Reading Challenge Reviews: Bears, Tracks and Community Sports.

We have a very wide variety for this week's contribution to the Reading Challenge. With May's theme of "Sport and Recreation" giving us plenty of scope to play with, we've managed to rustle up three books that have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

Sharon read a picture book about a girl and a bear (and a bike ride), Samantha read a guide book for bush walks in North Queensland, and Brenda read a book about telling the stories of a community through tales of community sport.

Sharon Bryan read Maudie and Bear, by Jane Ormerod and Freya Blackwood.

I discovered this book in the Curriculum Collection (where all the best books are) only a few weeks ago when I was there looking for something else, and I just love it. I’ve read it at least ten times since then, and actually tracked down a copy to buy for myself (in German – long story). It is now, officially, my Favourite Australian Children’s Book of All Time, squeezing The Eleventh Hour, by Greame Base (which I reviewed last week), out of the top spot. I’m shoehorning it into this month’s theme based on the fact that there’s a bicycle on the cover.

If you grew up in Australia and have fond recollections of visiting a relative who lived in a lovely old house in a pretty country town, then this book will take you right back there for a holiday. There’s something magically timeless about it. If I had told you it was published in the 50s, you wouldn’t be surprised. If I had told you it was published in the 80s, you wouldn’t be surprised. It was actually published in 2010, and that’s not surprising either.

Maudie is a young girl (I’d say about 4 or 5) who is staying with a bear in his lovely old house in a pretty country town. It’s unclear exactly why she’s staying with a bear, but not at all weird that a bear lives in country Australia and is taking care of a young human girl. I half think “Bear” is basically “Grandpa”, but it doesn’t matter. He’s just Bear – and he loves Maudie, and patiently puts up with all her self-absorbed shenanigans. The stories in the book are charming, the illustrations are delightful, and I just love it.

Fiction, Australian author, author I haven’t read before, c.820 ORM


In the tropics, walking weather is when the weather cools in the dry season. So it is now the perfect time to review a book about one of the loveliest forms of recreation: walking. 

Myself and some fellow librarians trialled one of the walks in this book over the Easter weekend. It was one of the more difficult ones - so remember to take heed of difficulty levels and know your own fitness as sometimes the time the walk takes will be longer (or shorter).

This book lists a number of walks along Queensland’s coast (and a little inland) from Rockhampton to Cooktown. From multi-day hikes to short strolls, from wilderness to town - there really is something for everyone.

Being an e-book it is also nice and portable - you can access it anywhere you have an internet connection, or simply print off the pages that are relevant to you.

So take a look, pick a walk and get out and enjoy the beautiful NQ winter weather. 

Australian author, non-fiction, eBook.


Our Stories are Our Survival centres on the continuity of Wiradjuri culture, told through the lens of sport. It highlights the differences in the way that stories are told about Aboriginal people’s experience of sport and physical activity. 

Growing up on the Erambie Mission, Bamblett was fascinated by the tales of the Storyteller and his peers, as they brought to life the achievements of the community’s athletes and leaders. This book both records those stories and questions the sports discourse about Indigenous people which consistently portrays them as different and inferior. 

We learn about the physical activities that are important to Erambie Kooris, including a physical, animated form of storytelling, games such as rounders and skipping, and bare-knuckle fighting. By also examining the connection between these activities and cultural practice, we gain an insight into the daily life and culture of the Erambie people from their perspective. 

Our stories are our survival is an enjoyable and thought-provoking revisionist history by a storyteller following in the footsteps of his mentors.

Non fiction, An author I haven’t read before, Australian, 796.0899915 BAM (and eBook)


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