Review:
The night we made the flag : A Eureka story by Carole Wilkinson
Black Dog Books, ISBN 2008978 174203007 4
(Age: 9-13) Carole Wilkinson uses the information about the Eureka flag
to tell the story of its making. Three women spend the night before the
Eureka Stockade, December 3, 1854, to sew a flag that the men would
raise high above their hastily built fortification on Bakery Hill.
Wilkinson's story takes elements of many stories passed down through
generations about who made the flag and put these together with what is
known about the flag to make a satisfying tale of the secretive nature
of the task. The telling takes the reader into the tent where the women
work all night, fetching supplies from other women, using donated
materials and finally using a daughter's precious petticoat for the
stars. Carefully, Wilkinson builds up the watchfulness shown by the
women, their caution at their task, their ever present concern that
they will be discovered.
More information about the making of the flag is given at the back of
the picture book, and information can be gleaned from
http://www.balgal.com/ (the website
for the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery where students can view the flag).
Fran Knight
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© Pledger
Consulting, 2007