Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Saturday 11 December 1954, page 12


Tales By Australian Writers

SIX AND SILVER, by Joan Phipson.—Angus and Robertson,

12s 6d.

THE FIRST WALKABOUT, by Norman B. Tindale and H. A. Lindsay.—Longmans, London. 14s

6d.

A FORTUNE FOR THE BRAVE, by Nan Chauncy.—Ox-ford Press, London. 9s 6d.

LONG JOHN SILVER, adapted by Kylie Tennant, from screenplay by Marlin Rackin.—Associated General Publications. 15s.

SIMON BLACK IN CHINA, by Ivan Soulhall.—Angus and Robert-son. 9s 6d.

HERE are six books for

people in their early and middle teens, all written by Australians, but covering a pretty wide global swath.

"Six And Silver" will be enjoy-ed by the outdoor-minded mop-pet. Joan Phipson (whose "Good Luck to the Rider" won a prize last year) writes about a Sydney

girl's visits to a farm in north-

western New South Wales.

Riding and hiking bring adven-tures. The narrative is unforced and keeps most pleasantly to the probabilities.

"The First Walkabout" tells how the small, dark Negritos reached and spread across Aus-tralia during the Ice Age and be-came the first human inhabitants. They were driven south by fiercer hunters, and the flight of a tribe is reconstructed, forming the narrative.

The story is written in a quiet yet vivid way. Mr. Tindale is an Adelaide Museum ethnologist, but that need frighten no one.

In "A Fortune for the Brave," the scene moves between Eng-land and Tasmania, where an aimless youth migrates to stay with more feckless relatives. He learns to love farming, inherits a small island and is involved in a coastal treasure hunt.

The story contains fairly subtle studies of character, and will in-terest mid-teenagers

Kylie Tennant has made a jaunty adaptation of the "Long John Silver" scenario, which brings back into action every pirate R.L.S. left unscuppered. Young Jim Hawkins is captured again, this time with a girl com-panion of his own age

Pegleg Silver, however, has re-formed with time (except for an occasional nasty outburst of temper) and is now Jim's rescuer and friend, even sharing with him the latest find of doubloons and diamonds

The fifth of the "Simon Black" series takes him to China and provides briskly enough the kind of adventure-dream many boys like in these technological days. The aviator and his mates have the assignment of impersonating uranium smugglers in older to foil a diabolical conspiracy

—PETER SUJEN.