Wanda Gibson, Three Dresses, University of Queensland Press, April 2024, 32 pp., RRP $26.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780702266355
Included in the 2025 CBCA Picture Book Book of the Year Awards Notables list, and just this week, was announced as the winner of the Victorian Prize for Literature in the 2025 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.
This autobiographical picture book shows the reader a snapshot of the author’s childhood beach-side summer holiday with her family. Each Christmas the Lutheran mission gave all the girls three dresses and three undies. Wanda’s mum told her: one to wash, one to wear and one spare. The family takes two days to walk from their Mission home to the beach, camping along the way.
Once at the beach, they would build a gunyah, swim, catch fish for their meals, have fun bursting the little bubbles on seaweed, taking care not to be caught up in the bluebottles on the beach. They travelled light on the way home, taking nothing from the beach except maybe a stingray or fish to eat on the way. Once home, it would be back to routines of school and working in the farm fields even on really hot days.
There’s a brief summary of Wanda Gibson’s life, reflecting the warm relationships her family had together and their closeness to country. Her colourful yet impressionistic illustrations are rich additions to the verbal text.
The book will be a great way for modern, urban readers to understand how lifestyles have changed. Young readers will also recognise the difference between their own summer holidays and those of Wanda Gibson’s childhood.
Reviewed by Maureen Mann
