The Goat Who Sailed the World - The Goat That Sailed the World is the true story of the very stroppy animal who sailed with James Cook on the Endeavour, on the voyage that first mapped Australia's east coast and led to the British colony there 20 years later. She gave Cook milk for the whole three years the ship had been away! This was pretty incredible for a goat - they usually don't give milk for nearly as long. Her milk was badly needed, because food on ships in those days was pretty awful.
Actually the tiny ship also carried seventy-one crew, twelve marines, eleven scientists and their servants, seventeen sheep, a small mob of cattle for meat, four ducks and five chickens for eggs, a boar, a sow and her piglets for meat too, and three cats to catch the rats that swarmed on every ship.
Ships in those days were like floating arks, small farms of animals to provide meat, milk and eggs to add to the usually stale rations. Which was why ships needed to call in to harbour often- not just for fresh water, but to find good grass that could be cut and dried for hay to feed their livestock.
The Goat was famous even before she stepped onto the Endeavour. . She had already sailed around the world with Captain Wallis, providing milk for the captain and his officers. Now she was going to face an even bigger adventure - three years finding new lands, facing wild storms and shipwrecks, and plagues that would kill a third of the crew.
But she survived it all. And by the end of the voyage she was the most famous goat in history!
The British government gave her a pension. The British Royal Society made her a member - the only animal ever to join that respected club of scientists! They gave her a silver collar too. And Captain James Cook was so fond of her that he took her home with him.
The story of the Goat is really the story of that historic voyage, too, and their adventures, mapping the transit of Venus, hunting for the Great South land, exploring the New Zealand coastline and eastern Australia, facing ship wreck, attack, and disease…
It's also the story of Isaac Manley, the boy who looked after the goat, and his rise from master's servant to midshipman, the beginning of a career that would make him an admiral, and the last surviving member of cook's crew.
Praise for The Goat Who Sailed the World:
'Irresistibly exciting and true' - Family magazine
'What a wonderful way to learn about Cook…A quick good read for adult history lovers as well.' - The Courier Mail
'This small but eventful book brings history alive…It's an irreverent and informative charmer.' - The Sunday Age
'Ideal for younger readers.' - Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin
'What a delight to read this book! Jackie French has a style that seems effortless and totally believable.' - Austral Ed Newsletter
'This is a very good story…I will definitely read the next one when it comes out.' - Tim, aged 13, YARA website

Pharaoh
Based on the true story of Narmer, the young man who united ancient Egypt into one land.
Prince Narmer is fourteen and, as his father's favourite, destined to be King of Thinis, one of the towns along the River, the only world he knows.
But Narmer is betrayed by his brother, and mauled by a crocodile. Now lame and horribly scarred, he is less than perfect and no longer the Golden One. His brother Hawk will be King of Thinis. And rather than remain as Hawk's Vizier, Narmer decides to leave his home and take his chances with the mysterious Trader and the crippled Nitho, whose healing skills have saved his life.
Now Narmer must face the desert, and the People of the Sand as well as the challenges in Ur, the largest and most advanced town in the world of 5,000 years ago. Here Narmer learns of farming, irrigation, tamed donkeys and carts with wheels. Most of all, he learns what it means to be a true king and leader.
Pharaoh takes readers from an Egypt that was ancient when the pyramids were built, across the desert to the ancient land of Punt with its myrrh trees and women warriors, and the city state of Ur in what is now Iraq, but was then the biggest city in the ancient world. The book is set in a time when the world is drying up, grasslands turning to desert, and the nomad tribes (like the Biblical Abraham and his family) seeking refuge in the fertile river valleys.

