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11 April, 2010

A Tale of Two Families

A Tale of Two Families by Jenny Pausacker.

I picked this up out of a pile of books I was covering for my son's school library. I've read and quite enjoyed some of the My Australian Story Series before so thought I would give this a go.

Set in Melbourne in 1974, Jan is 15 and a typical suburban Australian girl. Her family has bbq's with the neighbours, her mother stays at home and, despite the fact she has a pretty good kick, Jan isn't allowed to join the footie team.

The book covers several issues - women's liberation, the Vietnam War, draft dodgers, returning servicemen and sexism. Whie each of these subjects is dealt with fairly simplistically and everything works out in the end, the book provides a good jumping off point for discussions about these issues.