The Mushroom in the Sky

(Paperback)

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In the 80th anniversary year, Jackie French explores the dropping of the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, which ended World War 2.

1942

Japan has bombed Sydney Harbour. Sixteen-year-old Ossie lies about his age to protect his country, even though it means abandoning his only family, a one-eyed dog named Lucky.

Kind-hearted Mrs Plum is already looking after forty-six dogs for soldiers. She's becoming desperate because there are no wartime rations for dogs. Help arrives when fourteen-year-old Kat Murphy volunteers to take Lucky and persuades the girls at her school to also help.

As Kat grows to love Lucky, she realises he can still see his master. And Kat can see him, too, as Ossie is captured and taken as a prisoner of war to Japan, where he will see a strange mushroom cloud rise above Nagasaki. The result of a bomb that will change lives and forever leave the question: was it worth it

Including true accounts of that extraordinary but often misunderstood time, this is a story of quiet heroism, endurance and an unimaginable occurrence that continues to resound to this day.

Author Bio

Jackie French AM is an award-winning writer, wombat negotiator, the 20142015 Australian Children's Laureate and the 2015 Senior Australian of the Year. In 2016, Jackie became a Member of the Order of Australia for her contribution to children's literature and her advocacy for youth literacy. She is regarded as one of Australia's most popular children's authors and writes across all genres from picture books, history, fantasy, ecology and sci-fi, to her much-loved historical fiction for a variety of age groups. 'A book can change a child's life. A book can change the world' was the primary philosophy behind Jackie's two-year term as Laureate. jackiefrench.com facebook.com/authorjackiefrench