They Came In Viking Ships - It was exciting seeing the text I worked on finally turn into a book. The cover is wonderful, and the story ...
Well, it grabbed me about five years ago. I was reading some of the Icelandic Sagas, the history poems written about eight hundred years ago. The sagas told the stories of Erik the Red, founder of the Greenland colony, and his son Leif, who sailed to 'Vinland' or present day North America.
But there too was Freydis, Leif's sister, who according to one saga also lead an expedition to Vinland. Why do we remember Leif, when Freydis is forgotten?
The more I read the more fascinated I became. Only two of the sagas mention Freydis. In one she is a total villain, who murders the rest of the expedition to get all the profits for herself, and who takes her husband's axe to kill the other women. But in the other she is a modest dutiful heroine, who saves them all when the skraelings- the native Americans- attack.
The men flee, but Freydis is nine months pregnant and can't run. So she takes up the sword of a fallen Viking, rips her bodice open, slaps the sword against her breast, and charges them, and saves them all.
Which makes sense if you think about it- bows and arrows only work at a distance. Up close an iron sword would win.
So what happened to Freydis? Why has this extraordinary women been forgotten?
Mostly, I think, she was just too strong a character for later poets and historians to cope with. By then the Roman Church had taken over from the Celtic, and they were trying hard to wipe out references to strong women, (St Brigid, for example, was a Bishop, but that but was mostly forgotten too).
'They came in Viking Ships' tells Freydis's story from the point of view of Hekja, a Scottish thrall, or slave, and her dog Snarf, as they are captured by the Vikings, taken to the Greenland colony, and then to the new colony in Vinland. The book was picked up by Harper Collins UK, US and Canada too, even before it came out here. It's an extraordinary story, though that is due mostly to Freydis Eriksdottir, not me.

Hitler's Daughter
(now made into a play by the wonderful people at Monkey Baa)
Four kids tell a story at a bus stop in country Australia on a rainy monday. But the story seems to have a life of it's own. It's the story of a girl in another time and another country. her name was Heide, and she was Hitler's daughter.
Could- just possibly- the story be true?
How I came to write Hitler's Daughter
When I was 14, trying to do my German homework, I came across a passage I couldn't translate. My mother called a friend of hers who spoke German to help me.
It was late by then. He came over, and my mother went to bed, and we worked on the translation. But I think something in the story we were translating must have moved him (and perhaps he'd been drinking too- he hadn't known he was going to be called out to help a kid with her homework.) Because there in the silent house he began to tell me quite a different story.
He told me about a 14 year old boy, in Hitler's Germany, who joined the Nazi Party, because his parents were Nazis, his teachers were nazis. All he had ever heard or read said it was good to be a Nazi. He believed it all- the duty to rid the race of anyone who was blind, or lame, who was Jewish or Gypsy or homosexual, or anyone who believed in their religion more than Hitler, or who disagreed with his policies and had the courage to say so.
He became a guard in a concentration camp, because that is what 14 year old boys were doing in Germany at the end of the war. And when the war was over he was illegally smuggled out of Germany, with his parents, as many Nazi war criminals were.
He said to me 'When you are 14, and the world around you is insane, how do you know what is good and what is evil? How do you know?"
(And I've changed some of the circumstances here, because he was a good man, who had spent his life trying to atone for what he'd done. And he had only been 14…)
I forgot his words for many years. Then ten years ago I took my mother, my brother, my cousin and my 14 year old son to the theatre to see Cabaret for my mother's 70th birthday. The play is set in Germany, just as Hitler is coming to power. Half way through the teenage waiter sings the most beautiful song 'Tomorrow belongs to me.'
I watched as my son stared at the singer entranced. As he said to me later 'That song was about me and my friends. Tomorrow belongs to us.'
Then half way through the song it changes. The lights come up...you realise the waiter is wearing a Nazi uniform. The orchestra stands, and they too are wearing Nazi uniforms. And my son sat there in shock, because he had been identifying with a Nazi song. He said he realised how he so easily may have become a Nazi, if he had been 14 in Hitler's Germany.
How do you know what is good and evil when you are 14, and the world around you is insane?
If you are 14, and you realise evil is happening, what can you do? No one listens to 14 year olds...or do they?
If you are Hitler's Daughter, after the war, do you have to say you are sorry for what your father has done, and that you had no part of?
(And no, I don't have answers to those questions. But I think they are good ones to ask.)

Macbeth and Son
It's the story of two boys, a thousand years apart, who must decide if truth really matters. One is a modern kid, Luke, who has just inadvertently cheated in an exam for a prestigious school. The other is Lulach, stepson of Macbeth. But this is the historical Macbeth, the hero who was elected king of Scotland, not the villain in Shakespeare's play.
Why did Shakespeare lie? And four hundred years later, does it matter?
Macbeth and Son is about truth..and does it matter..and about the real Macbeth, and how his story was changed first of all by the English historians like Holingshead and then by Shakespeare to please King James. A bit like a playwright creating a play today where our Prime Minister single handedly fights off the invading New Zealanders…or murdering the senate to stay in power. A lie…but if it's a brilliant play, what does it matter in 400 years time?
Does truth really matter?

