Whisper

Two girls walking on different sides of the road, but in the same direction: hurdling fences, fishing in the creek, teasing, challenging, questioning, laughing uncontrollably, learning and through it all, the quiet whisper of friendship and fun.

This is a collection of stories about a very special friendship: between an aboriginal girl called Edie, and a non-Aboriginal girl, Maggie. Edie lives with her grandmother, though she has been taught to call her "Aunty Gwen". There is no bitterness in Edie when she talks about her mother having left her: just a matter-of-fact "Mum couldn't cope". We're obliquely aware of the stolen generation and of a world that is important to adults, but through the eyes of children we share an immediate need to enjoy and cherish our friends.

A spiritual view of life is seen as natural to children and a fact of the human condition. There's no piety about it and it offers the adult reader both healing and optimism about the future. When Edie talks warmly of the land as her mother, it's as if there were no sense of loss in Edie's life at all. Funny stories, sometimes sad, beautiful and emotional: adventures with Maggie, farm chores, mischief, the world of the imagination, 'Whisper' will touch the hearts of all who read it.