Great book! Kes has an aboriginal father and a white mother and lives on one of two adjoining farmhouses with her white uncle and chinese aunt. This means the children on the farm are either aboriginal looking like Kes and her twin brothers, white looking like her sister Sarah and cousin Angie ( who is also deaf) or chinese looking like her closest cousin Finn. Throw in Angie's older friend from hospital visits Brian the product of two very rich unhappy parents and you have a wonderful eclectic mix of children on a mission to save their home. Set in the Mt. Baw Baw region at the height of a drought-ravaged summer, there is a terrible bushfire on Christmas Day which destroys all the feed for their animals. It looks like even with the two Mums taking part-time jobs and the Dad's working dusk to dawn that they will lose the farm. Coupled with all this is Kes's awareness of her father being a "stolen child" and her secret plan to reunite him with his family if she can find them. She has long talks with her cousin Finn over how he handles his "difference" and takes on more responsibilities looking after the clan. Enter the miracle - they discover a cave full of aboriginal art which was hidden in impenetrable forest until the bush burnt away, and this, in turn, leads to the discovery of an underground river (presumably melting snow from Baw Baw) that they can use to save the farm. As well as coming to terms with all this, Kes receives a letter telling her that her grandmother is still alive and she and other aunties and cousins finally visit at the end of the book. I know it's all corny and neat but it made me cry anyway and I think some kids books should be like this- happy endings after hardship![Chapter 9 - The bushfire hits on Xmas day] ( )