Girls' Town

Girls' Town was written for adolescent boys but girls are enjoying it too. Adults have also engaged themselves in this story of a group of boys who decide to rescue a girl from jail.

Girls’ Town was written specifically for young adults although its subject matter and themes are likely to appeal to adult readers. A NSW country town is the perfect place for fourteen-year-old Peter Woziak to grow up in, thrashing old cars around paddocks, parties on the river, playing football and meeting girls. But things can change very quickly. The town plunges into a brutal dispute over football codes and Woziak wants to be loyal to his best mate without making a commitment himself. Then, when his girlfriend’s little brother is killed, Peter waits too long before going to see her. But the real challenge is lurking behind the walls of the town gaol. For almost his entire life, Peter has lived opposite the high walls of the gaol once used to hold prisoners of war. Sometime during the year Woziak becomes aware that the goal is used to hold ‘bad’ girls. When he tells his mates that he knows one of the girls in the gaol, they hatch a plan to rescue her. The wrong girl is rescued, but that turns out to be good. Peter learns that nothing is as it seems and people can surprise you. He even surprises himself.

Robert Parsons is an Australian author whose first book, Madigan Perry’s Luck, is still selling successfully. In the 1970s and 1980s Robert was active in many causes and issues, but the most significant was the abolition of corporal punishment in Australian schools. He has taught in many secondary schools and his current novel was inspired by his work with adolescent boys in the regional Australia.