Kids into books: Boxer

Author: Ian Charlton

Illustrator: Trish Powers

Publisher: Malinson Rendel $ 11.95

Age Group: 6-10 years


The next morning me and Charlie walk across the paddocks to the railway tracks. Lizards are sleeping on the tracks. They poke their tongues in and out as they lie on the hot iron under the sun. We sneak up on them and see how close we can get before they wake up and scurry away.

then we wait in the thick grass at the side of the tracks. Soon they come back and climb on to the tracks again and go back to sleep. It's a game we play with them. We call it The Lizard Game.

Suddenly they all run off the tracks and into the grass. Something has scared them.

I look down the long straight railway line that stretches through the paddocks to the mountains. Far away a black smudge shimmers in the heat. A line of smoke rises slowly like a brushstroke into the blue sky.

'It's a train, Charlie.'

'Where?'

'See?'

I point down the tracks. 'The lizards felt it coming and they ran away.'