The Creatures of Dryden Gully

The Creatures of Dryden Gully by Aunty Ruth Hegarty, illustrated by Sandi Harrold (Scholastic Australia)

PB RRP $15.99

ISBN 978-1-76015-199-7

Reviewed by Jenny Heslop

There is a meeting in Dryden Gully and Joey is impatient for it to end. He would really rather be practising hopping so he can leave his mother’s pouch and bound around the valley like his mother does. But then he hears Mopoke Owl talk about welcoming strangers to Dryden Gully and he listens more closely. He is proud of his valley and very interested in meeting new creatures.

When he gets a glimpse of them he is amazed. Unlike any animals he has seen before, they have come from across the sea as a gift from the royals to the country. And now he longs to have four legs, to run like these strange new babies. He sneaks off from Mumma to follow them. But soon the Royals run from poachers and are far out of sight leaving Joey alone. Will Mumma be able to find him in time?

The Creatures From Dryden Gully is a gentle story about differences and having your own unique qualities. There is always curiosity in the new and the strange and, in this case, the Natives and the Royals. These differences should be welcomed and celebrated.

The pictures are strong, uncluttered and filled with colour. Close ups of the animals illustrate who they are, (the animals are not named in the text) and add to the characters of the Natives and Royals.

This is an indigenous title by an Aboriginal elder who was a child of the Gunggari Nation and the Stolen Generation. Aunty Ruth Hegarty grew up in an institution and used her vivid imagination in stories, becoming a popular story teller. Her children’s stories are not from the Dreaming, but are mostly about Australian bush animals. She hopes children will learn lessons of great importance from these stories.

Karana: The Story of Father Emu

Karana: The Story of Father Emu by Uncle Joe Kirk, with Greer Casey and Sandi Harrold, illustrated by Sandi Harrold (Scholastic Australia)

PB RRP $15.99
ISBN 978-1-74362-313-8
Reviewed by Jenny Heslop

Karana is the tale of a father emu hatching and raising his chicks. This Indigenous story is told by Uncle Joe Kirk, a Wakka Wakka elder, and the emu holds much significance in the Wakka Wakka culture. He symbolises the father figure who nurtures the whole family.

Each page is filled with soft illustrations, expressing the togetherness of the emu family and the simplicity of life lessons while rhyming couplets create an engaging and lively story.

Up she jumped and wandered away,

While Karana sat on those eggs for thirty-two days.

 He sat there alone in the rain and the heat,                                                                                                                                                                           With no water to drink and no food to eat.

So many facts about emu’s and chicks are imparted throughout the story as Karana teaches his chicks about when the waterhole is safest, where the best protection is, what foods to eat and how to swallow stones to help with their digestion.

Children will relate to learning about life through the care and teachings of families and the overriding message is of love and the father/children bond.

‘These are my chicks. I love them a lot...

  I will stay with them NO MATTER WHAT!’

This gentle story about love, families and the cyclical nature of life is strongly Australian in narrative and illustrations. It is a lovely read aloud book for the very young.