"In the 80th anniversary year, Jackie French explores the dropping of the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, which ended World War 2.
1942.
Japan has bombed Sydney Harbour. Sixteen-year-old Ossie lies about his age to protect his country, even though it means abandoning his only family, a one-eyed dog named Lucky.
Kind-hearted Mrs Plum is already looking after forty-six dogs belonging to soldiers who've gone to war. She can't possibly care for another. But just when she's becoming desperate to find a way to feed them, help arrives: thirteen-year-old Kat Murphy volunteers to take Lucky and persuades the girls at school to help, too.
As Kat and Lucky grow closer, Kat realises he can still see Ossie, the master he loves. And somehow, Kat and Ossie catch glimpses into each other's lives, too. This extraordinary connection helps Ossie survive when he is taken as a prisoner of war to Japan. There, he witnesses a strange mushroom cloud rise above Nagasaki - the result of a bomb that will take, save and change lives, and forever leave the question: was it worth it?
Taken from first-hand Japanese accounts of that momentous but often misunderstood time, this is a story of quiet heroism and endurance in the face of an unimaginable horror that continues to resound to this day."
"Why does humanity cling to warfare when it destroys the land and people the armies try to claim?
Claverton Castle, 1940. Eagles and Spitfires fly in the skies of England as Lady Deanna, the aristocratic granddaughter of the Duke of Claverton, spends her days shovelling manure and her evenings in blue satin, attending dinner parties to gather intelligence from the many Nazi sympathisers among Britain's powerful upper classes. She is an excellent spy: the information she gleans may prove vital in the months ahead. But when she becomes enmeshed in the German plot to restore the Duke of Windsor to the throne of England and ensure an alliance with Hitler, she must feign cooperation and risk her life for the sake of her country.
As war devastates Europe, 'Lady Dee' must solve other mysteries, too. Why do the three orphaned children she has taken into her home and grown to love refuse to reveal their identity? What reason can British Intelligence have to warn her away from Sam Murray, a decorated Australian pilot and the only man she feels she could ever marry? Is the wounded soldier who stumbles along the secret caves below her home truly the missing Duke of Claverton?
From bestselling author Jackie French comes a book about the conflicts between love and duty, and the royal betrayals kept secret from the public for so long."
"From bestselling author Jackie French comes a compelling story of murder, mystery, and mutiny on the high seas - and a love so intense it can overcome two different cultures.
You never know what the sea will give you ... or what it will take back.
When Mair McCrae follows her island tradition and hunts for a husband cast up on the beach, she has no notion that the naked, half-drowned man she rescues is not just Captain Michael Dawson, heir to a major shipping firm, but that he's obsessed by a 'ghost ship' carrying golden cargo.
On Big Henry Island women make the decisions and knit the patterns that mark a man as their own. But Big Henry is also a volcano, and threatening to erupt. Yet when Mair agrees to accompany Michael home, she finds that the Australian comfort he promised has a danger just as real: a social system that tries to keep women confined to small roles at the edges of men's lives.
And as Michael hunts for the 'Ghost' in his revolutionary new steamship, a string of mysterious deaths upends Mair's new life in Sydney.
Who is the murderer, and why is Mair the only one who realises what is happening?
PRAISE FOR BECOMING MRS MULBERRY
'... a captivating story of personal growth, of generosity in its true sense and ultimately one of courage and hope. Not to be missed.'
DARRY FRASER, AUTHOR OF THE FORTHRIGHT WOMAN
'A captivating masterpiece - insightful, humorous and heart wrenching. A total delight.'
TEA COOPER, AUTHOR OF THE BUTTERFLY COLLECTOR"
"This is the story of women who fought during WWI, but not as nurses or ambulance drivers.
In 1917 sixteen-year-old Jean McLain is working as a post-office assistant in England. But when she wins a national Morse code competition, the British army makes a request Jean cannot refuse - to take a secret position as a signaller in France.
If Jean can keep the signals flowing between headquarters and the soldiers at the Front, Britain might possibly win the war.
But the British army are determined to hide its desperation - and will go on to burn every document that showed how women and girls were working behind the scenes, in the trenches and even in battles during World War I.
Decades later, an old woman tells the story of 'the telegraph girl': the friends she lost, the man who loved her, and the happiness she so surprisingly found again.
Based on true events, this story of adventure, courage and unshakable loyalty restores women and girls to their place in history that the authorities tried to erase.
