Sue Saliba

Nella is a dreamer and rather naive girl who loves nature and often takes herself off to the creek for some "me" time. The book opens with her wanting the swallows to return which in turn is symbolic of her wish for her father to return to their household. (He is wool classer who often spent long periods of time away from the family and now has permanently left as he cannot cope with Nella's bipolar mother.)
Set in North Fitzroy and then in Phillip Island where her father lives, this book was well-written but seriously frustrated the hell out of me. I just wanted stupid Nella to WAKE UP and see what was actually happening around her. She visits her father in hospital after he has a heart attack and gets a scheme in her head that now her father is ill, she can take care of him at their house. When her realist brother tells her that her father is never coming home, she ditches school and travels by bus down to the Island, vowing to stay there and look after him.
When she lets herself in, she notices lots of little changes, things moved around and that things are not quite right. Nella discovers that not only is he NEVER coming back, but he has a new wife-to-be and that she is pregnant so Nella may not be her father's only daughter in the near future! (Sorry Spoiler Alert).
During all this confusion, she meets an 18 year old girl called Isobel who lives on Phillip Island and notices as much as Nella does, has had a father leave her in a more tragic way, and who can offer Nella a voice of understanding and reason as she tries to figure out what to do. A times tediously overt in its symbolism...we get it...swallows return, birds leaving the nest, it is nevertheless generally an okay book. I love how it is set in Melbourne. Year 7-8.… (meer)