More Picture Book Feasts

And more ...

All Through The Year Jane Godwin & Anna Walker (Penguin)
Gorgeous illustrations and a gorgeous text make this a gorgeous book.
It is the reflection of a very Australian year as seen through the eyes of a girl from an ordinary family. her reflections are about the weather, her family, school, falling leaves, feasts and festivities like Easter egg hunting and Mother's Day preparations (in May of course), end of year school concert nights and much more. Each double page spread is the home of a month and is written in a wonderful rhyme and told with appropriate voice of the child. The illustrations are rich with the characters and the environment changing appropriately, and the book cover is padded - making this even more of a treat. And don't miss the end papers ... they too reflect change.

Plato the Platypus Plumber (Part-Time) Hazel Edwards & John Petropoulos (IP Kidz)
Water and a platypus ... that goes together very well.
Plato the platypus plumber is a quirky new picture book from the prolific Hazel Edwards. This platypus is a part time plumber who fixes all manner of water problems for his human friend Zanzibar whose family is repairing a run down house by the creek. When the shower hose in the bath breaks, or when the toilet gets blocked while dad is sitting on it ... it is Zanzibar who swims to the rescue. He also brings other special tools in his tool-kit like Smile Spray for grumpy people. This story, with its well crafted message about the importance of water, and the small side lines about feral animals, drought, and the environment, is a delight.
Also available is the Teachers' Guide and the Classroom Performance Script as free downloads from the website.

Shake A Leg Boori Monty Pryor & Jan Ormerod (Allen&Unwin)
This is a super book with a wonderful story and illustrations in comic strip frame format that is (as the back cover says) a joyous celebration of food, dance and cultural understanding.
Three hungry young boys stop in at Bertie's Pizzeria in far north Queensland and meet Bertie - an Aboriginal chef who speaks Italian and makes the best pizza in town. And while Bertie makes the boys a pizza he also tells stories, stories of a boy who didn't listen, and boys who went hunting for honey.
Woven in with these stories are the cultural understandings as Bertie reveals Aboriginal culture in the hunting, music, dance and spirituality. As written in the acknowledgement this book most definitely shows the beauty and colour of this ancient culture in a new way!
See the clip here.

Monkey Red Monkey Blue Nicki Greenberg (Allen&Unwin)
Bold strong colours and photographic images with a simple and quirky text make this a fun book to share with the very young.
Like many children Monkey Red and Monkey Blue don’t want to go bed. Instead they want to stay up so their friend chameleon suggest having a midnight feast ... and that’s when the chaos begins as the two monkey, with a little help from chameleon gather the food, popcorn, spaghetti, pancakes, sauce and more and put it all together with a cherry on top. Of course the end result is a mess when chameleon gets just a little too enthusiastic!

Chill Carol Thompson (Little Hare)
Dolly and Jack are best friends. Some days they are quiet together and other days they totally chaotic ... and make them laugh. One day the two friends decide to paint picture of each other - except that neither friend is impressed with each other’s portrait. The best friends are no longer friends any more and each of them gets MAD ... and then each of them gets Sad. But with a bit of deep breathing and counting to ten the fallen out friends are soon best friends again.
Lovely story and illustrations.

Princess and Fairy: Twinkly Ballerinas Anna Pignataro (Scholastic)
Another gorgeous Princess and Fairy "Look and Find" book that will be adored by all the little fairy and ballerina girls - especially with all the pink glitter on the cover and the final pages of the book!!
Princess and Fairy - two cute bunnies - have been invited to attend the Ballet Frou-Frou. First they have to travel through different lands to find the tiems on their list, hidden in the illustrations. The book includes a pullout invitation and list of ballet related items to be found on the pages throughout this book.
Written in rhyming verse, and with each double page spread overflowing with delicate illustrations, this is another that will be read and poured over time and time again.

More coming soon.....

A Picture Book feast!

So many gorgeous new picture books ... here are some:

Our World; Bardi-Jaawi Life at Ardiyooloon One Arm Point Remote Community School (Magabala Books)

If you want to see inside the life of a remote aboriginal community then Our World - Bardi-Jaawi Life at Ardiyooloon is the perfect book to investigate.

Full of colour and wonderful words it looks at the children of this aboriginal community and celebrates the connection of the BARDI-JAAWI people to the land and the sea. there are wonderful photographs of the children and other people in the community as well as artwork by the children and delightfully written text. there are explanations and a pronunciation guide for some of the bardi words included as well as explanation of some of the camping, fishing and hunting activities, a Bardi kinship chart and many more insights into this community. Ardiyooloon is at the top of the Dampier Peninsula, 200km north of Broome in the north-west of Western Australia. This is a book to be explored and enjoyed.

