I’ll tell you what, young camel. You lie there and chew your cud, and learn to smell the sky. What else is there to do while we wait for the clouds to drift in from the horizon, and for the rain to come? And I will tell you how I came to understand the world … Continue reading “The Camel Who Crossed Australia, by Jackie French”
‘That sheep-sheep is nothing but a troublemaker!’ yelled Ratso. ‘He has to go!’ cried Big Bob. ‘Too right!’ shouted Bungo, who never said much. ‘If Pete goes, I go!’ said Shaun. ‘That suits us fine!’ yelled the other shearers. The new shearer, Shaun, doesn’t have a sheepdog, like the other shearers do. Instead he has … Continue reading “Pete the Sheep, by Jackie French & Bruce Whatley”
Monday Morning: Slept. Afternoon: Slept. Evening: Ate grass. Scratched. Night: Ate grass. So begins the diary of Mothball a carrot-loving, doormat-destroying wombat – a picture book which has won hearts (and awards) around the world since its first release in 2002. Written from the first person (first wombat?) perspective of a wombat, the text gives … Continue reading “Diary of a Wombat, by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley”
Reviewed by Dale Harcombe The award winning and highly successful team of Jackie French and Bruce Whatley have a new picture book, sure to delight children and the parents and teachers who read to them. What do you do with a bunyip who doesn’t like Christmas? You try and make him smile, of course, and … Continue reading “Emily and the BIG BAD Bunyip, by Jackie French & Bruce Whatley”
Australia was booming, buzzing, clacking – and there was a lot of moo-ing and baa-ing going on as well. The colonies at the end of the world had grown! A Nation of Swaggies & Diggers is an informative book on the early days of Federation in Australia. It details the early time of the colony … Continue reading “A Nation of Swaggies and Diggers, by Jackie French”
It was like I’d been knocked flat even though I was standing up. It was like the bushfires were back again in my head, like they are in dreams sometimes. And this old lady, well, older than Mum anyway, came up and said, ‘Are you alright?’ When Sam and his family go to visit the … Continue reading “The Day I Was History, by Jackie French”
Ethel was right. No one would let them go and nurse in France, not for years and years. But they might just let them do this. And maybe she’d meet soldiers over there who’d fought with Tim, or who knew someone who had. And even if no one knew anything about Tim at all – … Continue reading “A Rose for the ANZAC Boys, by Jackie French”
For 60,000 years the rest of the world had pretty much left Australia and its Aboriginal nations alone. Then it became a home for Britain’s criminals and poor. Now a con man had found gold and suddenly everyone was heading to Australia: adventurers, revolutionaries, camels…Australia would never be the same. Gold, Graves and Glory is … Continue reading “Gold, Graves and Glory, by Jackie French”
Cannibal convicts, murdering squatters, sea captains who kidnapped their crew, poor farmers forced off their land – they had all come to the colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land to make better lives for themselves. Rotters and Squatters is a wonderful look at the colonial days in Australia, charting the hardships and … Continue reading “Rotters and Squatters, by Jackie French”
Reviewed by Jess Whiting The village was below them. Hekja stopped, and stared, and tried to still her breath. Beside her Snarf flopped down onto his tummy, and whined at the smell of blood. Reena had been right, Hekja realized. She was too late. No one could help the village now. Hekja is a young … Continue reading “They came on Viking Ships, by Jackie French”
