Nanberry by Jackie French

When the First Fleet arrives in Botany Bay, the settlers inadvertently bring with them a virus that infects the Indigenous people living around the colony. Nanberry, a young Indigenous boy is tragically orphaned when his family die of the fever that he manages to survive. The colony's surgeon, John White nurses Nanberry back to health and adopts the young boy. As Nanberry quickly picks up English and English customs, he is trapped between what he has always known, that of his tribe and what he is coming to know, that of the new colony.


This is such a great book if you are like me and enjoy stories based on true events but it's still amazing either way! Jackie French takes you into the world of 1789 and onwards Australia. What would it have been like for the Indigenous people to meet these new settlers who came in big ships across the water? What would it have been like for the settlers to turn the bush into a colony?

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