Sydney Harbour Bridge

My Australian Story

by Vashti Farrer

It is 1932 and Sydney has hit hard times but the construction of a bridge that will reach across the harbour is setting spirits soaring. Both Alice and Billy tell the story of building the spectacular Harbour Bridge which will link the north shore to the working class suburbs of the south and unify a separated city.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Childrens, Diary

Paperback

First published February 1, 2012

Reviews

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obviously it’s a kids book and it was interesting especially as I used to walk from Milson’s point to North Sydney every day and read the plaques about what was there before the bridge and marvel at the engineering, but the kids diaries seemed very inauthentic and it was very annoying at times!!

[Jayne Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love reading historical fiction and this was great. I enjoyed reading the real life diary entries by Billy and Alice too. Even though this is aimed at younger readers I still liked the writing style and I learnt interesting things about the bridge when it was being built.

[Amber Cavanagh · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit boring, just some diaries of people who were around when the bridge was built but I felt it was a bit scripted and probably wasn’t using true diaries. Could have just read the summary at the end.

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This tied in with our family reading about Lennie Gwyther.

[Sammy McGregor · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to get a child's perspective on what was happening during such a pivotal time in Australia's history, but sometimes, the diaries were hard to follow.

[Marianne Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great look into the building of the Bridge, and the political problems with the Depression and written through the eyes of two young children. Loved learning the history of that time

[Melina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alice and Billy are both kids living in Sydney during the building of the Harbour Bridge. Billy is from a working class family, managing to survive through the depression through his father’s employment on the bridge. He’s painfully aware of the effects of the depression – with friends forced to move away – and the dangers of being a labourer on the bridge. Alice is from an upper middle class family with less worries about money or day to day survival.

Last year, I read a fabulous (adult) book set around the building of the bridge – The Blue Mile by Kim Kelly. I was really hoping for a similar kind of book – fabulous fiction in a historical setting – especially since it is part of the great My Australian Story series. Unfortunately, the book was light on the fiction side of thing. Mostly the diary entries of both Alice and Billy are a collection of facts and thoughts about the building of the bridge and the economic and political situation of the time. There’s barely any other story, though there’s a tiny bit about a friend of Billy’s whose family was forced to move to a camp.

The alternating story lines didn’t really work for me, either. Primarily the different perspectives are indicated in different fonts and there were a few times when I had to double check whose story I was reading. I think I would have preferred the story told just from Billy’s point of view – Alice came across as very privileged and not terribly interesting, while I think there were story lines around Billy which could have been extended more.

If you’re interested in the facts of the bridge, this would be a great book for you. It does do a great job of bringing facts that can sometimes be a bit dry into a really readable format. I wonder whether more history books for children would benefit from a diary like approach. However, if you’re expecting historical fiction with a heavy dose of fiction, I’d probably direct you to one of the other My Australian Story books.

Originally reviewed at Subversive Reader