Sandra Markle - Finding Home

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123

Sandra Markle

Finding

Home

Illustrated by

Alan Marks

With love for my husband, Skip JefferyS. M.

For my mother, Florrie MarksA. M.

Acknowledgments

Sandra Markle would like to thank Dr. William Andrew, veterinarian for

Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve; David Davies, Raymond Terrace Rural Fire

Brigade; Dr. William Ellis, senior research officer, Koala Study Program,

University of Queensland, Australia; Audrey Koosman, director, National

Animal Trust Fund; and Dr. Daniel Lunney, principal research scientist,

Department of Environment and Conservation, New South Wales.

A special thank you to Skip Jeffery for his loving support throughout the

creative process.

2010 First paperback edition

Text copyright 2008 by Sandra Markle

Illustrations copyright 2008 by Alan Marks

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Charlesbridge and colophon are registered trademarks of Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.

Published by Charlesbridge

85 Main Street

Watertown, MA 02472

(617) 926-0329

www.charlesbridge.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Markle, Sandra.

Finding home / Sandra Markle; illustrated by Alan Marks.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-60734-035-5

1. KoalaAustraliaNew South WalesAnecdotes. 2. KoalaHabitatAustralia

New South WalesAnecdotes. I. Marks, Alan,1957 II. Title.

QL737.M384M26 2008 ISBN-13 978-1-68444-654-4 (e-book)

599.2'5dc22 2007001473

Illustrations done in watercolor, pen, and pencil on Daler Bloxworth paper

Display type and text type set in Elroy and Fairfield

Color separations by Chroma Graphics, Singapore

Printed and bound by Jade Productions

Production supervision by Brian G. Walker

Designed by Susan Mallory Sherman

Synchred Read-Along Version by:

Triangle Interactive LLC

PO Box 573

Prior Lake, MN 55372

Its September.

Spring in New South Wales, Australia,

has just begun,

but theres a hot breeze

threading through the leaves.

It wakes the female koala

curled up in the tree.

She lifts her big, black nose

and sniffs.

The air smells of eucalyptus leaves

and smoke.

Her joey, a nine-month-old female

sleeping beside her,

wakes and tries to climb into her pouch.

But the joey has grown too big for this safe place.

Instead, she climbs onto her mothers back.

Kangaroos and wallabies thunder past their tree.

Possums scurry after them.

Overhead a colorful cloud of parrots

flaps away from the forest

and a sugar glider sails by, riding the smoky air.

The female koala flees, too.

But she cant run fast for long,

or fly,

or glide away.

So, built to climb, she bounds

up,

up,

up as high as she can go in the tree.

Her joey hangs on tight

to ride along.

Fire sweeps through the forest

crackling,

snapping,

roaring.

Waves of flames roll over brush,

crawl up tree trunks,

and leap through the air,

eating every leaf they touch.

Higher still

as high as the huddled koalas

swirls the mud-black smoke.

And through this thick cloud

swarms of sparks

fly, land, and

sting.

The female koala is lucky.

This bushfire is not as fierce as some.

And shes in a tree a little ways beyond a firebreak,

an area kept clear of brush.

So before the bushfire reaches her,

it runs out of fuel and stops.

The female koala escapes

with a burned patch on her back

from a flaming clump of leaves.

Her joey, squeezed between her and the tree trunk,

is unharmed.

But only shadow-black skeletons remain

where koalas once dined

on a daily buffet of different kinds of eucalyptus trees,

such as swamp mahoganies and forest red gums.

Beyond the forest the land is unburned,

but there are few trees there.

That night

the female koala climbs down

with her joey on her back.

As she waddles across the moonlit grass,

the shadow bumping after her

seems to chase her away

from the burned ruins

of her home range.

A little farther on, the female koala

lifts her big, black nose and sniffs the air.

She needs to eat leaves,

but not just any kind will do.

So when her keen sense of smell doesnt detect

any promising scents,

she waddles on.

Hour after hour,

the female koala searches for a meal.

Sometimes, when the burden of carrying her big joey is too much,

she shakes her shoulders.

The joey slips off and tags along

until the female koala stops to sniff the air again.

Then the joey quickly climbs back on to hitch a ride.

Next page

123

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