The Legend of The Golden Snail Graeme Base (Penguin)

A Graeme Base book is always a feast of reading and exploration of the intricate artwork and this one continues that long tradition for there will be continued re-reading and continued re-examination of the so richly created artwork.

The Legend of the Golden Snail is Wilbur's favourite book. he loves hearing it read to him. It fills his mind with endless possibilities and imaginations so much so that Wilbur decides to set out on a mission to free The Golden Snail for it has been banished to the ends of the earth only to be released if a new master is found. Along the way Wilbur makes friends with a cat, a monstrous sea creature, a bush of blossoming butterflies, and lantern-fish.

Of course there are also hidden snail 'n' crossbones images to find in every picture that will surely encourage a closer look!

And dont forget to check out the clip.

Feathers for Phoebe Rod Clement (HarperCollins)
Like all of Rods books this one is a joy wit hilarious text and rich vibrant illustrations.

A small, grey and not often noticed little bird wants very much to be noticed, to stand out in the crowd ... just like Zelda and Zelda is only tooo happy to transform Phoebe for she runs the most popular beauty salon in the forest. so the transformation beings, starting at the top and working right through her 'look' with feather extensions and added crests, moves, songs and colours and more. unfortunately for Phoebe each added transformation leaves phoebe unnoticed and it also makes it a little more difficult to walk and fly and just get around until eventually the all the added extras are just to much for little phoebe.

I Don't Believe In Dragons Anna Walker (Scholastic)

"I can see a dragon," says miss may. Everyone in kindergarten can see a dragon ... everyone except jack. Jack doesn't believe in dragons. While all the children ask questions or ponders dragon possibilities when a feather or apple skin is found or a strange sound is heard, jack provides a real-world reason for the possibility even though reading the story we can see that there is a dragon present until jack makes a discovery.

A delightful story and pictures with a beautiful, lovely, friendly dragon that dragon-lovers everywhere will adore.

More to follow.

More Junior Fiction Series titles.

Two more junior reads. Both books have well spaced text, ample illustrations, and short fun chapters or entries. Both will be especially appealing to girls.

Harriet Bright Holiday Hullabaloo Craig Claire & Melanie Feddersen (Penguin)

The Harriet Bright books are fun to read and this continues the tradition with four delightful holiday-time stories.

Harriet Bright loves poetry and she is going to have the best holiday ever and Christmas is very nearly here! But there are 6480 seconds (Harriet knows because she calculated it) before she is allowed to get out of bed. She promise, promise, promised, her mother that she wouldn't get out of bed until 7 am so she takes out her notebook and writes down some good ideas to pass the time.

Other stories include the 'being bored' story, and the summer holiday friend that comes by (who causes a whole heaps of trouble for Harriet), and the best holiday story ever - starring Harriet Bright and her best friend Melly ... and a camel, and a pyramid and more.

The three Harriet Bright books, all have short stories with light illustrations, highlighted text ... and of course there are poems scattered throughout! Delightful reads. See the website for more including a Christmas competition and poetry entries.

Musical Mayhem - The Fabulous Diary of Persephone Pinchgut Aleesah Darlison & Serena Geddes (New Frontier)

This new series stars Persephone Pinchgut and her sister Portia, identical twins who are opposites in so many ways, but, as regularly happens with twins who are also often compared. Persephone is sensible and shy, Portia is glam and good a most everything (including losing her strawberry lip gloss) so Persephone writes this personal secret diary with her innermost secrets to have something of her very own. In Musical Mayhem the dreaded school musical has been announced - at least Persephone thinks it is a disaster. Portia though cant wait for she will take the lead of the Princess - so she hopes. Throughout the story Persephone writes about her 'twin troubles' and especially of her twin's teasing but in the end the two girls move from 'twin troubles' to 'totally together twins'.

Written in diary form with well spaced text and lovely simple line illustrations scattered throughout the Totally Twins series will be enjoyed by young girls.

Also available is Model Mayhem.
These are fun reads. Enjoy!

More Junior Fiction

More titles in new or exisitng series for yougner readers. These are just terrific reads.

Tiger Trouble Justin D'Ath (Penguin)
The Extreme Adventures titles have been a great series and this is the latest instalment.

