Penguin Books Australia

'Now then,' thought Abigail, 'something very weird has happened to me. I'm in the last century. I don't know why, and that doesn't matter. I've got to get back.'

Every so often, there comes a story so brilliant and lively and moving that it cannot be left in the past. Rediscover the magic of our country's most memorable children's books in the Penguin Australia Chlidren's Classics series of stories...

Ruth Park's classic novel The Harp in the South  is one of Australia's greatest novels. Hugh and Margaret Darcy are raising their family in Sydney amid the brothels, grog shops and run-down boarding houses of Surry Hills, where money is scarce and life is not easy.

Filled with beautifully drawn characters that will make you laugh as much as cry, this Australian classic will take you straight back...

The game is called Beatie Bow and the children play it for the thrill of scaring themselves.  But when Abigail is drawn in, the game is quickly transformed into an extraordinary, sometimes horrifying, adventure as she finds herself transported to a place that is foreign yet strangely familiar . . .

'Ruth Park . . . that steady glow at the heart of Australian literature.' Ruth Cracknell

Three of Ruth Park's best loved books – Missus , The Harp in the South and Poor Man's Orange – are brought together in this volume, tracing the saga of the Darcy family over thirty years. The story has its beginnings in the awkward courtship of dreamily innocent Margaret Kilker and unwilling hero Hugh...

Erika Magnus is a 14-year-old stirrer with complete confidence that she alone knows best. So, when her homesick sister Sif longs to return home to the island of Rongo, Erika successfully plots to get her there, and runs away to join her shortly after. Arriving on the island she finds the locals frightened by the changes happening to their world, and the cracks beginning to form in their once-perfect...