MARTIN, Marc Max Viking, 2014 unpaged $24.99 ISBN 9780670077434 SCIS 1648021 Max is mostly a very nice seagull. His favourite things are fish, chips – and, of course, Bob, who runs a fish and chip shop. Bob and Max are best friends. Bob sneaks Max chips when Max is well behaved, and every evening, the pair goes down the pier to fish. Only one day when Max gets to the shop, he finds it closed. He waits and waits, hoping for Bob to appear. But he doesn’t. So Max decides to go looking for his friend. Will he ever find…
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RYCROFT Nina (illus.) Peter Taylor (text) Once a Creepy Crocodile Five Mile Press, 2014 unpaged $16.95 ISBN 9781743467282 SCIS 1672023 With an eye seemingly cast towards the old poem about the spider and the fly Taylor has created an Australian version with a rather greedy looking crocodile in search of afternoon tea. The chief food on the menu appears to be a very innocent young brolga who is warned to stay away from the croc by various other bush animals. Rycroft’s illustrations are full of action with double page spreads adding to the anticipation of an end which contains a…
LANE, Victoria (text) Kayleen West (illus.) Celia and Nonna Ford St, 2014 unpaged $24.95 ISBN 9781925000603 SCIS 1674018 Celia loves to visit her Nonna, especially for sleepovers. Together they bake biscotti, read storybooks (even up to 8 or 9) at bedtime and plunder the special cupboard full of jigsaws, colouring books, felts and all the things a little girl enjoys. Things change when Nonna sadly begins to become forgetful and has to move to a new home where there are people who can give her help when she needs it. The new house is spartan, it has no kitchen, no…
KWAYMULLINA, Ambelin (text) Leanne Tobin (illus.) The Lost Girl Walker, 2014 unpaged $24.95 ISBN 9781921529634 SCIS 1661515 This is a new work by Ambelin Kwaymullina, and, although this title has a different style, she is still teaching us by telling a story about respect for the environment, having courage and finding our way home to our elders. ‘The girl has lost her way’ and while at first she waits to be found she follows a crow to find water and food and her way back home. The spiritual nature of the environment is affirmed when her brother asks ‘Were you…
KENNEDY, Cate (text) Carla Zapel (illus.) That Car! Allen & Unwin, 2014 unpaged $24.99 ISBN 9781743310953 SCIS 1660490 Here is a celebration of the history behind those disused cars you see in paddocks during long road trips! A story about imaginative play, it shows a family finding an old car at their farm property and Dad pushing it out under the peppercorn tree to create an impromptu ‘cubby’. The children climb in and ‘journey’ to Buckingham Palace, Mount Everest and far off Africa. They are not limited by physical constraints and the car both ‘flies’ and takes to sea to…
HOLROYD, Madison, Sarah Hill & Fiona Whyte Beetle Bottoms and the Eyes in the Night Visible Love Pub, 2014 unpaged $14.90 pbk ISBN 9780987595928 Imagine a hybrid of flightless fairies and May Gibbs’ gumnut babies who are the size of apple pips and ride birds and bees to fly, and you come close to what this mother and daughter team has created in this adventure story with a theme of racial acceptance and friendship. Explanations of these fantasy creatures bookend the story. The story itself, about the young Apple Keeper Beetle Bottoms’ discovery of another breed of Beetle Bottoms, is…
HATHORN, Libby (text) Tamsin Ainslie (illus.) A Baby for Loving Little Hare, 2014 unpaged $24.95 ISBN 9781921894671 SCIS 1666614 The aim of every picture book is a perfect marriage of text and illustration which is exactly what Libby Hathorn and Tamsin Ainslie have achieved here. The title encapsulates the theme of the joy that a baby creates in a family, in this case a family of bears. The events that occur every day will be recognised by the very young, from waking up, to playing with a big sister, and receiving constant hugs, cuddles and kisses. The text is presented…
HAMILTON, Margaret (text) Anna Pignataro (illus.) B is for Bedtime Little Hare, 2014 unpaged A$24.95 NZ$26.99 ISBN 9781921894343 SCIS 1650786 B is for Bedtime, Margaret Hamilton’s first picture book, with its leisurely, rhyming text and its delightful illustrations in Anna Pignataro’s characteristic style is a quiet meander through the ABC on the way to bedtime. From being Awake after tea, the little girl and her Dog progress happily through the bedtime routine, Book with Dad, snuggling in Eiderdown, Gran’s Hugs, Mum’s Kisses, Pyjamas, Teddy, relaXing Under the covers, Whispered prayers to Z…z…z. Each letter is presented in upper and lower…
GIBBES, Lesley (text) Stephen Michael King (illus.) Scary Night Working Title Press, 2014 unpaged $24.99 ISBN 9781921504631 SCIS 1669486 Once upon a scary night three friends set out upon a journey. There was a hare, a cat, and a pig. They carry various items through forests and across mountains as the reader wonders where they might be going. They meet, perhaps inevitably, some of the scariest creatures that can live in forests, including a crocodile and a bear. You will have to go to the book, however, to discover exactly what their destination was. Each large page is devoted to…
FENTON, Corinne (text) Hannah Sommerville (illus.) Chasing Shadows Ford St, 2014 unpaged $26.95 ISBN 9781925000153 SCIS 1645141 It is not clear why Beth is such a sad little girl. There is no mother in the story and a family photo suggests that this may be the loss that preoccupies her. Even the arrival of a cheeky pup, Patches, does nothing to dispel the shadows she encounters every day. Each page depicts the joyous adventures of this cheeky little dog as he explores his new home, often shared with Beth’s father but not with her. When Patches is bitten by a…