A Banner Bold
Scholastic Australia, 2000
This popular junior novel in the "My Australian Story" series is narrated in diary-form by a girl named Rosa Aarons, who in 1854 arrives with her family at the Ballarat goldfield — just in time to witness the events leading up to the legendary uprising in the Eureka Stockade.
Through Rosa's eyes, readers see the multicultural mix of the diggings population, and the hardships endured in the search for gold. Yet for this adventurous girl and her friends there is always fun to be found, whether practising circus acts with their ponies or even sewing the flag with its memorable Southern Cross emblem.
Selected Reviews
“In A Banner Bold, Nadia Wheatley strikes the golden balance between information and imagination that characterises good historical fiction, enabling the reader to enter another time and place and consider the motivations and actions of the people who lived there... While Rosa is fictional, many of the characters around her are based on those who were actually involved in the actual events. Wheatley’s narrative is carefully researched and skilfully written.”
“Nadia Wheatley has an amazing ability to weave an enthralling adventure story around historical facts and figures.”