Age
range: 4+
Kids love rocks. They also love to learn. The Gum Family Finds Home brings these two
truths together in a delightful Australian story that introduces concepts of geology to a
young audience. But this is not a fact-heavy schoolbook. It is essentially a charming
story about home and family that celebrates the stunning Australian landscape and its
flora and fauna.
The book’s action plays out through a family of koalas, the Gum family, who hitch up
their caravan and set off to search for the perfect home. The idea that animals might go
travelling to see the sights, or indeed want to find a more better home, creates a link
between the reader and the exciting adventures the characters are experiencing.
The Gum Family Finds Home uses storytelling to introduce the natural world to children
as the Gum family travels the country. The sheer variety and imposing grandeur of
Australian geological formations are captured, from Uluru to King’s Canyon, from
gorges and limestone pillars to precariously placed boulders and sweeping plains. These
are introduced in the story through minimal text and lavish illustrations, then extended
in a separate section providing accessible information and photographic images. This
enables a parent, teacher or older reader to satisfy the further interest in geology that the
story is sure to stimulate.
