Australia Adventure

Elizabeth staggered out onto dry land from the dark confines of the convict ship which had been her home these past six long months. Only one thing had kept her whole and alive when typhus and scurvy claimed lives on all sides. The vision of Robert's tawny eyes.

Oliver Wormwood is sure his new job in the library will be boring. Until he learns that books hold great power - and danger. By the end of his first day, Oliver has witnessed the librarian's death, been frozen by a book, met a perplexing number of cats, and fought off a horde of terrifying creatures. With only a mysterious girl called Agatha to show him the ropes, Oliver needs to learn fast . . . if he wants to live longer than the 112 assistant librarians before him.

In Dot and the Kangaroo, five-year-old Dot becomes lost in the Australian bush. Alone and frightened, Dot is approached by a grey kangaroo, who brings her some berries to eat. Dot eats the berries and suddenly finds that she can talk to animals! She tells the kangaroo that she has lost her way. The kangaroo has lost something too—her joey—but decides to help Dot out. Together, they search for home.

Following are a few brief excerpts from this guide, written by a lifelong resident of Australia. She covers everything you might want to know about this part of Australia - guaranteed! The places to stay, from budget to luxury, rentals to B&Bs; the restaurants, from fast food to the highest quality; the beachwalks and bushwalks; the wildlife and how to see it; exploring the country by air, on water, by bike, and every other way.

Acclaimed explorer Rob Nash has lost his way. Grieving the death of his wife, and blaming himself, he sees no reason to carry on. But when 'Uncle' Frank Douglas offers him the chance to lead a cave-diving expedition in the jungles of Papua, Nash can see some light at the end of the tunnel. But the expedition might not be what it seems. With a decades-old Japanese submarine buried deep in a cavern, and a team hellbent on unleashing the treasures it hides, Nash finds himself on a ship heading for danger.

It’s hot. It’s windy. It’s dusty. It’s the Australian outback. Wendy Lee arrives from California. She’s lucky to meet Chloe Taylor, who invites Wendy to their sheep station. It sounds like fun, except that someone is stealing the sheep. And the thief just might be something as crazy as a UFO.

After a disastrous fire in the village leaves a family without a home, Alice-Miranda and her friends pitch in to help. They decide to hold a music festival to raise funds. The only trouble is, not everyone's as keen on the idea. Things are also heating up in Winchesterfield-Downsfordvale Academy for Proper Young Ladies with Miss Reedy at the helm. The arrival of a new teacher, a deputy turned diva and an entire faculty of disgruntled staff sees tempers flare. Has the power gone to Miss Reedy's head or is there a sinister hand at play?

Seventeen-year-old Chan's ancestors left a dying Earth hundreds of years ago, in search of a new home. They never found one. This is a hell where no one can hide. The only life that Chan's ever known is one of violence, of fighting. Of trying to survive. This is a ship of death, of murderers and cults and gangs. But there might be a way to escape. In order to find it, Chan must head way down into the darkness - a place of buried secrets, long-forgotten lies, and the abandoned bodies of the dead.

Australia's largest state takes up nearly a third of the continent, filling some 2,525,250 square kilometers with a diverse mix of extreme and wonderful landscapes. The balmy seaside capital of Perth and its thriving southern suburb of Fremantle, where 1.4 of the state's 1.8 million residents live, are spread along Australia's southwest edge, just north of the Cape Naturaliste hook.

Life hasn't been much fun for Milly Dynes lately. There seem to be problems everywhere she looks. She's always loved her home in Tidgy Bay, but at the moment she wishes she was somewhere—anywhere—else. Then Eliza Vanda turns up-and magic comes with her.

Surfing the Unknown is the story of a young Vanuatan named Kainalu, who travels far from home to study in Loonland. At the height of his disappointments and on the verge of abandoning his journey, he finds refuge in the home of an Indigenous man.

