Rating: ***** 5 stars

Pauline Francis,
A World Away
Usborne.

Ages 8 -10

Tudor England saw the brutal colonisation of the American Indians by Sir Walter Raleigh. Heedless of the rich and subtle cultures he found during his travels, Raleigh sought only to impress the Queen and ensure his own lasting fame and favour, plundering at will to gain Royal approval.

When Nadie, a North American Indian, is torn from her home and taken as an exhibit to Plymouth, we see this harsh and xenophobic culture through her eyes. Her only true champion is Tom, the young apprentice blacksmith, stricken by the loss of his father which gnaws at him and enables him to understand her fear of change and alienation from what is around her.

The two fall in love and when Nadie is returned to her land - again, purely as a political expedient - Tom goes too, with no knowledge of what to expect and only the strength of his love to sustain him. They are accompanied by other hopeful colonists, misled about the dangers facing them in the New World in order to make the colonisation process a success.

Francis vividly describes both the exotic environment and the violence subsuned within it. She makes clear the damaging impact of colonisation and the failure to understand the customs and rituals of the indigenous peoples. This is contrasted with the strength of the love - sometimes misplaced - which sustains the 'pale men' who come to colonise - the love of God, the love of country, the love of power and the true love between individuals.

This is an affecting and often shocking novel which makes clear the implications of seeking to occupy lands without thought for those who live there and explores fearlessly the concept that Man can be both predator and prey.

Vincent Reid