Crystal Corocher (text) and Rebel Challenger (illustrator), The Naked Sheep, Larrikin House, November 2022, 24 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781922503725
The Naked Sheep is the perfect rollicking rhyming story to share with early readers.
Strong as an ox, and six foot two, stood ‘Lightning’ Lizzy, the jillaroo.
Beside her shed she plonked a sign: Shearing Salon Open at Nine
Latest styles, hippest trends, layered bangs and trimmed split ends.
Author and literacy educator, Crystal Corocher has created a tremendously entertaining and light-hearted tale that will have children laughing out loud and predicting the end of each line.
As the overzealous Lizzy gets distracted and muddled, she creates one disastrous ‘hair do’ too many and to any young reader’s delight we end up with a totally naked sheep. Ever optimistic and endlessly resilient, Lizzy finds a way to solve her biggest mistake yet. Corocher has created a fabulously feisty character in Lizzy, who with her bulging muscles and can-do attitude reinvents the traditional way in which girls and women are often represented, or overlooked altogether, in farm stories.
This story is paired with Rebel Challenger’s rich, quirky illustrations, whose expressive depictions of Lizzy’s wooly clientele are hilarious. As well as delighting in the shocked reactions of the characters on each page, young readers will find new illustrated details with each consecutive read.
A highly recommended book for sharing in class or at home with young readers ages three and up.
Reviewed by Lisa Hoad