This charming account of the voyage of two men in a small boat half way round the world from Plymouth to New Zealand in 1953 is a rare insight into a time, not long ago, when sailors had no GPS, electronics, radio or any of the mod cons that we take for granted today. Without lifejacket or a life raft, they 'just took what came along', hand steering all the way, navigating by sextant, hand-cranking their engine and using oil lamps for light at night and for navigation. Sailors will be staggered how primitive conditions were only a few decades ago, even though it was the norm at the time.

Was ist das für ein Land, in dem sich fliegende Füchse tummeln und Schweinefußnasenbeutler einst ihr Unwesen trieben? In seinem ebenso amüsanten wie informativen Streifzug durch ein unbekanntes Australien erzählt Bill Bryson von den historischen Hintergründen der Entdeckung dieses faszinierenden Kontinents...

Named one of Time Magazine International's 30 most important people of 2005, Maud Fontenoy presents us with a terrific, entertaining adventure story on the high seas as she challenges the Pacific Ocean - a feat no woman before her ever accomplished. Already the first woman to row alone across the North Atlantic, Maud raised the bar to defy the elements, the daunting solitude, and the circling sharks of the South Pacific on her second solo voyage.

Tasmania to London. One end of the globe to the other. Eight hundred hitchhiking rides. Eighteen thousand miles. Four seasons. Three continents. Nineteen countries. How many rides does it take to hitch from Tasmania to London? Rogue wanderer Jamie Maslin decides to find out, propelling him into a high-stakes adventure of a lifetime that sees him tackle searing desert, freezing mountains, tropical jungle, and barren steppes on little more than a thumb and a prayer.

Sixteen-year-old Nipper and his Gallipoli mates Lanky, Spud, Bluey and Wallaby Joe are starving, freezing and ill-equipped. By November 1915 they know that that there is more to winning a war than courage. The Gallipoli campaign has been lost. Nipper has played cricket with the Turks in the opposing dugout, dodged rocket fire and rescued drowning, freezing men when the blizzard snow melted. He is one of the few trusted with the secret kept from even most of the officers: how an entire army will vanish from the Peninsula over three impeccably planned nights.

When Quil Medway gets on the train, she thinks she knows where and howher journey will end. At camp. With another school holiday spent surrounded by people, but feeling alone. Quil doesn't know how wrong she is. She doesn't know anything about the shop at Hoopers Bend. Or a bitter, prickly woman called Bailey Or a little black and white dog who at this very moment is chewing through a rope so he'll be free to answer a call that only he can hear. She doesn't know about the magic. But it won't be long now....

Young wombat Lola doesn’t quite fit in. Wombats are supposed to be shy and quiet, but Lola is talkative, curious, and always getting into trouble. When her village is attacked by a Tasmanian devil leading a group of swamp rats, Lola’s parents are captured - and the rats say it's on the orders of the queen! To rescue her parents, Lola will have to leave home for the very first time and set off on a wild adventure. Even with the help of friends she meets along the way, Lola will need every ounce of her bold bravery to help rescue her family and save the kingdom!

L'éblouissant retour de l'auteure de "La Mémoire des embruns". Miki, dix-sept ans, vit coupée du monde depuis l'incendie qui a coûté la vie à ses parents. Sous le joug de son frère Kurt, un chrétien fondamentaliste, elle travaille comme serveuse dans leur restaurant et le soir, se rêve en héroïne de romans. Lors d'une escapade secrète en forêt, elle fait la rencontre de Leon, un garde forestier tout juste installé en Tasmanie. Les deux jeunes gens se donnent alors une mission extraordinaire : sauver les diables de Tasmanie de l'extinction.

Sometimes, only a kid can save the day.... Star athlete Josh and computer prodigy Madison begin the adventure of a lifetime when they discover the Small World Global Protection Agency. The GPA is a secret organization dedicated to helping other kids and saving the day when adults can’t. In New Kids on the Rock, their first mission takes them to Australia, where they go from the Outback to the top of the Sydney Opera House!