Reading Tracks: Books 1-15

The Reading Tracks® series consists of 22 books for Indigenous learners (middle school or older). The books grew out of a desire to provide relevant and culturally affirming stories for older Indigenous literacy learners - books that would engage them.

At the same time, everyone involved in the production of these books hopes that all young Australians will learn a bit more from them about the First Australians’ ancient cultures and practices of food gathering - tracking and hunting in the central deserts and fishing on the coast.

The Elders involved in the development of these books, and the many students who wanted to share their stories, expressed their desire to have books about true stories, fishing, traditional bush tucker skills, and the old ways of tracking and hunting.

In order to achieve this, author Margaret James worked very closely with Elders and students, going on bush trips and yarning about tracking, hunting and fishing for many hours, to ensure that the stories were culturally accurate. Elders edited the books to confirm that they were appropriate for publication, and students gave their feedback after reading them.

The Reading Tracks® series consists of an initial 15 books, brilliantly illustrated, that start at the very beginning of a learner’s reading journey with a total of 9 words introduced into Book 1. The number of words gradually progresses to 154 in Book 15. These are for older learners (middle school and older) who are behind in their print literacy.

The Reading Tracks® – Books 1-15 include:

• Book 1: 3 men hunt
• Book 2: The men get the bull
• Book 3: A snake in the tree
• Book 4: Get the echidna
• Book 5: A goanna in the sand
• Book 6: Honey in the honey ants
• Book 7: The kids get a big goanna
• Book 8: I hunt a big kangaroo
• Book 9: Hunting for witchetty grubs
• Book 10: Cooking kangaroo
• Book 11: Big mob echidnas
• Book 12: Hunting for a big perentie
• Book 13: Tracking camels
• Book 14: Catch a barra!
• Book 15: Father Emu