Girls Who Changed the World 1

Ming and her twin brother Tuan have grown up reading a lot of history, but Ming wants to know more about the importance of girls and what they contributed. Tuan's predictably a dick about it, and their history teacher is useless, so help comes in the form of...Herstory. 

Yep, female history is given human form in the rather cantankerous character called Herstory. She offers Ming the chance to go back in time and witness 6 weeks of history, during which a girl will change the world. Ming wants to do more than just watch, but Herstory basically says she can't handle it. 

So what does Ming do? She steals more of the "Time drops" Herstory created and vanishes back in time to find her own way to the time Herstory intended for her to see. Seriously, when you get the chance to go back in time, don't be a greedy brat about it. This was really stupid and I didn't like Ming for a while because of it. 

Ming ends up on a ratty farm a few days' journey outside Sydney back in 1898. She's in the body of Florence Watson, a girl with some Chinese ancestry, just like Ming has some. Ming isn't just body-hopping. She and Florence are sort of melded, where she not only has Florence's body but also her knowledge of the surroundings. 

So Ming has to watch Flo's mother die of a snakebite, then survive on the farm by herself with only a dingo mixed breed puppy and a lone cow as companions. She despairs that she's blowing through her 6 weeks' time and has no chance of changing the world from the farm. She manages to contact her wealthy aunt with the help of a travelling salesman and sad aunt comes to fetch her. 

From the farm, it's off to the posh life in Sydney. Her aunt is quite loaded and unmarried, so her home just has servants in it. Plenty of room for Florence and Bob the half-dingo. 

Ming is still determined to change something, and when she learns that her aunt is working on petitions for a referendum to unify Australia, she thinks this might be her shot. The work of the suffragists helps women eventually get the vote in Australia, though it won't be until 1902. 

Ming also saves Emily, a homeless orphan who ends up being appointed Florence's companion. Both girls will get the opportunity to study what they like and have proper lives thanks to Flo's aunt. 

Thinking she has ten days left, Ming is shocked when she fades away and sees that Herstory is yanking her out of time. Herstory says her method of being more involved uses up time faster, which is why she didn't get the full six weeks. Angered by Ming's defiance and Tuan's interference, she sends both her and her twin into World War I Belgium.

I liked this book. I'm not always a fan of X is trapped in Y's body, but it worked in this case. I don't know much about Australian history, so that was interesting as well.