Lucy Barnard, Ruby and Graham, New Frontier Publishing, September 2020, 28 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781921928758 Ruby and Graham is a picture book story with a lesson about embracing your innate temperament. Graham’s tendency to be sensible and well organised doesn’t seem to win him friends. So, Graham decides to focus on being more fun loving and popular, like Ruby. But without Graham to organise the animals, the woods become messy and chaotic. In the end, Graham helps organise a party and realises that “…you can be sensible and sensational.” With few words and lovely illustrations, Barnard has told a sweet but relevant and relatable parable, developed the contrasting characters of Ruby and Graham, and conveyed a northern hemisphere autumn wood setting. The illustrations portray cute and appealing cartoon style badgers, squirrels and…
Author: Admin
Good Wives and Warriors, Mythopedia: Encyclopedia of Mythical Beasts and Their Magical Tales, Laurence King Publishing Ltd, September 2020, 128pp., RRP $35.00 (hbk), ISBN 9781786276902 Wow! Mythopedia: An Encyclopedia of Mythical Beasts and their Magical Tales is brought to life by the illustration work of UK based Becky Bolton and Louise Chappell, the team behind Good Wives and Warriors. The book is a visual feast full of spectacular colour and a dizzying array of intricate details, supported by weird and wonderous tales of mythical beasts from around the world. Organised according to regions such as the Americas, Oceania, and Asia, Mythopedia includes 37 mythical beasts. There is a description of each mythical beast, interspersed…
Kaliah Tsakalidis (text) and Ross Morgan (illustrator), Molly Moores has a House Like Yours, Little Book Press, August 2020, RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780648591566 Molly Moores has a House Like Yours was first published as part of the Raising Literacy Australia’ s Emerging Author and Illustrator Mentoring Program. Under their mentorship, author Kaliah Tsakalidis and illustrator Ross Morgan have created two picture books, which will be included respectively in Raising Literacy Australia’s 2021 and 2022 Preschool Reading Packs and given free to 23,000 South Australian preschool children. This, their first collaboration, is a beautifully illustrated rhyming tale of imagination, belonging and change. There is a child named Molly Moores, who has a…
Sibéal Pounder, Tinsel, Bloomsbury, November 2020, 305 pp., RRP $17.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781526619273 If you’re anything like me and you cannot wait to see 2020 end, you’ll be on pins and needles for Christmas this year, and eagerly awaiting every little sign that the season is upon us. Then I feel confident saying you’re going to adore Tinsel, the new book from Sibéal Pounder. And if you’re not a Christmas fan, but you are a fan of the power of female friendships, coupled with a clever and humorous tale of how Christmas really came to be, then you’re going to love this! I couldn’t stop smiling once I started reading…
Archimedes Fusillo, Tribal Lores, Walker Books, August 2020, 432 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760651954 The reader meets Frankie Rescio as he and his family prepare for an Australia Day lunch at their neighbours’ house. Frankie’s parents are from Italy and, though they have been in Australia for over 20 years, their English is still heavily accented and they live very much by their customs and traditions from Italy. Their neighbours, on the other hand, are the quintessential Australians and don’t mind telling Frankie’s family how foreign their food and wine is, despite drinking and eating it with enthusiasm. Themes of cultural differences and xenophobia are obvious from the outset, with…
Jack Beaumont (text) and Harry Beaumont (illustrator), The Little Green Frog, Little Green Olives/Green Olive Press, November 2020, 24 pp., RRP $24.95 (hbk), ISBN 9780648531692 In their debut title The Little Green Frog, Jack and Harry Beaumont invite us to follow a courageous frog as he jumps toward his goals. The story builds slowly as the frog’s determination grows. Every lily pad he lands on is a lesson in not giving up. This book is the first title to be released under Green Olive Press’s ‘Little Olives’ imprint— books that are written by children, for children. Creating a book during a global pandemic is an impressive feat for anyone, especially authors and illustrators who are 8 and 6…
Corrine Hall and Michael Randall, Victress: Women who paved the way in Australian Sport, Wild Dingo Press, April 2020, 160 pp., RRP $39.95 (pbk), ISBN 9781925893274 This book is an ode to Australian sportswomen, highlighting our famous heroes as well as those who blazed a trail for women in lesser known sports. This large format paperback was the brainchild of Hobart Hurricanes Women’s Big Bash League cricketer, Corinne Hall. Corinne provided the illustrations for each athlete and tells the story of what each athlete means to her. She worked on the project with Michael Randall who interpreted her stories into the text we see in the book. The…
Tom Percival, Meesha Makes Friends, Bloomsbury, September 2020, 32 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781526612953 Meesha loves to make stuff but has trouble making friends. In classic kid-thinking, she decides to make her own friends using recycled bits and bobs, paints, pencils and ‘all her other tools’. This is likely to be a helpful book for kids who find it difficult to relate to others. There’s a bit of visual humour thrown in as well. For example, Meesha’s newly created friends aren’t very good at tennis or football or catch. The fourth in author-illustrator Percival’s Big Bright Feelings series, Meesha Makes Friends aims to help kids with emotional intelligence. Other titles to look out for are Ruby’s Worry, Ravi’s Roar and Perfectly Norman. When Meesha attends…
Kitty Black (text) and Daron Parton (illustrator), A Crocodile in the Family, Hachette Australia, August 2020, 32pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780734419507 A Crocodile in the Family is a picture book by emerging author Kitty Black. Gorgeously illustrated by Daron Parton it has all the ingredients of a delightful children’s story. Set in the Australian bush, the basic premise of the story is that a family of birds adopt an egg out of which hatches a crocodile. The other bush animals are concerned about this addition to the family and quiz the birds about their choice. Do they keep him because he’s beautiful, strong, or helpful? The birds…
Chris Johnson, The Fire Trail, self-published, May 2020, 138pp., RRP $15.35 (pbk), ISBN 9780646818597 Andrew is just your average thirteen-year-old kid in Australia. He goes to school, has a couple of good mates, is on the rugby team, and is going through his first crush on the new girl Alisha. But things change when he decides to go for a jog along the fire trail in the local national park one evening and meets Kangaroo, a talking animal. Kangaroo is quick to enlist Andrew into a war between the native species and ferals, who are bitter rivals. Kangaroo hopes that Andrew will be their secret weapon for the final battle. However, when everyone at school finds out he thinks animals can talk, and the realisation of the danger of…