Katie Stewart, Where do the stars go?, Fremantle Press, May 2021, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760990480 This is Katie Stewart’s second illustrated book for children, and it is gorgeously produced. The full-page beautifully textured illustrations of iconic Australian fauna and flora make the book worth simply looking at before even beginning to read. The big-eyed baby possum is immediately loveable, and the kookaburra, Bungarra (goanna), numbat, galah and rakali (water-rat) make vivid appearances while the text makes a gentle point of respecting local and indigenous names for our native species. Each creature is colourfully and finely textured, almost…
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Kate and Jol Temple (text) and Terri Rose Baynton (illustrator), Move That Mountain, Scholastic, April 2021, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760974275 Move That Mountain is beautifully illustrated by Terri Rose Baynton and tells the tale of a group of puffins trying to move a beached whale. Spoiler alert! The book can be read front-to-back and back-to-front, with the reverse reading turning around the defeatism of the original reading. Although this results in some forced phrasing, overall, it is a clever technique that children will enjoy. The creators have a previous book using this technique, Room On Our Rock…
Tristan Bancks (text) and Jason Chatfield (illustrator), Ginger Meggs, Penguin Random House Australia, May 2021, 192 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760894818 In 1921 Jimmy Bancks started a regular comic strip called Us Fellers in The Bulletin, with a secondary character called Ginger Smith. This cheeky redhead was renamed Ginger Meggs a year later, and an Australian icon was born. Ginger went on to star in his own Annuals and feature films, to have a song written about him, to be painted on the side of fighter planes in WW2, to appear on coins and stamps, and even to be…
Magda Szubanski (text) and Dean Rankine (illustrator), Timmy the Ticked-Off Pony: The Great Escape Fartist (Book #3), Scholastic, April 2021, 240 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781743832189 In a house full of boys anything to do with bodily functions is sure to appeal, especially farts! We have been excitedly awaiting the next instalment of Timmy the Ticked-Off Pony adventures and this did not disappoint. Timmy has really hit ROCK BOTTOM! He’s been sent to THE PITS – the darkest, scariest place under Earth! He needs to find a way out. But only one pony has EVER managed… a GREAT ESCAPE.…
Anthony Browne, Ernest the Elephant, Walker Books, May 2021, 32 pp., RRP $27.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781406395099 Like many young children, Ernest is a bit of an adventurer and when there’s an opportunity to explore the jungle, he seizes it. And promptly becomes lost. The slightly surrealist colourful illustrations provide an added bonus for kids. Liquorice all-sorts, soccer balls and lollypops can be spotted in this jungle, along with the usual assortment of foreboding plants and trees. While Ernest, enjoys the experience of the ‘little bit frightening’ jungle, it wears off when he becomes lost. The other, much larger, animals are…
Emily Gale and Nova Weetman, Elsewhere Girls, Text Publishing, May 2021, 288 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781922330451 Cat Feeney and Fanny Durack are serious about their swimming. That’s right, Fanny Durack. If you haven’t heard of her before, then you don’t know much about swimming. This is a time slip novel about both girls who have changed places with each other. Cat ends up in 1908 – Fanny in 2021. Both are unhappy with their situation but have great difficulties in their attempts to reverse it. Cat hates the idea of skinning rabbits for her family but admires the…
Mike Lucas (text) and Daron Parton (illustrator), Let’s Build a House, Hachette Australia, April 2021, 24 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 97807345420329 Daron Parton uses bold colours and sharp lines to illustrate this bright picture book. We follow a father and daughter as they construct their new home. The rhyming text is perfect for little ones to engage with, as each double-page spread ends with a word repeated three times. For example, the book begins: Let’s build a house. First the floor, and then the walls, then the roof. Let’s build it tall. You and me – we’ll build it…
Zanni Louise (text) and Anna Pignataro (illustrator), Florence and Fox, Walker Books, May 2021, 32 pp., RRP $25.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760651350 From well-known creators Zanni Louise and Anna Pignataro, Florence and Fox is a charming story about friendship, sharing and growing. Ideal for pre-schoolers who are still learning about social norms and boundaries, this is one that should be read more than once. Florence, a determined and busy crocodile, is building when her friend, Fox, innocently picks up a hammer to join in. Florence informs Fox that “Today is not Sharing Day”, and so he can’t use the hammer. The reader feels…
Jason Bittel (text) and Kelsey Buzzell (illustrator), How to Talk to a Tiger… and Other Animals, Magic Cat Publishing, April 2021, 64 pp., RRP $38.80 (hbk), ISBN 9781913520076 How to talk like a tiger…and other animals celebrates the abundance of bizarre techniques that animals use to communicate with each other. With more than one hundred animals, the book is separated into four sections: sights; sounds; smell and taste; electrosensory and touch. There are pages devoted to delving more deeply into a species or a special aspect of animal communication. Every page teems with animal insights, beautifully illustrated by Kelsey Buzzell’s…
Karen Swann (text) and Padmacandra (illustrator), The Tale of the Whale, University of Queensland Press, March 2021, 32pp., RRP $31.40 (hbk), ISBN 9781912650491 The Tale of the Whale is a beautiful picture book by two first time picture book makers. The text is simple and delightful – using rhyme and rhythm with strong effect. A child spies a whale who invites her along on a journey. Together they travel the ocean, seeing turtles and rays, dolphins and seagulls (one even follows along on the journey). Then the whale takes a deep dive and reveals the beauty and mystery of the…