Yvonne Mes (text) and Jody Pratt (illustrator), Little Bilby’s Aussie Bush Christmas, Hachette Australia, September 2021, 20 pp., RRP $19.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780734420404
After Little Bilby’s Aussie Easter Egg Hunt last year, Yvonne Mes and Jody Pratt have created another celebration-based adventure for their bilby characters to enjoy.
Little Bilby’s Aussie Bush Christmas is written in rhyming verse with lots of action words, repetition, and exclamations making it just right for a younger audience. The bilbies set out through the bush and meet a lizard, an emu, and a wombat who each gift an ornament for the bush Christmas tree. The illustrations depict Australian native flora and fauna, especially lovely are the eucalyptus blossoms.
I was reminded slightly of the classic Wombat Stew with the rhyming and the various Australian animals each providing a unique item to the celebration. However, the ending came much sooner than I expected and there wasn’t much depth to the book. It didn’t have the sense of a conflict and resolution that is typically found in a story. As such I would suggest this book is for very young readers with short attention spans.
At the end of the book there is a cute procedure giving instructions for making your own bush Christmas decoration out of sticks and glue that is very achievable for little hands.
Reviewed by Cherie Bell
