Once he had grown tall enough to be level with Kat’s shoulder, Jake started to get cheeky and play rough. He liked to grab her from behind in a big hug (which she thought was quite nice). Then he’d push her with his back legs while balancing on his tail (which wasn’t so nice).
At first, she thought it was funny, but then changed her mind as Jake grew bigger and stronger.
“Jake’s growing up,” said Glenda. “Boy roos in the wild are like that too.”
That made Kat happier, although it also made her a little sad because it reminded her that he would very soon be returning to the wild.
* * *
When the day at last came for Jake’s release, Kat and Glenda set off early in the morning in Glenda’s battered, old ute. Kat sat with Glenda in the front, leaving three large, hessian sacks squirming in the back.
The car soon left the small town and headed along a dirt road. Soon they left that too, and started bumping their way through a field before eventually stopping at the edge of a large patch of scrubby bushland.
Kat’s gumboots squelched on the wet grass. Her breath left little clouds in the chill air.
“Hopefully the wild roos will take on these misfits,” Glenda said as she heaved one of the sacks off the back of the ute and gently placed it on the ground.
Kat suddenly felt very strongly that she didn’t want to let Jake go. She turned to Glenda, about to ask if she could take him home instead. However, Glenda seemed to know what Kat was about to say. Her face clearly said Jake is a wild animal; he belongs in the wild.
With a heavy heart, Kat untied the red rope of her sack – the one that contained Jake – and stood back.
He struggled out, and initially seemed a bit dazed from the trip; looking around for a moment. Then, in a flash, he was gone.
Kat watched him bound away without looking back even once.
Kat felt like her heart was breaking. But as she heard the thump, thump, thump of Jake bounding through the bush, she was surprised to find that she was also smiling.
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About the authors
Lizbeth Klein
As a little girl, my mind teemed with imagination. I could sit in class and daydream so well I could drown out all other voices. Alien adventures spilled out of my pen and into my books with a flood of enthusiasm. A great passion for stories swept over me and my love of writing began.
My name is Lizbeth Klein and I carry my house with me wherever I go, like a snail. Yep, you guessed it; I live in a caravan.
I’ve travelled this thirsty, windswept country of Australia and seen some amazing wildlife, from huge mobs of hundreds of kangaroos to a feisty family of kookaburras that came and sang for their breakfast and played with pine cones. So much inspiration everywhere!
With a love for fantasy adventure, I have published two young adult novels titled Firelight of Heaven and Greenheart of the Forest. Both have won the Literary Classics Seal of Approval. They are a mystifying, sinister glimpse into a world overtaken by magic. Two brothers are forced to make a perilous journey over a forbidden mountain. They soon discover that things are eerily different on the other side. It is a gripping story of loss, elusive destinies and painful discoveries.
I have also created learning resources for two learning centres, published stories in reading kits in primary schools, published articles online and in magazines, stories in anthologies and poetry.
If you enjoy Dragon Tale, you’d like my quirky plays about rude pirates, silly fairy tales and wacky playground adventures. At present, I’m focussing on a young adult book called The Gryphon Key, as well as some middle grade books and picture books.
So there’s a lot going on in this caravan. You’ve probably seen my light on from where you live.
Would you like to visit my website for more of my writing? bethloria.com.au
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Robyn Osborne
I am an Australian author and teacher, with a passion for all things that are furry, four legged and bark. When I’m not at work, I spend my days writing stories, gazing at the ocean and patting my rescue dog, Jack.
Before we adopted Jack, we had two other rescue dogs; Snowy and Sox. I know everyone thinks THEIR pets are the smartest, but these two really were very clever canines as they were both published authors. Sox was first with Dog Logic, a dog training book, (but from a pooch’s perspective), which was published in 2010. Not to be outdone, Snowy put paw to paper (or is that claw to computer?) and wrote her memoir; Midget Bones’ Diary (2014).
My very first published book, D.O.G. was about a boy who desperately wanted a dog and my Short Tales story, ‘Bruno Bright, The Big Boisterous Blue Dog from the Bush’ was inspired by my father’s canine companion. See, I told you I was dog obsessed!
Snowy also features in my two picture books; Going Camping and Going Fishing that were published in 2014 by Big Sky Publishing (Sydney). These fun picture books are about the ups and downs of family life, the great outdoors and making the most out of every situation. I wrote them for little people, but readers of all ages enjoy the humour in the books.
For more information on my books (and photos of my darling dogs), go to my website: https://robynosborne.com/
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Carole Lander
Carole used to be a drama teacher. She was also a curriculum writer and school examiner in Victoria. In 2012, Carole graduated from RMIT University with a Diploma in Professional Writing and Editing. Now she works freelance, editing educational books. This lifelong passion for education motivated her to write stories for young readers. Several of them have been published (by Storm Cloud Publishing; Ziptales UK & Australia; Creative Kids Tales).
