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kaet 's review for:
Nona and Me
by Clare Atkins
This book is aimed at mid-teens and I read it as a potential text for teaching in 2016. By the end of the first 50 pages I was designing a whole unit around it.
The story is about two girls who are sisters in the Yolngu kinship sisters told from the perspective of Rosie. There is your usual teens stuff peer pressure, popularity, boyfriends, but behind it is a story of lost identity and indigenous culture. Rosie, when she was little, was involved in Yolngu life, but after the departure of Nona floated into a Western lifestyle and is trying to find a way to live in both.
The novel jumps between 2 time periods: 1999-2001, and 2007-2008, which means it also covers some important contemporary moments in indigenous history, leading to some great teaching points.
For any Catholic school teachers, this is a teen novel with no sex in it (though there is some deliberation on the topic) so it will be suitable. Apparently there are also teaching notes available.
Overall it was a beautifully written novel with a lot of depth.
The story is about two girls who are sisters in the Yolngu kinship sisters told from the perspective of Rosie. There is your usual teens stuff peer pressure, popularity, boyfriends, but behind it is a story of lost identity and indigenous culture. Rosie, when she was little, was involved in Yolngu life, but after the departure of Nona floated into a Western lifestyle and is trying to find a way to live in both.
The novel jumps between 2 time periods: 1999-2001, and 2007-2008, which means it also covers some important contemporary moments in indigenous history, leading to some great teaching points.
For any Catholic school teachers, this is a teen novel with no sex in it (though there is some deliberation on the topic) so it will be suitable. Apparently there are also teaching notes available.
Overall it was a beautifully written novel with a lot of depth.