The first part of February Dragon seems to me rather "written down"—surprising, from so good a writer as Colin Thiele. But children will put up with its agreeable though unremarkable story of the life of a group of children in the Australian bush, for gradually it comes to grips with the "dragon." He is a creature as familiar in a hot American summer as in a hot Australian February—fire. A bushfire sweeping through the children's lives destroys homes, pets, and friends; the portrait is enormously vivid—and salutary.

Susan Cooper, "Newberry Medalist Susan Cooper Reviews New Novels," in The Christian Science Monitor (reprinted by permission from The Christian Science Monitor; © 1976 The Christian Science Publishing Society; all rights reserved), November 3, 1976, p. 20.∗

Thiele returns [with The Hammerhead Light] to a fishing village in Southern Australia, where this time the locals of Snapper Bay are threatened … by the Marine...