?
· Miss Lyon, Pearlie’s teacher is upset because her fiancé has been injured in France. How would the fact that the men were fighting all the way away in Europe have made it harder for their loved ones back in Australia?
· Why might the Thompson family have been evacuated from Darwin?
· How can the threat of war be seen to destroy a community?
· Consider how the Japanese in Darwin are treated. What impact does war have on a community, even if there is no actual physical warfare there?
Bullying
· How do Dulcie and her gang treat the other students?
· How does Dulcie manage to gain so much power?
· What is the real motivation for Dulcie’s behaviour? (Consider the fact that she has relocated from Sydney. How might this affect her behaviour and attitude?)
· How do the others react when Pearlie chops off Dulcie’s ponytail?
· What does this suggest about bullies?
· How can the behaviour of the adults who arrest the Japanese in Darwin be seen to be not much different from Dulcie’s behaviour.
· Is bullying something only school children do?
WRITING STYLE:
· The story is told through the voice of a young girl, Pearlie. We hear the story of the war and see Darwin through her eyes. How does the fact that it is the story of a young girl help to influence the reader? How might the story be different if told in the voice of an adult?
· The other effect of a young narrator is that the writer is given the opportunity to explain things to the reader, as it is likely that the young protagonist (main character) would need to have things explained to her. What examples can you find of this in the story?
· Vocabulary choices. The use of the old terminology adds great flavour to the novel and really helps to set the scene. Many of the words used are no longer part of our vocabulary. For example, Pearlie talks about ‘motorcars’. Make a list of the words or phrases that set the story in the 1940s.
ACTIVITIES / DISCUSSIONS:
· Can you think of any events or hints that have been given in the story that you suspect may be going to foreshadow events in future chapters of Pearlie’s tale? Make predictions about what you think will happen to Pearlie and Naoko in future books. (Keep a note of your predictions so that you can compare them with the real story as you read more of Pearlie’s adventures).
· Do you think Mr Hunter is really a spy? What evidence do you have?