Nanberry-Jackie French
This is a book review
on a story by Jackie French called Nanberry it
is based on real people and real events. It is set to the time of the first
fleet and the first twenty years of the small colony
Surgeon White came to
the new colony as doctor with a convict girl Maria, he was a gentleman who
adopted Nanberry and an opossum . This story is set around the family Surgeon
White builds around himself to help him as he was so lonely in the colony
Maria was a convict
girl who had been starved most of her life. She became surgeon Whites
housekeeper when she came to the new colony and it was she who had to care for
the opossum.
Nanberry was a boy, A native boy out swimming and trying to find mud
oysters when he saw a great big canoe he was truly amazed for he thought he had
become one with the sea but he had never been able to conquer the waves like
the canoes could. His uncle Colbee
yelled out “get back, run to the
trees” but he stayed even though you never disobeyed when a warrior called, especially
if it was your uncle he called again Nanberry ran to the bushes and hid with the others but watched as the
warriors shook their spears and yelled go away, go away, but the white ghosts
in the canoe didn’t listen then it came close enough and they landed on the
sandy beach. The warriors turned and ran back to the main party and they left
for their camp, the white ghosts stayed.
One night when he was sleeping
his Auntie started to moan and clutch her chest and was soon dead
They quickly buried
her and left the camp as you don’t stay where the ghosts are. As they were moving to a different camp more
of the tribe went to there knees and started to moan, the warriors decided to
save the tribe they needed to leave behind the sick and dying. Nanberry could
not leave his family even if he died. The rest of the party went on, Nanberry
stayed behind and he got his family to the beach and poured water on them. He
went to get food and he saw a tree with
possum claw marks, so he thought there would be a possum and he needed food for
his sick family. He quickly scaled the tree and grabbed the possum and before
it could do anything he whacked its head against the tree and killed it and ran
back to his family and made a cooking fire. The next day when he woke up he
felt like a jelly fish he could hardly move he looked at himself he was covered
in the spots and welts he looked around him and walked to the water and lay in
it and bathed in it he felt a bit better.
Mean while over in the
small colony the dying natives had been noticed and Surgeon White went out to
see what he could do, they found Nanberry and his family, they took the living
people back to the colonies hospital and they buried the dead. Surgeon White
healed Nanberry and one other girl but he thought all the rest had died of
smallpox, it amazed Surgeon White that so many natives died and none of the
settlers died.
Surgeon White was very
impressed with Nanberry. He was smart and he learned quickly, he also felt a
sense of responsibility for him as all of his people had died so he took him
home to have better care with Maria looking after him and he eventually adopted
him as his son.
Rachel Turner was
another convict girl who came on the second fleet. Maria was married then so
surgeon White got her as a house keeper to take Maria’s place. They fell in
love and had a baby but later on the surgeon had to go back to England
and married another lady. Rachel went on to marry Mr Moore.
Andrew was the baby
born to Rachel and he and he had a friend called Garudi they had there own
secret cove where they went fishing he was also brother to Nanberry . When he
was seven he had to go to England
to live with his father. When he grew up he trained as an engineer then served
in the battle of Waterloo, anyone that survived
the battle of Waterloo was a hero and would get
a free drink from any tavern for saving most of England
and all of Europe from Napoleon.
I thought it was quite
an enjoyable book it had a small part of the history of Australia and it was
very entertaining we did this as a read
aloud and I liked so much I’m going to read it by my self. I also think it
would for good someone learning the history of Australia
