Page 4 The Moorabool News – 14 June, 2022
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Ensuring youth know the history By Lachlan Ellis A Gordon author’s first book has just been released, painting a picture for young readers of what it was like living in a German youth camp during the Second World War. Borrowing from her father’s own experiences living in Germany during World War II, Deb Goldie’s ‘Test of Wills’ tells the story of 11-year-old Will, who falls into a coma after contracting a virus, and finds himself in a German youth camp. While the story itself is fictional, it is rooted in historical fact, and Ms Goldie’s father’s stories of the youth camp Tirschenreuth. Ms Goldie said she aimed to tell an exciting story of adventure, to both encourage young people to read, and help ensure that dark period of history is never forgotten. “I used to work in a primary school as an integration aide, and I did a lot of literacy work with boys especially. For boys, most would rather be out kicking a football than sitting there reading…so the books we’d find for them would have to really excite them. So that’s what started me on my quest,” she told the Moorabool News.
“What people experience during the war, or at any time, should never be forgotten. I wanted to use what Dad had told me in a fictional story, so that we could pass it on to our children, so these important events in time are never forgotten.” Ms Goldie’s father – also named Will, coincidently – was 10 years old when World War II began, and it was his stories, and the reaction of Ms Goldie’s daughter Annie to hearing them, that inspired Ms Goldie to put pen to paper. “Dad never spoke about the war, he had such bad memories of Germany … but over a bottle of red one night, he started to tell us about all of his adventures and what happened to him,” she told the Moorabool News. “My daughter Annie looked at me afterwards and said ‘Mum, why do I need to do school history when I can listen to Pop?’ That really made such an impression, it’s something I’ll never forget… some of the things he was telling us were amazing. Then it became my mission, I armed myself with a tape recorder and recorded more of his stories.” Ms Goldie started writing Test of Wills back in 2012, and even visited Tirschenreuth in Germany to get an idea of the environment, and
“localise myself with the place and talk to people there”. Aimed at Year 5 to 7 students, the book contains short chapters with hooks at the end of each one, to keep young readers engaged and eager to turn the next page. To purchase a copy of Test of Wills, search for it at www. shawlinepublishing.com.au, or visit The Independent Bookstore at 218A Skipton Street, Ballarat. Ms Goldie also hopes to drop a few copies off for sale at the Gordon and Ballan Post Offices.
Gordon author Deborah Goldie with her first published novel Test of Wills, and (inset) her father in his Australian Army Reserve uniform. Photo – Helen Tatchell
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