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Mar 21, 2009

Richard rated it:

A memoir about three Aboriginal girls who are taken out of their home in Northern Australia (during 1930s) and put in a ‘school’ to train them to become servants. This is all with government approval because the girls are part white and part native. The oldest girl is determined not to stay and to get back to her home. They run away from the school-prison and find the rabbit proof fence that runs the length of Australia and walk home, eating rabbits, beetles, what ever they could find. Pilki More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 13, 2008

Shannon rated it:

This is the sad yet beautiful, poignant true story of three Aboriginal girls who were taken from their families and tribe during the Australian government's policy of removing children, educating them to be servants and working towards a goal of assimilation by wiping out their genes – the entire race, eventually – through inter-racial marriage. They had found that within three generations of breeding with whites, the children are blond and blue-eyed. Today these children are known as the Stolen More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 21, 2011

Emily rated it:

At the risk of sounding like one of "those people," the movie was better. I saw it when it came out years ago and liked it enough to get excited when I found the book it was based on at my local library. It seemed to me that Doris Pilkington couldn't decide if she wanted to write a history of her mother's walk or if she wanted to write a fictionalized version of the true events that would allow her to, as she puts it, "call on [her] skills as writer" to fill in details probab More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 10, 2011

Amy rated it:

Okay the whole history and premise of this book is very intriguing. It should get a 5 for that! I am usually one who doesn't like flowery, fluffy prose. I don't need pages and pages of detail to enjoy a story. This book is quick, to the point and almost too short. It is almost written as a direct translation of a related oral story. There is no embellishment. At times I found it a bit rushed. It took 3 girls 9 weeks to travel 1200 + miles alone. The girls were ages 8-14. Nine weeks! I More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 07, 2011

Ape rated it:

I saw the film quite a few years ago and have been curious about reading the book since. It's not the longest book in the world, but it does draw you in. And to start at the very beginning... well, it's not just about the girls' journey across western Australia, as there's a bit of a potted history about the European colonisation of Australia and how this affected the indigenous population and the way they were treated. Which just makes you mad. I'm actually also reading a book about Swedish mis More...

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Jul 06, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

The author is part aboriginal Australian, and her cultural frame greatly enhances the telling of this amazing true story of her mother's escape from what was little more than a concentration camp for mixed-race children. In 1931, seventeen-year-old Molly and her two younger cousins set out for "home." They could neither count, nor read, nor speak much English, and they truly had nothing more than the clothes on their backs. Using Molly's tracking skills, they walked for months, for h More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 26, 2011

AnEyeSpy rated it:

***** (because true) "Rabbit-proof fence" by Doris Pilkington is the tiny (131 p) true story of her mother Molly's first trek, over 1000 miles and 2 months, from southern jail-like Moore back home to northern Australian outback station Jigaloo. Both the book and film inspire courage, and suit family audiences.
The book starts with the suprised Aboriginals at the first white-man landing. 1931 government policy took half-castes from homes to two large bare prison-like settlements, i More...

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Jun 27, 2011

Rachel rated it:

Wow!! This is accurate historical fiction novel based on a real-life event. It is the true story of three girls who escaped the Moore River Native Settlement in Australia and walked 1200 miles back to the Aboriginal home! Moore River was a place where half-caste girls and boys were taken as children to be "educated" in the ways of mainstream Australia and prepped to become domestic workers. Children were torn from their families and often did not return. The desire for freedom was More...

1 comment like

Jul 21, 2009

Lucy rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Apr 12, 2009

4julia rated it:

Julia Fusco
4/8/09
English book review#3
A Rabbit and a Review of Rabbit Proof Fence

Rabbit Proof Fence is a true story about a great adventure and an escape. The real story is about three girls who are half-castes in Australia. They are sent to a boarding school. All three girls run away trying to get back to their home. But, the story itself was neither adventurous nor great. Rabbit Proof Fence was disappointing and uninspiring to the true adventure, which pr More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 13, 2010

Heidi rated it:

All in all, I think this book is a story that needed telling - for historical purposes/ethical reasoning’s. The author is in fact the daughter of one of the characters. Doris Pilkington shares facts and evidence of this event throughout the book and it just brings to light how much modes of thinking have changed (as well as how much they have not) in the past 80 years.

