Wandi is a dingo pup. His mother is showing the youngsters how to find delicious grubs just under the surface of the soil. Wandi moves a little away from the group and:
A pulse of air on his fur.
A shadow, long and jagged and strange.
The beat of giant wings.
Wandi is lifted into the air by a huge bird, perhaps an eagle. Eventually the bird drops it's prey. Wandi is now far from home, far from the protection of his family. He has limited survival skills but he does not give up. He sets off walking into the unknown desperate to find his loved ones.
Publisher blurb: A young cub is snatched from his family and home by a giant eagle, then dropped, injured and alone, in a suburban garden. This is where he meets his first Human, and begins his long journey to becoming the most famous dingo in the world. He will never see his mountain home again, or his family. But it is his destiny to save alpine dingoes from extinction, and he dreams of a time when all cubs like him can live in the wild in safety, instead of facing poison and bullets and hatred.
Wandi is a short book - my advance copy had 120 pages of big print with lots of white space. The story is fast moving with moments of shock balanced with moments where you will laugh out loud.At times the writing feels quite poetic. There are short lines of text set out one line at a time which I really liked. You can see this in the small text sample I quoted above.
The final pages give some background to the rescue of wild dingoes. I think readers aged 9+ will enjoy this book especially when they discover it is based on a true story. This book will be published in September 2021. Huge thanks to Beachside Bookshop for my advance copy. I expect to see Wandi listed as a CBCA 2022 Notable book.
Read the true story of Wandi from the Sydney Morning Herald.
Here is a segment from BTN (ABC Television Behind the News) about dingoes.
Companion reads one about Dingoes and two about wolves who survive in the wild told from the animal viewpoint:
If you have a young reader interested in animal survival stories written from the animal view point I also recommend Pax for older readers aged 11+.
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