Birrung: The Secret Friend (Jackie French, HarperCollins)

The setting is Sydney Cove, 1790. When Barney Bean catches the eye of the ‘Indian’ girl adopted by the colony’s chaplain, he has no idea how it is going to change his life. Going from fighting to protect the meagre rations he shares with his friend Elsie to growing his own food and learning about the land from Birrung, Barney finally feels like he and Elsie have found a safe place to live. But when new ships arrive, conflicts within the colony threaten his carefully maintained patch of peace. Light on plot but big on setting, Birrung brings to life a time and place so strongly you can almost taste it. Evocative and detailed without trappings of minutiae, Birrung will draw young readers in with its straightforward, honest and loyal narrator. Jackie French demonstrates her narrative skill by deftly capturing the tensions and challenges within the colony while communicating a love and connection to the land so often—and so beautifully—felt within her books. This is the first book in French’s new series for eight- to 12-year-olds and is sure to win fans with its well-developed characters and interesting setting. 

Meg Whelan is the children’s book buyer at the Hill of Content Bookshop

Category: Reviews