Molly Hook lives with her father and uncle and works in the family business as a gravedigger. She is badly treated by the men who are responsible for her well-being and has already unsuccessfully attempted to run away from home. Consequently when the bombs start to fall Molly takes her chance and heads into the bush to locate Longcoat Bob, the man she believes placed a curse on her family many years previously. On the journey Molly joins forces with Greta, an actress who had a realtionship with Molly's uncle, and Yukio, a Japanese pilot whose plane lands in the bush.
Twelve year old Molly lost her mother some years earlier but has been left with the belief that she can communicate with the sky and at times even receives a present from the sky. The first present is a gold mining pan that had belonged to her grandfather and scratched on to the pan are directions to locate the place where her grandfather once found gold. To most people the directions are obscure but Molly, who like her grandfather and mother loves to read poetry and plays, is able to decipher the clues as she and her friends go on their voyage of discovery.
The descriptions of the Australian landscape are paramount to the story, especially when seen through the eyes of the Japanese pilot. Some of the descriptions read like poetry, particularly when the wetlands with the wide variety of plants and wildlife are described. The trio encounter danger but they also learn resiliance as they discover more about themselves and things in life that are important. The desriptions of the bombing of Darwin vividly portray the horror of that event in Australian history.
The cover of the book captures the magical qualities of this beautifully written Australian story that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.
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