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Our Australian Girl - Marly #2
Marly's Business
It's 1983 in Sunshine, Melbourne, and everyone at Marly's school is collecting Donkey Kong cards. Marly wants some cards too, but she has no money to buy them. Then she has a fantastic idea – to start her own business! Marly's money-making venture brings her something she hadn't planned on: new friends in a part of Melbourne that she never knew existed. And of course she knows how to find her way home again. Or does she?
- GenresChildrens
132 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 22, 2015
5 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Alice Pung
20 books369 followersAlice was born in Footscray, Victoria, a month after her parents Kuan and Kien arrived in Australia. Alice’s father, Kuan - a survivor of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime - named her after Lewis Carroll’s character because after surviving the Killing Fields, he thought Australia was a Wonderland. Alice is the oldest of four - she has a brother, Alexander, and two sisters, Alison and Alina.
Alice grew up in Footscray and Braybrook, and changed high schools five times - almost once every year! These experiences have shaped her as a writer because they taught her how to pay attention to the quiet young adults that others might overlook or miss.
Alice Pung’s first book, Unpolished Gem, is an Australian bestseller which won the Australian Book Industry Newcomer of the Year Award and was shortlisted in the Victorian and NSW Premiers’ Literary awards. It was published in the UK and USA in separate editions and has been translated into several languages including Italian, German and Indonesian.
Alice’s next book, Her Father’s Daughter, won the Western Australia Premier’s Award for Non-Fiction and was shortlisted for the Victorian and NSW Premiers’ Literary awards and the Queensland Literary Awards.
Alice also edited the collection Growing Up Asian in Australia and her writing has appeared in the Monthly, the Age, and The Best Australian Stories and The Best Australian Essays.
Alice is a qualified lawyer and still works as a legal researcher in the area of minimum wages and pay equity. She lives with her husband Nick at Janet Clarke Hall, the University of Melbourne, where she is the Artist in Residence.
Alice grew up in Footscray and Braybrook, and changed high schools five times - almost once every year! These experiences have shaped her as a writer because they taught her how to pay attention to the quiet young adults that others might overlook or miss.
Alice Pung’s first book, Unpolished Gem, is an Australian bestseller which won the Australian Book Industry Newcomer of the Year Award and was shortlisted in the Victorian and NSW Premiers’ Literary awards. It was published in the UK and USA in separate editions and has been translated into several languages including Italian, German and Indonesian.
Alice’s next book, Her Father’s Daughter, won the Western Australia Premier’s Award for Non-Fiction and was shortlisted for the Victorian and NSW Premiers’ Literary awards and the Queensland Literary Awards.
Alice also edited the collection Growing Up Asian in Australia and her writing has appeared in the Monthly, the Age, and The Best Australian Stories and The Best Australian Essays.
Alice is a qualified lawyer and still works as a legal researcher in the area of minimum wages and pay equity. She lives with her husband Nick at Janet Clarke Hall, the University of Melbourne, where she is the Artist in Residence.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 13, 2018
1) Meet Marly ★★★★
content warnings: racism
representation: vietnamese main character, vietnamese side characters, egyptian side character
This was a great follow-up to the first book. It's genuinely incredible the way that Alice Pung can make you sympathise with Marly when she's angry at her parents, even when you know that her parents are actually right. Pung taps into that part of you that remembers being ten and mad at your parents for something dumb and it makes Marly appear perfectly justified in her anger.
I didn't like the plot of this one as much as the first, and I miss Marly's cousins, but I loved the inclusion of Yousra and I really hope we get to see more of her in the next two books.
content warnings: racism
representation: vietnamese main character, vietnamese side characters, egyptian side character
This was a great follow-up to the first book. It's genuinely incredible the way that Alice Pung can make you sympathise with Marly when she's angry at her parents, even when you know that her parents are actually right. Pung taps into that part of you that remembers being ten and mad at your parents for something dumb and it makes Marly appear perfectly justified in her anger.
I didn't like the plot of this one as much as the first, and I miss Marly's cousins, but I loved the inclusion of Yousra and I really hope we get to see more of her in the next two books.
February 3, 2017
Lovely short read (for an adult that is) and I loved Marly's adventures to Parkville when she massively takes the wrong bus, after sneaking out to earn some money by returning shopping trolleys to the bay at the supermarket and claiming the 20c as her own. I'm surprised she made so much money because in my life I've probably seen about five trolleys ever left in the car park with the coin still in! ;)
Also I still think her mother's trick with the umbrella was mean. Marly worked all day to earn $10 to buy Donkey Kong cards, then instead of taking her to the newsagent as promised her mum takes her to K-Mart and buys her an umbrella... using Marly's hard-earned $10! Aww mum :(
Also I still think her mother's trick with the umbrella was mean. Marly worked all day to earn $10 to buy Donkey Kong cards, then instead of taking her to the newsagent as promised her mum takes her to K-Mart and buys her an umbrella... using Marly's hard-earned $10! Aww mum :(
November 22, 2022
Enjoying reading about Australia in the 80's with my two older boys...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews