Tilda by Sue Whiting

Title: Tilda

Author: Sue Whiting

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Walker Books

Published: 7^th September 2022

Format: Paperback

Pages: 272

Price: $17.99

Synopsis: L.M. Montgomery meets Ruth Park in a story of friendship, hope and resilience.

You have a big heart. And people blessed with a big heart have a choice to make. Do they fill that heart with light and love or do they fill it with darkness and hate? This is your choice to make, Matilda. Make it wisely.

Tilda Moss refuses to believe her papa has abandoned her and left her, alone and orphaned, in Brushwood Convent and Home for Girls, no matter what Sister Agatha says. A promise is a promise and Papa promised he would be back for her as soon as he returns from the war.

But Tilda is convinced the dreadful Sister Agatha is out to get her. Why is she so hateful all the time? She insists that Matilda declare to all at the convent that she is an orphan. She is not an orphan, and she will never say it! Something is amiss and Tilda and her best friend Annie need to find out what before it is too late.

~*~

Matilda Moss has been left by her father at an orphanage called Brushwood in Adelaide while he has to go off to fight in the Boer War just as Australia becomes a Federated nation. She’s not an orphan, but Sister Agatha, the head nun, is determined to make her admit that she is. It seems like Sister Agatha hates Tilda and wants to hurt her in any way she can. But Tilda has hope and a promise from her father, friendship from girls like Annie, and Sisters Geraldine, Catherine, and a few others to get her through. Tilda and Annie set about to find out the truth – and show Sister Agatha that she is wrong. But there is something more sinister going on, and Tilda must learn to find her own way through if she is to be reunited with her father.

Set in 1900-1901, Tilda is set against the backdrop of an Australia that is about to become a Federated nation from a collection of colonies, and looks at one young girl’s experience of displacement, abuse, and the only thing she has to cling to – hope – as she tries to find her place in the world and her family. It’s a focused story, one that we see through Tilda’s eyes and that was inspired in part by Sue’s family history, as she points out in the author note. It is filled with heartbreak and a sense of bleakness, yet Tilda’s spirit shines through – at times it feels like her spirit has been broken, but the kind of person Tilda is – she refuses to let that happen and becomes resourceful and determined. What I liked about this book was that whilst it is written for a middle grade audience, there were moments that it did not shy away from – it gave a realistic view of how Tilda and the other girls were treated and what it meant to live like that. It allows readers to be shocked and gain an understanding of what these institutions were like, whilst still giving readers hope and something to cheer for as the novel went on. This balance ensured that it is a story that has bits of everything that readers need from a story like this.

Historical novels like this are a window into the past – they allow us as readers to experience what someone like Tilda would have lived like and gone through and is both educational and entertaining. It is the kind of novel that can be used in a variety of ways in an educational context – it would be good to use in areas like history or English. I think this is a great book to discuss what life was like back in the early 1900s, and how all sorts of things affected people differently. Allowing Tilda to speak for herself, and have her story as the focus was very powerful, because it meant that the story was much stronger – and there are hints at all sorts of things in the background as well. I could understand though, how Tilda may not have understood or registered some of those things because she was focused on what she was going through – on her experience.

This was a wonderful and moving book that I think older middle grade readers will engage with on many levels. Another great read!