Hi Lara,

You did a great job with that last one ...

"I'm not too excited about the frigoric [fri-gor-ik] but the upside is that we don't need to worry about gallinippers!" [gal-i-nip-er]

frigoric - an imagined, nonexistent substance supposed to be the cause of cold.

gallinipper - a large mosquito.

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Matthew Flinders
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Captain Matthew Flinders. RN (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was one of the most accomplished navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, survived shipwreck and disaster only to be imprisoned as a spy, identified and corrected the effect of iron components and equipment on board wooden ships upon compass readings, and wrote the seminal work on Australian exploration A Voyage To Terra Australis.


Bryce Courtenay wrote the novel called Matthew Flinders' Cat

http://www.aussiebooks.com.au/images...ackpbandhb.jpg


Billy O'Shannessy, once a prominent Sydney barrister, is now homeless and living on the street where he sleeps on a bench outside the State Library in Sydney. Above him on a window ledge sits a bronze statue of Matthew Flinders' cat, Trim. Into this setting comes Ryan, a ten year old boy, a near street kid heading for all the usual troubles that beset teenagers with difficulties and terrible home lives.

Bryce Courtenay is the bestselling author of The Power of One, Tandia, April Fool's Day, The Potato Factory, Tommo & Hawk, Jessica, Solomon's Song, A Recipe for Dreaming, The Family Frying Pan, The Night Country, Smokey Joe's Cafi, Four Fires, Matthew Flinders' Cat, Brother Fish and Whitethorn.

(I have also read 'Jessica')
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I just did a search on John Marsden. I haven't read any of his books, but they do sound good. I'll have to ask my daughter if she is familiar with his writing. Thanks