Go Home, Cheeky Animals! by Johanna Bell & Dion Beasley

At Canteen Creek here we live, there are cheeky dogs everywhere.

Mum gets frustrated by the cheeky dogs hanging around the cap and tries to shoo them away – but Grandpa says they help to keep the other cheeky animals away. When the rains come, so too do the other animals – first a gang of goats then a drove of donkeys, followed by horses, buffaloes and camels. Finally, everyone has had enough – especially the cheeky dogs, who growl at the cheeky animals until they go home. Now the cheeky dogs have the camp to themselves – untilt he enxt time the big rains come.

Go Home Cheeky Animals is humorous, delightful book filled with cheeky dogs and, of course, the other cheeky animals, getting into all sorts of mischief around the camp. Kids will love the story but will especially connect with the illustrative style of Dion Beasley whose work is really accessible and simple – yet filled with life, humour and detail.

Children from remote indigenous communities are offered a story here which connects with camp life, while kids form other parts of Australia will enjoy the insight Go Home Cheeky Animals offers, alongside its humour.

To learn more about the collaboration behind this book and its predecessor, Too Many Cheeky DOgs, visit the creators’ website here.

Go Home Cheeky Animals, by Johanna Bell and Dion Beasley
Allen & Unwin, 2016
ISBN 9781760291655

 

Available from good bookstores or online from Booktopia. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Calpepper's Place, by Trudie Trewin & Donna Gynell

One day, Calpepper stopped plodding,
and kicked the hot desert sand.
“This is not the place for me,” he snorted.
“I’m going to find a far away exciting place.”

Calpepper the camel is fed up with trudging behind the plodding camel train. He is sure there are much more exciting places he’d rather be. So one day he leaves the desert behind, and catches a bus, in search of an exciting place. But every place he visits is not quite camely enough: the ski slopes are slippery and cold, the city is too jostly and the waves at the beach are just a bit too high. Finally, Calpepper realises that only home is camely enough for him.

Calpepper’s Place is a gorgeous picture book about camels, home and belonging. Young readers will delight in the humour of Calpepper’s adventures, with text which plays with sound and is patterned in a way encouraging children to predict, and illustrations which perfectly capture the movement and humour of the tale.

The sort of book which will will be happily read over and over by parents and carers, and enjoyed by young readers every time.

 

Calpepper’s Place, by Trudie Trewin & Donna Gynell
Windy Hollow, 2014
ISBN 9781922081322

Available from good bookstores and online.

The Camel Who Crossed Australia, by Jackie French

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 of men, and how I was once part of the boldest caravan that travelled the furthest in the world…

The story of Burke and Wills and their expedition to cross Australia from south to north and thus open up new land and new routes is one which most Australians should be familiar with. However, this retelling of the story is unique – because the narrator is a camel named Bell Sing who was part of the expedition, retelling his story to a young camel in the desert years later. The use of the camel as narrator offers a fresh, unique perspective on the story, which is complemented by first person narratives of one of the cameleers, Dost Mahomet, and of John King, one of the few survivors of the expedition.

This use of triple perspectives adds depth and allows the inclusion of historical detail which the use of the camel alone would make difficult, however it is the camel’s story which dominates the book, and which will draw young readers in to the story.

For a reader new to the story of Burke and Wills there is enough information, including back of the book author notes, for the story to be followed, and for those who already know the story, it provides a fresh viewpoint. At times funny, at others torrid or sad, The Camel Who Crossed Australia is excellent historical fiction for upper primary aged readers.

The Camel Who Crossed Australia (Animal Stars)

The Camel Who Crossed Australia, by Jackie French
HarperCollins Australia, 2008

This book can be purchased online at Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Columbia Sneezes, by Janeen Brian

Columbia Camel loves everything about his desert home – except for one thing:
All the sand that is carried by each desert breeze –
It tickles my nostrils and fills me with SNEEZE!
Atishoo, atishoo, atishoo! And then,
atishoo, I sneeze and atishoo again!’

Columbia can’t stop sneezing and, when he seeks help for his problem, it seems nothing will cure it – until he meets a stranger who needs his help, and, in return, offers a solution for Columbia’s. With his sneezing fixed, there is nothing Columbia does not like about the desert.

This is a wonderful rhyming picture book, with a humorous plot and rhythmical text which is especially fun when read aloud. Adults and children alike will love the silliness of both the problem and the solution, and the repeated refrain of ‘atishoo’ will encourage youngsters to join in. The illustrations are also humorous, with the sandy desert colours splashed with highlights in blues, purples and greens.

Loads of fun.