But... it's not so much of a story as a recounting. I mean, yes, it's bad enough to be kidnapped at age 12 and legall More...

3 comments like

Jun 03, 2009

Osho rated it:

Best read in conjunction with the film, this memoir fills in details of the girls' trek that are not as explicit in the screen version. What the film provides is both a dynamism lacking in the book, and a broader context for why the Australian government would separate biracial children from their families. I was particularly fascinated by the expenditures made to recover three girls; no comparable manhunt would be mounted in our era for non-criminal escapees.

It would be interesting More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 18, 2007

Shari rated it:

Europeans have conquered yet another country and tried to anglo-tize the children. Two girls escape and walk 1,000 miles to get home. This is a story of strength, courage, and determination.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 20, 2009

Lilyan rated it:

This is a very interesting little book. It gives a brief history of the European settlement of Australia and some of the effects it had on the aboriginal people. We are also introduced to some of the aboriginal customs and beliefs. And, it is a story of three children ages eight to fourteen and their journey over one thousand miles through the Australian outback/desert to re-unit with their families....all packed within a 136 pages. The author, Doris Pilkington, is the daughter of the oldest gir More...

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May 08, 2009

Rikelle rated it:

The book relates the true story of three aboriginal girls who were torn from their families by the Australian Government. The girls were forced to live in a boarding school where they would be trained to be domestic servants. The book details their courageous ordeal to escape and travel through the Australian bush to return to their families. While this is a very powerful story I found the way in the which the story was written to be very confusing and not as impactful as it could be. Not being More...

1 comment like

Mar 03, 2011

Julie rated it:

Doris Pilkington tells the story of her mother and aunties incredible journey through the outback of Western Australia in 1931. The three girls were forcibly removed from their families by government officials solely for being 'half-castes' and were placed on a Native Settlement so they could be taught the ways of the Europeans. Molly (Doris' mum) and her sisters run away from the settlement and walk over 1660 kilometres back to their home at Jigalong all the while being chased by policemen an More...

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Nov 28, 2009

Rlmteacher rated it:

I thought this story was intriguing and clearly described the challenges faced by aborigines in Australia. It seems to parallel the problems that occurred in America when the Native Americans were invaded by the Europeans. It is truly amazing that most cultures tend to think they are so righteous that they should be emulated and if not, the issue will be forced by schooling children to ensure they become like the dominate race. Sadly, but true this is similar to the mindset of Hitler and the Naz More...

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Nov 27, 2010

A.J. rated it:

This is a devastating book. It's hard to imagine this really happened in my home country, but it did. The story of three displaced sisters and their determindation to return home is a story that inspired and yet haunted me even as I read it.
My brother sent me a copy of a documentary called "Lousy Little Sixpense" about the secret history of Aboriginal slavery in Australia in the 1950s - as well as a copy of this book. I am now profoundly depressed but thankful these stories have More...

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Jul 02, 2010

Goldenwattle rated it:

This was not a thick book and didn't take long to read. Without the initial history (before the actual story begins) it would have been even thinner. It was this initial history that I found boring, but I ploughed through it and once the actual story began I found it a good read. I thought the story was balanced. I expected it to be hard on the non-aboriginals, but I found it took a balanced approach. In fact, sometimes I was not sure what race people were, which really was how it should be. It More...

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May 01, 2011

Grace added it

I thought that this book was definitely provoking and encouraged me to ponder racial questions, which was an upside of this book. A downside though is the level that this book is written for. I think that having the book written for younger kids is hard because it encouraged me to zone out since it was so easy to read, then I would realize that I read fifty pages in twenty minutes and couldn't really tell you what happened. I also though this book was one demential as it is only the three girl More...

