The Wayward Child is set in Australia during the time of the Second World War. It is about the life of a child between the ages of 8 to 10 as her family moves about the bush and outback of Australia. There is some slang used that the reader may not understand completely; but their meaning is not as important as the details of the hardships endured during this time in history.
The world war was a time of rationing, fear, and many men leaving to fight the Japanese threat in the Pacific Theater of the war. Tales of atrocity coming back to the small children, and the families back in Australia.There are also pockets of religious bigotry by some and places where living was difficult at best.
Finally, The Wayward Child is a tale of the human spirit and survival in a time when it was difficult to know where the next meal was coming from. It was a time unlike any other and supplies were used in the war effort. For a small child, this is a hard time to experience, yet alone survive with one’s psyche intact.
The Wayward Child is also about the dysfunctional parts of a family, which you cannot choose, but must live with because they are family. At an early age, how does one handle and accept the death of their father, especially as they try to garner their father’s acceptance?
This and more can be found in the memoir The Wayward Child.
This reviewer found The Wayward Child a good read and recommends The Wayward Child as a must read with a four out of five stars. Reviewer:Robert Medak,Freelance Writer/Editor/Reviewer, Allbooks Review International, www.allbooksreviewint.com
Available at: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the publisher at ww.decadentpublishing.com/
Title: The Wayward Child
Author: Rita Lowther
Publisher: Decadent Publishing Company, LLC
ISBN: 978-1-936394-91-3
Pages: 293
Date: May 2011
For more info: http://www.decadentpublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=243&osCsid=748d6ad605bc8bfc9c0c4395b4d29482
The Wayward Child is now #1 Best Sellers in Australian Biographies / History on Amazon.
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Truly one of the best memoirs I've read. I laughed often and read with obsession until I finished. I carried it with me everywhere I went and am quite sad that it's over. I felt a fondness and connection to the young Rita, as if I wanted to give her a good long hug. I will wait impatiently for another book from her, as I find myself wondering what happened next in her life, and the life of her sister and mother.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ritalowther.com/#!guestbook
I just finished your book Rita, and stayed up half the night last night reading it. Your gift for storytelling is breathtaking. This is one of my favorite books ever. You took me right into your childhood with you and I felt every emotion throughout the book. It's a gut-wrenching story and I hold you in high esteem.
ReplyDeleteI just finished The Wayward Child and had to tell you how much I enjoyed it.I'm not Australian but it still hit home with me.Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteThe Wayward Child by Rita Lowther
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful but heart wrenching story about the author and her life as she grew up in small Australian towns and rural areas during the war era. Rita (author) and her sister Joan had a hard life during their childhood compared to today's standards, it was one full of adventure, love, dispair and tragedy. The Lowther family have my admiration of what they lived through and still accepted it as part of their lot. Times were hard back then with food and clothing rationing during the war, and working and living conditions for their family was largely substandard but it was heartening to read how they coped. The expectations and beliefs people were subjected to at that time were criminal, especially what some members of the Catholic Brotherhood got away with. This particular section of the story did upset me. The book was hard to put down as it was written in such a way you want to find out what happens next. I highly recommend this book, and although it does have a darker side to some of it, it also has some delightful and heart warming sides too, but then that is what the whole story is about, it's Rita's life as she experienced it.