Bluey & Dingo's Outback Adventure is a hark back to old style children's story telling. "As a small boy, I would read beautifully illustrated stories that would bring the characters to life and light up my imagination" so says author, Thomas Burton. It is this desire that is the main influence behind this, his first, children's book.

Bluey & Dingo's Outback Adventure has been written for four to seven year olds and could easily serve a twofold purpose: for a parent to read to a younger child where the child can participate actively in the story through the pictures or for the older child who has some reading ability and is ready to take on something a little more challenging.

Bluey & Dingo's Outback Adventure is 32 pages of colour and movement with the words of the story on one page and the story told in beautifully drawn pictures on the opposite page. The book has been illustrated by American artist, Rob Peters. In a nutshell, Bluey & Dingo have to travel from their farm to Alice Springs. On the way their car breaks down and they have to spend the night in the open. Things are dire until the happy ending when they are rescued.

As the story of Bluey & Dingo's adventure unfolds the reader is introduced to numerous Australian animals, scenes and icons and the pictures are detailed enough for a child to answer the question, by pointing when asked, "Where's the kangaroo?" etc. Two informative inclusions are a page on Oz Facts, some interesting basic facts about Australia, and, Dingo's Lingo, a one page list of some Australian colloquialisms.

For a farmer living in the Outback poor old Bluey came across as somewhat incompetent. He runs a camel farm and doesn't have treatment on hand to deal with a sick camel and doesn't seem to be familiar with standard procedure when travelling in the Outback. But what the heck, is that me just being picky as an adult reviewing a children's book? There is one matter, however, I found rather annoying, Burton has introduced an animal character that has no relationship with Australia either as a native animal or as an introduced feral species. Apart from this glaring anomaly, he seems to have done his research well as the book is contextually accurate on the Australian Outback and language.

All in all, this is a good children's book and well suits the age group (and maybe a bit older) for whom it is written. A very good first book for your child's beginning library.