Siobhan McHugh

This entire series is a wonderful way to learn history or teach it to adolescents. I find today's generations seem to recall more when they learn through other people (pop songs, celebrity gossip, etc.), so what better way to teach history than through someone else's perspective? Yes, "authentic" diaries would be "better", but would the language really hold the modern student's attention? Did the diary writer know what WOULD be important in the context of history? Probably not.

This diary is set in the late 1950s when many migrants came to Australia to help with the construction of the Snowy River scheme. Eva is not a migrant but she feels lost because her entire family has had to move from Sydney where it is warm to live in the cold mountains while the dams and power stations are constructed. She makes new friends with some of the migrants’ children and then there is a terrible accident…