1931: Tough Times

Do you dare let a girl join your cricket team? Fight for your friends? Risk everything to save your family?

Tom Parker’s a gutsy kid who dreams of being an aviator one day. His gang is called the Daredevils, and they hang around the back lanes of inner-city Fitzroy, playing cricket, football, marbles, and cowboys and Indians. When Tom’s dad loses his job during the tough times of the great Depression, Tom takes it upon himself to earn money so that they can keep their home. But making money is harder than he thought, and he must battle their enemy gang and some untrustworthy types—and get one very tough girl on side—if he’s going to save his family.

Simon Mitchell is the author of The Baked Bean Bandit.