Suzie lives with her family on an outback sheep station in Corowa. She is shy and no-one notices her much as she goes about her chores, taking water to the chickens, collecting kindling for the fire or when she twirled in the shade of the big gum trees.

When the painter, Tom Roberts, arrives at the station he looks for ‘people, animals, trees and rocks from the landscape’, to place on his canvases with his paintbrush. He notices Suzie.

He asks Suzie and her sister to kick up dust to ‘make light and shade for his painting’. He pays her sixpence.

When Roberts departs the station one day he leaves his paints behind. Suzie’s sister and brothers use the paints to add colour to the outside shed walls. No-one notices Suzie ‘swirling leaves and twirling branches’.

When Tom Roberts returns from the city with fresh canvasses and colours to paint the four children, Suzie’s brothers ‘wriggled and giggled’, Sophie sways but Suzie sits still, listening to the paintbrush swishing.

When Roberts created his famous painting, Shearing the Rams, in 1890 he painted Suzie into the scene as the ‘smiling tar boy’. Suzie is now always seen.

This lovely gentle story tells about the little girl who is the only face fully visible in Robert’s iconic painting. This was a time when girls were not seen in shearing sheds.

With soft illustrations and Dee White’s quiet storytelling we are transported back to an era where a little girl who went unnoticed is now looked upon today by millions.

Reviewed by Jane Stephens

Age Guide 5+

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR

Dee White is the award-winning, international author of more than 25 books for children and young adults. She has a passion for history and uncovering stories from the past like The Girl in the Painting, which she discovered on a family holiday. She is cofounder of Author Pen Pals and a strong advocate for literary and young writers and has presented author talks and writing workshops throughout Australia and overseas, including the SCBWI Europolitan Conference in Amsterdam and the Sharjah International Book Fair. Visit Dee at www.deescribe.com.au or on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter at Dee White Author.

Sarah Anthony is a painter and metalsmith. She completed six years of art study in the UK, culminating in a BA Joint Honours in Fine Arts and Metalsmithing from Camberwell College of the Arts in London, in 1994. In 2009 she graduated from La Trobe University with a Masters in Art Therapy. Her early artworks were small metal sculptural pieces and contemporary jewellery; these were exhibited in Dublin, London, Auckland, Melbourne and Sydney. After a substantial break from art-making due to raising her young family, she has recently returned to artmaking and exploring the medium of oil painting. Drover is her first picture book.