The House that Was Eureka: Text Classics

Description

It's 1981 and Evie is sixteen. She has left school but can't find work, and her family has just moved into the run-down inner Sydney suburb of Newtown. Noel lives in the adjoining terrace house. He's fifteen, not taking school seriously and fed up with looking after his ancient bed-ridden grandmother. As a friendship grows between Evie and Noel, the past is set back in motion, and the events of the 1930s Depression era begin to play out in the high-unemployment times of the early 1980s, and the house again is the centre of the Sydney anti-eviction campaign of 1931. Based on historical fact, meticulously researched, The House That Was Eureka is a critically acclaimed novel about a history we all share.

Nadia Wheatley began writing fiction in 1976, after completing postgraduate work in Australian history. Her published work includes picture books, novels for younger readers, young adult novels, short stories (for adults as well as young adults), history and biography (for adults). She has also written for television and the theatre, and has reviewed history and fiction for a number of newspapers and academic journals. Her work has received many awards and commendations including the CBC Book of the Year Award for Younger Readers (1988) and the Eve Pownall Award. She was awarded a Senior Fellowship from the Literature Fund of the Australia Council for the years 1996-1999.Nadia Wheatley's other works for young adults include The Blooding (a VCE English set text) and The House That Was Eureka which, in its first edition, won the New South Wales Premier's Children's Book Award in 1985. The new edition, published in 2001 has been completely revised, the author has expanded the story and incorporated additional historical material.

'Wheatley's book has urgency and a fierce strength...The characters from both eras are "alive and flying", freedom fighters who are aware that they are making history.' -- Maurice Saxby The Proof of the Puddin' 'An exceptional book...The House that was Eureka will establish itself as a classic in adolescent fiction.' Newcastle Herald 'A fine piece of work, well researched and beautifully plotted around the Depression when people were tipped out of their houses by landlords and unemployed men took to the roads with swags.' Sydney Morning Herald 'An absorbing and wholly convincing recreation of the Depression of the 1930s, with the traumatic experiences of the Cruise family, destitute and threatened with eviction, running parallel to the problems of today.' Australian Book Review 'Wheatley weaves in the forgotten true story of a labour riot in the 1930s, including the marginalised experience of women, and shows the similarities and differences of unemployment and its consequences in the past and present. It suits as a text for English and history.' AEU Magazine