Valley of Gold -One valley’s stories of gold through the ages, from the beginning of the earth 4 billion years ago, through the valley’s creation and the history of its alluring deposits.
Interspersed with historical and geological information are stories that bring to life the valley and its occupants. First, around 35,000 BC, we meet Mirrigan, a young Aboriginal man hunting the last of the mainland thylacine to present its skin to his female friend, Dhani. From there we move through stories of European settlement, gold rushes, Chinese immigration, bushrangers, relations between Indigenous and European people, world wars, the Depression and natural disasters. When we arrive at the present day, the substance that has so shaped the valley's recent history – gold – is still an important commodity, but no longer at the expense of the valley.

Walking the Boundaries

Tom Appleby Convict Boy
This is the book I knew I'd write, even when I was five years old. it is about the first few years of white settlement in Australia.
Even at five I knew that many of the stories about that time we were taught at school just weren't quite true. (I kept putting my hand up aand saying 'But THAT"S not true Miss. Must have been hell to teach).
Why was I so sure? Well, my mum was an historian who read me the diaries of the people who were there..and they gave a very different picture than the one in the history books.
So here is the story of an English chimney sweep, who becomes a convict..and a pioneer.

A War for Gentlemen - 'Charles Fitzhenry wanted to be a hero, and left his home in New South Wales to fight for freedom in the American Civil war - on the side of the south. Gentlemen like Charles fought for the ideals of their class, for honour and glory.
But it was not a war of honour. It was simply endless battles, starvation and hardship in an increasingly bitter war.
Was Charles a hero, even if the war he went to fight was not the one he found?
Based on a true story, A War for Gentlemen follows Charles Fitzhenry to battle; to his escape with Caroline, his uncle's slave, and their new life together; and the echoes of the war in the lives of their children and grandchildren. It is an unforgettable story of love and honour, unexpected happiness, and the terrible consequences of ideals - a story that still echoes in the wars Australians fight today.'

Somewhere Around the Corner
I've always been fascinated by how people survived the depression. But usually when you ask them they don'tw ant to talk about it, especially if they lived in the 'susso camps' on the food hand outs of the time, often in shacks made of old kero tins.
But Poverty Gully was different. it really did exist- it started on he border of our place, here in the valley/. There really w as a school in the wash house- though it was started before the 1930's, and there really w as a Gully jack and a Dulcie of the Dairy Farm, though the origionals weren't much like the characters in the book. But Dulcie did make soup for the sussos in her copper on the day everyone had to walk to the village to get their rations, often many kilometres. And Jully Jack did pan for gold- no one knows how much he ever found as he hid it away- and according to our neighbour Ned he never had the courage to tell Dulcie how he really felt about her.
There really was a street kid a bit like Barbara, too, though that wasn't her name. She isn't a street kid now, and wasn't either by the time I wrote the book. She had been through bad times, but mostly through her own strength of character, and partly through the kindness of others, things have worked out well for her.
Somewhere Around the Corner is about dreaming... some people fantasise about the kind of life they like, but never do more than dream. Others take their dreams and work to make them reality. Gully Jack was the first kind of dreamer. Young Jim was the second. And Barbara also learnt that no matter how bad life is today, you can dream of a better way to live...and set out to find it.
And Dulcie? She didn't have grand dreams of reforming the world, like young Jim, or of finding a fortune like Gully Jack. She dreamt of more every day things, like feeding tired hungry people, and having a happy family of her own. And she did both.

