Shona Innes (text), Irisz Agocs (illustrations), The Internet is Like a Puddle (A Big Hug Book), The Five Mile Press, January 2015, $14.95, 32pp., ISBN: 9781760064167 This book was written by Shona Innes, a clinical and forensic psychologist, and is part of the A Big Hug Book series, which deals with the emotive issues children face. The Internet is like a Puddle looks at how amazing the Internet is, but details the dangers that lurk with unsupervised Internet access. Using puddles as a metaphor, this book discusses how puddles may look shallow but possess hidden depth. This is a great idea and…
Author: Admin
Candice Lemon-Scott, Volcanoes of Venus (Jake in Space #4), New Frontier, 1 February 2015, $14.99 (pbk), 120pp., ISBN: 9781925059281 Jake and his group of friends, Rory, Skye and Milly, along with their families receive tickets to stay at the Floating Hotel of Venus after stopping thousands of remote-controlled robots from taking over the solar system at the Robot Games. Along with their robot friend, Henry, they discover that not everything is as it seems at the hotel. Someone is dumping rubbish in a nearby volcano, which is threatening to erupt. Will Jake and his friends be able to solve the…
Alice Pung, Meet Marly (Our Australian Girl #1), Puffin Books, 28 January 2015, $14.99 (pbk), 144pp., ISBN 978 0 14 330849 2 Meet Marly is the first book in the series Our Australian Girl, a series of books for girls aged eight to twelve, looking at Australian history. This story is set in 1983 and the heroine’s family, who escaped from Vietnam when Marly was two, are now very settled in the suburb of Sunshine. Marly, formerly MyLinh, now attends the local primary school, speaks English fluently and has made Australian friends. In other words, she fits in. However, everything changes when one…
Hannah Chandler (text), Lauren Merrick (illustrations), I Don’t Like Cheese, Exisle Publishing, 18 November 2014, $19.99(hbk), 24pp., ISBN 978-1921966-66-8 Mike is an obstinate mouse who refuses to eat the cheese his mother serves up each night, preferring the international cuisine offered to him by the little girl in whose house he lives. But when the little girl goes on holidays and the alternate food source dries up, he discovers something about his mother’s offerings that surprises him. The illustrations are watercolour on textured paper, in a limited palette of yellows, browns and reds, with splashes of blue/green for contrast. The smudgy, imperfect style…
Therese Waters (text), Jean Paul Lehfeld (illustrations), Two Dogs in Bondi, Green Olive Press, 1 September 2014, $19.95(pbk), 28pp., ISBN 978-0-646-90171-8 The cover of this cute and colourful book advertises that it won the Best Fiction prize at the Woollahra Council’s Writer’s Literary Competition, and I can see why it would appeal to a local audience. It is a fictional story of anthropomorphised dogs based on the local canine scene in Bondi. Two mixed poodle friends want to learn how to surf, but the beach is dominated by stereotypical territorial surfer ‘Staffies’ (Staffordshire bull terriers). The book follows the challenges they face,…
Diana Weston (text), Kym Burrows (illustrations), Nadje Noordhuis (composer), Alicia Crossley (musical accompaniment), Angus Ryan (Lyrics), Danielle Grant (reader) Magpie Baby, Captain Honey, 29 October 2014, $25.00 (hbk) with audio CD, 24 pp., ISBN: 9780992474669 This charming book is the work of a collaboration of artists and beautifully put together by new, independent publisher, Captain Honey. It is described as a “musical storytelling with an illustrated and written component” and takes as its subject a baby as she grows from birth to “Running Rampant” and ends with a mother’s reminiscences. The book acts as the CD cover, and is the same small, square size. It starts with a song list and then each…
Juliette Maciver (text), Cat Chapman (illustrations), Yak and Gnu, Walker Books, March 2015, $24.95, 32pp., ISBN 9781922077684 Children’s picture books are replete with unlikely friendships among animal characters. Immediately, the seemingly impossible pairings elicit amusement and stimulate curiosity about how the characters can possibly get along. A classic of the genre is William Steig’s Amos and Boris – a mouse and a whale. Here New Zealand author Juliette MacIver has paired an Asian yak with an African gnu; there they are on the cover, paddles in hand ready for a canoe trip downriver to the sea. Such a lovely prospect,…
Ingrid and Dieter Schubert, The Umbrella, Book Island, March 2015, $19.45 (pbk), 40pp., ISBN 9780994109859 Dutch picture book creators, Ingrid and Dieter Schubert, have quite made textless picture books their patch. Typically, their latest wordless story takes their animal character on a fantastical adventure of much drama, an abundance of incidents and a great variety of landscapes, all depicted from creative perspectives near and far. The visual narrative begins on the front endpapers with a little terrier, in wind-blown woods, coming across a folded umbrella propped against a tree trunk. A cat stands by, watching. On the title page, having…
Margery Williams Bianco (text), Helene Magisson (illustrations), The Velveteen Rabbit, New Frontier Publishing, 1 March 2015, $27.99(hbk), 48pp., ISBN 9781925059304 Better known as Margery Williams, the American author first published this classic tale in 1922. Since then the much-loved story has been published in over 200 editions. Many different illustrators have sought to interpret and depict the nursery flavour and poignancy of The Velveteen Rabbit. With this new edition, the European heritage of French-Australian illustrator Helene Magisson is evident in her softly-hued, stylistic pictures that focus on the magical dimension of the story. It is a gentle but profound tale…
CBCA celebrates an exciting partnership with the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. CBCA branches across Australia enthusiastically endorse our shared mission to promote reading, literacy and quality literature. CBCA and ILF have agreed to collaborate on several events in 2015. CBCA branches across Australia will be participating in the Great Book Swap, a national event that aims to raise funds and awareness about literacy issues in remote Indigenous communities.