Australian stories for Australian kids

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] D [/dropcap]o you remember growing up and reading a pile of adventure books that, as wonderful as they were, all featured characters from places other than Australia?

The Secret Seven, Mr Biggles, Treasure Island, Peter Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland, The Diary of Adrian Mole and even Harry Potter…all classics, but all British.

Today, however, there are so many terrific Australian young children’s authors and the personalities, history and culture of Australia are front and centre of the storyline.

For this week’s Bookmarks, Michaelie Clark, from Warrnambool Books, has chosen the latest in a series of hugely popular books aimed at young Australian girls:

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] ‘ [/dropcap]The Our Australian Girl books have been hugely popular in the South West over the last year, and the newest collection is proving to be no exception.

With the fourth book in the ‘Lina’ set, A Lesson for Lina, recently released, the story of the young Italian-Australian girl who dreams of being a writer is now complete. As with the other Our Australian Girl books, Lina’s story is a fictional tale set in a real place and time in Australia’s history, with this collection centred around mid-1950s Melbourne.

(A Lesson for Lina is set in 1956 – any idea what event in Melbourne it might feature?)

Each of the collections (there are six so far) in the Our Australian Girl series is penned by a different author. The ‘Lina’ collection has been written by much-loved Melbourne author Sally Rippin, making it a stand-out in a stellar series.”

Ps. The Our Australian Girl series will have an equivalent series aimed at boys – Do you Dare? – that will be released early next year.