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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.....
