• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Rabia Gale

alchemical fantasy

  • Home
  • Works
    • The Reflected City
    • The Sunless World
    • Taurin’s Chosen
    • The Heartwood Chronicles
    • Stand-Alones
  • Newsletter
  • Blog
  • About Me
  • Contact
Picture Books: Exploring Down Under

Picture Books: Exploring Down Under

dot painting

(Artwork inspired by aboriginal dot paintings by Miss M and Sir I)

Wombat Stew by Marcia K. Vaughan and Pamela Lofts: One day, a very clever dingo catches a wombat and sets about making wombat stew, with a little help from the other animals. Fear not for the wombat, though! My kids loved this one and went around singing, “Wombat stew! Wombat stew! Gooey chewy, crunchy munchy, for my lunchy, WOMBAT STEW!” for days after.

Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French: This was a birthday present for Sir I from my Aussie writing buddy Jo. Features a sleeping-all-day back-scratching carrot-devouring hole-digging wombat who trains humans to feed her on demand. Very entertaining.

The Biggest Frog in Australia by Susan Roth: In the Dreamtime, the biggest frog in Australia wakes up very thirsty. He drinks up all the puddles, the billabongs (I added this new word to my vocabulary and I’ve been itching to use it ever since!), the rivers, the lakes, even the rain in the clouds. Now the frog is huge and swollen,ย  the land is dry and parched, and the other animals are suffering. They need to get all the water out of the frog, but how?

Bilby Moon by Margaret Spurling: A bilby is enthralled by her first sight of the full moon, smiling down at her. Her joy turns to distress on subsequent nights as the moon starts losing pieces of itself. She enlists the help of other desert animals to find the lost pieces, becoming sadder as the moon grows thinner and finally disappears. Then an owl tells her not to worry–she’ll be surprised again the following night when the moon comes back. A charming, reassuring story.

Stories from the Billabong by James Vance Marshall:ย  This collection of aboriginal stories from the Dreamtime has lovely dot painiting-inspired illustrations. Not all the tales are appropriate for my kids’ ages, so I picked only a handful of them to read aloud (usually the animal ones). We all enjoyed “How the Kangaroo got her Pouch”.

Filed Under: kids at play, picture books

Get Each Post in Your Inbox

Sign up here to receive each blog post in your inbox.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Joanne says

    September 16, 2009 at 6:45 pm

    Wombat Stew!! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
  2. Rabia says

    September 16, 2009 at 6:48 pm

    It’s a very catchy little song. ๐Ÿ™‚

    *whisper* wombat stew wombat stew. gooey chewy wombat stew!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Join the Mailing List

I send out monthly newsletters, and share some special content with subscribers only. Join me!

(Required)
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Search

Latest Release

Mist and Memory

A sinister and shadowy organization. The young mages who oppose it. The hunt for ancient relics has begun. Cloud Village Arc: Lisette never thought she would return to the mountains she fled as a child. But when Tamsin, a Heartwood alumna, invites Amber, Naia, and her on a job in the area, Lisette figures itโ€™s [read more] about Mist and Memory

Recent Posts

Afterthoughts: Mist and Memory

March 1, 2023 Leave a Comment

Afterthoughts: Witchblaze

January 31, 2021 8 Comments

A YA anime-inspired web serial

April 30, 2019 Leave a Comment

The Darkest Days Fantasy Bundle

July 10, 2018 Leave a Comment

Categories

© 2023 Rabia Gale | All Rights Reserved | Design by Robin Cornett | Header Artwork by David Revoy: Used with permission | Privacy Policy