The Midnight Dress (277 Pages)

Author Karen Foxlee is an Australian and a new author to me. The setting for this book is a small town in Australia. Rose Lovell arrived in this town with her father with whom she has been traveling around the country ever since her mother committed suicide. Now she is fifteen; she has never had a best friend; she has never had a home. And then she lands in Leonora, Australia where Rose meets Pearl Kelly, another 15 year old in Leonora. Pearl convinces Rose that she needs to join her (and the other young, high school ladies in the town in the annual harvest festival. She will need a dress as it is a competitive event in which one of the girls is crowned queen and two of the girls become princesses in the court. This is not the kind of thing Rose cares about, and she certainly doesn't have money to but a new gown. Pearl convinces her to go to a woman in the town who has made dresses for many of the town's women....however, there is talk about this woman being strange. Rose goes to the woman, Edie, and it is then that the reader learns about Edie's family as Edie teaches Rose how to sew. This is a very different read from most American YA authors. It is a mystery that involves betrayal, friendship, murder, and coming of age for two young girls.