The HTAV receives books and other educational materials on a regular basis for the purpose of reviewing in Agora. We are always looking for teachers willing to offer their services as reviewers of these resources. If you are interested in reviewing on of the titles listed here please contact Ali Edmonds at a.edmonds@htav.asn.au. Of course, all our reviewers are invited to keep books reviewed with our compliments.

Writing your review
Reviews should be between 500 and 1500 words long and be submitted to Ali Edmonds in Word format within about two months of receiving the book. We invite reviews of titles in a variety of formats (e.g. textbooks, novels, journals, picture books, audio-visual materials) and on a range of historical subjects.

Reviewers should identify the book's title, author, publisher, year of publication, no. of pages and retail price. They should give a brief summary of the overall content and then focus on specific aspects, discussing the quality and usefulness of the written content and the images/illustrations; where applicable, classroom application of the material should be stated. Reviewers are expected to comment on the strengths and limitations of the title while maintaining a respectful tone at all times. They should cite specific examples from the work and comment on the merits of the work as a whole. Contributors with close links to institutions or companies should avoid reviewing titles published by these bodies.

The HTAV endeavours to publish all reviews received in their original form. However, we reserve the right to edit or reject submissions, or hold items over for later publication.

TITLES CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW

Me and Phar Lap (book)
As told to Jan 'Yarn' Wositzky
Slattery Media Group, 2011
Tommy Woodcock is known as the man who loved Phar Lap, but be was much more than the rock on which the champion racehorse built his incomparable legend. 'Fancy a lucky little fella like me looking after the best horse in the world', Tommy told storyteller Jan 'Yarn' Wositzky. Luck is only part of the story - without thrusting himself into the limelight, Tommy, also a storyteller, had a half-century of success as a trainer.

Me and Phar Lap: The Tommy Woodcock Tapes (audio discs)
Jan Wositzky
Story Teller's Guide to World, 2011
A set of interviews detailing Tommy Woodcock's life, from 1905, as a boy learning to ride up-country, to the flood that ended his six-decade career in racing, to his work with two legendary horses, Phar Lap and Reckless. Recorded on a farm in country Victoria in 1984, in the last year of Tommy's life, The Tommy Woodcock Tapes are heartfelt, humorous, sad and dramatic. With linking narration and music from Jan 'Yarn' Wositzky, plus a handsome package of track notes and photos, this is a treasure for Tommy fans, and those who love a good story.

Oxford Big Ideas: Australian Curriculum History 7
Maggy Saladais, Tony Taylor, Carmel Young
Oxford University Press, 2011
Oxford Big Ideas History is an innovative suite of resources completely aligned to the Australian Curriculum: History. Based on a big ideas framework, the pedagogy enables students to develop deep, transferable understandings and skills.

The HistioGraph (poster)
The HistioGraph is a world history timeline chart that depicts the rise and fall of nations, peoples and cultures from 1500 BCE to the present day. It charts the nations in the form of 'rivers of time', giving perspective on and understanding of how the flow of civilisations has shaped our world. The HistioGraph is well suited to the Australian Curriculum for 7-10 History and, measuring 65cm x 132cm, is perfect for display in classrooms and staffrooms.

Men of Mont St Quentin
Peter Stanley
Scribe, 2009
At exactly 1.30pm on 1 September 1918, the dozen men of Nine Platoon, 21st Australian Infantry Battalion, rose from Elsa Trench and walked across a weedy beet-field towards the German defenders of Mont St Quentin. Within hours, three were dead and five more were wounded, one of whom died six weeks later. The survivors returned from war, more or less intact, to live through the next sixty-odd years in the shadow of that traumatic event.

The Armytages of Como: Pastoral Pioneers
Anita Selzer
Halstead Press, 2003
In Colonial Australia, fortunes made from wool and gold launched a landowning elite - the "squattocracy". Their taste in homes, art furnishings set the benchmark for the times. Their manners were impeccable, their clothes magnificent, their parties legendary. No one could be more generous in a good cause - but their genteel lifestyles relied on tough management, skilful raising of livestock, and an army of farm workers and servants. Eventually their wealth and status declined, amidst depressions and upheavals. However, the Armytages preserved the elegant way of life in the 20th century. And they managed to save Como from the bulldozers which destroyed most magnificent city homes after World War II. Anita Selzer takes us into their opulent world, uncovering gentry and convict origins, and forthright ways of claiming land. Her book reveals bygone social splendours, domestic drudgery, and the workings of mines and sheep stations, from Tasmania to outback Queensland. It introduces people with human foibles and noble social vision, who conserved for all Australians a vital part of our heritage.

