Margot Hillel

In an interview in December 1995, author Christobel Mattingley said that ‘from the beginning’ she felt ‘that writing was my way of giving something back, helping other people to grow and expand and make the world a better place’. Her first book, No Gun for Asmir, about Bosnian refugee child Asmir and his family, had a remarkable effect world­wide, both emotionally and practically. The ... (read more)

If you want to say something about life to other people, you should tell them a story. – Manning Clark   Writers for children have always known this: from the Puritans who thinly disguised their religious teachings under stories of children who lived a pure life and went to heaven, and those who didn’t and went to hell; to modem writers who tell stories to help children cope with diffi ... (read more)

Given the recent happenings in East Timor, this is a timely novel. It is the moving story of the developing tragedy following the withdrawal of Portugal from its former colony and the invasion by Indonesia. The book is focused through Jose, a fourteen-year-old boy who finds the events puzzling and distressing. He finds some solace in the fighting cock given to him by his uncle, the person he most ... (read more)

The two books reviewed here, although very different in many ways, do have one thing in common – they have something to do with a secret, which the readers, and the protagonists, all come to know. Sophie Masson has written a number of books about the Seyrac family, in which she draws on her own French heritage. In this, the fourth, changes come to the family as Maman works to finish her book an ... (read more)