Sam Fox and his family are in New Delhi and one moment he is watching a cricket match and then the next Sam is chasing a pick pocket who has stolen his backpack which had been sitting at his feet in the stand. In this backpack was a cricket ball - autographed by the whole Australian cricket team and Sam couldn't let it go! And it doesn't take long before Sam is caught up in an international animal smuggling ring with wild tiger cubs as trade. Soon Sam is confronting a maharaja, a king cobra, adult wild tigers, guns and a whole lot of trouble.

Violet Mackerel's Brilliant Plot Anna Branford & Sarah Davis (Walker Books)

This is a beautiful early reader book for young girls with short chapters, generously spaced words and with lovely illustrations that are on nearly every page.

Violet Mackerel is a girl with a theory that she calls the Theory of Finding Small Things because whenever you are thinking of something very important and brilliant you will find something small and special on the ground! She also believes that when you want something really, really important, then ordinary plans are no good - you need a brilliant plot. When Violet decides that she would like to get the blue china bird that costs a lot of money that she sees at the markets her family attends every Saturday, she spies a little red button on the ground. Now she knows that a brilliant plot is called for.
This is a lovely story, delightfully told, with sweet illustrations.
See the Violet Mackerel website for the newsletter, lots of activities and a holiday competition.

Early Reading Chapter Books

Here is a collection of early reader chapter books .... just perfect for readers who have moved to their first 'real' book with many illustrations and large print.

Mr Badger and The Big Surprise Leigh Hobbs (Allen&Unwin)

I love these books. Great for read-alouds.

This is a new series of short chapter books by the hugely talented Leigh Hobbs, the creator of the Old Tom series. These books are a treat and absolutely engrossing with well structured text and generous illustrations - tipped with Leigh's humour!

In this first title we are introduced to Mr Badger and his friends and discover the world of the Boubles (pronounced Boublay) Grand Hotel, a splendid old London hotel. Mr badger is in charge of special events at the hotel and he is preparing for the seventh birthday party of the seriously spoilt granddaughter of the hotel owners. Miss Sylvia Smothers-Carruthers' is having 205 of her closest friends to the party AND her invitations included the words DO NOT FORGET TO BRING A PRESENT! Fun and chaos happens at this party!

Also available Mr Badger and the Missing Ape.

Boy VS Beast Battle Of The Borders #5 : Tempesta Mac Park (Scholastic)

The first 4 titles in the Boy vs Beast belonged to Battle of the Worlds - now it is time for Battle of the Borders. This time the beasts that are attacking have changed - now they are combo beasts and the five boys who are the Border Guards must defend the border wall.

A storm beast has been created. There is a lightning storm but no rain and now it is up to Kai and his Jet-Charge to fight the beast and defend the border in Tempesta.

Also available now in the Battle Of The Borders series, Sludgia, Isolus and Volcan

Two new titles in the Mates series. These books have full colour illustrations and short simple, fun text.

Tomato Sauce, Of Course! Moya Simmons & Jim Grimwade (Scholastic)
The Aussie Tomato Sauce company has stopped making Aussie tomato sauce - the only tomato sauce that Tammy likes ... and that she eats all the time - even on ice cream when her mum and dad aren't looking! But a day at the beach, a huge shark and Tammy's last remaining bottle of Aussie tomato sauce that is worn around her neck like a pendant saves the day! What happens to the tomato sauce?

Also available Crikey! Jane Carroll & Chris Edser

Castle of The Zombies Sean Williams & Nial O'Connor (Scholastic)

This is the first title in a new fantasy series created just for junior readers. The text is well paced and not too large and there are full page black and white illustrations throughout the book.

Ollie has moved to a new street but things there were not quite right, The air wasn’t right. Neither was the light. The trees looked different And it smelled like ..... and on top of all of that Ollie find access to another world when he crosses the door threshold one night when a guy holding a giant fork confronts Ollie one night! In this new world Ollie meets the despicable Lord Wight who wants to take over everything!

also available Planet of the Cyborgs.

Two new titles in the Battle Boy series. These are great fast paced books with lots of action - perfect for boys who are reluctant readers and for readers who enjoy history and adventure ... and there are great gadgets too.

White War (Battle Boy #9) Charlie Carter & Russell Jeffery (PanMacmillan)
It's Christmas Day and Battle Boy's latest adventure lands right in the middle of the First World War on the Western Front in the middle of No Man's Land.
This mission is so top secret that not only has Battle Boy not been told what his mission is but even Battle Boy's Skin doesn't know what is happening! And the person that Battle Boy meets is someone so very special to him he will be very, very amazed!

Also available: Mission 10 - Caveman Bash