Josh

Hurry along boy, don’t sit there like a fool. That’s not the Plowman way.

From the minute Josh steps off the train at Ryan Creek, he knows that fitting in is going to be hard work. Maybe that s because he’s a Plowman, which in Ryan Creek is the next best thing to being royalty.

Josh doesn t know anyone, and no one really knows him. So why does the entire town have expectations of him? Expectations he can t ever expect to fill? Besides, why should he try to be anyone else? It s tough enough just being Josh, without being a Plowman as well.

Josh was awarded the Carnegie Medal in 1971, a fitting tribute for one of the true classics of Australian children’s literature, penned by one of its great masters.