Sally Morgan (text), Ezekiel Kwaymullina (text), Craig Smith (illus.) The Memory Shed, Omnibus/Scholastic, 1 March 2015, 64pp., $9.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781742990347
Behind its bright burnt orange cover is a story of a young girl called Annie and her Grandma. During a terrible storm, Annie is woken by loud creaking. She gets up to find Grandma, who is convinced the creaking is coming from the shed, which has cottoned onto her plans to clear it out, knock it down and build a new one. As the days pass and they clean out the shed, Grandma finds lots of old things she’s forgotten. Bikes, clothes, biscuit tins, all of which have their own story and memories…including the old shed itself, which was built by Grandpa.
This is a warm, inviting story, which is perfect for independent readers, with its small grabs of text and illustrations on each page. It’s about family, memory and that sometimes the dustiest of old things hold the dearest memories of all. Teachers’ Notes can be found on the Scholastic website.
reviewed by Deborah Abela
