Friday 23 August 2013

Devouring Books: Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner

"If you imagine you are going to read of model children, with perhaps a naughtily inclined one to point a moral, you had better lay down this book immediately... Not one of the seven is really good, for the very excellent reason that Australian children never are."

In spite of my newfound love for Australia (See: Bill Bryson's Down Under, Kayleigh's general awesomeness, including sending me this book!) my only real exposure to things that have come out of Australia has been Neighbours (sort of terrible, sort of awesome Aussie soap), Heath Ledger, and Australian Masterchef (much better than the UK version, just fyi). Because of this lack of things from Australia, I may have, at some points in my life, referred to Australia as a cultural wasteland (*ducks whatever Kayleigh is throwing right now* Don't worry, Kayleigh! I've also referred to the 80s and LA as cultural wastelands *hides from Megs*) and now I just feel mean about that.

So! Seven Little Australians! It's a book set in Australia and about Australian children and written by an almost Australian woman (Turner moved to Australia when she was 9, so basically Australian. But she was born in Yorkshire, so she's OURS) and I can just feeeeeel the Australian culture already. Not that this book exists to just go 'we are in Australia and look at all these Australian things we're doing and oh look! A kangaroo!' because that would be shit. Instead, it's the story of a family (guess how many children are in it) and their highs and lows and adventures and general hijinks, and in short, it's just a really good children's book.

Of the seven children, the two who really get the most screentime (screentime? Um... Pagetime?) are Judy (13) and Meg (16) presumably mainly because they're girls and Ethel obviously knows what it's like being a teenage girl better than a teenage boy, and also because, who doesn't want a children's book with female protagonists? I know that I do! Anyway, Judy is basically the best character- you know she's going to be trouble when she's described as having quicksilver instead of blood in her veins, and she truly proves to be a big problem to her exasperated father mainly because she refuses to do as she's told and act as a good young lady should which, you know, HIGH FIVE for Judy.
Meg is a much more traditional female character, but then also, she isn't. She has this terrible friend who has older sisters who have boyfriends and so this friend tries to convince her that they need boyfriends, and it's all just very 'Meg goes to Vanity Fair' in Little Women (why yes, they are both called Meg. I don't know if that's just a coincidence or what). BUT THEN it becomes all untraditional when Meg passes out because she's been lacing her corset too tightly to attract boys to her tiny waist, and it's all a bit 'well, that was really silly, maybe girls shouldn't do medically unwise things just to attract boys' which is an AWESOME message, obviously.

And there are all the other kids which have quite cruelly blurred into 'all the other kids' except I know there's a fat boy child who's really bad at lying (which is quite sweet, really) and another boy child who's kind of perfect and doesn't do too much wrong unless Judy is also there. NAUGHTY JUDY (I love you). And so basically Meg and Judy and the other nameless children all constantly egg each other on and drive their dad (think: Captain Von Trapp, with a new younger wife and everything) to distraction and just generally have a lot of fun.

And I had a lot of fun reading it. I really did. Things did take a bit of an unexpected turn at the end, but we shall ignore that (I am choosing to ignore it forever, actually) and just appreciate Seven Little Australians for its fun and cuteness and for finally making me read a book about Australia by an (almost) Australian, something which I can't remember happening for a long time, if ever. I think it's worth noting that, had I read this as a child, I probably would have been in love with it, but even reading it now, I just like it plenty. Which is good enough for me!

17 comments:

  1. I feel a little tiny bit ashamed at my lack of reading anything Australian... I need to get on that. So yay for this, cause it looks cute and fun and maybe I can get it someday to read with my niece when she's a tad older.

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    1. I also feel bad about this especially because I LOVE KAYLEIGH AND SHE'S AUSTRALIAN AND WHUT?! But this is a genuinely good book and yeah, you should read it to your niece and make her be all like 'I want to move to Australia!'

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  2. Yayyyyyyyyy!!!

    I am going to wax lyrical about Ethel Turner for a moment because she is SO IMPORTANT and AWESOME! And I'm sorry (not sorry) if I wrote this in my letter to you about this book but I love this woman to the moon and back.

    Anyway, at the time this book came out all "Australian" children's book were written by English authors who had never stepped foot in Australia and they were all about some English boy who becomes chums with a "native" and goes on an adventure in the "bush". They were basically written to seem exotic to English families and blechhhhh. So not only did Ethel write an awesome book that was like "Pish Posh traditional female roles" but she wrote a book that was actually about Australian kids for Australian audiences. Which makes it kind of incredible that she even got it published.

    Also, if people want a list of Australian fiction I will write one on my blog and you can all read them and realise that Australia isn't a culture wasteland whatsoever!

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    1. Oh oh and she's not yours she's OURS! She might have been English by birth, but she loved Australia more so nyeh!

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    2. You did sort of tell me all this but it is still AWESOME and lovely and awwww and nice work Ethel! The English are so awesome :D (Mwahahahahaha!)

      I tooooootally want this list of Australian books though, dude. You should definitely get on that!

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  3. So I'm pretty sure the only Australian book I've read was Bryson's In a Sunburned Country(/Down Under and why must it have two titles?) which is pretty sad. I don't know that Australian children's book is where I want to go to fix this deficit, but it's pretty sad and should be fixed. I'm going to need to read Kayleigh's list of Australian fiction and find something

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    1. That's especially sad because it's not *written* by an Australian dude, you know? It's not like, an insider's view of Aus, it's like 'you should come here like I did cause it's cool and so different from Iowa and stuff!'

      We are definitely making Kayleigh write this list. I'll badger her about it constantly, people love that, right?

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    2. I am all about the badgering! And tbh you probably will need to because I will forget.

      But I am going to write the most ridiculously long list of Australian fiction and you can all all read it and feel better about your lack of Aussie reading. And I will include valuable lessons about vegemite and Australian slang and you will all become honorary Australians.

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    3. I love vegemite! But not as much as marmite. But it's still good. There, it's all fine, I'm practically Australian now!

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    4. I'm pretty sure the Australian citizenship test has a section on how thick vegemite should be spread and neighbours so you are all set Laura!

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  4. I stopped reading so I could stomp down to the bottom here and say: Joan Didion, James Ellroy, Charles Bukowski, and Raymond Chandler. The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. The Museum of Contemporary Art. Theatrical productions LITERALLY out the ass. We have opera, Laura. OPERA.

    Now I'm heading back up to finish reading this post, and I wish you a good day. Good DAY, madame.

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    1. Yeah, but, you know, everyone has OPERA, Megs!

      I kid. You do a very good job of repping LA and its culturalyness. ALSO I totally bought Ham on Rye yesterday because of this comment (and also because it was cheap. But still, this comment!)

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  5. I'm beginning to wonder if all fictional characters named Meg are sort of traditional and prone to tightening their corsets to attract the boyfolk.

    Whatever...at least they're better than fictional Lauras. OH BURN. (I may still be mad at you about earlier.)

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    1. OH WOW that hurt. I can't even think of any/many fictional Lauras, so at least your name is, you know, popular. This Meg does seem very much like a homage to the Little Women Meg, though. In a good way!

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    2. Um, don't forget Meg Murray from Wrinkle In Time, who was among the awesomest Megs ever, 'cept for you.

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    3. She was my original role model...and then I read the book again as an adult and realized she whines a LOT. Like...a LOT a lot. No wonder I liked her so much.

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  6. I somehow missed this post but found it via Kayleigh's excellent list of Australiana. I just added it to my TBR.

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