Another excellent addition to the growing number of titles in this series about various incidents in Australian history, this novel tracks a sad incident in the development of this nation. The poignant story of Mary Talence, whose name was changed from Amy Charles so that her family would not be able to trace her when she was taken to the Bomaderry Aboriginal Children's Home, is a confronting one for children of the 21st century. The idea that a child could be removed from her parents, put in a home and then adopted out to an upper-middle-class white family, with all the stigma still attached to the colour of her skin, is not so far distant in our history. The diary format works well, with the beloved journal acting as Mary's only true friend and confidante, and the chilling story of `selection' is told in an ingenuous, naive voice. Mary says, `I feel as if I'm livin' the wrong life'. Her adoptive family provide for her in a distant yet still loving way, but it is her meeting with an Aboriginal servant girl who works in the same suburb that begins to open Mary's eyes to her Aboriginal heritage. A large number of historical facts are packed into the story, so that the series has a strongly educational and didactic bent - but it's always fun to discover things you didn't know about your own country.

Catherine McLellan is a former children's bookseller, now working at Lateral Learning organising speakers for schools. 

C. 2001 Thorpe-Bowker and contributors

Tags: anita heiss