Age 10+

About the book

It’s midnight and I’m alone in the kitchen eating a cold potato scallop. Coach O’Call would say something like, ‘That’s not what I expect from a scholarship girl!’ because I have to be up for squad training in five hours and I’m not supposed to go near potato scallops, and—oh, yeah—it’s my fifth.

Cat has recently started at a new school on a sports scholarship, and she’s feeling the pressure of early morning training sessions and the need for total commitment. Fanny loves to swim and she lives for racing, but family chores and low expectations for girls make it very hard for her to fit in even the occasional training session.

Cat and Fanny have never met. They both live in the same Sydney suburb, but in different worlds, or at least different times: Cat in current-day Sydney, and Fanny in 1908. But one day, time slips and they swap places.

As each girl lives the other’s life, with all the challenges and confusion it presents, she comes to appreciate and understand herself and the role of swimming in her own life.

Narrated in alternating chapters by Cat and Fanny, Elsewhere Girls is a moving and funny story of two girls with a deep connection, one based on the Australian Olympic champion, Fanny Durack. It’s a fresh and engaging exploration of the challenges and pressures for young women growing up in the past and today.

Listen: Emily Gale and Nova Weetman chat to Dani Vee and Adrian Beck about Elsewhere Girls.

Watch: Emily Gale and Nova Weetman talk to each other about writing Elsewhere Girls.

Further reading: How To Slip Through Time by Emily Gale (for students)

Teaching Notes

Praise

“Elsewhere Girls is full of Gale and Weetman’s incisive charm and wit, and the pair’s existing middle-grade fans will happily devour this intimate, perceptive look at equality, class, women’s rights and what matters most.”

Books+Publishing

“Cat and Fanny narrate their confusion over the jarring body-swapping time travel in alternating first-person voices. As they pick up clues, they discover that they have swimming in common. Their responses to women’s roles and the conveniences and inconveniences of life in each time period are warmly relatable… A charming, eye-opening exploration of gender restrictions and self-determination.”

Kirkus

“Beautifully written and deeply enmeshed in Sydney’s historical and contemporary cultural fabric, Elsewhere Girls shows that growing up can be hard — no matter what era you live in.”

Judges’ comments, NSW Premier’s History Awards

“Nothing short of superb. These two exceptionally talented authors do a wonderful job painting the girls’ worlds with smooth writing that nails the situations each girl faces in her time brilliantly…[A] sweet, totally enjoyable and heart-warming story.”

Aurealis Awards

Awards

A CBCA Notable Book, Younger Readers 2022

Shortlisted in the Aurealis Awards 2022

Shortlisted in the Young People’s History Prize, NSW Premier’s History Awards 2022

Longlisted in the Book Links Award for Children’s Historical Fiction 2022

Other Books by Emily

About the author

I’ve worked in the children’s book industry for over 25 years in various roles: in-house editor, consultant to a literary agent, children’s book buyer, reviewer, freelance manuscript assessor, and as a writer-in-residence in a high school library.