Somewhere in Kakadu

by Cat Ritchie

Overview

Exploring the unknown is exciting, challenging, and sometimes dangerous. And the world is a very big place. Even more so when you are only 5 1/2 inches tall.

Mica and Wrenna, two young fairies from the Rocky Mountains embark upon a journey to see the living fossil rocks, the stromatolites, in faraway Australia.

But their travels take a wrong turn, and they end up in the fantastic, monsoon-soaked land of Kakadu. Soon stranded by the seasonal flooding, Mica and Wrenna work together to find the basics needed to survive in this unknown wilderness: food, shelter, and hopefully, a way back home.

Then they meet Ghy, a young Aboriginal Australian lad, who introduces the fairies to the magic and raw beauty of Kakadu and Australia. With bandicoots and wallabies, crocodiles and emus, this strange land is much more than they were expecting.

Mica and Wrenna learn much about the history of Australia and discover much more about who they are within themselves.

But will they be able to find their way back home?

Somewhere in Kakadu is the third book in Cat Ritchie's Somewhere Stories series, following Bosco and the Bees and Mirror and the Bobcat. Blending humor, heart, and the beauty of nature, Somewhere in Kakadu invites you to travel along with Mica and Wrenna to the amazing land Down Under. Ages 8-16

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798990818408
Publisher:	Cat Ritchie
Publication date:	12/31/2024
Series:	Somewhere Stories , #3
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.49(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Cat Ritchie is a writer, healer, bee advocate, bird watcher, and menagerie attendant. She enjoys spending time in her gardens with the visiting birds, bees, and occasional fox or coyote. An avid reader and writer for most of her life, she lives in Bloomington, Minnesota with husband Don, and numerous pets. Her short stories have appeared in The Talking Stick: Volumes 16, 17, 19 and Dust and Fire 2008. Her debut MG fantasy BOSCO AND THE BEES was published January 2021 and selected by Kirkus Reviews for inclusion in their Best100 Indie books of the year. Her second MG fantasy MIRROR AND THE BOBCAT was released September 2022.Check out her website at boscoandthebees.com

Editorial Reviews

2025-01-06
Two fairies get lost in the Australian Outback in Ritchie’s middle-grade novel, the latest in a series.

Fairies Mica and Wrenna have left Fairy Land (situated somewhere in the Rocky Mountains) on an expedition to Australia to see the famed stromatolites of Shark Bay: “Living fossil rocks. Almost as old as the planet.” Due to the recent destruction of Fairy Land’s Barrier and its transportation portals, the pair are forced to travel by tunnel which, though faster than flying, still takes quite a bit more time than they are used to. They surface in a verdant grassland filled with dragonflies and strange birds, but a rainstorm washes away the entrance to their tunnel, stranding the fairies on this new continent. The two friends set about investigating their environment, figuring out what food they can eat, where they can sleep, and what animals (crocodiles? bandicoots? toads?) they need to be afraid of. They manage to befriend a rainbow-colored bird whom they call BB and, later, a human boy called Ghy. Ghy is an Aboriginal Australian, a “Traditional Owner” of the continent who shares information with the fairies about its six seasons and its millions of years of geological history. With the help of Ghy—and a tribe of Australian fairies—Mica and Wrenna must figure out how to find their way home. Ritchie’s simple prose captures the beauty of the Australian ecosystem: “Wrenna turned back to watch the rain falling, like a waterfall just outside their cave. ‘It’s all alive. It’s all connected. The land, the sky, the storm…all the plants and trees that grow, all the creatures that walk, swim, fly, crawl, even the air itself.’” The book does little to establish the rules of the fairy world, and readers unfamiliar with the previous books may have trouble finding their feet. The plot proceeds at a sleepy pace, though that seems to be the point: Ritchie’s fable of environmental stewardship requires readers to stop long enough to notice the world around them.

A leisurely children’s fantasy with an ecological message.

Kirkus Reviews