[I read "Fire in the Stone"] cover to cover with total pleasure….

What is so fascinating and rare is the picture painted by this skillful author, in the dry, dun colors of an arid landscape, of an Australia no one who has only seen Melbourne and "Sinny" and gleaming Canberra could even guess at. Inland Australia seems to have much in common with the raw new lands opening up in this country at the turn of the century. Men struggling with a harsh, intractable landscape, emotions centered desperately on greed and luck….

The writing … is perceptive, evocative, funny, lyrical. If kids—or whoever buys books for kids—can overcome the insular reverse of "Who wants to read about Australia?" it's marvelously well worthwhile.

Monica Dickens, "'Fire in the Stone'," in The New York Times Book Review (© 1975 by The New York Times Company; reprinted by permission), February 23, 1975, p. 8.

The...