This book is a curious mix. It is generously produced, landscape-shaped and filled with high-quality photographs. Some are stunning, as in the spread at the end showing man and dog in a silhouette sequence on the beach. Many of the scenes depicted are iconic features of outback Australia such as the Stockmen’s Hall of Fame, even clichés like beer-can boats-and there is an array of ‘characters’, both human and animal, to be met along this road trip. It all hangs together as a tale narrated by Tiny, a red heeler dog who goes travelling with Steve, the photographer, in his ‘trusty old van’. The plotline-about attempts by Tiny to make new friends on behalf of Steve-is a thin one and perilously close to breaking-point at times. It seems as though the writer had a hard task to thread the pictures together into a cohesive yarn. On the other hand, if intended as nonfiction, the frontispiece map needs more detail, and the text some placenames. The book is most likely to appeal to tourists, dog lovers and perhaps to some children of primary school age who inhabit the outback, or would like to do so.

Robin Morrow was a specialist bookseller and now teaches and reviews children’s literature

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