BOUNCING BACK
An Eastern Barred Bandicoot Story
Rohan Cleave, Coral Tulloch
CSIRO Publishing: Hardback - April 2018 - AU $24.95
A beautifully illustrated story of this marsupial's plight and how it was saved from extinction.
The Eastern Barred Bandicoot is one of Australia's most threatened species. When their existence came under extreme threat from habitat loss, predators and human development, Eastern Barred Bandicoots found refuge in the most unlikely of places – a rubbish tip. This captivating true story details the plight these small, nocturnal marsupials faced, and the outstanding efforts that ensured their protection. Written by Rohan Cleave and illustrated by Coral Tulloch, Bouncing Back shows that even on the brink of extinction, there is hope for the survival of our most vulnerable species.
Rohan Cleave and Coral Tulloch's first book, Phasmid: Saving the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect, won a Whitley Award for Children's Natural History Book and was an Honour Book in the Children's Book Council of Australia Book Awards (Eve Pownall Information Book category).
Bouncing Back is perfect for primary aged readers.
GUIDE TO INTRODUCED PEST ANIMALS OF AUSTRALIA
Peter West
CSIRO Publishing: Paperback - April 2018 - AU $39.95
A practical guide for the identification of introduced pest animals and management information.
Australia’s introduced vertebrate pest species cost at least $1 billion annually in economic, environmental and social impacts. The Guide to Introduced Pest Animals of Australia is a comprehensive, practical guide to 60 introduced pest animal species present in Australia, including 27 mammals, 18 birds, nine freshwater fish, two amphibians and four reptiles. It contains descriptive information to identify each species in the field, including distinctive physical characteristics, size, weight, colouration, diet, breeding behaviour, habitat preferences, and information about footprints, dung, scats and audible animal calls.
Each species profile is accompanied by practical management information, maps and high-quality photographs – allowing readers to learn about pest species in their local area, what problems they might cause, and what control options exist for management. This guide also contains a number of emerging high-risk pest species that may pose a significant threat to our natural environment, economy, agriculture and human health.
Whether you are a farmer, natural resource manager, public land manager, pest controller, teacher, student, field naturalist or wildlife ecologist, this easy-to-use guide will help you identify Australia’s most significant introduced pest animals in your local area.
A-Z of Australian Animals
Jennifer Cossins
Hachette Australia: 27 March 2018 - $26.99
From the award-winning creator of A-Z OF ENDANGERED ANIMALS comes a stunning non-fiction picture book for boys and girls with a love of animals and a thirst for all things encyclopaedic. This exquisite full-colour picture book is packed with interesting facts and is perfect for young conservationists and students with a keen interest in the world around us.
On this expedition through the alphabet, you will encounter some of the Australia's rare and enchanting animals, from the gorgeous azure kingfisher and the sleepy koala, to the shy numbat and the friendly zebra finch.
Come on an illustrated journey through Australia's unique wildlife with Tasmanian artist Jennifer Cossins.
Spinning Tops & Gumdrops: A Portrait of Colonial Childhood
Author: Edwin Barnard
Publisher: National Library of Australia
Edition: 1st Edition - Pages: 192 - Price $44.99
Publication Date: 01 March 2018
AVAILABLE 01 MARCH - PRE-ORDER NOW
'Spinning Tops and Gumdrops' takes us back to childhood in colonial Australia. The delight of children at play is universal, but the pleasure these children experience as depicted through the book's photographs is through their 'imagination, skill and daring' rather than through possessions. Children play quoits and jacks, hide and seek, cricket with a kerosene tin for a wicket, dress ups and charades. They climb trees, run races, and build rafts to sail on the local waterhole. The photographs show children happily absorbed in the play of their own making.
Being a child in colonial Australia was also tough. It was a time when school yard disagreements were sorted out with fists and 'the loss of a little claret'. A time when children could view public hangings and premature death was frequent, especially taking the very young and vulnerable though dysentery, whooping cough or diphtheria.
The lasting impression left by the contemporary accounts, photographs, etchings and paintings of colonial children in 'Spinning Tops and Gumdrops' is their possession of qualities of resilience, self-sufficiency and acceptance of their lot. Perhaps it was through lack of choice, or of knowing no other. Nevertheless, these were qualities that put them in good stead for the challenges many faced in their adulthood. Interestingly, these are qualities on which contemporary society still places a high value, but which today seem a little more elusive.
Spinning Tops & Gumdrops: A Portrait Of Colonial Childhood by Edwin Barnard - our chat with this local author about this wonderful new book for young and not so young
DARWIN'S FOSSILS
Discoveries that Shaped the Theory of Evolution
Adrian Lister
CSIRO Publishing: Paperback - April 2018 - AU $29.95
Explore Darwin's pioneering work on fossils in this richly illustrated book.
In On the Origin of Species Charles Darwin credited his discoveries of fossils, as much as those of living creatures, as the stimulus for his theory of evolution. Darwin's Fossils is an accessible account of his pioneering work on fossils, his adventures in South America and his relations with the scientific establishment.
While Darwin's work on Galapagos finches is celebrated, his pioneering work on fossils is much less well known. He was the first to collect the remains of giant extinct South American mammals; he worked out how coral reefs and atolls formed; he excavated and explained marine fossils high in the Andes; and he discovered a fossil forest that now bears his name. All of this was fundamental in leading him to his theory of evolution. Many of Darwin's fossils survive, at the Natural History Museum and elsewhere, and recent years have seen a surge of scientific interest and research into them.
Richly illustrated with new photography of many of the fossils, superb line drawings produced in the 19th century, and newly-commissioned artists’ reconstructions of the extinct animals as understood today, Darwin's Fossils reveals how fossils played a crucial role in the development of his revolutionary ideas.
