Emma Keppler: Two Months in Her Life

by Colin Thiele

Novel for teenagers by the award-winning author, set in a German-speaking community just north of the Barossa Valley in South Australia, during the Great Depression. Focuses on a two-month period as seen from a girl's point of view.

Genres: Fiction, Australia

155 pages, Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1991

About the author

Winner of the Dromkeen Medal (1997).

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emma Keppler is one of my favourites by Colin Thiele and certainly different from his usual as it places a young girl as his protagonist. In doing so, Thiele demonstrates that his writing is universal in capturing colonial Australian experiences - it transcends gender as well as age to a certain extent.

Had he expounded upon Emma's life, I don't doubt that Thiele would rival LM Montgomery in writing a series about a beautifully innocent provincial girl, who grows and develops into maturity. It has hints of Emma's impending adulthood and the experiences she might have, but otherwise is a beautifully self contained story.

[Kirsty Appleby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given this for my 12th birthday and I've just read it tonight, again, for the "tenth" time... such a poignant coming of age book, captured brilliantly by Colin Thiele. I am passing it on to my own daughter now...

[Rhys · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the simplicity of the life of this book, wish there was some kind of look into the future though to see what ends up happening to Emma
3.5

[Helen O'Toole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a simple junior readers' novel about a country girl living in 1929 in South Australia in the German speaking part of the Barossa Valley. Emma Keppler faces the prospect of not being allowed to remain at secondary school now that she has reached the school leaving age of 14. Her father in particular does not see the need for women to be educated; he insists that she will stay at home & learn all the skills of a future farmer's wife. Published in 1991, this 155 page novel introduces the modern reader to a world where clearly defined gender roles were the accepted norm. It has thirteen easy to read chapters and we are introduced to a variety of brave and noble characters. I was particularly fond of Emma's school teacher, Sylvia Clayton who recognises the potential in Emma receiving a full education. I cannot say too much about the plot lest I give away the ending. Another literary gem from one of Australia's most versatile of authors who definitely knows how to describe the South Australia of his own childhood.

[Yubaraj Timalsina · Rating 4 out of 5]

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