Night ride into danger by Jackie French

This book tells the adventure had by one boy with his Paw and what happened after a terrible accident with the Cob and Co coach that he was driving. All of the passengers on the coach on the fateful trip have their own secrets and reasons why they wanted to get to Goulburn on the night coach. Jem had some hard decisions to make to ensure that all of the passengers on the Cob and Co coach arrived at their destination along with the ever important mail bags. He found an inner strength that helped on his journey. As the passenger’s secrets are slowly revealed the layers in the story continue to unfold and make for a story that you can’t put down.

The historical information at the end of the book added to the story and the fact that the idea for the story came from the Henry Lawson poems that are in the back of the book added another interesting level to this story. It could be used as a teaching text encouraging students to choose a poem and using this to write their own story based on the characters and places in the poem.

I highly recommend this book.

Themes: Cobb & Co., Australia - History - 1851-1901, Transport.

Karen Colliver