Australia Books

My son loves all of the Magic School Bus books, I think he has read all of them now. Joanna Coles new Adventures with Ms. Frizzle series is also a big hit with him.

This book gives a good overview of what the Soviet space program learned about the inner planets. One table, showing the pressure and temperature readings of the Venus surface from all the Venera and Vega landers, plus the elevation of each landing site, is alone worth the price of the book. If you want to understand the inner planets of the Solar System, this book is a tremendous help. (Note that the author actually headed the programs in question!)

After 30,000 km of roads I can assure that this book is well made and will not fall apart in the heat and dust of Australia's outback! In addition it is a great route planning guide to both the well known as well as less well known trips around Australia's outback.

A charming book about Queensland. It presents 71 driving or ferry tours for 1 or 2 days. Each tour is described on two pages, together with a chart and about 4 wonderful pictures. The text is well balanced with the pictures, informative and concise. A really fine book to give you a first inspiring view of Queensland.

I loved this book and just HAD to order the rest of this series! Story is based on actual happenings according to the author. Gives great insight on the british rule over Australia, well done descriptions of happenings/locations. I highly recommend it!

I found this book very helpful in planning my Oz holiday. It provides useful recommendations on places and things to visit. The plentiful color pictures add much to the book's appeal.

While the book is good for planning your vacation, it does not provide detailed information on accommodation, transportation, or other essential information. Get another guidebook (such as The Rough Guide) to complement this book.

After an 11 page introduction in which the author's skilfully set the scene, they collectively go on to explain the Great Barrier Reef in the way it should have been explained all along. With chapters on; Evolution, History & Exploration, Marine Life, Nature & Art, Life above, Diving, Fishing and finally Staying & Seeing, these two authors have covered all bases in an interesting a readable way.

Not all visitors to the greatest reef on earth are either divers or fishermen and there are few books which cater for those who are not. This one caters for all tastes.

Superbly supported with colour photographs on every page - some of which will make your eyes pop right out of your head, this is a book to please all those who read it.

Altogether a very exciting book!

NM

I *loved* this book. Finally, I learned why this race was so awful. It is compelling, informative, accurate in every way and meticulously written.

Extreme Event is written by a journalist so the reportage is trustworthy. Whitmont's writing style is compelling and investigates especially the events surrounding Business Post Naiad, whereas Knockdown and Proving Ground tended not to go into this in nearly as much detail.

I highly recommend that anyone who wants to get the lowdown on what went wrong to take this book out of their local library if it's out of stock at the bookstore.

It pays homage to those doing what they love and recognises in no uncertain terms that things really can go wrong.

I have a large library, but this is the most beautiful collection of photographs I have ever owned. I have owned it for 13 years, and paging through it still thrills me every time. I was stunned to discover that the photo's were in fact not even taken by an Aussie, which just goes to show how refreshing the outlook of a visitor to foreign shores can be.

Eyes In The Night by Jan Ramage is a picturebook about a young boy's effort to rehabilitate an injured owl that he discovers in his yard in Australia. Laura Peterson's dark yet beautiful color illustrations add a dramatic touch to this simple story, which is grounded in the very real tragedy that feral cats have brought to the land of Australia - after their introduction by Australian settlers, many domestic cats and other animals have turned feral, and since Australia has no natural predator like them, they have exacted a devastating toll on the continent's wildlife, even rendering some species extinct. A captivating story of the bond between rehabilitator and a majestic injured creature.