A remarkable story about a little-known tragedy in Australian history. 'A brilliant and richly evocative insight into a fascinating and little-known aspect of our past.' Jackie French, Australian Children's Laureate It's 1900. thirteen-year-old Issy McKelvie leaves school and starts her first job - very reluctantly - as a maid in an undertaking establishment. She thinks this is about as low as you can go. But there's worse to come. Issy becomes an unwilling rat-catcher when the plague - the Black Death - arrives in Australia. Issy loathes both rats and her father's four yappy, snappy, hyperactive rat-killing terriers. But when her father becomes ill it's up to Issy to join the battle to rid the city of the plague-carrying rats.

1. Key Quotes – Annotation
Practice Pages
• Learning Intention: To practice
annotating pages that contain key quotes
from each theme and some examples of
literary devices.
• Success Criteria: You will have completed
some beginning levels of annotation
within your novel.

2. Practice Page 1
Page 5

3. Practice Page 2
Page 8

4. Practice Page 3
Page 57

5. Practice Page 4
Page 120

6. Practice Page 5
Page 131

7. Practice Page 6
Page 133

8. Practice Page 7
Page 146

9. Practice Page 8
Page 161

10. Practice Page 9
Page 175

11. Practice Page 10
Page 181

12. Practice Page 11
Page 197

13. Practice Page 12
Page 205

14. Practice Page 1
Page 5
My annotations

15. Practice Page 2
Page 8
My annotations

16. Practice Page 3
Page 57
My annotations

17. Practice Page 4
Page 120
My annotations

18. Practice Page 5
Page 131
My annotations

19. Practice Page 6
Page 133
My annotations

20. Practice Page 7
Page 146
My annotations

21. Practice Page 8
Page 161
My annotations

22. Practice Page 9
Page 175
My annotations

23. Practice Page 10
Page 181
My annotations

24. Practice Page 11
Page 197
My annotations

25. Practice Page 12
Page 205
My annotations