Australian children’s classics: Playing Beatie Bow is a time-slip novel that makes Sydney strange
By Monique Rooney, Senior lecturer in literature, Australian National UniversityAugust 24, 2026
Ruth Park’s classic asks us to inhabit the past as a real place – just as 14-year-old Abigail does, when she’s transported from 1980 to 1873, in Sydney’s The Rocks.