You must complete your journey Melody. You cannot change back into a human without truly understanding the whole river system.
Australia is an amazing country that is connected in so many ways that many people do not understand.
Meet Melody, a young girl who lives in outback Queensland – Charleville by the Warrego river. She loves where she loves but also loves visiting her Nan down in South Australia in an amazing place called Coorong.
Here her Nan runs a paddle steamer that takes tourists up and down the Coorong – a national park area filled with an abundance of birds, many endangered. This area of Australia relies on the rains from Queensland to travel down to fill the rivers and creeks so if there is drought up north – the Coorong feels it too.
And this is where the problems begin. Drought means less tourists and Nan needs them. Not only will less people come on her boat, motor boats have also come to take over Nan’s peaceful paddle steamer and without help, Nan is going to have to sell her boat.
Melody has always listened to her Nan’s stories about animals and often wondered how she knows so much about how they feel and act – until one night Melody is transformed into one herself – a lovely Diamond Finch.
As a Finch Melody must act fast so she can help Nan to keep her boat and warn others how important it is for humans to look after the natural world so we don’t have ongoing droughts and loss of flora and fauna.
Young readers will love this adventure story. Melody is a quick and clever thinker but also has her own doubts like any young child would. She finds that many animals are good and are keen to help her along the way but she also discovers that there are many humans in pursuit of money that forget just how important the natural world is.
Melody Finch is the perfect book to help children, in a fun way, to see just how important small acts by every one of us can make a huge difference – especially acts by young children.
My 9 year old daughter read this book within three days – so that is telling you something!
Highly recommended for ages 6-12 both boys and girls and a great way for teachers to link into Australian geography, climate and living things.
