Jan Ormerod,
Lizzie Nonsense : A Story of Pioneer Days
Clarion, 2006 (first American edition)

Ages 5-8

Selected as Australia's 2006 IBBY Honour Book—Illustrator, amongst several other honors, Jan Ormerod's Lizzie Nonsense is a touching homage to the resilience and brave spirit of her mother and grandmother, as well as those of other pioneer women.

The little house in the bush, where Lizzie lives with her family, is far from civilization. There are no neighbors, no stores, no churches... Their lives, like those of other pioneer settlers in the Australian bush, are full of hardships. Carrying water buckets from the creek, chasing away snakes, being constantly frightened by howling dingoes, as we learn, are not for cowards. Alone with Lizzie and baby for weeks at a time, while her husband is away working, Lizzie's mom faces the isolation and harshness of her surroundings, while caring for her family as best as she can. Lizzie, a playful little girl with a yen for fantasy, develops a more exuberant way of dealing with the routine work and loneliness of her days: baby's bath water becomes the wide ocean; the wild flowers around her house are a bride's bouquet of roses; a simple meal of turnips, seen through her eyes, is a feast of 'peaches and cream with sweet crackers'; and her home is picture-perfect through her imagining it so. Mama calls it all nonsense, but Lizzie seems to know better, and, together, they enjoy dressing up in their best Sunday outfit and walking to the church that isn't there: a poignant moment that reveals that behind mama's no-nonsense way of conducting her life (understandbly so) is a woman who needs imagination and reinvention just as much as her young daughter does. When they both hear the horses' harnesses jangling (and this time it doesn't appear to be nonsense), they run toward them to embrace Papa, who is finally home.

Accompanying the text, Ormerod's soft illustrations create a very believable setting of the Australian bush, with the beiges, yellows and oranges conveying the feel of the dusty, sun-drenched landscape.

Contemporary young readers will be gently introduced to pioneer life, and parents and teachers should take the opportunity to encourage children to think about the differences between today's lifestyle, with all its amenities and comforts, and Lizzie's, so far from civilization as our children know it.

Aline Pereira
July 2006