Mavis The Little Plane Spotter

Ten- year-old Mavis, the Little Plane Spotter examines the role children played in World War Two. Frustrated when she is told she is too young to help the war effort at home. Mavis discovers she can volunteer alongside her older sister, she becomes an enemy plane spotter and must keep her eyes on the skies to help protect her community.

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Mavis is a feisty
ten-year-old who lives in rural Australia with her mum, dad and sister,





Doreen.





 





It’s World War Two,
and Darwin is bombed. Life as she knows it changes.





  Her dad and Uncle
John dig a trench in the backyard, and school lessons are replaced with air





raid drills.





  

Mavis is keen to
help the war effort at home, and an opportunity arises when a soldier comes





to school seeking
volunteers. Too young to help on her own, she convinces her older sister,





Doreen, to join her
in plane spotting.





  

Every Saturday, they
climb the stairs of the town clock tower, armed with binoculars and





pictures of bombers,
to record the times and direction of aircraft. Planes come and go, but





they are local
friendlies.





  

One Saturday, Mavis
must work alone. She is nervous but determined to carry out her duty





for the war effort
at home.





 





When an enemy plane
comes into view, she is more excited than frightened! She rings it in





and becomes a hero.





 

That is until it’s
revealed the aircraft is a captured enemy plane that she just happened to see





when the local air
force was testing it.





  

Mavis feels
deflated, but her spirits are boosted when Mum makes dessert in her honour and





Dad lets her play in
the trench.





  

Mavis never sees
another enemy plane, but after the war when she hears a rumble come over





the hills of home,
her eyes still search the skies.