Charlotte and the Golden Promise by Sandy McKay

Charlotte and the Golden Promise by Sandy McKay. Pub. Puffin, 2014.

Part 3 of the New Zealand Girl series this time about 11 year old Charlotte and her adventure in the Otago Goldfields of 1865.

Charlotte gets the adventure bug after reading Moby Dick. When she rescues school friend Cyril from a bully she hears of the gold town of Hogburn Gully(now Naseby) and joins him on a stagecoach journey to visit his father a preacher.

Charlotte’s aim is to find gold and help her struggling parents but she soon experiences the realities of goldmining. The thieves, the anti Chinese sentiments, the heat the cold and the toil of relieving the land of it’s gold.

She befriends a Chinese boy and helps him retrieve his hard earned gold from a thief.

Short, big word font, well written and informative, from one of New Zealand’s best childrens’ writers. Aimed at confident readers in primary school and reluctant girl readers of intermediate age.