Maple the Brave

Chloe Jasmine Harris
Walker Books

From a debut author / illustrator (clever people they are) comes this delightful tale of conquering fears and is a wonderful fit for those fearful young.

Maple lives in a small home deep in the forest - no one knows how she got there or where she came from. Maple is also scared of almost everything and as a result has never left the safely of her tree house. But when the rain began to slow and the fruit began to wither Maple knew that she had to venture further than her treehouse - into the dangerous world that waited below.

The illustrations are appropriately soft for the gentle text and will be enjoyed by both readers and listeners alike.

Fashionista

Maxine Beneba Clarke
Hachette

Written and illustrated by the award-wining author of The Patchwork Bike, this new title is for the creative person in all of us.
It' about pyjama days, tracky-dak days, dress-up days, and dress-down days; wearing lipstick or denims knee-high brown boots, leggings or pants, patterns or stripes, clothes that are hand-me-down or those that are brand new; where one day you might be scruffy but the next you could be the smartest dresser in town.
No matter what you wear, nor how you wear it, it's about self-expression and YOU are a FASHIONISTA.

With the text structured in simple statements and art created using collage and watercolours, this is a book for anyone who wants to embrace their individuality and their independence. and would be a delightful model for creating a FASHIONISTA self-portrait.

One Careless Night

Christina Booth
BlackDog Books

This is just wonderful. Hauntingly beautiful and evocative.

It is the story of the LAST thylacine, an apex predator that survived in the darkened Tasmanian bushes until a "Reward for Destruction of Native Tigers" was placed on their heads. This last Thylacine died in captivity one freezing night at Hobart Zoo when a keeper left the animal out of her shelter. But this Thylacine should not have been the last.

Captured from the wild where they hunted for food, a mother Thylacine and her pup are locked away in a forest of concrete and steel, waiting daily for food delivery, until the mother and then later the pup - the last known of its kind - die. That date was 7th September, 1936 - which is now the date of the National Threatened Species day.

The government notice included at the end of the books is telling and along with Christina's stunning but draining digital illustrations and rippling text, this book will force readers of all ages to consider our native wildlife and how they can easily become but a memory. And they may also ask why.