We are located in the Todd Mall which is in the city centre.
Address
Shop A, 79 Todd Mall, Alice Springs NT 0870
Spring Hours
Monday to Friday
9am to 5.00pm
Saturday
9am to 2.00pm
Market Sundays
9am to 1pm
Red Kangaroo Books is an independent bookstore in Alice Springs and has been trading for over decade. Our bookstore specialises in Australian and Indigenous books and serves a varied community of readers. We stock a large range of books that cover Indigenous history and art; Indigenous language books; local and regional history; biographies of local and larger-than-life heroes; fiction; children's books; and flora, fauna and natural history books. We believe we are the only bricks-and-mortar bookshop still standing between Port Augusta, Darwin, Broome and Broken Hill.
In 1901, the word bondmaid was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.
Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of lexicographers are gathering words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary.
Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day, she sees a slip containing the word bondmaid flutter to the floor unclaimed. Esme seizes the word and hides it in an old wooden trunk that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. They help her make sense of the world.
Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. She begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.
Set when the women’s suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. It’s a delightful, lyrical and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words, and the power of language to shape our experience of the world.
We are a family owned local business with a passion for reading, all things books and supporting Australian and local authors. We love getting to know our customers and finding just the 'right' book for them. Our staff have the same commitment to service that we do and can offer suggestions on demand! Our focus is on Australian and regional. We have an extensive collection of books and DVDs about Indigenous culture, language and history. We also have a carefully curated selection of international authors. If we do not have what you need, we will make every effort to get it in for you. When you spend money with us, you are contributing to the local economy - but our customers tell us they shop with us because they love our range of books and our service.
We are located in the Todd Mall which is in the city centre.
Spring Hours
Monday to Friday
9am to 5.00pm
Saturday
9am to 2.00pm
Market Sundays
9am to 1pm