When we go walking, we never know how long we will be, what we will hear and what we will see. We pack our bags with food and water, a billy and some matches to light a fire. We head off into the shady monsoon forest on the edge of the billabong. Diane Lucas, Ben Tyler and Emma Long share their knowledge and love of the Top End in this enchanting and accessible book about one of Australia's most ancient and beautiful ecosystems. 'This information-laden book, complete with glossary, brims with life, beauty and magic. It is a delightful read for primary school children.' Books+Publishing

'One wet season day, during my first year living in Kakadu, I was sheltering in a cave with some friends. An old man was telling stories of his youth and country. I remember saying to him, I'd like to walk around the bush for a full year and see and feel the changes each season brings. He replied, Well, go do it!' Join Diane Lucas and Ken Searle as they walk through the bush of northern Australia. Follow the seasonal calendar of the Gundjeihmi-speaking people of Kakadu. Feel the changes each season brings to the plants, animals and birds of this rich and inspiring land. 'This is a story that has got to be told to children so they know country - no good just sitting in the classroom all day. You've got to get outside and discover the bush, feel the changes, see what's there.' from a group of Gundjeihmi-speaking people of the Murrumburr clan

Storying Plants in Australian Children’s and Young Adult Literature: Roots and Winged Seeds explores cultural and historical aspects of the representation of plants in Australian children’s and young adult literature, encompassing colonial, postcolonial, and Indigenous perspectives. While plants tend to be backgrounded as of less narrative interest than animals and humans, this book, in conversation with the field of critical plant studies, approaches them as living beings worthy of attention. Australia is home to over 20,000 species of native plants – from pungent Eucalypts to twisting mangroves, from tiny orchids to spiky, silvery spinifex. Indigenous Australians have lived with, relied upon, and cultivated these plants for many thousands of years. When European explorers and colonists first invaded Australia, unfamiliar species of plants captured their imagination. Vulnerable to bushfires, climate change, and introduced species, plants continue to occupy fraught but vital places in Australian ecologies, texts, and cultures. Discussing writers from Ambelin Kwaymullina and Aunty Joy Murphy to May Gibbs and Ethel Turner, and embracing transnational perspectives from Ukraine, Poland, and Aotearoa New Zealand, Storying Plants addresses the stories told about plants but also the stories that plants themselves tell, engaging with the wide-ranging significance of plants in Australian children’s and Young Adult literature.

Welcome to the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri People. We are part of this land and the land is part of us This is where we come from. Wominjeka Wrundjeri balluk yearmenn koondee bik. Welcome to Country.

*Longlisted for the CBCA 2020 Eve Pownall Award for Information Books* *Winner of the Booksellers' Choice 2020 Children's Book of the Year Award* *Shortlisted for the 2020 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature* *Shortlisted for the ABIA Book of the Year for Younger Children (ages 7-12)* *Shortlisted for the Indie Book Awards 2020: Children's* Age range 10+. The highly-anticipated junior version of Bruce Pascoe’s multi award-winning book. Bruce Pascoe has collected a swathe of literary awards for Dark Emu and now he has brought together the research and compelling first person accounts in a book for younger readers. Using the accounts of early European explorers, colonists and farmers, Bruce Pascoe compellingly argues for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer label for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. He allows the reader to see Australia as it was before Europeans arrived — a land of cultivated farming areas, productive fisheries, permanent homes, and an understanding of the environment and its natural resources that supported thriving villages across the continent. Young Dark Emu — A Truer History asks young readers to consider a different version of Australia’s history pre-European colonisation. 'Adapted for a younger readership from Pascoe's best-selling Dark Emu, this exquisitely illustrated picture book will transform how we see Australian history. Bruce uses the diaries of early explorers and colonists to show us the Australia where Aboriginal people built houses, dams and wells and farmed the land.' — Fiona Stager, The Courier Mail

This charming board book about baby animals going to sleep is the perfect bedtime story for the youngest readers. As the sun sets, animals all over the forest get ready for bed. Papa rabbit tucks his babies in among the leaves, fuzzy bears settle in their den, and little foxes snuggle together under the moonlight. Up above, an owl hoots a lullaby. The gentle rhyming text and soft illustrations in this charming book will help little ones settle down for a cozy night.