Saturday, July 23, 2011

Book review: Our Australian Girl: Letty on the Land by Alison Lloyd

Our Australian Girl: Letty on the Land by Alison Lloyd (Published by Puffin Books Australia, June 27, 2011)

The year is 1841, and Letty is living in Sydney, Australia, after arriving there with her older sister, Lavinia. Letty was not supposed to be on the ship, but got stuck on it while saying goodbye to her sister. Now she worries that she is too much of a burden for Lavinia, even though she has found a job helping a woman named Mary care for her baby girl. So when Mary, having recovered from the birth, decides to rejoin her husband and son on their sheep farm and asks Letty to come along, she agrees.

The journey from Sydney is long and the farm is very isolated, with the nearest neighbors living miles away. And Letty feels like she is failure. Baby Victoria loves her, but Mary's older child, a little boy named Harry, wants nothing to do with her and she can't even cook without ruining the food. Letty is miserable and even considers returning to Sydney.

This is the third of four books about Letty from the Our Australian Girl series, which is similar to the American Girls series. I wouldn't suggest reading these out of order, they are one story and meant to be read in order. I enjoyed this book and it was nice to see Letty grow up a bit, she was rather passive and guillible in the first book but has gotten braver and smarter since then.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I wish these books were available in the U.S. They sound so good!

 
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