Meet Nellie (Book 1)
Author: Penny Matthews
Illustrator: Lucia Masciullo
Book 9 in the Our Australian Girl series
Pages: 132
Published: 2011
Age: 8+
It's 1849...and Nellie O'Neill is arriving in South Australia on a ship bringing orphan girls from Irish workhouses. Nellie and her best friend, Mary, have left the famine in Ireland far behind, and are full of hopes and dreams for the future. Nellie longs to learn to read, to be part of a family once more, and never to be hungry again. But with no job and no one to turn to, how will Nellie make her wishes come true?
Meet Nellie and join her adventure in the first of four stories about an Irish girl with a big heart, in search of the freedom to be herself.
About the Our Australian Girl Series
Books in series order
- 1.Meet Grace (Book 1)(2011)
- 2.A Friend for Grace (Book 2)(2011)
- 3.Grace and Glory (Book 3)(2011)
- 4.A Home for Grace (Book 4)(2011)
- 5.Meet Letty (Book 1)(2011)
- 6.Letty and the Stranger's Lace (Book 2)(2011)
- 7.Letty on the Land (Book 3)(2011)
- 8.Letty's Christmas (Book 4)(2011)
- 9.Meet Nellie (Book 1)(2011)
- 10.Nellie and the Secret Letter (Book 2)(2012)
- 11.Nellie's Quest (Book 3)(2012)
- 12.Nellie's Greatest Wish (Book 4)(2012)
- 13.Meet Poppy (Book 1)(2011)
- 14.Poppy at Summerhill (Book 2)(2011)
- 15.Poppy and the Thief (Book 3)(2011)
- 16.Poppy Comes Home (Book 4)(2011)
- 17.Meet Rose (Book 1)(2011)
- 18.Rose on Wheels (Book 2)(2011)
- 19.Rose's Challenge (Book 3)(2011)
- 20.Rose in Bloom (Book 4)(2011)
- 21.Meet Alice (Book 1)(2012)
- 22.Alice and the Apple Blossom Fair (Book 2)(2012)
- 23.Alice of Peppermint Grove (Book 3)(2012)
- 24.Peacetime for Alice (Book 4)(2012)
- 25.Meet Lina (Book 1)(2013)
- 26.Lina's Many Lives (Book 2)(2013)
- 27.Lina at the Games (Book 3)(2013)
- 28.A Lesson for Lina (Book 4)(2013)
- 29.Meet Ruby (Book 1)(2013)
- 30.Ruby and the Country Cousins (Book 2)(2013)
- 31.School Days for Ruby (Book 3)(2013)
- 32.Ruby of Kettle Farm (Book 4)(2013)
- 33.Meet Daisy (Book 1)(2014)
- 34.Daisy All Alone (Book 2)(2014)
- 35.Daisy in the Mansion (Book 3)(2014)
- 36.Daisy on the Road (Book 4)(2014)
- 37.Meet Pearlie (Book 1)(2014)
- 38.Pearlie's Pet Rescue (Book 2)(2014)
- 39.Pearlie the Spy (Book 3)(2014)
- 40.Pearlie's Ghost (Book 4)(2014)
- 41.Meet Marly (Book 1)(2015)
- 42.Marly's Business (Book 2)(2015)
- 43.Marly and the Goat (Book 3)(2015)
- 44.Marly Walks on the Moon (Book 4)(2016)
Reading age: 8+ years
This series should be read in order.
Our Australian Girl is a series set in different periods of Australian history. Each period features a courageous girl, whose adventures are told over four books.
Some of the engaging characters portrayed in the series: Grace, an orphaned 'mudlark' in London's Thames, who is transported to Australia in 1808 after stealing apples to feed a cabbie's horse; Letty, an accidental emigrant, travelling with her more adventurous sister in 1841; Poppy, the daughter of a Chinese father and an Aboriginal mother, who escapes a mission in the goldrush of 1864; and Rose, who in 1900, dreams of an "unladylike" life with fewer restrictions for girls and women.
Note: While the series as a whole does not need to be in order, each sub-series of four books should be read sequentially.