Gunnedah Hero
Clancy Tucker
Clancy Tucker Publishing
Fourteen-year-old Gunnedah 'Gunnie' Danson has a 500-word assignment on drought. His late grandfather has left him a box containing a manuscript. It's been written by Cunnie's great-great-grandfather, Smokey 'Gun' Danson after his journey up the long paddock during a harsh drought as a fourteen-year-old drover in 1910. At the back of the manuscript is an envelope. It's NOT to be opened until Gunnie has read the entire story. Gunnie spends the weekend at Wiralee Station; a cattle station that's been in the family since 1848. There, he reads the awesome manuscript and learns of Smokey's adventurous journey. Gunnie overhears several secretive conversations. His snobby Aunty Kate wants to divorce his uncle and sell Wiralee Station. He finishes the manuscript and opens the mysterious envelope. Will it legally prevent his aunt from selling Wiralee Station?

Celebrating Civics and Citizenship: Making History (DVD)
Discovering Democracy Conference May 2004
Australian Government Department of Education, Science & Training
Celebrating Civics, Citizenship and Making History contains highlights of the Discovering Democracy Conference 2004. It is a professional development tool to enlighten, inspire and encourage.

Australia's Airlines: How the skies were conquered
Samuel Brimson
Trocadero Publishing, 2011
The vast open spaces of Australia may never have been conquered without the aeroplane. This is the story of the visionaries and daredevils who put their money and their lives on the line in pursuit of the dream of air travel. They built Australian's airline industry to link the nation, to defy geography and develop communication unknown to earlier generations. We see the rise of icons such as Qantas, of monoliths such as ANA, upstarts like Ansett, Guinea, BAT and MMA, and the ground-breaking innovations of TAA. All these are driven by names such as Fysh, McGinness, Brearley, Holyman, Levien, Robinson, Ansett, Butler, Miller, and the team that created TAA. It is the story of aircraft: the wire and wood of the DH.9 and DH.86, the great flying boats, the ever-faithful DC-3, the prestigious Super Constellation, the revolutionary Viscount, the globe-spanning 707 jet, and the 747 that ushered in the era of mass travel. Australia's airlines - the force that linked the nation.

Constructing Patriotism: Teaching history and memories in global worlds
Mario Carretero
Information Age Publishing, 2011
Memory construction and national identity are key issues in our societies, as well as patriotism. How can we today believe and give sense to traditional narrations that explain the origins of nations and communities? How do these narrations function in a process of globalisation? How should we remember the recent past? In the construction of collective memory, no doubt history taught at school plays a fundamental role, as childhood and adolescence are periods in life in which the identity seeds flourish vigorously. This book analyses how history is far more than pure historical contents given in a subject matter; it studies the situation of school history in different countries such as the former USSR, United States, Germany, Japan, Spain and Mexico, making sensible comparisons and achieving global conclusions. The empirical part is based on students interviews about school patriotic rituals, very close to the teaching of history, specifically carried out in Argentina but very similar to these rituals in other countries. The authors analyse in which ways historical knowledge is understood by students and its influence on the construction of patriotism. This book - aside from making a major contribution to the cultural psychology field - should be of direct interest and relevance to all people interested in the ways education succeeds in its variable functions.

The Lure of Russia
Gail Ford
Citrus Press, 2010
Over twenty years, Gail Ford and her travel groups (including students) visited Russia during times of momentous change. With her unique experiences, Gail looks at the cultural heart that is the soul of Russia, formed through its history of conflict and hardship, and at the Russia that has emerged. Much more than a travelogue, this book examines the history, heritage and humanity of Russia. Includes maps, photographs and diagrams.

Not Dark Yet
David Walker
Giramondo Publishing, 2011
In Not Dark Yet, written after the collapse of his eyesight due to macular degeneration, the distinguished cultural historian David Walker reflects on his own relation to the past, and that of his family over five generations, from the settlement of his great-great grandparents in South Australia in the 1850s. Drawing upon photographs, family stories and historical documents, Walker recreates his forebears, resolute middle class people whose unassuming lives express the big themes of Australian culture: enterprise, self-sufficiency, tolerance, curiosity and civic duty. There are darker forces at work, especially in the chapters devoted to war, but they are balanced by Walker's humour, which delights in the eccentricities of character, and the power of ordinary things, like a large onion, the family Vanguard or a game of water polo, to define a period or the country itself.

A Penny in Time
Anna Bartlett
Interactive Publications, 2011
When Yared is left at his nanna's for a week he feels like running away. He wants to be in his own room, with his football cards and his Batman doona, not in the spare room at his nanna's with its blue flowery bedspread and the bookshelf full of old-fashioned girls' adventure stories. He wants his own parents, not his brisk, stern nanna. But then Yared stumbles upon a box of old coins in his nanna's bedroom and things begin to change. Worlds open up before him and lives are linked across the decades as Yared discovers truths he never knew about history, love and belonging.

