Review: "Poppy Comes Home" by Gabrielle Wang

Reviews of previous books in the series:
  Meet Poppy;
  Poppy at Summerhill and Poppy and the Thief


Poppy Comes Home by Gabrielle Wang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

And Poppy reaches Beechworth.

And so bits of it threw me out of the story - like the description of what seemed like a long walk between the prison and the Town Hall, when it's actually half a block. (I was in Beechworth on Saturday, I checked. From the post office I could see all the way past the old gaol, the old courthouse, etc, to the walls of the prison.)

But it was a brilliant, awesome ending to the series. As I've said previously, I just love the connection that I have to the places of this series - I would love to be able to get Gabrielle up here to do some library talks. (I know from her blog that she launched "Poppy Comes Home" with a visit to Wahgunyah Primary), but the regional library of which *my* library is a part covers most of the ground for these books. But we had other foci for the Year of Reading, and sadly, the "My Australian Girl" series is too narrowly focused at middle grade girls. But I'd still love to get Gabrielle up here. Along with Alice Pung and a few other people on my wishlist.

I'm so glad I bought all four books in this series. They are a beautiful addition to my personal library as well as to middle grades Australian writing. I don't know that I'll ever buy the other books from My Australian Girl (although to WWI-era ballet student from Perth is tempting), but these have been a jewel of a find.

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