Playing Beatie Bow [Library Binding]

Ruth Park (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0808561006 | ISBN-13: 978-0808561002 | Publication Date: October 1999

A lonely Australian girl from a divided family is transported back to the 1880's and an immigrant family from the Orkney Islands.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ruth Park was born in New Zealand and spent most of her life in Australia. She was born in 1922 in Auckland, and later moved to Te Kuiti in the north of the country with her parents. Ruth Park won the Miles Franklin Award for Swords and Crowns and Rings (1977), the Boston Globe Award for Playing Beatie Bow (1980), and was awarded the 1993 Lloyd O'Neil Magpie Award for services to the Australian book industry. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From AudioFile

At last, this perfectly crafted time-travel novel has found its way onto audio for a new generation of children to enjoy! When Abigail Kirk, an odd misfit of a girl from Sydney, Australia, sews a scrap of lovely lace into the yoke of her handmade Victorian style dress, she cannot guess what it will mean for her. After she and her young friend, Natalie, observe a group of children playing a game called Beatie Bow, Abigail is transported to Victorian England in 1873, where she is acknowledged by the Bow family to be the long-awaited "stranger." Cate Milte's reading is marvelously evocative. She captures Granny's Orkney brogue and bountiful wisdom, Judah's sweet generosity, Dovey's unrelenting kindness, Mr. Bow's befuddled kindness, Gibby's incessant death-obsessed whining, and Beatie's sassy gruffness. The mystery of intricately connected events takes shape under Milte's careful reading and will make this a favorite recording of middle-grade and young adult listeners. T.B. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Details

• Library Binding
• Publisher: Bt Bound (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0808561006
• ISBN-13: 978-0808561002
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,118,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoroughly absorbing and often terrifying time-slip fantasy, June 28, 2005

By 

Laraine A. Barker "Laraine A Barker" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Playing Beatie Bow (A Puffin Book) (Paperback)

Young Abigail is a fairly typical teenager--blind to the needs of her mother that seem to run contrary to her own needs, and yet concerned enough over the frazzled, tired look on the face of the woman next door to take the neighbour's children, Natalie and Vincent, off her hands for a while. They go to the park where other children are playing a game they call Beatie Bow. Both Natalie and Abigail are very taken by a strange girl that Natalie calls "the little furry girl", who is closely watching the game. But the little girl flees, squawking, when they talk to her. Later, wearing a dress she has made from some Victorian crochet lace, Abigail sees the little furry girl again. When the child flees from her she follows--to soon find herself in streets she no longer recognises.

Young readers might find this time-slip novel a little slow to start, even for a book published in the 1980s, but if they persist they will soon find themselves in a thoroughly absorbing, and often terrifying, tale. While it might have surprised Abigail that the undersized, illiterate girl who was always screeching "I'll punch ye yeller and green!" became someone of considerable importance, I doubt young readers will be surprised. Beatie Bow is a thoroughly unforgettable character and Ruth Park's prose is always a joy to read.

It made me sad to see the reviews here posted by students who were forced to "study" the book at school. This is a serious disservice to everyone concerned because all it's likely to do is turn young people against reading. Fiction should be for fun not for study.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Book, December 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Playing Beatie Bow (A Puffin Book) (Paperback)

Playing Beatie Bow was an interesting book because of the extensive historical content and because it told the story of a young girl growing up. I enjoyed reading in the Victorian dialect and seeing the cultural differences between modern times and Victorian times. I especially liked seeing everything from Abby's point of view because she is a girl my age who has some of the same feelings I do. It was a good book and I enjoyed reading it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Ruth Park Success, August 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Playing Beatie Bow (A Puffin Book) (Paperback)

Playing Beatie Bow is a book which recognises the inherent childish qualities of 14 year olds, and how time and experiences can turn teenage girls into wonderful adults. It looks at life through many eyes, and at the changes which society has made - both for better and for worse - in the past 150 years. Reading this book has been an annual event for me for 14 years, and I am only 25. I can thoroughly recommend a book which will have you smelling and hearing "The Rocks" in Sydney well before the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House were even physically possible!