Carole has published three books through Checkword Publications: Little people Big Lives (profiles of, and information about, people who live with dwarism); In My World which has two short novels for children: Basketball Tree/Wheels of Fire.
These fictions address a significant gap in Kidlit because their heroes/heroines live with disability. Full details of Carole’s writing can be found at: www.checkword.com.au
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Karen Hendriks
Hi,
I am Karen and there is nothing more that I would like to do than to write for kids. Life is full of smiles and fun things to do. So, if I dare, why not share happiness in stories for kids. But I am a little bit of a scaredy cat too.
I love sharing my stories with kids, but sometimes I get nervous reading them. Sometimes the children draw or paint the characters for me and share their writing with me. That makes me really happy.
Near the beach is the place for me, swimming in the ocean pool and walking Elmo our moodle around our village. A moodle is a cross between a Maltese terrier and a toy poodle.
When Elmo puts his big dog pants on, I have to pull him into line or he will get us into trouble. He likes to take on big dogs. This is a bad idea – a very bad idea.
There is so much that is wonderful about being an Australian. Open and warm, we seek to know others and understand and embrace life. Stories are my way of creating magic about life.
I love animals so lots of my stories have animals in them. Kids are really clever and my stories show just how clever they really, really are.
The very first story I wrote called Wombat Cuddles is about a real wombat named Tonka. A car killed Tonka’s mother and he was taken to the Billabong Sanctuary in Townsville. He was traumatised a second time when Cyclone Yasi struck the sanctuary. The orphaned wombat is now 7 years old. He still lives at the Billabong Sanctuary and still sleeps with his look-alike teddy.
You can Google Tonka to see some pictures and find out more about him.
Visit me on Facebook and check out all my fab holiday pics and the superstar Elmo of course:
https://www.facebook.com/Karen-Hendriks-Childrens-Author-1162431593808375/?fref=ts
Words are a powerful tool in the right hands and can weave magic.
>
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Kaye Baillie
When Kaye Baillie was young, she loved to create books at the kitchen table, often in the long hot summer holidays on the orchard where she grew up in Victoria. Some of her stories were a bit gruesome, like the one she called, The Headless Horseman. This could have been due to the unpleasantness she felt when picking her hundredth case of apricots or grading one more bin of furry peaches. Ick! She still likes scary stories though.
When she got older, she decided to start writing stories again. She had two levelled readers published which are still in print, and then decided that she loved writing picture books and early readers.
She has two books due for publication in 2017. One is a picture book called Message in a Sock set in World War 1 with Midnight Sun Publishing, and an early reader called Archie’s Terrible Case of the Creeps with Wombat Books. (This one has an element of scary although there was no fruit picking involved.)
She is currently working on several picture book biographies. One is set in America and the other two are firmly set in Australia. Each story focuses on strong female characters who do amazing things when they’re told they can’t, like climbing a twenty foot ladder to take the best photo or going up in a hot air balloon, flying aircraft from a Cherokee to a Boeing 737 or racing around Australia’s early roads in a muddy dusty car rally.
To see more about Kaye you can visit her website: kayebaillie.weebly.com.
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Joanne Pummer
I’m a teacher and a teacher librarian and reading books to children has always been my favourite thing to do. Now I love writing books for them. I’ve written picture books, short stories, poems, chapter books for young children and a book for teens. At the moment, I’m writing about a pig who wants to ride his skateboard to school because he thinks it’s “cool”, but his parents say he’s not old enough.
I live in Perth in Western Australia, opposite the bush. I love walking in the bush – especially in spring. I love the shy Spider Orchids and I know all their hiding places.
I’m also writing reviews of children’s books for the magazine ‘‘Buzzwords’’. For someone who loves children’s books, it’s an interesting thing to do. You can find mine and others’ reviews on the “Buzzwords” website.
Last year, I was happy to learn that my story, “It’s an Illusion”, was selected for Short Tales and I’m happy again because I’ve just found out that my story, “The Acacia Park Girls’ Treehouse Club” has been accepted for the 2016 edition.
To find out more about me, you can visit my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Joanne-Pummer-688553097956084
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Janet Moore
Janet would like to tell you that she lives in a windmill, on her own private island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with her two dogs, Bob and George. But she can’t, because she doesn’t. Instead Janet lives in a two storey house in an outer suburb of Melbourne, Australia.
(She does have the occasional kangaroo visiting in her back garden though, and the bit about Bob and George – that part was true.)
Janet loves writing all sorts of stories for children, from picture books to young adults, and is always thinking up new ways for Bongo and his trusty sidekick, to Save the World as We Know it!
Janet hoped you enjoyed her story and that it made you laugh.
