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A superb children's book!
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The children's book Elspeth and the Attack of the Arrunja-Thrunkun is a madcap tale about a twelve year old girl's adventure of a lifetime! It all begins when the young Queenslander, Elspeth Crewe, is ready to be shipped off to a prehistoric interstate boarding school.
In 12 year old Elspeth Crewe's opinion, life just isn't fair! The 'three germs' - Matt Yeung, Tom Priestly and ringleader Will Johnston - tease her mercilessly, especially about her stupid name. And with her disgusting red hair and freckles, Elspeth looks nothing like her more popular sister and brother. The young Queenslander is in fact the spitting image of her mother's great friend Elspeth Popinjay, a batty adventurer who wants to ship her namesake off to a prehistoric interstate boarding school.
To add insult to injury, her best friend Gary is probably going to get expelled for painting the principal's office purple. And on top of that, everyone seems to think that nerdy George Priestly is her boyfriend - which he is not! Life just couldn't get any worse. Right ? Wrong!
The story takes place in Mr Perkins' sugarcane field and is littered with feisty, crazy and endearing characters. Elspeth meets a Calyptus called Sticks who shrinks her to the size of a grasshopper. When the Womma-neetees living in the field make a desperate plea for help against hideous bouncing monsters, Sticks and Elspeth set out on the greatest adventure of their lives, discovering friendship, community spirit and inner courage along the way.
The author Diana Markovits is interviewed on ABC Radio
where she talks about her book and how and why she wrote it.
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