The girl with a feather in her hair by Eleanor Pearson & Julie Spencer

Gentle water colour illustrations hug each page as the girl explores her natural environment, images of recognisable elements of Australia’s flora and fauna catching the readers’ attention. Magpies, parrots and cockatoos, along with red flowering eucalypts, wattle and scribbly gum can be found on the pages, as the girl wonders through the landscape.

She whispers to the ladybirds, reaches for butterflies as she dances with her shadow. She rescues a beetle from a puddle, watches the ants on the anthill and slips a heart shaped stone into her pocket. She looks up noting the huge array of greens, searching for the sky above the canopy.

The dandelion on the front cover has seeds blown across the page, encouraging little fingers to feel them as they open the book. Inside they will see the beautiful gum trees and the bright colours of the bush, and follow the little e girl and her journey through the bush, under the trees, seeing the insects and the birds, crossing a stream on the fallen log.

The girl with the feather in her hair eventually comes to rest at the edge of the pond, sitting quietly with her mother as they feel the water and see what is under its surface.

Themes: Environment, Australian flora and fauna, Eucalypts.

Fran Knight