Book Review: Sister Heart by Sally Morgan

Title: Sister Heart

Author: Sally Morgan

Genre: Middle Grade Historical Fiction/Books in Verse

Number of Pages: 251

Rating: C+

Recommended?: No

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The book deals with important historical events but falls short as a story. It tells the story of an Aboriginal girl (the name she’s given is ‘Annie,’ but we never learn her Aboriginal name) who is taken from her family and placed in a government school run by white Australians who want to drive the native out of her. She befriends a brother and sister who help her cope with her horrific situation and use her imagination to escape her hopeless surroundings.

I think people today need to know about the abuse native people of various countries faced in the past and still continue to face, but this book was way too sentimental and the characters weren’t well-developed. We didn’t get to know anything about Annie’s family or what kind of person she was outside of her horrible circumstances. The book was a really quick read and even though it was full of emotionally intense material I didn’t feel it was well-written enough to be particularly moving. I’m sure there are better books out there that deal with this kind of subject matter.

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