Review: A Waltz for Matilda

A Waltz for Matilda by Jackie French
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this on my way back to the US from Australia, so I had visions of gum trees and the dry countryside in my brain. I have enjoyed quite a few of Jackie French's books. I find historical fiction to be much more interesting than the history lessons I was subjected to in virtually all of my classes in grade school and beyond. That said, I do have a few things that make me uneasy about this book.

Jackie French acknowledges in the introduction and the notes at the end of the book that the racism depicted in the book must be there, because otherwise the book would be too far from historical reality. I agree. In fact, I find that the racism has been toned down a bit too much. I am not sure that a 12 year old girl would find it so easy to discard her racist heritage. It is a fine line to tread and Ms. French does it well: portray the racism fairly accurately, but show the heroine as not accepting of it. But I would have liked to see a bit more internal struggle with it in Matilda.

The second thing that I have reservations about is the character of Mr. Drinkwater, the elder. After finding out the relationships between all of the major characters, I still don't quite understand why the critical early scene plays out as it did.

And one minor criticism from an American: I wish the book had included the full text of the song in one of the appendices.

But I did enjoy the book and I finished it on the plane flights, even though I was massively tired. I will be looking for the sequels, even though it is difficult to find Australian children's and young adult's literature in the U.S.

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