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nerdinthelibrary's review
4.0
This book was full of surprisingly deep and realistic themes of racism in Australia, and it made it a real contender for my new favourite Our Australian Girl series. There was discussion of refugees, refugee camps, racism, ignorance, there was even a comment from the main character about all the Asian characters on tv being "kung fu masters, villains or criminals." I really hope my sisters library gets the rest of these so I can read the next book!
lmurray74's review
4.0
n this four part series we meet and get to know Marly, an eleven-year-old girl living in Melbourne's western suburbs in the 1980s. In the first book Marly's cousins and aunt and uncle arrive in Australia as refugees from Vietnam and come and stay with her and her family. Marly and her family came by boat from Vietnam to Australia when Marly was two. Alice Pung grew up in the same suburbs as Marly and her parents came as refugees from Cambodia in the early 90s. Both Marly and Alice have ethnic Chinese parents and Marly speaks Cantonese at home and with her cousins. The first book tells the story of Marly's cousins making a new home in Australia and starting at school there. Themes of friendship and family are central to the story along with themes specific to Marly's family and experience. Marly is easy to like and it's easy to relate to her eleven-year-old feelings about fitting in and finding her way in the world. At the end of the first book Marly's cousins move to their own house so there is more room again for Marly but she will miss them. In the second book Marly wants to buy some Donkey Kong cards so she can join in games at school so she earns money ironing collars for her mum. She is then tricked into buying an umbrella with the money and looks for another way to make some money. She makes a new friend at school and this leads to an opportunity to make some money but Marly takes a bus trip in the wrong direction and ends up in a suburb a long way from her home. There are two more in the series that I haven't read yet but I enjoy being in Marly's world. I appreciate that this is an own voices story and I grew up around the same time as Marly but in a different part of town, one that is (still) overwhelmingly white. I'm looking forward to passing these on to my friends' children so they can get some insight into Marly's world as well as into the historical context.
lilprecious's review
4.0
Just started reading this last "chapter" of the Our Australian Girl books with my two eldest boys. They have loved all of these books, but find it rather hilarious that this one takes place when I was alive!!
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