storytimed's review against another edition
4.0
This is a book written by a white lady that features Australian aboriginal (Dja Dja Wurrung) myths, & for that reason I was a little bit leery of it
But there was a foreword by an elder of the Yung Balung clan praising the accuracy so I continued to read it
& turns out instead of the protagonist being a white girl who is the Most Speciale, the protagonist is a white girl who needs to confront the fact that her colonizer ancestors covered up a terrible act of racist violence. Love that!
But there was a foreword by an elder of the Yung Balung clan praising the accuracy so I continued to read it
& turns out instead of the protagonist being a white girl who is the Most Speciale, the protagonist is a white girl who needs to confront the fact that her colonizer ancestors covered up a terrible act of racist violence. Love that!
treads12's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
ashrocc's review against another edition
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Cute storyline. Easy reading. Nicely researched and creates a real sense of country.
avrilhj's review against another edition
4.0
This has received very mixed reviews on Goodreads; some people love it and give it five stars, other people hate it and give it one. I don't quite understand the people who have described it as 'boring' (I felt like doing that irritating adult thing and saying "only boring people get bored"). I loved the descriptions of Boort and its surrounds, but maybe that's because I spent time up there after the 2011 floods and can picture the area. I found this a good teen time-slip novel, comparable to 'Children of the King' by Sonya Hartnett which I read earlier this year. (I have a thing for time-slip books, obviously.)
One warning: if you are the sort of person who believes only indigenous people should write indigenous stories, you will not like this book. The protagonist is an Anglo-Celtic girl and we never see inside the head of the indigenous boy who befriends her. One reviewer I read saw this as implying that indigenous people need white rescuers; I read it as implying that the white descendants of people involved in Australia's racist past bear some responsibility for their ancestors' actions. The book does have a Forward from a member of the local indigenous community.
In a few years I'll pass my copy on to my nephew and niece. I think they'll enjoy this local story, and I want them to know about the dark side of Australia's history.
aileenginny's review against another edition
4.0
Really cool time-jumping ideas in the book, without being overwhelming. I appreciated the main character's reactions to the events that unfolded, and was happy how she changed throughout the book. She did annoy me in the beginning, as it starts off as a typical parent-moves-without-consulting-child type of story.
isabeller's review against another edition
2.0
“The Dreaming is always; forever... it's always happening, and us mob, we're part of it, all the time, everywhere, and every-when too.”
Meh. This book should have been in the children's section, not the Young Adult. Can't really think of what else to say about it, it took me about 5 months to read, so I obviously didn't like it that much.
Meh. This book should have been in the children's section, not the Young Adult. Can't really think of what else to say about it, it took me about 5 months to read, so I obviously didn't like it that much.
goolsbybloom's review against another edition
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
jelly_fish21's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
hcube3's review against another edition
3.0
I read it as consideration for an early high school English novel study, and for its purpose it's fine. But books like these give me such a case of uncertainty - I don't mean to denigrate the author or the immense amount of cultural research that must have gone into the novel, and I can't say that the book didn't educate me. Its use of characters and plot devices is nothing less than respectful, and I think it does present one very difficult concept fantastically (even if it relies a little on time travel gimmicks to achieve this). The idea that past injustices linger for centuries when unaddressed - and how the benefactors of the injustice no longer notice its existence while the victims feel an ongoing shadow - is at the forefront of this novel and very carefully portrayed to make the most sense to a young reader. It's got that difficult moment of discovery that even if a person of the current generation is not a perpetrator of injustice, and even if there were no perpetrators of injustice in their entire family lineage, that person in the current day is likely still a benefactor of injustice, and is not fully apart from the injustice itself. I think that's awesome, and a great lead-in to complex discussions of not just Aboriginal Australia, but all sorts of complex moral issues that students will face in the future.
But I can't shake the feeling of not being able to trust the book 100%. It is as it is: if I were to tell my own cultural story improperly, that would be unfortunate, but forgivable. If I were to tell someone else's cultural story improperly however, that would create a laceration that's impossible for myself to fix. I know that the Australian curriculum requires teachers to engage with Australia's Aboriginal history, and I wholeheartedly support that - but I've also seen lesson plans that consider the mere mention of Mabo in The Castle to be a link to Australia's Aboriginal history. I feel that if I taught Crow Country, I would be on tiptoes. I would preface the book with "and it's important to do your own research and trust the First Peoples before secondary sources". And with that mindset, Crow Country feels more like an enjoyable story with some subtext about Aboriginal history, rather than a story about Aboriginal history.
But I can't shake the feeling of not being able to trust the book 100%. It is as it is: if I were to tell my own cultural story improperly, that would be unfortunate, but forgivable. If I were to tell someone else's cultural story improperly however, that would create a laceration that's impossible for myself to fix. I know that the Australian curriculum requires teachers to engage with Australia's Aboriginal history, and I wholeheartedly support that - but I've also seen lesson plans that consider the mere mention of Mabo in The Castle to be a link to Australia's Aboriginal history. I feel that if I taught Crow Country, I would be on tiptoes. I would preface the book with "and it's important to do your own research and trust the First Peoples before secondary sources". And with that mindset, Crow Country feels more like an enjoyable story with some subtext about Aboriginal history, rather than a story about Aboriginal history.