Book review: Our Australian Girl: Poppy at Summerhill by Gabrielle Wang

Our Australian Girl: Poppy at Summerhill by Gabrielle Wang (Published by Puffin Books Australia, May 2, 2011)

Eleven-year-old Poppy, a half-Chinese, half-Aboriginal orphan, has disgused herself as a boy and run away from the mission where she lived with other Aboriginal orphans. She is hoping to reunite with her brother, who had run away earlier. However, Poppy is badly injured. She is rescued by Tom, an Aboriginal man, who takes her to recover at Summerhill, the home of the family he works for.

At Summerhill, Poppy is treated kindly by the owners and their daughter, Noni, who becomes friends with Poppy. Poppy is also able to learn about her Aboriginal heritage from Tom. But Noni's twin brother, Tom, hates Poppy and treats her horribly. He is also very suspicious of her, and Poppy is worried he will find out she is a girl and a runaway.

This book is the second of four books about Poppy from the Our Australian Girl series, which is about young girls during different times in Australian history. Poppy was a very likable character, she is smart, brave, and determined. I thoguht the history in this book was very interesting as I don't know a lot about Australian history, the only other books I have read set in Australia were some of the books from the My Australian Story series. I'm sure young girls living in Australia who are interested in their country's history will love this book, but as an adult living in America, I enjoyed it too, and I look forward to reading the other two books about Poppy when they are published later this year.