By: Rebecca Lim
Genre: YFA - Classic fiction
Published by: A&U Children's
Published: 29 Aug 2023
ISBN: 9781761180224

Description

Book Of The Month Sf


After their family encounters terrible hardship in rural China, siblings Fu and Pei must draw on all their resilience and courage as they embark on a dangerous journey towards a better life. A compelling and poignant children's novel from the CBCA award-winning author of Tiger Daughter.


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Review

Set leading up to and at the beginning of China’s Great Leap Forward – 1958-61 – where the government were forcing industrialisation and the abolition of personal property on the people. This was the beginning of the state-run Communist system and the loss of millions of lives - particularly through starvation of the poor rural farmers.


Thirteen-year-old Fu and his eight-year-old sister Pei live with their mother in a poor rural Chinese farming community. They know little of their father who left years earlier. They don’t even know whether he is still alive. Their already frugal situation becomes worse when the government start taking most of their produce, and starvation is all around them.


When their mother is close to death, she gives them each a small treasure and tells them that their father is alive in Melbourne, Australia and that they must risk everything to be with him.There follows a tremendously dangerous journey with various people helping them - first out of their village, and then on a boat to Hong Kong. But will their luck continue to see them make it through the final leg, the trip to Melbourne, to be reunited with their successful Melbourne restaurateur father?


This is a terrific novel, an eye opener and totally engrossing read. The lives of the people are so hard, and only getting worse, and you can only hope for a better future for Fu and Pei. Beautifully written and with themes of famine, family, resilience, human empathy, migration and the Australian-Chinese experience of the 1950’s and 60’s, it is a truly exceptional story suited to people of all ages from 10 and above.


Reviewed by Rob