Book one in the New Zealand Girl series, Deborah Burnside's Rebecca and the Queen of Nations tells the story of ten-year-old Rebecca Kelly's journey from Ireland to New Zealand in 1874. For readers aged 7-10. It's 1874 and when ten-year-old Rebecca Kelly is sent to the dreary Derry workhouse she decides that this is not the life for her. So she runs away and steals a pony to ride to Belfast. Rebecca is determined that she will join her brother, Felix, who is a sailor on the Queen of Nations, a ship bound for New Zealand, but this will be difficult for a young girl without a penny to her name. Rebecca must become a servant for the Walker family and earn her passage to the new colony. What was life like so many years ago? Find out through the eyes of a girl who's just like you.
