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Freedom Ride by Sue Lawson
Based on the events of Australia’s 1965 Freedom Ride, Sue Lawson’s book is a compelling novel for teenagers and young adults. The work deals with tensions in the fictional New South Wales town of Walgaree that culminate in a confrontation between local residents and visiting university students demanding greater rights for Aboriginal people. The narrator, Robbie, is a 15-year-old white boy living with his father and grandmother. As the story unfolds, Robbie has to contend with growing racial friction, confronting the ugly anti-Aboriginal attitudes and violence that surround him. In the process he discovers new friends and unearths disturbing secrets and lies about his own family and identity.
Sue Lawson deftly uses fiction to enter into the history of the Freedom Ride in a way that will appeal to her youthful readership. She uses Robbie’s difficult home life to explore broader issues, and Walgaree to evoke the racial and social circumstances of many small rural New South Wales towns during the 1960s. The result is a fascinating and effective work of historical fiction, offering an engaging dramatic narrative about a significant, still-resonant event in Australia’s past from a fresh adolescent perspective.