| The Crooked Snake | |
| Author: | Patricia Wrightson |
| Cover Artist: | Margaret Horder |
| Country: | Australia |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | Children's fiction |
| Publisher: | Angus and Robertson |
| Release Date: | 1955 |
| Media Type: | |
| Pages: | 153pp |
| Followed By: | The Bunyip Hole |
The Crooked Snake (1955) is the first novel by Australian author Patricia Wrightson. The book was illustrated by Margaret Horder. It won the in 1956.[1]
A gang of children form a secret society to protect a nearby national park from vandals. They record the bush with a camera and write to the Ministry of Conservation requesting the park be designated a flora and fauna sanctuary.
In a survey of Australian children's books dealing with the Australian bush, Susan Sheridan and Emma Maguire noted: "In their preferred method of research, and in their dealings with the bureaucracy, these children mark out a specifically modern, as well as Australian, mode of the Enid Blyton or Arthur Ransome adventure story in a natural setting."[2]