Across the Creek

When Jenice Trengove disappears, Aidan can’t forget the mysterious circumstances surrounding her disappearance: ‘All those search parties – on the news, everything – and they never found a thing.’ Some think that Jenice fell in the creek, while others think somebody took her. Aidan’s school has erected a memorial to her. Its inscription reads: ‘In memory of Jenice Trengove, who was lost in the bush but never lost to us.’

Despite knowing that he shouldn’t have gone near the old mine and the creek alone, one day Aidan’s curiosity gets the better of him. As he crosses the creek, a tiny flying creature with round eyes and a wide grinning mouth wraps its skinny arms around his leg. The creature gruffly introduces himself as Raff the piskey. Before they can converse much more, they are interrupted by a hideous creature with red goo dribbling from its nostrils. Raff helpfully informs Aidan that the creature is known as a dragaroo. Aidan manages to escape the dragaroo by throwing a couple of handfuls of dirt at the beast’s glaring eyes. Aidan begins to think that there is more to Jenice’s disappearance than he first thought.

Rosanne Hawke’s delightful novel brings to life a neglected menagerie of creatures from Cornish folklore, with its fantasy world ‘across the creek’ embedded within a realistic Australian setting.

Ages 8-10.