The Dog Who Loved a Queen
Based on the true story of the dog who was with Mary Queen of Scots when she died, The Dog Who Loved a Queen is a fascinating tale of religious bigotry, plots and passion, told  from the point of view of a small Scottish terrier, more than five hundred years ago.
Folly travels from his island home to be the pet of one of history's most famous and tragic queens, Mary Queen of Scots. To the world outside her prison Mary was either murderer who killed her husband and plotted to steal the English throne, or an innocent queen kept prisoner by her jealous cousin Queen Elizabeth the First. But to her dog Folly she was simply his mistress, the centre of his world.
As Mary schemes to regain both her Scottish throne and the crown of England, Folly's world is one of chasing rats behind the tapestries and choosing tidbits from the banquet table. But as Mary's plots become more desperate, even Folly's loyalty will be tested.
More about the book
I have always been fascinated by Mary Queen of Scots and the mysteries surrounding her. The books I read when I was a teenager portrayed her either as a heartless schemer, or else as an innocent betrayed by evil men.
As I grew older I began to read the accounts of Mary's life and death from the people who were actually there, like her physician Master Bourgoine. A new picture of Mary emerged- a spirited girl, an intelligent woman and a tolerant queen in a time when small differences in religious faith in other countries led to persecution and even torture and death.
But Mary was surrounded by ambitious men, at a time when women weren't supposed to rule. And she was beautiful- so beautiful, so favoured that she never learnt to cope with hatred and treachery- until, perhaps, it was too late.
Sources
The details of Mary's life in prison come mostly from those who were there at the time, like Mary's physician, Master Bourgoine, as well as Mary's own letters, both the ones smuggled out of her prison and captured by Queen Elizabeth the First's spies, and the ones to her relatives in France ordering luxuries, pet birds and dogs, and sometimes giving details of her life with her pets as well. My major problem was that - as with so many areas of history- a lot of myths have grown up about Mary that people now take as fact.
Many web sites will tell you that Mary's dog was a Skye terrier, for example- but the breed didn't exist in Mary's day.
Others will give you the dog's name- but that was made up by a novelist, years ago, and isn't fact either. I haven't been able to find any reference in any account of the time that gives the dog a name.
Many stories about Mary make her a romantic figure who mourned Bothwell all her life. But soon after she arrived in England she tried to marry the Duke of Norfolk, and wrote him many loving letters. The stories make her an innocent prisoner, too, but her own letters make it clear she believed she was rightfully Queen of England, and that it was her duty to do anything- including plot to kill Queen Elizabeth- to gain the throne.
Many people think that in Mary's day dogs prowled around the banqueting tables, too, while the diners threw them scraps and bones. But in Mary's day it was VERY bad manners to have a dog in the room while you ate- unless, perhaps, you were a queen.
The Dog Who Loved a Queen can be read as a historical fantasy, a world of queens and plots and dogs and danger to escape into. But it can also be used to introduce readers to the historical realities of those days, from what people wore and ate to the way they thought.
The Dog Who Loved a Queen also tackles issues of intolerance and religious terrorism. But it looks at them from a perspective of 500 years away- a safer, less contentious way for young readers to think about the issues without the prejudice of modern political beliefs clouding the issues.
Does the end justify the means? How far SHOULD you go for a cause you believe in?
Were Mary's followers what we now think of as terrorists when they plotted to kill Queen Elizabeth by putting poison on her saddle?
Do causes like Mary's change as time goes by? Few people these days believe that a Queen is ordained by God and that it's blasphemy not to obey them. Will any of our modern beliefs be abandoned in a hundred or five hundred years time?
Mary's servants, as well as her dog, were loyal all her life, staying with her through the long years of her imprisonment. Would you do that for a friend? Has the idea of loyalty changed in 500 years?
Mary Queen of Scots - Murderess or rightful Queen?
One fearless Scottish terrier didn't care. Mary was simply his mistress - the true story of Mary's most loyal companion
Based on the true story of the dog who was with Mary when she died, The Dog Who Loved a Queen is a fascinating tale of religious bigotry, plots and passion. Traditional history books can't compete with the vibrancy of French's historically based fiction, calling to mind the tastes, sights and sounds of a world long left behind. Who couldn't enjoy a dog's take on the life and times of Mary Queen of Scots?!

The Goat that Sailed the World was the first in the 'Animal Stars' series, The Dog Who Loved a Queen is the second. These will be books for children on historical animals - giving kids irresistibly exciting and true stories to teach them more about history than they could ever find in a text book. (Including the history books Jackie also writes!)

A Rose for the Anzac Boys - The 'War to end all Wars', as seen through the eyes of three young women It is 1915. War is being fought on a horrific scale in the trenches of France, but it might as well be a world away from sixteen–year–old New Zealander Midge Macpherson, at school in England learning to be a young lady. But the war is coming closer: Midge's brothers are in the army, and her twin, Tim, is listed as 'missing' in the devastating defeat of the Anzac forces at Gallipoli . Desperate to do their bit – and avoid the boredom of school and the restrictions of Society – Midge and her friends Ethel and Anne start a canteen in France, caring for the endless flow of wounded soldiers returning from the front. Midge, recruited by the over–stretched ambulance service, is thrust into carnage and scenes of courage she could never have imagined. And when the war is over, all three girls – and their Anzac boys as well – discover that even going 'home' can be both strange and wonderful.

Exhaustively researched but written with the lightest of touches, this is Jackie French at her very best.