"What started as a small breeze blew up and up and up until a whirlwind had wrapped itself around her. Sonny and Spike, caught in the tailwinds, looked away to protect their eyes from the flying dust. When the wind had passed and they looked back, Millie was gone."
Have you ever gotten lost in a book?
Entranced into the world of a mysterious old story, Millie, a Warlpiri teenager, is sucked up by a willy willy and transported to Alice Springs in 1924. Here she meets a crew of oddly familiar young people, Sonny, Beryl and Spike.
As the group continue to find each other in time, they realise the Alice Springs of the past and the future are not as different as they seem...
Desert Tracks is a time travelling novel about young people in central Australia, the historical legacy of racist policies and the relationship between history and the present.
Praise for Desert Tracks
"Desert Tracks is a well-developed, lively and meaningful addition to First Nations young adult fiction..." - Karys McEwen, Books+Publishing
Indigenous Themes, Indigenous Own Voices, First Nations
Young Adult, Time Travel
About The Author
Linda Wells is of white settler descent and proud to be Marly’s mother. She is a teacher and writer. Linda has lived in Central Australia for many years and worked as a teacher on desert communities as well as in Alice Springs.
For over ten years Linda also ran a small business, conducting guided walking tours of Alice Springs. She has a PhD in creative, post-colonial possibilities for writing Australian history and loves writing books.
Marly Wells is a proud woman of Warlpiri and white Australian descent. She grew up in Alice Springs. She completed a Bachelor of Arts at Melbourne University with majors in Sociology and Indigenous Studies.
Marly lived in England for two years in her early 20s. She then returned to Alice Springs where she worked in the management of children’s services. Marly has also worked as a freelance editor and researcher for Hardie Grant Publishing.
She co-wrote a children’s book for the Girls Can Boys Can project in Alice Springs and an article for The Saturday Paper about the killing of Kumenjayi Walker at Yuendumu.
