This is a vintage Australian book first published in 1979 and reprinted in 1990. It was released again in 2002 but that copy is now also out of print. While I don't think it would be any where near as good, the ebook version is still available.
It seems easy to dismiss old books as having no appeal to "modern" kids but this is such a gripping story of early Australian pioneers and young Mary is a very memorable character. I think this book would be a fabulous family read aloud. Publishers today would probably not produce a picture book like this with 72 pages and full pages of text but this format is very appealing for this long form picture book especially with the beautiful art by Robert Ingpen. In the past there were some terrific long form picture books in Australia such as Rummage by Christobel Mattingley illustrated by Patricia Mullins; Jandy Malone and the Nine O'Clock tiger by Barbara Bolton illustrated by Alan White; and even the famous Storm Boy by Colin Thiele illustrated by Robert Ingpen.
Mary Agnes Baker lives on a farm on the banks of the Murray River in South Australia. Her father was granted this land when he returned from WWI. Mary was born in 1918 and now that she is aged 10 or 11 Australia is entering the years of The Great Depression. Life on the farm is hard with huge tasks like harvesting grapes. They also have to manage the irrigation.
"Mary was never happier than when she was running up and down the rows at irrigation time, the red mud spattered all over her legs or squelching up between her toes like soft brown butter. As soon as the row of fruit trees or vines had been soaked thoroughly her father went back to the main trench, sealed off the gutter that had been flowing and opened up another one at the next row. And so it went on. All through the night he dozed and worked, dozed and worked ..."
"In the winter months there was pruning and ploughing to do and in summer there was picked and dipping and drying. The dipping was the worse part. It had to be done in a tank full of very hot water mixed with caustic soda. ... It was dreadful work in the heat of summer without shelter or shade but it was the only way the sultanas could be made to dry into soft golden fruit for cakes and pudding and buns all over the world."
Early on in the story Mary encounters a tiger snake and as a reader I just knew this snake would be sure to cause havoc later in the story, but before this happens the family and community have to survive a wild hail storm which destroys their crops and then an enormous flood - water coming down the river over many weeks and covering everything close to the river bank and beyond. These scenes are so dramatic - making this story such a powerful page turner.
If you have this book in your school library there are some wonderful passages you could use with a class as examples of very skilled writing:
"A snake was drinking at the riverbank. He lay like a long rope with his head and neck out over the water and the rest of his curving body in the grass on the bank. His scales shone bronze and black in the morning sun as if he had spent the night polishing himself. ... For an instant a little flicker of blue lightning danced along his lips, quicker than the blink of an eye."
"Mary took another step backwards and waited. The river was so calm that the trees along the edge seemed to be standing on a mirror. The sun was warm and soft, and the air was silent. ... she could have been the only living creature in the world. She and the snake."
"He bought his head round to the bank and his body followed like black glass, like cold molten glass, easily and silently. Such a fluid flowing of flesh and muscles she had never see before. She glimpsed his rippling underbelly as he moved, streaked with red and bands of smoke ... his body poured itself through the grass in a black shining stream, winding and curving by a kind of magic."
I also love the way Mary talks about her dog:
"She had grown up with old Snap, and although he was a big galumphing dog who was forever doing stupid things and then smiling at what he had done, he was such a happy, warm-hearted fellow that he seemed like a brother to everyone."
Sadly, Snap is bitten by that snake and the doctor (who also works as the local vet) is far away but Mary and her father load Snap into their small row boat and rush him to Doc Williams who luckily does have some anti-venene. It is a tense night as Mary watches over her old dog desperate to see him survive.
If you have a class studying a topic such as "life in the olden days" read the scene on page 32 when Mary's mother sets up her petrol iron!
"Mary was frightened of the iron and she hated using it herself. First the little tank at the back had to be filled with petrol, then the jet had to be ricked, and finally the iron had to be primed. When everything was ready her mother struck a match and there was a moment or two of anguish when flames were likely to stutter all over the place ... but at last the flames in the hollow between the top of the iron and the heavy sole below sank away and the jet settled down to a steady hiss like a vent of steam that had caught a cold."
Colin Thiele is a famous Australian author of books such as Storm Boy; Sun on the Stubble; Blue Fin; and Pannikin and Pinta.
Robert Ingpen won the IBBY Hans Christian Andersen award in 1986.
