We all know about kangaroos, koalas and gum trees, but what about the rest of Australia's land, waters, wildlife and original inhabitants? Australia is old. Really old. It is the home of the oldest living plant, oldest animal fossils and the oldest continuing culture of people on earth.
What's Out There? takes 6- to 10-year-olds on a colourful journey of Australia from the time of Gondwanaland and megafauna through to today. There are pages on ‘Australia’s Not-very-famous Animals’, ‘Who’s Poo?’ with scat and tracks of all shapes and sizes, 'Legends of Rock' all about the amazing qualities of Australia's world-famous rocks, and the word ‘kangaroo’ in a range of Indigenous languages.
With a colourfully chaotic mix of beautiful illustrations, eye-opening insights and fascinating facts, What's Out There?'s 104-page story of Australia will amaze kids and adults alike.
Read aloud for homeschool. My kids (12, 10, 4) really enjoyed this one, and I thought it was a great book too. It had some lovely artwork on every page and a few photos as well, as well as mini maps to show the location of various things of import. It looked at things that are not usually looked at. It of course looked at our more commonly known things, like kangaroos, koalas, and the like, but it also looked at lesser known things like pottaroos, quokkas, padamelons, and kangaroo mice. Same for the plants, sure it looks at well known ones a little bit, but more page is given to lesser known ones. This book even looks at native foods which I think is fantastic because we Australians just don't know enough about our land. We know more about European and American land, foods, plants, and animals, than we do about our own.
There are some pages that look at Aboriginal language, and several that look at Aboriginal history, technology, culture, and more. In fact this is what I loved most about this book, the emphasis it puts on Aboriginal everything and that it doesn't hold back on talking about the not good part of European arrival. It's honest, and we need more of that in the books we read to our kids. But it's not brutal or super depressing or "pushing an agenda" or anything, it's just honest.
On a lighter note: there is a page that focuses exclusively on poo, Aussie animal poo. Because hey, why not, right? We loved that page as well. My youngest is 4yo, so poo is a big deal around here. Anything that looks at poo is a plus for us haha.
