Caz Godwin (text) and Shaney Hyde (illustrator), Little Matilda, Marshall Cavendish, March 2022, 32 pp., RRP $22.25 (hbk), ISBN 9789814974639
Little Matilda is a picture book story about a lonely little cat whose several approaches to potential playmates are shunned. Just when Matilda is about to give up hope of finding a friend, she wakes with a new idea. Will it work?
The story is told in rhyming couplets with a lovely bouncy rhythm. For the most part, the rhyming words are well chosen for the story meaning but at times words seem added only to make the rhyme.
Each page is filled with Hyde’s appealing, whimsical watercolour illustrations of pretty and cute animals against backgrounds of soft grey, green or brown and adorned with colourful objects that denote context. I especially love that there are Australian animals, flowers and gumtrees in the illustrations. The last illustration bursts with joy and colour, featuring pink galahs wearing party hats perched in a gumtree and all of the story’s cute characters below.
Little Matilda is a beautifully illustrated, sweet, and hopeful story about tackling rejection. I recommend it for children aged 3-6 years.
Reviewed by Barbara Swartz
