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Sand Swimmers: The Secret Life of Australia's Desert Wilderness

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Sand Swimmers: The Secret Life of Australia's Desert Wilderness

Hardcover(Reprint)

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Hardcover(Reprint)
$16.99

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Overview

Journey to the heart of Australia and find secret life in the harshest of deserts in this riveting true story captured in stunning illustrations.

In the center of Australia lies a strange desert wilderness called the Dead Heart. It is difficult to imagine anything can exist in such a forbidding place. But the Dead Heart contains amazing stories of adaptation and survival. Follow in the footsteps of early explorers like Charles Sturt and learn what the indigenous people of Australia have long known: not all is quite as it seems. Narelle Oliver’s intricate artwork and vivid language creates a spellbinding portrait of a mysterious desert landscape.

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About the Author

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763667610
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	01/06/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	920L (what's this?)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Narelle Oliver is the author-illustrator of a number of award-winning children’s picture books. She lives in Brisbane, Australia.

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Editorial Reviews

A remarkably effective combination of history and natural history of a mysterious ecosystem.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

An enchanting look at the Australian wilderness. The succinct narrative is rife with visual imagery, and the beautiful illustrations, rendered in detailed pen and ink, depict the colors of the desert... Highly recommended for science and history collections.
—School Library Journal

Using primary sources, first-hand experiences, and scientific observations, Oliver manages to marry human and natural history into a beautiful and symbolic book about perseverance.
—Booklist

From the Publisher

01/01/2015
Gr 2–5—This picture book gives readers an enchanting look at the Australian wilderness. The succinct narrative is rife with visual imagery ("frogs burrow deep into the forest clay and make a waterproof cocoon, like plastic wrap"), and the beautiful illustrations, rendered in detailed pen and ink, depict the colors of the desert, from turquoise to rust, Oliver portrays Australia's unique geographic center: the Dead Heart, home to a host of extraordinary flora and fauna. Children will learn about a notable British explorer, Charles Sturt (1795–1869), who led several expeditions into Australia in search of an inland sea. The addition of Sturt will cultivate interest in the historical aspects of discovery and further enhance the descriptions of the desert itself, such as the mention of spinifex (a "strange prickly grass") that frequently entrapped Sturt's horses. Boxed graphics, pictorial borders, and indigenous language etymology further elaborate detailed descriptions of this strange yet wonderful ecosystem. Highly recommended for science and history collections.—Kathryn Diman, Bass Harbor Memorial Library, Bernard, ME

School Library Journal

★ 2014-11-04
The remote and forbidding central Australian desert called the "Dead Heart" appears lifeless, but it harbors curious creatures whose tracks appear in the early morning and evidence of an ancient, wetter world.After introducing fossil evidence and the broad knowledge of the original desert dwellers, the author/illustrator organizes her description of this secret world by following the path of an early expedition. In 1844, Charles Sturt hoped to find an inland sea; instead, he saw only a hostile wasteland. Linocut rubbings, inset maps and lines from Sturt's journal run along the bottom of each spread; linocut prints in black and brick red show what he missed. Some illustrations are cutaways, showing animals underground, with boxed, smaller images for identification; others are day or nighttime scenes, some with a key that helps readers see the camouflaged animals. In roughly alternating paragraphs, Oliver contrasts the experience of the 1844 expedition with what can be discovered by a determined naturalist. From mulga scrub and spinifex grasses to lizards, insects and rodentlike marsupials, the plants and animals are surprising. The author also provides Aboriginal names (in three languages) for some creatures, and near the end, a spread shows a silent expedition watcher, a successful hunter who could read the mysterious tracks that the Europeans could not. A remarkably effective combination of history and natural history of a mysterious ecosystem. (bibliography, index of animals, author's note) (Informational picture book. 7-10)

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