Tilde Michels (text), David-Henry Wilson (translator), Reinhard Michl (illus.), Snowy Night, Starfish Bay, February 2015, 28pp., $12.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780994100221 This is one of a series of books from other countries translated for English readers by Starfish Bay Publishing. It is a heart-warming and humorous tale of unlikely alliances in a time of adversity. Hare, fox and bear all seek shelter with Peter in his warm cabin one blizzardy night. The rhyming text translates well from the original German, with an occasional interruption of rhythm. The interplay of white space, text and illustrations contributes to a frosty feel of the cold…
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Bingbo (text), Liam How (translater), Gumi (illus.) Two Unhappy Fish Starfish Bay, February 2015, 32pp., $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780994100269 This children’s picture book is by Starfish Bay Publishing, who source stories from around the world and translate them into English. Two Unhappy Fish is by renowned Chinese author, Bingbo, and illustrator, Gumi. Delightful, bright and colourful full page pictures of underwater scenes and cute characters (in a blend of watercolour and crayon) beautifully illustrate and enfold the text. The story has a seemingly universal theme of embracing your own difference. When two lonely fish, believing themselves to be the ugliest in the ocean, meet,…
Reading Time is excited to announce a new exhibition coming to the National Gallery of Victoria. Bunyips and Dragons: Australian Children’s Book Illustrations will be at the The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia from 25 July 2015 to 4 October 2015. And the best news is that it’s free entry! Enchanting large-scale works from more than 60 of Australia’s best-loved book illustrators will feature in Bunyips and Dragons: Australian Children’s Book Illustrations. Original and instantly recognisable images will be showcased including award-winning work by Graeme Base for The Eleventh Hour, Shaun Tan for the popular John Marsden book The Rabbits…
Further to our last news item about the Wilderness Society’s information about the Environment Award for Children’s Literature (EACL), we can now post a link to the 2015 Shortlist of fiction, picture book and non-fiction titles. That’s 11 Australian books all acknowledged for the way they ‘capture children’s imagination… whilst encouraging them to treasure and protect Australia’s unique natural environment’ (press release). To supplement this announcement, the EACL has produced a range of educational resources aimed at supporting the cross-curriculum priority of sustainability. These lesson plans also have an art component, offering the students the opportunity to enter a competition…
Lewis Carroll, Joe Rhatigan (retold by), Charles Nurnberg (retold by), Eric Puybaret (illus.) Down the Rabbit Hole (Alice in Wonderland), Scholastic, 1 March 2015, 28pp $24.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9781742761411 A worthy addition to the plethora of titles on the 150th anniversary of the enduring adventures of Alice, this book has everything to engage a new reader. The double page illustrations are supremely powerful with more than a nod to the earliest works and a strong influence of the animators craft in evidence. The colours are simply stunning and the variations of font a joy, making the reading a simple but…
Alison Giles (text), Vlado Damjanovski (illus.), The Happy Fish, Clickcloud Publishing, 8 January 2015, 32pp., $28.99 (pbk), ISBN 978 0 994204905 The priceless energy of a true story is perfectly executed in this highly entertaining story of Claude and his dive in the the fish tank at an aquarium in a Macao casino. This story ticks all the boxes ; exotic setting, unique problem, engaging characters (especially the flashback to Claude as a child) and a highly satisfying conclusion – all this enhanced by the magic of mixed media illustrations that encapture the marine environment so powerfully. A glossary of further fish facts nicely…
Garry Fleming, Follow That Bee! (The Adventures of Honey Pot Bear), Garry Fleming Publishing, 1 July 2014, 32pp., $19.95 (hbk), ISBN 978 0992424817 Glossy illustrations and a simple rhyming text has the reader easily following bear on his quest for honey. The setting is a generic woodland area with more than a nod to a more famous bear, Winnie. The quite brief story line concludes with the plainly toy bear about to eat honey from a stick while being watched by an irate anthropomorphised bee. The book wraps up with a simple fact page. Charming as it is, this is…
P Crumble (text) Nathaniel Eckstrom (illus.), Me and Moo, Scholastic, 1 March 2015, 24pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 978 1 743625323 A gentle exploration of the imaginary friend and the importance to many under five creative children. Moo is born from the need of the story’s hero’s to confide and grow emotionally. Logically he begins his relationship as a calf and grows to adult size as does the social support for the young boy in his family and at school. Delightful illustrations drive a concisely controlled text and the story rounds out with the discovery of similar “friends ” belonging…
Rebecca Woolfall and Suzi Tait-Bradley, Vicki Leopold (illus.). Piggy Pasta and More Food with Attitude Scholastic (NZ), August 2014, 64pp., $AU14.99/$NZ19.00 (pbk) ISBN 978-1-77543-216-6 Can you remember the days when girls went to sewing and cooking classes and boys went to woodwork and metal classes at high school? Those were the (politically incorrect) days! For boys can love cooking and girls can love woodwork as a lot of reality TV programmes show. This visually attractive book of recipes “with attitude” endeavours, and succeeds, in making cooking fun for both boys and girls as the photographs, titles and content show.…
Philippa Werry. Waitangi Day – The New Zealand Story: what it is and why it matters. New Holland Publishers, 1 January 2015, 64pp $AU22.20/$NZ24.99 (pbk) ISBN 978-1-86966-421-3 Waitangi Day (February 6) is the day of contemporary “celebration” in New Zealand of the founding document that grounds historic relationship between Māori and pakeha. A treaty between Maori and pakeha was signed in 1840 that established the basis of governance the indigenous peoples by the early settlers from the United Kingdom. The word celebration is a contested space in that what was signed (the translations) signified quite different ideas for the two…