Nicole Godwin (text), and Christopher Nielsen, (illustrator), Jelly-Boy, Walker Books Australia, February 2020, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760651237
A fun book that partners beautiful illustrations created in an engaging visual language of bright retro printmaking with an original and thought-provoking story.
Jelly girl falls in love with a plastic bag. He is strong, different, daring but unsuitable and dangerous to her kind. Readers will find themselves laughing and caring but never feeling preached to in this new angle on environmental issues. I love that I didn’t know where the story was taking me but literally ‘went with the flow’.
The book’s clear and rhythmic design adds to the enjoyment and reality of the book and it is beautifully printed, with subtle touches of varnish to enhance the gorgeous colours. Narrative and content are well paced throughout with a fact and call to action page at the end. Lending itself to a wide range of art activities and classroom ideas from rubbish disposal, recycling and sea life to relationships, family values and knowing when to let go this book gives us science inside a storybook – in my opinion the best way to educate readers young and old.
Reviewed by Liz Anelli
