Big Fella Rain


Book Description

Age range 3 - 8 Big Fella Rain is a celebration of northern Australia as animals, birds, trees and a parched earth await the first rain. It is almost as if country stands still as the sparse yet evocative text pays homage to the transition from dry season to wet season in a country that is like no other place in the world. Fern Martins illustrations seamlessly portray the dramatic skies, the thirsty animals and tiny creatures whose very existence rely on the monsoonal changes. Her exquisite rendering of the big landscape against the subtle shifts in the environment have a timeless quality that will capture the hearts of all readers. Included on the Children's Book Council of Australia 2018 Notables list. 'Big Fella Rain is a glorious salute to the cycles of life and the seasons that shape those cycles. One to look at, feel and absorb many times over.' — Boomerang Books




Big Fella Rain


Book Description

Way up north, lightning flashes, thunder rolls, and frogs sing a chorus. Big fella rain coming.




Big Rain Coming


Book Description

A lyrical story about waiting for the rain to come to an isolated Aboriginal community. Tension in the community builds as the rain clouds thicken and grow dark. Everybody waits. When will the rain come?




Bubbay's Desert Adventure


Book Description

Age range 5+ Bubbay is lonely, with only the starts as friends. He lives in the outback tending his goats and sleeps under the stars. One night, Bubbay wishes for something he has never had — the stars hear him and, with the help of the magical Gubarlee and such as kangaroo, emu, crow and bower bird, Bubbay begins a quest to make his wish come true. A story full of magic, combined with richly textured illustrations.




Dream of Night


Book Description

Untamable. Damaged. Angry. Once full of promise and life, now lost in the shadows of resentment and detachment, this is Dream of Night's story—and it is also Shiloh’s. One is a thoroughbred racehorse, the other an eleven-year-old foster child. Starved to the bone, Dream of Night is still a very powerful animal, kicking, bucking, screaming to show his strength. Shiloh has been starved in other ways—starved of affection, starved of stability and she lashes out too…with sarcasm. This injured and abused racehorse has a lot in common with punky Shiloh and by chance they both find themselves under the care of Jessalyn DiLima—a last stop for each before the state takes more drastic measures—sending the girl to a “residential facility” and the horse to a vet...for euthanizing. Jess is giving them a second chance, a last chance—but she fosters animals and children like this for a reason—she’s a little broken, too. And she knows what it’s like to have lost nearly everything she loves. As the horse warms up to the girl and the girl lets her guard down for the horse, the three of them become an unlikely family. They recognize their similarities in order to heal their pasts, but not before one last tragedy threatens to take it all away.




My Side of the Mountain


Book Description

"Should appeal to all rugged individualists who dream of escape to the forest."—The New York Times Book Review Sam Gribley is terribly unhappy living in New York City with his family, so he runs away to the Catskill Mountains to live in the woods—all by himself. With only a penknife, a ball of cord, forty dollars, and some flint and steel, he intends to survive on his own. Sam learns about courage, danger, and independence during his year in the wilderness, a year that changes his life forever. “An extraordinary book . . . It will be read year after year.” —The Horn Book




The Butterfly Garden


Book Description

The Butterfly Garden is an entertaining introduction to the life cycle of a butterfly - played out by a fat caterpillar, a hungry kookaburra and a supporting cast of beautiful butterflies. Spare and simple, The Butterfly Garden also weaves in the idea of how the kookaburra may have got his laugh. Fern Martins illustrations are a mix of strong colour and transluscent beauty. Her stained-glass interpretations of the cocoon at its various stages show its ephemeral quality in a joyful and fluid way. This feel-good board book for Early Childhood will bring a smile to all readers.




The Big Twitch


Book Description

One man's quest to realise a boyhood dream and break a national record. Sean Dooley seems like a well adjusted, functioning member of society but beneath the respectable veneer he harbours a dark secret. He is a hard-core birdwatcher (aka twitcher'). Sean takes a year off to try to break the Australian twitching record - he has to see more than 700 birds in twelve months. Travelling the length and breadth of Australia, he stops at nothing in search of this birdwatching Holy Grail, blowing his inheritance, his career prospects and any chance he has of finding a girlfriend. Part confessional, part travelogue, this is a true story about obsession. It's about seeking the meaning of life, trying to work out what normal' is, and searching for the elusive Grey Falcon (the bird, not the car). Sean's story of how he followed his childhood dream of becoming a national champion is both inspiring and ridiculous. Could this be the most pathetic great achievement in Australian history?




In Search of Lake Wobegon


Book Description

"This book combines text and image to reveal the real-life origins of the place where "the women are strong, the men are good-looking and the children above average." Keillor meditates on the enduring culture of the county and on the years he spent there as a young writer and an outsider. And a short story of Lake Wobegon, "October," appears here for the first time in print."--BOOK JACKET.




The Toast Tree


Book Description

Age range 5 to 7: Hidden in the sand dunes bordering a dusty, 1960s pearling town is a very special tree. Every day, Ella and Mia's grandpa comes home from work with a treat from the tree - the best - tasting toast in the world. Every night, grandpa tells the girls another fantastical tale about the toast tree, with its bright green leaves and orange trunk, that only grows in the dunes. Ella and Mia search high and low for the tree, laden with squares of golden - brown toast, but they can never find it. Based on a true story, The Toast Tree is about family, and the search for magic through the power of a child's imagination, as well as the ability to believe in the impossible. The book's beautiful illustrations evocatively capture both the mystical quality of Grandpa's stories and the fondly - remembered simple life of a bygone era. The Toast Tree will especially appeal to every child that has ever dreamed of having a special tree bearing their favourite food!.