Materials from Australia
A young Aboriginal girl is taken from the north of Australia and sent to an institution in the distant south. There, she slowly makes a new life for herself and, in the face of tragedy, finds strength in new friendships. Poignantly told from the child’s perspective, Sister Heart affirms the power of family and kinship.
A gripping time-slip adventure, in the tradition of Ruth Park’s PLAYING BEATTIE BOW. ‘Beginning and ending, always the same, always now. The game, the story, the riddle, hiding and seeking. Crow comes from this place; this place comes from Crow. And Crow has work for you.’ Sadie isn’t thrilled when her mother drags her from the city to live in the country town of Boort. But soon she starts making connections – connections with the country, with the past, with two boys, Lachie and Walter, and, most surprisingly, with the ever-present crows. When Sadie is tumbled back in time to view a terrible crime, she is pulled into a strange mystery. Can Sadie, Walter and Lachie figure out a way to right old wrongs, or will they be condemned to repeat them?
A collection of Robert Ingpen’s illustrations throughout his career.
Illustrations and simple, onomatopoeic text capture a busy day in the life of a large and diverse family of Australian animals.
In this delightful tale, two mice set off on a storytelling adventure that takes them through cavernous caves, atop crazy giraffes, and over palace walls until they return safely home to the comfort of their beds. A sweet, rhyming story, This and That is perfect for helping children develop their sequencing skills!
A small boat with a single white sail floats down the river and takes her from factories to farmlands, freeways to forests, out to the stormy and teeming depths of the ocean, and finally back to the comforts and inspirations of home.
When the enemy bombs the library, everything burns, and only one book survives. As war rages around them, Peter and his father, alongside so many refugees, flee their home, taking with them a treasure box that holds something rarer than rubies and more precious than gold.
When a mysterious egg appears outside Hunwick’s burrow after a terrible storm, no one knows what to do with it. And when it doesn’t hatch right away, everyone is even more bewildered. Everyone, that is, but Hunwick. For Hunwick understands the egg. It is his friend. And he is the only one who knows its secret. From the author and illustrator of the modern classic Koala Lou, here is a moving tale of loneliness, friendship, and most of all, the power the imagination has to change the way we see the world.
Max, the young son of superheroes, is a late bloomer when it comes to flying, until he is inspired by the plight of a falling baby bird.
Caitlin and her parents rescue a hen from a lake, name her, and take her home with them, but even after they return her to the farm where she lives, her presence is still felt in Caitlin’s family.