Kimmi: Queen of the dingoes (Favel Parrett, illus Astred Hicks, Lothian)

For young readers who enjoyed Favel Parrett’s alpine dingo tale in Wandi (2021), Kimmi follows a real-life tropical dingo who, like Wandi, now lives at the Dingo Discovery Sanctuary and Research Centre in Victoria. As with Wandi, Parrett’s new middle-grade fiction novel (for readers aged 8+) aspires to inform and solicit empathy and support for the plight of a vulnerable species now recognised as vital to the preservation of Australian ecosystems. Astred Hicks’ colour illustrations throughout, and an informative interview with sanctuary supervisor Kevin Newman, are included to help engage children. Told primarily from young Kimmi’s perspective, the book is not always a comfortable read, filled with the pain surrounding Kimmi’s journey to life at the sanctuary, from the shooting of her baby brother to separation from her mother and aunt (whose difficult trek together is plagued with hunger and injury, after they’re transported—for their own protection—away from their homeland by well-meaning humans). Sensitive children might be upset by the sadness of Kimmi’s losses, but ultimately the novel reassures, with Kimmi settling into her home at the sanctuary, where she’s well cared for and no longer alone, and she knows—even with a maturing understanding that she will never run free on her ancestors’ lands—that she’s part of a community advocating for her species’ long-term survival and liberty. Parrett blends matter-of-fact content with a confidently poetic voice, constructing a strong sense of place and of the dingoes’ sensory reality.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Anica Boulanger-Mashberg is a freelance editor and writer, and a bookseller at the Hobart Bookshop. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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