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Goldie Alexander
I have been writing books for kids for a very long time. This story comes from a collection of ten stories called My Horrible Cousins and Other Stories. If you want to read more of these stories that book can be found at Five Senses Education.
I live in a suburb that has people wanting to put up buildings in parks far too often, and I join groups who run protests to try and stop this from happening. One development that threatened to become a shopping mall is close to my house. This park has a wonderful lake where waterbirds and ducks nest in the rushes and dip their bills in the water as they search for grubs. Sometimes the baby ducklings hatch with something a little wrong with them. So this story really happened, even if I changed the name of the girls. And the duck, of course.
My books come out both in print and as ebooks. I write stories set in the past, set in the future and set in the present. If you want to read some of my longer stories, you can browse through my website www.goldiealexander.com for a title that might interest you.
My latest book Cybertricks, is set many thousands of years in the future. I had great fun trying to guess what kids would be doing then, and what they would look like, though I decided they would act much the same as kids do now.
On my website you will find my email address. I would love for you to send me an email
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Catherine M Finn
I’m Catherine and while I’m not the 8, 10 – hey, or even that 12 year old girl, who used to play Spy Girls with her best friend, pretended she was camping out at the North Pole during a blizzard, wrote news stories for her own newspaper, or who knew that if she sat still for long enough in a garden at sunset she’d glimpse a fairy, that girl’s still in control of plenty of my ideas.
Lots of years have passed since I was 10. I grew up and became a journalist and had not one but three sons – that’s a lot of footy boots, dirt, noise and fun! We live in a house surrounded by gum trees, with four cats, two birds, two fish and a koala in our front garden. I still dream about camping out in the North Pole, can’t walk through a garden without looking for fairies and search for mermaids in rock pools whenever I visit the beach.
I write all the time – I can’t help it. I’ve been writing for fun since I was quite small and have been lucky enough to have had a career as a journalist and media adviser. Now I’m really excited because, later this year, I’ve got a picture book coming out with Australia’s Wombat Books and I’ve written three plays for primary school children, also out later this year.
Not so long ago, I finished a middle grade chapter book and now I’m writing an historical fiction aimed at young to adult readers – so keep your fingers crossed for me that a publisher will love those stories and you can read them somewhere soon.
I started writing this story, Frankie’s Indoor Adventure, last winter sitting by my fireplace one evening as the rain hammered down and the wind swooshed around in the treetops. My youngest boy was saying how bored he was and had nothing to do, so I helped him make a blanket cave. We piled it up with cushions and he ended up putting his sleeping bag in there and spending the night.
That’s when Frankie walked into my imagination and I began to write about his adventures on a stormy day when he was stuck inside with ‘nothing to do’.
I should have a website up and running soon, so if you like, just Google me and you’ll find me.
Happy reading and always stay as wonderful as you are!
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Jaz Stutley
I was like Weird Wilma when I was young, then I grew up into Ms Chalmer. I like cats and frogs, licorice allsorts, and green slime with garlic. Last Halloween, I wore a pointed hat with cobwebs and spiders on it.
I write a lot. And read a lot. I also sing with jazz bands.
I write short stories and longer stories, both fiction and fantasy, and poems and songs. (Songs to Grow With, Bushfire Press; My Dog Rupert, “Sing”, ABC books.)
Most of my previous books were published for primary educational publishers under pen names. The last series was for Clean Slate Press in New Zealand, Signatures Sets 1 & 2, as Jaz Ghent. In the first series, there is a grandmother who is part dragon and a boy who can talk to birds. In the second, a circus tent that can move in time and place.
(But not into Space…)
At the moment, I am writing two fantasy novels for the 8-12 age group; one set in Scotland and one in Melbourne. The Scottish one is based on one of my ancestors from the 16th century. The other one has two unusual cats in it.
I hope to fini
sh both books before the end of this year.
https://www.booksbyjaz.com/
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Darcy-Lee Tindale
When Darcy-Lee Tindale is not dreaming of trekking across the Amazon or Congo jungles, she teaches drama at a private girl’s school in NSW, Australia. Her love for drama and adventure led to not only teaching, but performing. She has appeared in television commercials, film and on stage.
When not acting or teaching drama, she directs plays for theatre companies including the Newtown Theatre, St Martin’s Theatre, Parramatta Riverside Theatre, Belvoir Theatre and the Seymour Centre in Sydney, Australia. Her favourite plays that she has directed include Hairspray, Annie, Roald Dahl’s The Twits and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Her love for writing started with writing comedy for radio, stage, media personalities, comedians and theatre restaurants. She then went on to writing short plays, short stories and long poems for the School Magazine, Celapene Press, Tincture, ZineWest, Black and Blue Publications, Penguin Books, Brumples Magazine, Newcastle Anthology, Stringybark Publications, Storm Cloud Publishing, and children’s books published with McGraw Hill Education.
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