True Heroines: Review of Amazing Australian Women Twelve Women Who Shaped History

True Heroines: Review of Amazing Australian Women Twelve Women Who Shaped History

In the style of the wildly popular Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls and Boys Who Dare to be Different, Amazing Australian Women takes us through the back stories of twelve women who have made a significant impact on Australian history. Covering a broad range of women from the arts, business, politics, sport, politics and the list doesn’t stop there.

Not all are famous, but all are remarkable. A sample of those included are Nellie Melba (opera singer), Edith Cowan (politician), Tilly Aston (teacher, writer and disability activist), Emily Kame Kngwarreye (artist) and Lores Bonney (aviation pioneer).

There are plenty of examples of overcoming hardship and difficult circumstances like convict Mary Reiby who was arrested at thirteen for horse theft and transported to NSW where she went on to build an import business that became one of the most important organisations in the early colony. Despite losing most of her sight by the time she was seven, Tilly Aston went on to publish six books of poetry and scientist and trail blazer, Ruby Payne-Scott, was forced to keep her marriage a secret for six years so she could remain doing her important work as a scientist.

The illustrations from Sophie Beer add so much vibrancy to these fascinating stories, grabbing younger readers attention with wonderful bright bursts of colour and intricate details.

As with Bedtime Stories for Rebel Girls and Boys Who Dare to be Different, reading these inspiring portraits with your children is a great opportunity to broach some interesting and perhaps more serious topics (as each story is only a page in length you can read one a night and then have a chat about it). For older children you can set them on a path to discovering more about the women they are particularly interested in – and the fields in which they excelled.

Author Pamela Freeman has written a really valuable book for the 10+ reader that you’ll want not only the little girls in your life to read but also the little boys.

Purchase a copy of Amazing Australian Women | Read more from Pamela Freeman

Pamela Freeman has a Doctor of Creative Arts, has lectured in creative writing and won awards for children’s writing and biography. Pamela also writes for adults and her first adults fantasy The Castings Trilogy has recently been published. She lives in Sydney with her husband and son.

Sophie Beer is an award-winning illustrator living in Brisbane. Sophie adores creating bright, fun designs with generous helpings of narrative and is particularly interested in children’s illustration. Revelling in colour, shape and texture, she lives by one simple rule: art should never be boring. Sophie was the winner of the 2016 SCBWI Penguin/Random House Portfolio award.

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Sophie Beer
About the author

Sophie Beer

Sophie Beer is an award-winning illustrator living in Brisbane, Australia. She completed a dual degree in Law and Creative Industries with distinction at Queensland University of Technology, but found her true calling in children's and editorial illustration after winning the 2016 SCBWI Penguin Random House Portfolio Award. Revelling in colour, shape and texture, she lives by one simple rule:

Books by Sophie Beer

Pamela Freeman
About the author

Pamela Freeman

Dr Pamela Freeman is the award-winning author of more than 28 books. Her most recent book, published under the name of Pamela Hart, is The Soldier’s Wife (Hachette Australia), an historical novel set in World War I. For children, her most recent publication is the Princess Betony series published by Walker Books. Her new book for kids, Lake Eyre, is a non-fiction picture book due out in late 2015.Pamela also writes fantasy fiction for adults. She is best known for the Castings trilogy (published in the US, the UK, France, Spain, Portugal and Germany as well as Australia) and for Ember and Ash, winner of the Aurealis Award for best fantasy novel . Another children’s book, Victor’s Challenge, was published in 2009 in Australia and the UK and won the Aurealis Award for Best Children’s Fantasy.Pamela started as a children’s writer, and many of her books have been shortlisted for the State Literary Awards, the Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Awards, the Koala Awards and the Wilderness Society Environment Awards. Pamela – who is also an accomplished scriptwriter – taught creative writing at the University of Technology, Sydney for many years. She has also been a guest lecturer at the University of Sydney and taught writing workshops around Australia for the National Book Council and various state libraries. Pamela has a Doctor of Creative Arts in Writing from the University of Technology, Sydney.She has published numerous short stories and has spoken at various writers’ festivals around the country. Her most recent book for young adults, The Black Dress, a fictional account of the childhood of Mary MacKillop in the Australia of the 1840s to 1860s, won the NSW History Prize for Young People.

Books by Pamela Freeman

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