THE END OF THE OUTLAWS

One childhood summer, the author discovered fool's gold near her Australian ranch home, but this loss of a private goldmine was the briefest of disappointments. The rest of what seems like an enchanted childhood was spent in what her animal loving readers will consider a paradise. The author's nostalgia has led her directly along the path of reader interest that she has successfully followed before in her many horse and dog stories. Her recollections of pets begin with the taming of a huge, half-wild cat and continue with her memories of her kangaroos, horses, dogs, koala bears and an incredible 5 foot long lizard. At one point she kept a rabbit -- no mean feat in a country that considers them destructive vermin. Her encounter with cattle rustlers makes an interesting tale in the recalling of it, but the book will undoubtedly be remembered by its readers as the partial autobiography of a girl who had what amounts to her own private zoo. Well told with warm, but never mawkish, sentiment.