This is an interesting mixture of fiction and history. French intermingles story with fact to create a picture of her home in the Araluen Valley through time. She takes readers from the molten lava of four billion years BC and ends with present life in the Valley in 2003. For each period of time there is a factual piece followed by a fictional vignette. From pre-history, to Aboriginal life, white settlement, gold rush, hippy colonisation to the present, French creates a feeling of history. However, the fictional pieces seem to contribute much more to that feeling of history than the intervening factual snippets, which somehow fail to grip. There's the story of a local Yowie who befriends a little girl; and the mystery of a child found lashed to a tree in the middle of a roaring flood. My personal favourite is the story of a daring midnight ride of bushrangers told from the point of view of the stolen horse. The idea of looking at a local area through time creates a model for kids to investigate their own local history. Teaching notes have been included for this purpose. Suitable for class situations and inquiring minds. Ages 7+.

Jane Watson-Brown is a writer and reviewer.

C. 2003 Thorpe-Bowker and contributors

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