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Following Odette and her light-skinned granddaughter Sissy, The White Girl looks at life on a mission in the 1960s where Aboriginal people were treated like enslaved children (more or less). I really enjoyed this and learned a lot about the legal situation in Australia at that time.

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📚 Kinokuniya Dubai! Fairly recently, in fact, as they had a clearance sale. 🎉
📚 GatheringBooks of course!
📚 Tagged book for our #DecolonizeBookshelves2022 reading theme.
Thank you for the tag, @TheSpineView

This was a lovely, gentle story that takes on the topic of racism with such care. Birch brought to light a time in history in a country that I had not known about. Odette is like any loving family member and just wanted to do what is best for Sissy, and that was for them to stay together.

Excellent. Truth telling using a story. I cried a couple of times and even now thinking of one situation described brings tears to my eyes.
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@MrsMalaprop

Op shop today. Will go on my TBR shelf. Looking forward to reading them both.

I'm trying to catch up all the books I've read this year. I read this one quite a while ago but it has stuck with me

Odette' daughter disappeared and has left her daughter, Sissy, for Odette to raise. With a new Policeman in town Odette tries to keep Sissy from being removed from her family. Set in the era of the Stolen Generation this is a beautifully told story a family's struggle against prejudice.

Our new episode of Books On The Go is up! 🎧 Annie & I discuss ‘The White Girl‘ by Tony Birch.
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This novel tells the story of Odette and her granddaughter Sissy in an Aboriginal community in 1960s Australia. Shortlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin Award, we had high hopes for this one. 😬
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What are you reading this week? 📖

Odette, an Aboriginal woman, tries to protect her granddaughter from the welfare authorities in 1960s Australia. Sympathetic characters & gives you an insight into life as an Aboriginal family in that time & racist attitudes that persist today. But the writing is a bit pedestrian, with little narrative tension & I felt it was more about the history & the issues than telling a great story. I would have preferred more plot & less explaining.

This was OK. The style is very basic, which might make it more accessible to teenagers and non-readers. The subject matter, Australia‘s shameful policies and treatment of Aboriginal people, is very important and if this book could be taught in schools it might lead to more widespread understanding. For me it lacked nuance and sophistication, but I don‘t think I am the intended audience. ⬇️

Making a start on Aboriginal Australian author Tony Birch‘s latest offering. I bumped this one up my #tbr list after it was recently shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award 2020.

To be honest I‘d been put off by others describing it as YA and I‘d heard it covers a lot of Australia‘s true history, much of which I‘m already familiar with. I‘m hoping it might be one I can recommend to my kids and others seeking an entry point read in this space.

A stack of fiction by black authors. 📚 The White Girl and Bluebird, Bluebird are on my TBR.

Recommend for year 9, it is very informative on the Australian constitution, the Aboriginal Protection Act, exemptions, the Stolen Generation, travel permits, mission life, plus more. It presents strong resilient Indigenous female and male characters. It also does not encourage an “us and them” mentality but presents all types of characters - Indigenous and non-indigenous in different lights. It is hopeful and looks forward to a better Australia.

Loved it! Inspiring, frustrating, at times horrifying and always in awe of the strength of character shown by Odette and Sissy. I am a massive fan of Tony Birch‘s style and this again is one sheds light on the oftentimes forgetter battle of the First Nations people of Australia in the very recent past and the legacy that has continued.

Another great, but confronting, book from Tony Birch. Set in the western district on Victoria (Australia) in the years leading up to full recognition of Indigenous people in the constitution. The book focuses on Odette and her granddaughter Sissy as they struggle to live and stay together while under the protectionist rules of police and government authorities.

Without taking away from the importance of the theme, the intent and the ignoble history it depicts, this feels more suited toa YA audience 3.5 stars