New Zealand Girl Book 1: Rebecca and the Queen of Nations by Deborah Burnside

NZ Girl Bk1: Rebecca and the Queen of Nations by Deborah Burnside. Pub. Puffin, 2013.

The first of a new series featuring young girls coming to New Zealand or living in early New Zealand. They are aimed at primary school girls, are less than 100 pages long, written in large print with short chapters, and they are very good stories.

This one features a young Irish girl, Rebecca, who is destined for the workhouse in poverty stricken Ireland. She makes her way to Belfast and with a stroke of luck gets on an immigrant ship to NZ in the year 1874.

Her story is the arduous journey to NZ as she is maid to a woman with young children. Rebecca is a resourceful girl and readers will easily identify with her.

In the back Deborah Burnside gives her own brief history, a history of the ship Queen of Nations and the plight of the Irish that made so many of them to emigrate.

Very readible book.