Rosie and Mack Head Outback: an Adventure in the Kimberley by Celia Shelmerdine

What a fantastic book for children to learn more about the Kimberley region, its geographical marvels and its fascinating flora and fauna. Rosie and Mack who have visited big cities around the world such as New York, Rome, Paris and London decide to explore their own country more and head off to the far north of Western Australia. They land at a terminal where there are bulls grazing on the airstrip and they are warmly greeted by Jackaroo Jim who has all sorts of activities planned to fill up their days. From the aboriginal rock art to the starts in the skies, as children accompany Rosie and Mack they will emerge from this book with a greater awareness and understanding of this beautiful part of Australia. The end papers show a map of El Questro Satation and Wilderness park and there is a detailed glossary at the back explaining the many aboriginal words in this text.

The Tartan Kangaroo by Tom Lewis and Tony Oliver

Australia meets Scotland, this book is basically an illustrated poem, written in ballad form. Mind you, the illustrations by Tony Oliver, are absolutely amazing, especially the massive tartan, bagpipe-playing kangaroo. This kangaroo is an environmental disaster of earthquake proportions who rips up gum trees and flings them around awakening the townsfolk in the middle of the night with his merry bagpipe tunes. Well, the time happens when there's bound to be a few complaints. Then, there's the bright idea of using the eccentric roo to attract tourists. What happens in the end is not what you might expect!

The Burnt Stick by Anthony Hill

This is Anthony Hill's second book for children and it was extremely well-received, winning the 1995 Australian Christian Literature Award for Children, and being listed as an Honour book in the same year in the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award for Young Readers. It was written and published before there had been much public discussion of the Stolen Generation. It is the story of John Jagamarra, a young Aboriginal boy who was taken from his mother by the Welfare Department and sent to the Fathers at the Pearl Bay Mission. I believe it is a must-read for all young Australians, many of whom could not possibly imagine what it would be like to be suddenly removed from a loving family and placed in a foreign and somewhat sterile environment. Throughout the book, John reminisces about life at tha camp at Dryborough Station and the trick his mum used with the burnt stick to prevent the white men taking him away. She rubbed the charcoal into his skin in order to make John appear darker than his natural colouring. Now this worked twice but then came the dreaded day...

Mark Sofila's soft charcoal drawings are both evocative and confrontational and really show just how traumatic and emotional these forced abductions of the aboriginal children were. Click on the link below to watch Kevin Rudd's apology to "The Stolen Generation"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3TZOGpG6cM

Here is a brief explanation of what "The Stolen Generation" is all about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzpsBqwCQqE

Country Wisdom by Jim Conquest

This is a beautiful coffee table type book with captivating photos of rural Australia by photographer Jim Conquest. As the title implies, it contains little gems of wisdom. I have uploaded a couple of images to give a feel for the book.

Keeping an eye on the neighbours' place

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