ABSTRACT
Australian children in the late nineteenth century were becoming different from British children, and their newly emerging character reflected the local context and circumstances. In the 1890s, the Australian colonies were approaching Federation, and the country's literary life had begun to blossom. The iconic children's writer of this period was Ethel Turner (1870–1958), whose first novel, Seven Little Australians, was published in 1894, and has been continuously in print ever since. Turner's popularity and the extent of her readership are widely acknowledged.
