Laura Bunting (text), and Philip Bunting (illustrator), Liarbird, Omnibus Books, September 2019, 32 pp., RRP $17.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781743831571 Lyre bird is a great liar, he can make himself sound like a koala, he fibs about dropbears, he fakes flying, he fabricates trips to Mars and creates fake news in the ‘Gum Tree Gazette’. “Fibbing is fun and it never gets you into trouble”. That is until his lie lands him in trouble with a fox. The Bunting author, illustrator duo of Laura and Philip have created the picture book Liarbird; a modern and Australian take on The Boy who…
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Helen Brown (text), Phoebe Morris (illustrator), Cleo and Rob, Allen and Unwin, October 2019, 32 pp., RRP $17.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781988547190 Author Helen Brown originally wrote the international bestseller, Cleo: How a Small Black Cat Healed a Family, based on true, traumatic events. Now in picture book form, Brown and illustrator Phoebe Morris come together to touch hearts all over again with their highly emotive yet warm and endearing book, Cleo and Rob. Sam; a young boy filled with kindness and compassion – a huge lover of animals – is tragically killed by a car days after choosing Cleo the…
Graeme Base, author and illustrator of Moonfish answers some questions about his book. We thank Graeme and Puffin Books for this interview. Moonfish is an extraordinarily beautiful story, about belonging and bravery. It feels like it can appeal to readers of all ages. What were the first glimmers of inspiration that compelled you to tell this story? Every time I go somewhere new, I come home with a new story. A few years ago, I began travelling to China, initially just to have a look around and then, over several subsequent trips, on book-tour to support my Chinese publisher in Wuhan.…
Graeme Base, Moonfish, Puffin Books, October 2019, 48 pp., RRP $26.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780143791409 The cover of Moonfish by Graeme Base was the first sign that this was going to be a story of enchantment. There are fish leaping from the water under a full moon, in a wild shadowy landscape. Anyone who has grown up encountering Graeme Base’s books seems to remember the first-time reading Animalia or The Eleventh Hour among his other incredible works. Base has an astounding ability to not just to tell a story with an illustration, but to also create entire new worlds on a…
Dav Pilkey, For Whom the Ball Rolls (Dog Man, #7), Graphix, August 2019, 256 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781338236590 Dav Pilkey, of Captain Underpants fame, is on to a winner with yet another graphic novel in his popular Dog Man series. This new episode is titled: For Whom the Ball Rolls. Similarly to other Dog Man titles, it has plenty of humour, action, shapeshifting creatures, absurd characters, interactive elements, and general fun and irreverent silliness to keep young (and not so young) readers engaged and amused. In this story, the half dog-half man police officer, known as Dog Man,…
Saundra Mitchell, The Prom, Penguin Books Ltd., September 2019, 272 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780241428214 The Prom is based on a highly acclaimed Broadway musical, by the same name, about a high school girl, Emma, who identifies as a lesbian. Emma and her girlfriend, Alyssa, live in the town of Edgewater, in Indiana, where church attendance and adherence to “traditional” values are important. The first line of the book sums up the problem – “Note to self: Don’t be gay in Indiana”. The bullying and rejection Emma has suffered since coming out, intensifies after attempting to assert her wish…
Moira Court, Antarctica, Fremantle Press, November 2019, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781925815757 I just read a wonderfully pointed and funny blog post by Maggie Tokuda-Hall titled ‘Why We Keep Telling You Not To Rhyme’ – which is about how tempting it is to include rhyme in your picture book and how difficult it really is to pull off. Which is why it was such a lovely experience to read the rhymes in Moira Court’s Antarctica. They are both pleasing to the ear when read out loud and refreshingly original and well matched to their animals. Right whales really…
Sophie Dahl (text) and Lauren O’Hara (illustrator), Madame Badobedah, Walker Books Ltd., October 2019, 56 pp., RRP $26.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781406384406 Mabel is a shoeless adventurer who lives with her parents at the Mermaid hotel. One day, a high priestess of crime, Madame Badobedah (rhymes with ooooh la la) turns up and moves in and no one seems to worry very much, except Mabel. Mabel is on to her. This is a longer picture book intended for older readers, filled with quirky language and imagination, at the heart of which is an unlikely friendship. In the first part of this…
Aaron Blabey, The Return of Thelma the Unicorn, Scholastic Australia, October 2019, 28 pp., RRP $17.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781742999890 After the huge success of Thelma the Unicorn, I wonder if Aaron Blabey was hesitant to continue Thelma’s story. The original was very funny, it had a fantastic storyline, a lovely little life lesson and most importantly it had a unicorn, at a time when the unicorn tsunami was about to break overall retail-dom. Now the market is saturated with unicorn-themed toys and books, but, thanks to the brilliant character Aaron Blabey has created, I’m sure The Return of Thelma the…
Christopher Cheng (text) and Bruce Whatley (illustrator), One Tree, Puffin Books, April 2019, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780143786733 One Tree tells the story of a boy and his grandfather living in a big, bustling, busy city. Grandfather is silent and sad, although he hasn’t always been this way. Before the city grew up around him, he was a young farmer connected to his land, telling stories of his days spent working in nature. The main character, a young boy, wants to connect with his Grandfather, and when he finds a plant growing in the pavement, he finds a…