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Jan 30, 2011

LynnB rated it:

This memoir is about three aboriginal cousins who, in 1931, are taken out of their homes in Australia and and moved far away to be schooled. The Australian government had ordered this for the children of mixed race (white and aboriginal). The oldest girl is determined to get home and leads them, barefoot, the many miles across the Australian desert to get there. The author is the daughter of this oldest girl and interviews her mother and aunt for the story. The writing is not the greatest, but More...

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Nov 22, 2010

APhanHan15 rated it:

The story took place in Western Australia. The government was taking half-caste children from their mothers to another thousand miles far away place. Molly, Daisy, and Grace; which were 14, 10, and 8 years old. At the half-caste, they were trying to escape back home by following the rabbit proof fence that Molly’s dad once taught her about it. Did they make the success way back to their family? Or they got caught? I really enjoyed reading this book because it was so excited to know whether they More...

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Sep 12, 2011

Lemonhead rated it:

It's a story that needed to be told and what those girls went through and what they accomplished is extraordinary. But I just don't like the way the book is written. I never connected with the characters. The "throwing in" of words from a different language can be great but in this case it was just confusing and impaired the reading fluency. Also there were moments when I found the book to be rather dull.
It could have been a great book, but in my opinion the author just didn't ma More...

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May 20, 2009

Kirstin rated it:

I saw the movie based on this book when it came out in 2002 and really enjoyed it but the book turned out to be very-poorly written and a big disappointment. It starts out with a few very confusing and odd chapters about the history of the arrival of white men to Australia and then it moves on to the story of three half white/half Aboriginal girls who are taken over 1600 miles from their homes to an institution to be assimilated into white culture and then they escape and walk back to their home More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 09, 2011

Susan rated it:

A moving story of survival and escape and also a look at some of the hardships between races. Something that seems relatable (though possibly not to this extent) in New Zealand. I certainly would like to see the movie.

In terms of the writing, it was really good and to the point (as screen plays are) however I found at times that it was hard to grasp exactly what was going on with (in the finished film.....) and things being repeated. Overall though the stroy comes through and it's a More...

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Jul 12, 2011

Alida rated it:

Amazing true story of 3 young aboriginal girls who were abducted from their familes just because they were half white. The government thought they must be superior to their native families and put them in a "school" which was more like a penetentiary, hundreds of miles from home. The three girls decide to escape and walk home.

If you read this book, make sure you get the original by Doris Pilkington and not the adaptation by Jennifer Bassett based on the movie. It is muc More...

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May 18, 2010

Banafsheh rated it:

Set during one of the darkest periods of Aboriginal and white Australian history, Rabbit Proof Fence follows the lives of three Aboriginal 'half cast' girls who are taken from their families and placed in the Moore River Native Settlement north of Perth, some 1,600 kilometres away from their home. Most Aboriginal children placed in such institutions never saw their families again. However feeling displaced and imprisoned the girls escape their compound and follow the Rabbit proof fence back to t More...

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Dec 20, 2009

Nancy rated it:

This is a story about love of family, determination and courage, as three Aboriginal girls in Western Australia escape from a government supported facility in the 1930s to return to their families in the bush.
It is interesting how the girls seem to encounter kindness everywhere but in the settlement. The stewards on the boat show them the fish in the ocean and the stars in the sky. The farmers and/or their wives feed them and give them clothing and seem to only report them out of concern More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 19, 2008

Léa rated it:

The book tells the story of Molly Craig, a 14-year-old Aboriginal girl, who is deemed "half-caste" by the Australian government. Along with two members of her family, her 8-year-old sister Daisy Craig and their 10-year-old cousin Gracie Fields, Molly is taken by police officers from her mother in the community of Jigalong and transported 1,600 kilometres to the Moore River Native Settlement. In 1931, the three girls escape from Moore River, and with no maps or compasses, use the immens More...

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Dec 28, 2010

Joy rated it:

I found this book to be very frustrating. This is the incredible story set in 1930's Australia, of aborigine children who were taken from their families and forced into assimilation much like the American Indians in this counry. How could such an incredible story lived by such a unique community of people as the Australian Aborigine be so hard to read? I wanted to know what happened next but this book did not make me want to put in the work to read more. I wussed out and rented the movie.

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