Book excerpt: Winner of the Daisy Utemorrah Award Age range 8 to 12 new yearnew classnew teachers Mr Milburn Mrs Szonyi (Zur-Knee)new shoesand shirtssame old bottles green and gold... Meet 11-year-old Bindi. She's not really into maths but LOVES art class and playing hockey. Her absolute FAVOURITE thing is adventuring outside with friends or her horse, Nell. A new year starts like normal -- school, family, hockey, dancing. But this year hasn't gone to plan! There's a big art assignment, a drought, a broken wrist AND the biggest bushfires her town has ever seen! Bindi is a verse novel for mid-upper primary students. Written 'for those who plant trees', Bindi explores climate, bush fires, and healing. Written from the point of view of 11-year-old, Bindi and her friends on Gundungurra Country. 'Multi-award winning author and poet Kirli Saunders turns her talent to junior fiction with this wonderfully engaging verse novel, which won the inaugural WA Premier's Daisy Utemorrah Award...Saunders notes that Bindi is 'in many ways autobiographical' and this is evident in the way she so keenly evokes the sights, sounds and smells of growing up in the country. Indeed, Saunders' intensely evocative prose conjured memories of the long summer evenings, dry grass and petrichor of this reviewer's own country childhood. The seamless interweaving of English and Gundungurra words is wonderful and, although there is a glossary at the back, Saunders' skill at melding the two languages ensures that understanding can be gained from context. With gorgeous black and white illustrations by the esteemed Dub Leffler, Bindi is a must-read for ages seven and up.' -- Hannah Gardiner, Books+Publishing