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Lighthouse Girl

by Dianne Wolfer with illustrations by Brian Simmonds

Price $24.95

Illustrator: Brian Simmonds

About the Book

‘Full of evocative illustrations, sepia photographs and news clippings, Wolfer’s book transports. A great one for early and older readers alike,’ — Frances Atkinson, The Sunday Age

‘This lovely book is based on the real Faye Howe and her life as a lighthouse keeper’s daughter … Fay’s reflections on her life and her relationship with the far-away soldier bring the moment keenly into our time. Highly recommended for middle years.’ — Reading Time

Fay lives alone with her father on bleak, windswept Breaksea Island, but her isolated life takes a dramatic turn with the outbreak of World War I.

Fay collects the messages of lonely soldiers heading to the front line. She is their last hope of getting messages telegraphed back home. After their departure for the battlefields of Egypt and Gallipoli, she follows their fortunes and continues her long distance conversations with letters and postcards. Then one day, a single, sad telegram arrives, and the war is brought brutally home.

Based on the true story of Faye Howe, this gentle tale brings to life the hardships of those left at home during the war — waiting, wondering, hoping. Drawing on fascinating archival material, and interweaving fact with fiction, award-winning author Dianne Wolfer deftly recreates this period in Australian history from the perspective of a young girl.

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