AWARDS
Longlisted - 2024 Book Links Award for Children's Historical Fiction"
"From bestselling author Jackie French comes a book about the secrets we carry, those that we unearth - and those that are too dangerous to tell.
The once impoverished medical student Agnes Glock is now the fabulously wealthy Mrs Mulberry. Her estate in the mountains is magnificent, a haven for those too ravaged by the Great War to cope with the society that first condemned them to battle and which now shuns them.
The War has, however, stolen Agnes's chance to graduate as a doctor, as well as the fiance she adored. Her husband, Douglas Mulberry, remains shellshocked and unable to speak. Their scandalous marriage is a farce, an act of kindness to keep Douglas's fortune from his uncle's grasp.
A chance visit to a circus brings about a mystery in the form of a fairylike child whose guardians claim was brought up by dingoes. The child cannot speak and seems deformed. But Agnes is inexplicably drawn to her and believes she can be cured.
The decision to save the child will bring Agnes's lost fiance into her life again, as well as awaken the love of her husband who finds his voice as the three try to solve the mystery of the 'dingo girl'.
Agnes has put aside her own life and the dreams she once had. But now she has choices, with the main question the hardest: Who is Mrs Agnes Mulberry?
PRAISE FOR JACKIE FRENCH
'a master storyteller ... [she] gives women a rich, strong, and brutally honest voice' Better Reading
'Heartwarming, heartbreaking and hard to put down' Australian Women's Weekly on If Blood Should Stain the Wattle"
"An empowering and exhilarating look at the girls who went before us, and the way they shaped the world.
Ming Qong is convinced that girls have changed the world throughout history.
So when Ming is thrust back in time to Belgium during WWI, only to be rescued from a burning cellar by Marie -- an experienced spy at only twelve years of age -- she finally has her proof. Marie is involved with a female secret resistance group who risk their lives to outwit the German troops.
But Ming now faces a tough choice: will she send coded messages and risk her own life in this war on which the future depends?
As Ming learns, change is never easy, so how can one girl change the world?
From one of Australia's favourite writers comes an inspiring series for all the young people who will, one day, change the world.
AWARDS
Book Links 2023 Award for Children's Historical Fiction - Longlisted"
"An empowering and exhilarating look at the girls who went before us, and the way they shaped the world.
Twelve-year-old Ming Qong is convinced that girls must have changed the world, even if they are rarely mentioned in history books.
So when Ming gets the chance to go back in time, she imagines herself changing destinies from a glittering palace or an explorer's ship. Instead, she ends up in Australia in 1898, living a tough life as Flo Watson on a drought-stricken farm.
Luckily, Ming is rescued by Flo's Aunt McTavish. Wealthy Aunt McTavish belongs to Louisa Lawson's Suffragist Society, who are desperately and courageously fighting for women's rights. And Ming is determined to get involved, to make a difference.
But change is never easy, so how can one girl change the world?
From one of Australia's favourite writers comes an inspiring new series for all the young people who will, one day, change the world.
AWARDS
Notable - CBCA Younger Reader's Book 2023"
"The amazing story of Australia's first surgeon and the boy he adopted.
It's 1789, and as the new colony in Sydney Cove is established, Surgeon John White defies convention and adopts Nanberry, an Aboriginal boy, to raise as his son. Nanberry is clever and uses his unique gifts as an interpreter to bridge the two worlds he lives in.With his white brother, Andrew, he witnesses the struggles of the colonists to keep their precarious grip on a hostile wilderness. And yet he is haunted by the memories of the Cadigal warriors who will one day come to claim him as one of their own.
This true story follows the brothers as they make their way in the world - one as a sailor, serving in the Royal Navy, the other a hero of the Battle of Waterloo. No less incredible is the enduring love between the gentleman surgeon and the convict girl who was saved from the death penalty and became a great lady in her own right.
AWARDS
Honour Book - CBCA 2012 (Younger Reader's Book of the Year)
PRAISE
'[Jackie] is one of few masters who can embed historic characters in rattling good tales, and her meticulous research is seamlessly inserted so that you live the detail rather than learn it. Irresistible for history buffs of any age.' - Good Reading Magazine, five stars
'If every Australian history class in the country could be taught by Jackie French, we'd have an entire generation of kids with an enormous thirst for knowledge about our early European settlement and a whole lot more compassion for those who already called this country home.' - Sunday Tasmanian
'I've been telling all my friends to read this book, and to give it to their kids to read. It's absolutely engrossing.' - Herald Sun"
"Three women from very different backgrounds, bound by friendship, separated by destiny
It was impossible, but in full view of the church, the Governor and wedding guests ...
