Rakali of the Riverbank by Stephanie Owen Reeder illustrated by Rachel Gregg

Just when you thought you had heard of every possible animal in Australia another one pops up. Of course we all know our platypus, another amphibious mammal, but what about the rakali? He is our largest native rodent. A rodent is an animal with strong incisor teeth for gnawing food. 

Bookseller blurb: Explore the night with Rakali as he hunts for food, patrols the riverbank and dodges threats. As the sun sets, Rakali prepares to patrol the riverbank. He is on a mission to fill his belly, protect his pups and keep his home safe. But he must face feral foxes, disease-carrying black rats and toxic cane toads. Will he make it safely back to his burrow before the sun rises? Rakali of the Riverbank is an engaging look at a night in the life of an Australian native water rat, and the challenges that these unique and charming creatures face.

This is another triumph for Stephanie Owen Reeder and, of course, CSIRO Publishing. Just so Stories

POST UPDAE: The rakali has won Australia's most Underrated Animal for 2025. 65,000 people voted over 15 days and the results ended in a list of ten - with the rakali declared winner. 

Things I learned from reading this book:

• The rakali is one of Australia’s only mammals to safely enjoy a meal of the highly toxic cane toad. Intelligent and resourceful, the water rat flips the toad over to avoid the poisonous glands found on the back of the toad’s neck and uses surgical-like precision to neatly remove the heart, liver, and toxic gall bladder before eating the rest.
• The rakali is one of only two amphibious mammals in Australia. The other is the platypus.
• They are also known as a golden-bellied water mouse or native water rat.
• Rakalis grow up to 60 cm long. Being the largest rat in Australia, they are useful to have around as they actually fight off introduced rats. You can tell them apart from introduced rats by their pale belly, mass of whiskers and the white tip on the end of their tail.
• The name rakali comes from the Ngarrindjeri people of the Murray River in South Australia. 
• They live beside estuaries, creeks, rivers, lakes and wetlands.
• The female cares for two to four young while the male patrols his territory. He sleeps in a separate burrow. 
• The scientific name is Hydromys chrysogaster
• Waterproof fur that dries quickly once on land.
• Elongated body shape which is perfectly adapted to glide through the water.
• Small ears that can be folded against its head and whiskers that surround the face, which are highly sensitive and help it to forage underwater at night.
• Partially webbed hind feet.
• Can grow up to 70 cm in length from nose to tip of the tail and weigh a little over a kilogram (about the size of an adult platypus).

Further reading:

• Backyard Buddies
• Australian Geographic
• inaturalist (great photos)

Image source: Ballarat Times

The format of this book is similar to the splendid Nature Storybooks (formerly called Read and Wonder). The main pages contain a narrative where we meet Rakali and see him hunting and protecting his territory and then on the final four pages you can read all about this curious animal and use the glossary to explore unfamiliar words. You can download the teachers notes here. 

The text in this book does give you all the facts about this little creature but it is expressed with very lyrical language:

Rakail's golden belly gleams as rays of light kiss the river goodnight.
A cape of ripples flows out behind him.

He charges at the toxic toad, sending the started creature sprawling on its back.

Moon shadows dance and a cool breeze ruffles his soggy fur.

And there are some fabulous words to explore with your reading companion such as hunkering, lurks, consume, humungous, abandoned, and gravelly sand.

Let's think for a moment about rodents - this could be a fabulous mini topic in your library. Some of my own favourite animals are rodents - the beaver; the capybara; the guinea pig; hamster; vole; squirrel; and porcupine. I also discovered there is a rodent called a kangaroo rat but this creature is not even Australian! It lives in North America. In Australia we have or have had at one time 57 different Australian rodents - I was utterly amazed to discover this.

Huge thanks to CSIRO Publishing for sending me a copy of this book. It was published just yesterday so it will be easy to find in your local bookstore. If your school buys a standing order of new titles this book will be included. You are sure to enjoy sharing this book with your youngest readers in your school library. I would begin my reading by talking about animal heroes - the rakali is a hero in my view because he is helping, in his own small way, with the elimination of those dreadful cane toads. 

Dr Stephanie Owen Reeder is the author of over 20 historical and environmental books for children, including Swifty and Sensational Australian Animals. She has won both the CBCA Book of the Year Award and the NSW Premier’s History Award.

Here is the list from Science week of the top ten most underrated animals from Australia - how many do you know?

1.Rakali

2.Palm cockatoo

3.Giant cuttlefish

4.Dugong

5.Marsupial mole

6.Turtle frog

7.Velvet worm

8.Great desert skink

9.Ghost bat

10.Short-finned eel

If the World were 100 Animals by Miranda Smith illustrated by Aaron Cushley

Here we go again - another groundbreaking fantastic nonfiction book with an idea that is fresh and original and so appealing. This is a book that is certainly going to spark the curiosity of your young reading companion or class of students. AND as a bonus, if you work with a group of older students, do take time to look at the very extensive reference list included at the beginning of this book - this could be such a brilliant way to talk about referencing and using websites with the right level of authority and also the importance of deep research. You will see websites such as CSIRO, Save the Koala, UNESCO, National Geographic and World Wildlife Fund.

There are 20,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 20 quintillion or 20 billion billion individual animals on earth but if you think of this as just 100 then ... 

6 are vertebrates; 94 are invertebrates = 100

Let's look at the vertebrates 23 are birds; 11 are amphibians; 9 are mammals; 14 are reptiles; and 43 are fish = 100

Drill down further to the Mammals 94 are placental; 5 are marsupials; 1 is a monotreme = 100

YES, those Monotremes are ours - one platypus and four species of echidna.

And what about pets? 33 are dogs; 6 are birds; 23 are cats; 12 are fish; 26 are other animals = 100

Image source: Bookwagon

Other topics explored in this book are deadly animals (81 are mosquitoes); extinct animals (90 are extinct); animals in danger (54 are fish) and the final double spread explores the big questions.

Big Questions:

• What can we do to stop the animals' habitats and ecosystems being destroyed?
• What can we do to reduce our use of plastic and recycle plastic that already exists?
• How do we make people think about the connections between animals and the food on their plates?

Now for the really amazing news - this book from 2022 is only AUS$20. It is a book that should be added to every school and public library. If the World were 100 Animals is also a NSW Premier's Reading challenge title Years 3-4 (903350). Make sure you spend time exploring all the animals on the end papers. 

Other books by Miranda Smith and books illustrated by Aaron Cushley (he is from Belfast) from this series:

Due for publication in November, 2023