Tag Archives: Australia
344O: Children’s picture book about girl who dances with shadows
Looking for a children’s picture book about a girl who lives in a village (likely indigenous, maybe based on cliff dwellers?). The villagers see scary shadows on the walls of the cliff they live at the bottom of and thinks they are monsters. Eventually the girl climbs to the top of the cliff (maybe with a grass? ladder) and discovers that the shadows weren’t monsters, but friendly (people or animals, can’t remember.) I read this book as a kid around 2000, my grandparents had bought it, so likely published between like 1990 and early 2000s. They’d traveled to Australia and American Southwest, and I think book was purchased one of those places. It was a hardcover with full color illustrations. Tried googling key words but can’t find it so far, help!
336I: Confused Bird of Paradise
330O: Stone Forest
I thought this was in the title, but have had no luck. Set in Western Australia, for some reason a teen ends up surviving on their own (maybe a girl) and before rescued burns wood for a fire which actually turns out to be the petrified remains of shipwrecked sailors from the Batavia or other Dutch (maybe) craft involved in spice trade to Indonesia. I really just remember that the key protagonist thinks she’s hallucinating when spirits appear in the smoke. Can’t remember why he/she is alone, maybe family break down or similar. Presume “stone forest” refers to Bungle-Bungles of the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia. Fairly modern, so maybe published in the 1980’s?