Finding Darcy

Description

When Darcy Abbott is sent to live with her surly grandmother and silent great-grandmother for three months, she discovers a mystery regarding the death of her great-grandfather during World War II. A school project sets her on a search for the truth. Age 10+.

Sue Lawson writes books for children and young adults. Her love for books began when she was a child on a farm in country Victoria where she spent her time reading, writing, listening to her father and grandfather's stories and avoiding working with the cattle. These days, she's added stationery shops to her football obsession and when not writing, teaches and runs workshops for young people and adults. In 2012, Pan's Whisper was short-listed for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards, was a Notable Book at the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards and won the Australian Family Therapists' Award for Children's Literature. You Don't Even Know was short-listed for the Western Australian Premier's Book Awards in 2014. Sue's website is www.suelawson.com.au

The humour, drama and tension of this novel, along with the peppering of our country's war history is an amazing read exploring the relationships between four generations of women. I loved each of the character's complexity, their journey to understanding and organic growth. It is all these things that helped me decide to make it one of my texts for English this year. I think that is the best recommendation I can give a book (and that I will be reading her other titles). -- Persnickety Snark This is a special book. The shadows the past casts on one family-and on our society- are brilliantly explored in the voice of a young girl. Sue manages to weave the profound with the everyday language of a teenager. -- Jackie French