"Playing Beatie Bow" is a novel in which the main characters see first hand what it is like to live in another time and place. The characters change throughout the story and learn to appreciate what they have and that you can achieve your goals if you work for them. Abigail, for example, changes from a cynical teenager into a mature young woman, and learns a lot about life and love. Beatie finds she can do and be whatever she wants, she just has to make it happen and Judah realises what true love is. The characters from the novel by Ruth Park learn a lot about themselves and about life.
Abigail Kirk.
Abigail Kirk was a miserable, self-absorbed fourteen-year-old, angry at her parent's separation, until one day, Abigail decided to take Natalie and Vincent Crown, her next door neighbours children to the playground. The children there are playing a game called "Beatie Bow". Natalie sees a little furry girl off in the distance and wonders why she is not playing too. Abigail and Natalie attempt to talk to her, but she runs away. The next day she gets in a fight with her mother over her father coming home after a few years of separation, Abigail walks to the playground and sees the little furry girl again. She attempts to talk to her again, but the little girl runs. Abigail follows her, and is somehow transported back in time to 1873 where the little girl's family takes her in after being injured by Mr. Bow. The little girl turns out to be Beatie Bow, the girl in which the game is named after. She hears things of the "the stranger" and "the gift", but is clueless to what they are. When Abigail asks to leave, the family refuse to let her go. Abigail manages to escape and is soon kidnapped and taken to the "Suez Canal", were she is locked in an attic with a deranged woman named Doll. Then, Judah Bow, a sailor, and some of his friends break into the "Suez Canal" and rescue Abigail and return her to the Bow household.
