Middle Grade Novels in Australasia / Oceania

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

I’m searching for novels set in Oceania for a 10yr old. We’ll be touching on the area twice: pre-1850 & again in the 1880s. If anyone could help me determine which of the following would be best suited, I’d greatly appreciate it!

Storm Boy 

The Green Wind

Sister Heart

The First Voyage

New Guinea Moon 

Bridie’s Fire 

Crow Country*    
   (This had mixed reviews - problematic?)

The Golden Day

 

The following I suspect have an older target audience, but if you could also weigh in on their quality for me to keep in mind in the future, I would greatly appreciate it! 

A Waltz for Matilda 

A Rose for the ANZAC Boys (WWI)

Eventual Poppy Day (WWI) 

[Rosie_0801]

I remember Storm Boy as being hideously boring and Crow Country isn't worth reading. I know nothing about the others.

We preferred 'Playing Beatie Bow,' 'So Far From Skye' and 'Walking the Boundaries' for Australia.

'Chappy' was a good one for NZ. It's aimed at kids a little older, but I think it'd be fine as a read aloud for a 10yo.

[Ausmumof3]

For some reason I don’t much remember Storm Boy except the movie though it’s obviously well known but I do really like Sun on the Stubble from the same author. It’s been a few years since I read it. There may be some stuff that hasn’t aged well but I don’t think there’s much? I also loved Silver Brumby books as a kid. If you have a horsey kid they might be worth it. The description of the Australian landscape is pretty good in them. I’m not familiar with the others. I really enjoyed books by Christobel Mattingley as well although some are quite sad.  There is a series called My Australian Story; they’re not high quality lit but all deal with different periods in Australian History. They’re more modern. I loved Billabong stories as the kids but there’s racist stereotypes to be aware of in them. I think we also had one called Home to Mother which was kind of along the story lines of Rabbit Proof Fence but for younger kids. I didn’t love it but it does cover some history my kids wouldn’t have got another way.

Blue Fin and February Dragon are two other well known Colin Thiele books. February Dragon haunted me for years 😞 

Edited April 25, 2023 by Ausmumof3

[Calizzy]

Call it Courage

Whale Rider

Walking the Boundaries

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

16 hours ago, Calizzy said:

Call it Courage

Whale Rider

Walking the Boundaries

I forgot about Whale Rider! Would you say that it & Call it Courage are too similar to read back-to-back, or do they feel pretty different? 

Walking the Boundaries looks good, too & can be added into one of our later lessons, which is great because the others all fall into the timeframe of the first. 

[Ducks]

My eleven year old son studied Boy Overboard by Morris Gleitzman last year in fifth grade in an Australian public school.  Contemporary, refugees - he enjoyed it.

I second Playing Beatie Bow - time travel and lots of details of life in colonial Sydney.  I loved this as a 12 year old.

The Silver Brumby books are also wonderful if you like horses, as someone else said.

[Quarter Note]

On 4/26/2023 at 6:32 AM, Calizzy said:

Call it Courage

Seconding Call It Courage - one of my son's favorite books!

[bookbard]

 

Popular Australian middle grade authors would include Morris Gleitzman as stated above, and Jackie French. Actually, your 10 yr old might really like "Ming and Flo Fight for the Future" (Jackie French) which is a recent release, a time travel (now vs 1800s Australia) and is a fun read. Jackie French churns out middle grade historical novels (don't mix them up with her really not appropriate adult historical novels though!!)

Number one most popular author is Anh Do who churns out masses of books (I suspect ghost writing as he's an actor/comedian/artist - no one can be that good!!) They aren't particularly 'Australian' though - lots of fantasy mostly. My kids say Sky Dragon and Wolf Girl are the best series. 

A lot of the books mentioned in previous posts are quite old and dated. Playing Beatie Bow is really dated sadly - we revisted it recently and I felt some bits were problematic. I think Storm Boy is good but again - it's from the 50s and my kids were traumatised by the ending. I was definitely traumatised by most of the Colin Thiele books like February Dragon (are they even in print now?) Same with The Green Wind - it's really old fashioned, and yeah, although I loved the Billabong books they are pretty racist and sexist. 

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

4 hours ago, bookbard said:

A lot of the books mentioned in previous posts are quite old and dated. Playing Beatie Bow is really dated sadly - we revisted it recently and I felt some bits were problematic. I think Storm Boy is good but again - it's from the 50s and my kids were traumatised by the ending. I was definitely traumatised by most of the Colin Thiele books like February Dragon (are they even in print now?) Same with The Green Wind - it's really old fashioned, and yeah, although I loved the Billabong books they are pretty racist and sexist. 

Thank you for letting me know! I had no idea where to even start, but came across a list on Goodreads. Was able to easily eliminate some, but it’s so hard to tell from only a short blurb & many would be hard, if not impossible, to source here. Fortunately, I think I’ve got a few good options now. 🙂 

ETA: What is traumatizing about Storm Boy? Is it a “loss of a beloved animal companion” book? My DS isn’t sensitive to that sort of thing & likes older literature, but definitely want to steer clear of any of the -isms!!

Edited April 28, 2023 by Shoes+Ships+SealingWax

[bookbard]

1 hour ago, Shoes+Ships+SealingWax said:

ETA: What is traumatizing about Storm Boy? Is it a “loss of a beloved animal companion” book? My DS isn’t sensitive to that sort of thing & likes older literature, but definitely want to steer clear of any of the -isms!!

Yep, loss of an animal at the end. I have a gorgeous illustrated copy of the original and think it's a lovely book. Whatever you do, don't watch the most recent version of the film though. The classic version is true to the book. 

[Melime]

For New Zealand books (coming from the perspective of growing up here, so I haven't read them in a couple of decades!) -

- Whale Rider is set in more modern times

- "No one went to town" by Phyllis Johnston is set during the initial farming/European settlement period of NZ.  It was written a wee while ago, so no idea how it holds up these days but I loved it as a kid. There's a few books that follow after in that series.  She also wrote a book called "Then there were nine" in a similar time period.