SEIB, Luke (illus.) Tim Stanton (text) Grandpa’s Chatty Chews Stanton and Abbot Pub, 2013 unpaged $14.99 pbk ISBN 9780987478443 Grandpa’s Chatty Chews appears to be a picture book for young readers but is probably more useful as an object lesson for would-be self-published children’s book creators – seek professional advice! A story that is centred around dog biscuits that give animals the ability to speak human, which involves a swimming pool race between a girl’s dad and a water dragon and which somehow seeks to solve a mystery of missing socks is a challenge to comprehend. Further, embedded didactically in…
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MUCCI, Kiara (illus.) Matt Lumb (text) Hope University of Newcastle, 2013 unpaged $19.95 ISBN 9780987327604 SCIS 1636530 This is a futuristic picture book where at a certain age children get to wear Jetpacks and zoom all around like the adults. Hope has a heavy backpack as well as a heavy heart. There are hints that she and her younger brother Leo are alone as she seems to be caring for him and the backpack she wears used to belong to her mother. The children in Hope’s class are very excited about having permission to explore the contents of their backpacks…
SEBE, Masayuki 100 People Gecko Press, 2013 24pp NZ$19.99 pbk ISBN 9781877579875 SCIS 1636466 For those who recall Sebe’s previous works Dinosaurs Galore and 100 Things, the pleasure of the activity picture book will be reiterated in this text. What is truly worthwhile in these texts is the learning that picture books demand time from the reader and though words/narrative demand that we turn quickly to the next page to find what happens next, pictures/images demand us to slow down and explore the minutiae of detail. Each of the ten double-page spreads in this book would have taken hours to…
SARLOS, Eliza (text) Grace Lee (illus.) Amazing Babes Scribe, 2013 unpaged A$24.95 NZ$32.00 ISBN 9781922070715 SCIS 1640445 Twenty inspirational women and their outstanding attributes are the basis of this outstanding book. Full page illustration with a small word grab to follow the introduction ‘as I grow’, . . . make for a powerful book visually and emotionally. Short biographies at the end of the main body of work invite further reading about the lives of the women of such diverse backgrounds as Aung San Suu Kyi, Hedy Lamarr, Frida Khalo, Gloria Stenheim and Malala Yousafzi. A valuable resource for home…
RYAN, Kate Monet’s Garden: A book for Kids, National Gallery of Victoria, 2013 71pp $14.95 ISBN 9780724103713 SCIS 1622351 We are beginning to see a number of books being produced by various cultural institutions around Australia, undoubtedly to provide additional access to well known cultural assets for younger audiences. This is one such effort. It’s a book, set out in chapters that are interspersed with short amounts of factual information, incidental information about Monet and his work, examples from his artworks and relevant drawings and photos. As well as this, it encourages interactivity with the reader, by including various suggestions…
PULMAN, Felicity (text) David Jenkins (photos) The Little Penguins of Manly Wharf Self Pub, 2013 46pp $24.95 pbk ISBN 9780987570802 SCIS 1618776 Anna and Josh, the narrators of this lovely information book for kids of all ages, are part of the penguin warden team at Manly beach and National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) volunteers. The penguin warden team look after the little penguins and keep them safe. As the only breeding colony in an international city these penguins and their habitat are at risk from dogs and other predators, rubbish such as plastic bags, speed boats and jet skis. …
PEART, Raewyn Dolphins of Aotearoa Craig Potton Pub, 2013 307pp NZ$59.99 ISBN 9781877517983 SCIS 1636042 As I sit on my deck, glass of wine in hand, facing the inner Akaroa harbour, watching from time-to-time tourists delighting in swimming with (presumably Hector) dolphins, I will look at this activity with a far deeper awareness of not only the incredible joy and insight into this species that living-in-the moment can bring to the participants, but also deeply concerned at the chequered history of human institutional relationships with dolphins and the reality that ignorance is not bliss. I recall as a child watching…
LIPSCOMBE, Meg Tui: a Nest in the Bush Craig Potton Pub, 2013 unpaged NZ$29.99 ISBN 9781877517914 SCIS 1632862 This is a brilliant book that is a must for every teacher of science, even in the junior school. For parents and children who have a love for, and committed to, our native flora and fauna, this book is a must. It is a simple book textually and perhaps photographically, but is profoundly inspirational. Tui is an iconic bird in NZ with its parson-like beak and neck, its black sheen feathers as well as its signature aggressive assertion of its ego (both…
GILL, Maria (text) Bruce Potter (illus.) The Last of Maui’s Dolphins New Holland, 2014 unpaged NZ$19.99 pbk ISBN 9781869664107 There is enormous pleasure in joining a dolphin-watching tourist boat and experiencing first hand (sometimes) the possibility of swimming with the dolphins. There are many stories of extraordinary life-changing encounters with a species of animal that are both intelligent and show empathy. But humans have not always been kind to the marine world, and through setting nets, trawling and ignorance, fishermen, young folk and even tourists have caused great harm to this species. They are endangered, with the Maui (and Hector)…
CANDLER, Gillian (text) Ned Barraud (illus.) In the Garden Craig Potton Pub, 2013 32pp NZ$19.99 pbk ISBN 9781877517990 SCIS 1633720 In The Garden is a powerful trope in literature and in life. The opening of this picture book invites children to enter the mysteries of this space and to learn that it is literally alive with nature. After a brief introduction, three questions are asked and brief answers given: what lives in the ground, what lives on the plants and what lives the trees? Then there is a brief introduction to six categories of species, broadly defined, emerging from these…