Stephanie Owen Reeder is the author of over 20 historical and environmental books for children, including Trouble in the Surf. She has won both the CBCA Book of the Year Award and the NSW Premier’s History Award. Rachel Gregg is a rising young artist who has previously illustrated Moon Sailors written by Naomi Woodward. She was awarded the Ian Wilson Memorial Fellowship (May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust) in 2019.
The story starts with a poetic setting showing the sun kissing the river goodnight. Rakali sits on the river bank, two wallabies are seen in the distance and the snout of a fox is peeking around a tree. It is time to hunt! He catches a yabby and takes it back to his feeding rock. Then he begins his patrol – He has carcasses to consume, foes to fight and boundaries to mark with his smelly poo. But there is danger from a cane toad, traps in the river, a huge carp, and that fox before he finally reaches his midden for a well deserved sleep as dawn approaches.
Stephanie uses lively and engaging prose to involve the reader in the adventures of the rakali while conveying heaps of information about its habitat, habits, family life, and enemies (both native and feral). The illustrations bring all this activity to life in the soft muted colours of the night time. We have been conditioned to find rats unappealing, but this charming creature is interesting, useful and, in this book, beautiful.
The CSIRO are to be commended for producing gorgeous books for children that inform and engage their young audience. They certainly have a winner with this one.
