A shared passion: Dorothy Bancroft and her daughter Roxanne Bancroft-Stuart both enjoy a good book.
Emma Francis with her three children Kurt, Ryan and Tori Page.
This week we celebrate both Mother’s Day and the National Year of Reading by looking at the favourite books of three Tenterfield mums. Emma Francis is mum to three young children. Roxanne Bancroft-Stuart is mum to two grown up sons, has three granddaughters and has helped many other Tenterfield youngsters. Her own mum, Dorothy Bancroft has seven children, 19 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren – and loves to read!
Dorothy Bancroft
Destination ChungKing
By Han Suyin
I LOVE to read because it helps to pass the time.
When I am absorbed in a book, it is someone else’s story, not mine.
My faourite book at this moment is Destination ChungKing by Han Suyin. It was written before 1943.
I am up to page 271 and the book is about when the Japanese invaded China before World War II. It is about the author’s life trying to exist in the conditions when everything is bombed out (the conditions were appalling).
It is a dreadful story but a good read, because it is a true story, and the descriptions are vivid.
I am at the moment reading out the bookcase, because I have always liked to read.
Roxanne Bancroft-Stuart
The Rachael Treasure series
JILLAROO, The Stockman, and The Rouseabout are three of the Rachel Treasure books that I have read.
I really enjoy these books, as they are a woman’s point of view of Australian life in the bush.
I get caught up in the drama, the romances and the adventures of the characters in her books. I love the heart-felt and honest way Rachael captures the bush and the very life of being Australian.
These books are set in the Australian bush – The Cattlemen’s Daughter is set in the Victorian Alps the same as The Rouseabout - even with the wonderful fiascos of a bachelor/spinsters’ ball.
The descriptions are so vivid that your imagination can see the different bush scenes in wonderful colour.
My favourite would be The Cattlemen’s Daughter as it is a book of self-discovery and most of all forgiveness, which makes it a very unforgettable book.
This book is also about love, the love of a father and the love of a park ranger.
I have always been an avid reader as I like to escape into the book I am reading, and sometimes I can start a book and still be reading at two in the morning.
Emma Francis
The Wonkey Donkey
by Craig Smith
Willbee the Bumblebee
by Craig Smith
AS a busy mum of three (Kurt, Ryan and Tori Page - pictured left) juggling work and home, I don’t get much time to read, but when I do, I love nothing more than snuggling up and reading with the kids.
Our favourite book would have to be The Wonkey Donkey by Craig Smith, followed by Willbee the Bumblebee, also by Craig Smith.
Both books were given to Kurt and Tori by their Aunty Tammy when they were younger.
The Wonkey Donkey is about a donkey with three legs and one eye that smells.
Ryan, who is five months old, loves to hear the “heehaw” part, especially when we all do it together.
Willbee the Bumblebee is about a bee in the garden that gets his knitted jumper caught and it undoes and shows the whole garden his bare bum.
I’m not sure if it is the story or me trying to sing it as fast as Craig Smith does in the song that they like the best.
Both of these books are a must read for any child.