Achieve! History - The Vikings
Blake Education, 2011
Blake Education is seeking a history teacher to review a 64-page manuscript called Achieve! History – The Vikings. The title has been written for the Australian Curriculum (Year 8). It covers a variety of topics including social hierarchy, religion, farming, raiding, significance of the sea, trade and expansion. The title forms part of the highly successful Achieve! series designed for secondary students with low-level literacy skills. It features a range of photocopiable work sheets that are used for supplementary material, revision or homework. This is a paid role. Please contact lisa@vea.com.au for more details.

Aussie Notables: Mary Reibey
By Allan Drummond and Glenn Lumsden
Green Barrow Publishing, 2011
Hello there! I'm Mary Reibey, one of the eight Aussie Notables on the Australian bank notes. Do you know the other seven? Do you know much about us? Not to worry. Have a good read of this and you'll know quite a lot more about me, anyway. And then keep your eyes open for other books in the Aussie Notables series. My famous friends and I look forward to meeting you.

A Great Risk in a Good Cause: Australians in Greece and Crete April-May 1941
Dr Richard Reid
Department of Veterans' Affairs, 2001
This book brings new light to events that took place seventy years ago but are not dimmed for those in whose country the battles were fought. The Greek and Cretan people remember with fondness those Australians who came to their aid in 1941. While the narrative and images in this book set out the historical context, it is the anecdotes and excerpts from diaries and letters that add a personal dimension and provide important insights.

Hard Jacka
Michael Lawriwsky
Mira Books, 2008
Michael Lawriwsky's insightful book breathes life into the real man behind the legend. Jacka's acts of selfless heroism at Gallipoli would win him a VC and his bravery in the battlefields of France would win him the unswerving loyalty of his mates. A rich and fascinating story about Albert Jacka and the Great War, its heroes and anti-heroes, their sacrifice, determination and larrikin humour.

Resisting the Enemy
Lorraine Campbell
Brolga Publishing, 2010
The story of Valentine de Valliant, known as Valli stretches from the beaches of Australia to the Occupation of France. From the moment Valli join a Resistance group in Lyon, she engages in a series of dangerous clandestine activities that at any moment could lead to arrest by the dreaded Gestapo. When she finds herself becoming attracted to a German officer, her world is thrown into turmoil. Resisting the Enemy is a thrilling story of conflict, danger and passion. A love between enemies that seems impossibly doomed. It is also about music and opera, the enduring bonds of friendship, and the life and death choices one makes in a time of war.

Mary in the Morning
Cheryl Roost
Brolga Publishing, 2010
Mary in the Morning is the unique true story of a Vietnam soldier who was killed in action on his first wedding anniversary. An exceptional love story written from a woman's perspective, this book puts a human face to the controversial war in Vietnam. At twenty years of age, Chris, like so many young Australian men, was conscripted into the army as a National Serviceman. This book follows Chris' training, marriage and ultimately his experiences during the war in Vietnam. It shares his thoughts through precious letters to his family and tells the incredible story of the impact of war on our young Aussies. It also reflects on the horrors of war and in particular the loss of a loved one in the duty of service to his country.

Aussie Notables: Henry Parkes
Allan Drummond and Glenn Lumsden
Green Barrow Publishing 2010
Hello there! I'm Henry Parkes. I was one of the Aussie Notables on the Australian bank notes from 2001 to 2010. Do you know the characters who are still on the notes? Not to worry. Have a good read of this and you'll know quite a lot more about me, anyway. And then keep your eyes open for other books in the Aussie Notables series. My famous friends and I look forward to meeting you.

Among Us (DVD)
Richard Frankland (Dir.)
Golden Seahorse Productions and Connecting Home, 2010
Since the colonisation of Victoria in the 1830s, many Aboriginal children have been removed from family, land, language and culture. They were placed in foster homes and institutions, and adopted into non-Indigenous families. In 2009, members of the Stolen Generations in Victoria returned to Ballarat, to visit the institutions in which they were placed. This is their story, told in their own words, captured by acclaimed filmmaker Richard Frankland.

Wrong Side of the Bus (DVD)
Rod Freedman
Ronin Films, 2010
An internationally recognised professor of psychiatry from Melbourne, Sidney Bloch returns to Cape Town for his medical school reunion. He is accompanied on his quest for reconciliation by his son, Aaron, who is also his harshest critic. Sid has suffered from a troubled conscience for forty years and wants to resolve his guilt – but what will it take to free him from his past? Though it's easy to become a bystander, it's hard to live with the consequences. Narrated by Aaron, the film explores how a good person accepts racism and injustice.

African Civilizations: Pocket Explorer
Nicholas Badcott
The British Museum, 2010
Africa is a vast continent with an amazing history. Spanning almost two million years, from prehistory to the nineteenth century, this lively guide explores Africa's rich and varied heritage and important global links. Discover its diverse cultures, unique arts, crafts and creative landmarks - from the huge pyramids of Egypt and Sudan to the rock-cut churches of Ethiopia, the mud-brick mosques of Mali and beyond.

