one of my favourite books as a kid! scared the day lights out of me ( )

Ex-lib. Saline Middle School ( )

A recently-orphaned boy goes to live with his middle-aged cousins on their sheep ranch in the Hunter region of Australia. Coincidentally, the ranch has another new resident in the Nargun, an ancient and quite grumpy, um, boulder-like, thing.
Oh, this one is so good. So. Good. A boy exploring the lovely nature all round him (which includes, delightfully, all sorts of creatures from Australian Aboriginal mythology), parental figures who are loving and absolutely lovable in their gruff-but-kind ways, and all of this set against the cool and relentless scariness of the Nargun. I absolutely love how the Dreamtime creatures are woven into the fabric of the surroundings in a way that makes them perfectly normal and not overly 'magical.' So, yes, a fabulous read in all sorts of ways. ( )

The Nargun isn’t happy and that’s is not good. Men are tearing up the lovely forest and the Nargun will not put up with this. A lovely ecology-minded tale from Australia. ( )

This is an Australian children's book, but read it anyway even if you're an adult. Eerie, memorable tale about a boy and the old, old ones that still inhabited the land.