Aura Parker, Bowerbird Blues, Scholastic Australia, December 2023, 32 pp., RRP $19.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760269609
The detailed and beautiful illustrations throughout Bowerbird Blues are captivating. From the start, the end papers delight and intrigue. The balance between complex drawings like double spread of Sydney Harbour contrast to the superb images of the sole bowerbird searching for blue things.
The story has the added bonus in the beginning of a children’s activity to search for pegs, caps, bread tags, straws and rings. The story is beautiful as the bowerbird collects blue objects from eggs to buttons for her nest. She searches her world with wonderful words of fluttering, freefalling, soaring, glistening and imaginative writing that capture children’s sense of freedom and exploration. There is a spot where the bowerbird discovers human refuse polluting the oceans and Aura Parker warns against this. However, the main journey is the bowerbird’s search for everything blue and something more than blue. At the end she finds her baby chick and declares You are more than blue can ever be.
Huge congratulations for Bowerbird Blues being selected as the ALIA Library Storytime National Simultaneous Storytime Reading for 2024. It is also deservedly on the CBCA 2024 Picture Book of the Year Shortlist.
Suitable for ages 4-8.
Highly recommended.
Reviewed by Susanne Gervay