Creforce: the Anzacs and the Battle of Crete
Stella Tzobanakis
Black Dog Books, 2010
On 20 May 1941, Nazi Germany launched an airborne invasion of Crete. They expected to be welcomed by the Cretan community and to meet little resistance from the Allies. But they were mistaken. Australian, New Zealand and British troops, alongside Greek soldiers and the people of Crete, formed a crucial bond as they defended the tiny island. The battle lasted for ten days. The bonds formed between the Anzacs and Cretans have lasted for generations. Also available for review, A Great Risk in a Good Cause: Australian’s in Greece and Crete April–May 1941, published by the Commonwealth Department of Veterans’ Affairs, 2001 (see above).

A Tribe of Angels: Coming of Age in Melbourne
Russel Beedles
A Tribe of Angles is an evocation of daily life in Melbourne during the 1940s and 1950s. In this autobiographical memoir, Russell Beedles shifts perspective from that of a child growing up in the suburb of Ivanhoe, to that of an adolescent in the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral while attending Trinity Grammar School in Kew, and then as a young adult at Melbourne University, involved in student theatre, undertaking National Service and experiencing the exhilaration of being a 'teenager'. The wealth of detail, together with the ability to capture a sense of place and the shifts and changes in attitudes and social conventions throughout this period, give his account an immediacy which is absorbing.

Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age
Cheryl Bardoe
Thames & Hudson, 2010
Mammoths and mastodons roamed the earth for millions of years, and then suddenly went extinct. What was everyday life like for these colossal cousins of the modern elephant? What did they eat? How did they fit into their Ice Age landscape? Why did they disappear? Mammoths and Mastodons features photographs of fossil dig sites, scientists at work in the field and in labs, and prehistoric artefacts. Specially commissioned artwork also brings the story of mammoths and mastodons to life.

Oxford Big Ideas Humanities 3
Taylor, Carrodus, Casley, Leahy, Ramsdale, Smith, Spurr, Ward
Oxford University Press, 2010
Oxford Big Ideas Humanities 3 is an innovative Humanities resource written for the Victorian Essential Learning Standards. Based on a big ideas framework, the underlying pedagogy enables students to develop deep, transferable understandings and skills.

KPA Investigations: Key to Port Arthur (DVD)
Port Arthur Historic Site, 2007
KPA Investigations is a rich multi-media education program for middle-school students. It allows students to select a key life from Port Arthur and follow that life through a series of tasks and philosophical challenges. The program is entertaining and interactive, with over an hour of video images and over 100 pages of research material.

Days of my Youth
By Charles Napier Hemy
Peleus Press, 2009
These are the personal memoirs of the artist and Royal Academian, Charles Napier Hemy, as a ten-year-old boy travelling to and from Australia, and of his adventures in the Victorian goldfields in 1851; they were recorded later in life on board his yacht in Plymouth Harbour in 1904. These writings are one of the few first accounts of life in early Melbourne and the goldfields from a child's perspective.

Roman Diary: The Journal of Iliona of Mytilini, AD 107
Richard Platt and David Parkins
Walker Books, 2009
‘The fifth day of our voyage. Pity us! My brother and I have lost everything we loved. Now we are orphans to be bought and sold like goats. The pirates took everything but my ink, pens and parchment. Now we begin another journey, to the very centre of the world ... Rome.’ Step back nearly 2000 years and join Iliona on an amazing history adventure.

Human Rights Overboard
Linda Briskman, Susie Latham and Chris Goddard
Scribe, 2009
This book draws together, for the first time, the oral testimony and written submissions from the inquiry into Australia's immigration detention centres in 2005. It draws together the accounts of immigration detainees, refugee advocates, lawyers, doctors, psychiatrists, former detention centre staff. It stands as an indictment of Australia's refugee policy. With a foreword by Julian Burnside.

Defence 2020
Robert Lewis and Tim Gurry
Ryebuck Media, 2009
An interactive educational program to help students investigate the relevance of defence issues to their own lives. A middle-secondary curriculum resource for SOSE, English and Civics and Citizenship.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Volume 2: Kingdom on the Waves
M.T. Anderson, Walker Books
Fearing a death sentence, Octavian and his tutor, Dr Trefusis, escape through rising tides and puring rain to find shelter in British-occupied Boston. Removed from all he knows - the College of Lucidity, the rebel cause - Octavian hopes to find safe harbour. Instead, he is soon to learn of Lord Dunmore's proclamation offering freedom to slaves who join the counter-revolutionary forces. In Volume 2 of his masterwork, M.T Anderson recounts Octavian's experiences as the Revolutionary War explodes around him, thrusting him into intense battles and tantalising him with elusive visions of liberty.