Columbia Sneezes, by Janeen Brian and Gabe Cunnett
Omnibus, 2008

Hoosh! by Janeen Brian

They are as tall as doorways and weigh around 450 kilograms.
They have two sets of long, curly eyelashes and extra inner eyelids to see through during sandstorms.
They are smelly and flies love them.
They can drink about 100 litres of water in a couple of minutes.

Camels are not native to Australia, yet they have played a very important role in our nation’s history since first being introduced in 1840. They have carried explorers, moved freight across the country, and played an essential role in massive construction projects such as the Rabbit-Proof Fence and the Canning Stock Route.

In Hoosh! Camels in Australia, author Janeen Brian provides a comprehensive study of camels, focussing on their role in Australia. From their evolution and physiology, to their introduction into Australia, their roles in Australia’s history, and a discussion of their current and future role.

Brian uses accessible language and her comprehensive research into the subject is evident – this is no lightweight treatment of the subject. The text is complemented by colour and black-and-white photographs, maps and sketches, providing a visually pleasing presentation, which kids will be drawn to – especially captivated by the cover photograph of the camel’s face, his mouth and nose shown in close-up detail.

This is an outstanding nonfiction offering. First released in hardcover, and shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia awards in 2006, Hoosh has now been released in paperback.

Hoosh! Camels in Australia, by Janeen Brian
Paperback edition, ABC Books, 2007

You can buy this book online from Fishpond

Hoosh! by Janeen Brian

They are as tall as doorways and weigh around 450 kilograms.
They have two sets of long, curly eyelashes and extra inner eyelids to see through during sandstorms.
They are smelly and flies love them.
They can drink about 100 litres of water in a couple of minutes.

Camels are not native to Australia, yet they have played a very important role in our nation’s history since first being introduced in 1840. They have carried explorers, moved freight across the country, and played an essential role in massive construction projects such as the Rabbit-Proof Fence and the Canning Stock Route.

In Hoosh! Camels in Australia, author Janeen Brian provides a comprehensive study of camels, focussing on their role in Australia. From their evolution and physiology, to their introduction into Australia, their roles in Australia’s history, and a discussion of their current and future role.

Brian uses accessible language and her comprehensive research into the subject is evident – this is no lightweight treatment of the subject. The text is complemented by colour and black-and-white photographs, maps and sketches, providing a visually pleasing presentation, which kids will be drawn to – especially captivated by the cover photograph of the camel’s face, his mouth and nose shown in close-up detail.

This is an outstanding nonfiction offering.

Hoosh! Camels in Australia, by Janeen Brian
ABC Books, 2005

Mustara, by Roseanne Hawke and Robert Ingpen

Every day Mustara and Taj look out onto a sea of yellow-red dust and stones. The sand rolls and shifts. Taj’s father says it is like the waves of the ocean and the Spinifex bushes are little boats blown about by the wind.

Taj’s father is an Afghan cameleer who trains camels to be used by explorers and for transporting supplies from Port Augusta to central Australia. When the explorer Mr Giles arrives, Taj hopes desperately that his favourite camel, Mustara will be chosen. But Mustara is too small and Taj and his friend Emmeline, the station owner’s daughter, try to feed him up so he will grow.

When Taj and Emmeline ride into the desert on Mustafa, they are caught in a sandstorm. Mustafa provides shelter for the pair, then brings them safely home, proving that, although he is small, he is ready to join the expedition.

Mustara is a beautiful story bringing to life part of Australia’s history which children may not be familiar with. It is brought to life by the stunning watercolour illustrations by Robert Ingpen, who captures both the starkness and the beauty of the Australian desert.

Breathtaking.

Mustara, by Roseanne Hawke & Robert Ingpen
Lothian, 2006

No One Owns Me, by Ron Bunney

Joe has an unorthodox life for a girl – she dresses as a boy and travels with her father, a cameleer who runs a carting business. Joe loves the way things are and wouldn’t change them. But change seems to be forced upon her. A chance meeting with a stranger leads Joe to wonder who she really is. It seems the man she calls ‘Dad’ is not her father her all. Many years ago, he found her, a tiny baby, alone in the outback with her dead parents and took her in.

Now Joe must struggle to come to terms with the tale of her past, as well as coming to grips with the new feelings she struggles with when she meets a young boy her own age. There are also changes coming for the camel team she and her father have worked all her life. Now trucks are able to do the work that the camels once do – and they are able to do it faster.

No One Owns Me explores an era of Western Australian history which will be unfamiliar to many young readers – with events taking place in the Goldfields and interior in a time before motorised transport. At the same time, the story explores issues of cultural difference, family and loyalty, with Joe having to deal with the differences between her blood family and the ‘father’ who has raised her, as well as his reasons for keeping her past from her.

With a dearth of historical fiction set in Western Australia, this one is a welcome find.

No One Owns Me, by Ron Bunney
Fremantle Arts Centre, 2004