Wurrtoo (Tylissa Elisara, illus Dylan Finney, Lothian)

As a Nunga woman reading to her young Nunga and Murri son, Tylissa Elisara was fed up with the lack of First Nations representation in her beloved childhood stories. Wurrtoo (set on Karta Pintingga/Kangaroo Island) is her passionately researched rejoinder—and her contribution to a new canon of First Nations Australian children’s literature. She decided to respectfully ‘de-identify and generalise’ various ‘Traditional stories’, to ‘avoid desecrating sacred Lore’, resulting in a reimagining that reflects elements of her Narungga, Kaurna and Adnyamathanha descent. The story also incorporates references to unmistakably Australian cuisine, flora and fauna, astronomy, occasional pop culture and slang (though occasionally I felt this was targeted at non-Australian audiences). Wurrtoo, a timid wombat, embarks on a quest to marry his true love, the Sky, but it is his accidental new friendship with Kuula the koala that will completely change his destiny. Their journey together is a chronicle of mishap and adventure, from run-ins with tricksters, to close scrapes with vile hogs and the dangerous Yamuti, to confrontations with bushfire. I found some parts vividly imaginative (such as the section when Wurrtoo finally reaches the sky) and others slightly didactic (including earnest, self-conscious moments when Kuula teaches Wurrtoo the meaning of Country); the book ultimately relies on the energy, genuineness and big-heartedness of its two protagonists to carry middle-grade readers along. Wurrtoo is a story of the power of friendship, bravery, and growth beyond comfort zones, for readers aged 9 and up.

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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