Mavis the Little Plane Spotter

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.