The bride had vanished.
Some girls are born to be loved, some are born to be useful.
Some girls are born to be bad.
Indulged and wealthy Kat Fitzhubert is seemingly 'sold off' in an arranged marriage in a colony across the world. Lady Viola Montefiore is the dark-skinned 'changeling' of a ducal family, kept hidden and then shipped away. Titania Boot is as broad as a carthorse, and as useful.
In the turmoil of an Australia in 1853 that reinvents itself from convict colony to a land of gold, one woman forges a business empire. One brews illegal poteen with a bushranger. And the third vanishes on her wedding day in a scandal that will mystify the world.
In this magnificent and broad-sweeping saga, Jackie French defies the myth of colonial women as 'merely' wives, servants or whores. Instead portraying them as business women, farmers, bushrangers and brewers of illegal poteen, as well as arbiters of their destiny."
"Six mysterious passengers and seven dark secrets. Who can be trusted?
It's a dark and dangerous journey for the Cobb and Co night mail coach, but when his coach-driver father is injured, young Jem Donovan must take the reins.
Surely a boy like Jem can't handle a team of four horses and guide the coach on a rough bush track through fog and untold dangers?
But there are six passengers on the coach tonight, each with a secret.
And if Jem can't get them all to their destination by morning, the seventh secret could be deadly ...
AWARDS
Longlisted - ARA Historical Novel Prize 2021 (Children's and Young Adult Category)
CBCA Notable Book 2022
Shortlisted - Davitt Awards 2022 (Children's Crime Novel Category)"
"A powerful novel from master storyteller Jackie French
The soldiers she saved called her the Angel of Waterloo.
The husband she loved and lost called her Hen.
The patients she treated in secret called her Auntie Love.
She was Henrietta Bartlett, a surgeon's daughter, a survivor of the Napoleonic Wars. But now the battlefield is just a blood-soaked memory, and Hen dreams of peace, a home, and a society that allows women to practise medicine.
On the other side of the world, the newly founded colony of New South Wales seems a paradise. But Europe's wars cast long shadows ...
From bestselling author Jackie French comes the story of one woman's journey from the hell of Waterloo to colonial Australia, where she can forge her own dreams in a land of many nations.
PRAISE FOR JACKIE FRENCH
'a master storyteller ... [she] gives women a rich, strong, and brutally honest voice'
- Better Reading
'Heartwarming, heartbreaking and hard to put down'
- Australian Women's Weekly on If Blood Should Stain the Wattle"
"From Australia's best-loved storyteller comes the final book in the bestselling Matilda Saga
This is a love song to our nation, told in a single sweeping story
Jed Kelly has finally persuaded her great aunt Nancy to tell the story of her grandparents. The tale that unfolds is one of Australia's greatest romances - that of Clancy of the Overflow, who gave up everything for Rose, the woman he adored, and yet still gained all he'd lost and more.
But Nancy's story is not the history that Jed expects. More tales lurk behind the folklore that surrounds Clancy - the stories of the women hidden in Australia's long history, who forged a nation and whose voices need to be heard.
It is also a story of many kinds of love. Clancy's growing passion for the bush, immortalised in Paterson's poem, which speaks to him in the ripple of the river and the song of the stars, and Nancy's need to pass on her deep understanding of her country.
But perhaps the most moving love story of all is the one that never happened, between Matilda O'Halloran and Clancy of the Overflow. And as Jed brings all of these stories to life in her book, Matilda and Clancy will once again waltz beside the river and the forgotten will be given a new voice.
PRAISE FOR THE MATILDA SAGA
'An engrossing mystery story, an ode to strong women, and a moving exploration of the private wounds we carry ... The Last Dingo Summer is a must for your summer reading list' -- Better Reading
'The perfect read for anyone who loves immersing themselves in Australian fiction. Gripping, emotional and moving, Facing the Flame is a great book to curl up with' -- New Idea
'Highly recommended ... this was a complete binge, read in one night because it was just too good and too gripping to put down ... a cracking story filled with rich characters both old and new and imbued with all that we hold dear about Australian love of country and mateship' -- ReadPlus"
