This book has made me think about what is happening around me and what the world can do without warning. It was a good book and I would recommend it to people probably about 9 years old. (and up)
I would recommend it to people because it gives people ideas of what might suddenly happen and that some people go through awful things.
It was set in 1894 and is based on the song Waltzing Matilda by Banjo Patterson. It is about a girl named Matilda who whilst living in a city and working in a jam factory, her best friend gets badly burnt. Her mother dies and she realises that she must runaway from her grief.
So she flees to the farm her unknown father owns to find he has turned into a swaggie so she travels with him.
They camp by a billabong and then down comes the squatter (Mr Drinkwater) and three of his troopers and accuse him of being a sheep stealer. Her father jumps into the billabong saying, "Catch me if you can!" He then gets his neck caught around some weed and dies. The story goes on with some other sad things.
In the story there are fires, floods, villages and cities but it is really the story of a dependant girl turning into a mature, independant one who figures out that love is not life.
She gets to the age of 17 and becomes engaged. Her fiance sails as a soldier of the Queen in the war British V's Boers. He dies having been shot by the firing squad. Matilda makes friends with his father until he dies and she is left rich. She meets up with a friend she had an argument with over 20 years ago and his little daughter Anna.
They finally become friends again and the story ends roundabout there.
Reviewed by Ciara
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