Illus. by James Hart. Scholastic, 2020. ISBN: 9781743836699. 24pp.
(Age: 4+) Recommended. With the approach of Father's Day, comes a
few books with Dad as the main theme. In this tactile presentation
from Scholastic comes a hands on book, one with a cover which
incorporates a barometer of the things Dads are known for. With a
spinner that can be swung around onto points describing the Dad in
question, 'the loudest farter', 'the BBQ master', 'a bad joke
maker', kids will love swinging the needle around to point out what
their Dad is good at.
The plastic cover over the barometer will keep the needle and the
pointers safe from small hands, and the strong fold out front page
will further enhance its longevity.
Opening the book comes the introductory line, 'My dad is a man of
many talents', and each page shows him in a different guise, be it a
story teller, a master chef, a man with the strongest grip ever, a
Dad who takes the children on adventures but also makes the loudest
farts which can clear the room, snores louder than a hippo with a
blocked nose and one who tells the most awful jokes. But this mix of
the good and the bad adds up to only one thing, Dad is his best
friend.
A charming look at what makes up a dad, this will get laughs of
recognition and sympathy as kids share what their fathers do.
Hart's bold colourful illustrations support the story well, giving
readers the opportunity to compare their family with the one
illustrated.
Fran Knight
Baby Touch : Night-Night by Ladybird
Penguin, 2020. ISBN: 9780241422366. Board book.
(Age: 0+) Recommended. What a lovely book to read at bedtime. Little
children are sure to love this touch and feel book, right from the
vibrant purple cover that has star cut-outs and a little touch and
feel circle. Opening the book up, the rhyming words will make for an
enjoyable read aloud, with the refrain 'Baby, say' repeated as the
child says 'Night-night' to flowers, tree, bird and bee. Then there
is a final line on the double page spread, "Time for bed, sleepy
baby."
The large star cut-out appears on each page, gradually getting
smaller as the story progresses and all coloured in different pastel
shades. The pages are made of strong board and the star cut-out is
sturdy enough for fingers to trace around it.
Each double page spread has not only the rhyme but pictures of
little creatures and objects with words and sounds underneath, which
will enhance the reading experience for a toddler. The final double
page spread is done in a deep blue with a gorgeous rocket ship
blasting off to the moon, its tail a pink soft fabric.: Baby, say. Night-night stars, And night-night moon. Night-night, baby . . . It's dream time soon.
A gorgeous bed-time story, perfect to read aloud, Night-Night
will have happy fans and make bed-time a restful and happy time.
Pat Pledger
Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan
Simon & Schuster, 2020. ISBN: 9781471194900.
(Age: Adult - Senior secondary) Published in 2020, Sarah Vaughan's novel matches the unsettling
situation of this year, in which the world became almost universally
tense, with an abiding concern about the disasters of the outbreak
of the coronavirus, where we have begun to ask questions about our
competency to face the reality of a new and changing world. Placing
the narrative in the apparently comfortable social group of young
families, with parents who want to be 'the best' in this role, and
to do everything they can do to ensure that their children thrive,
Sarah Vaughan raises questions that are so much a part of coping for
many people in today's world.
Plunging us immediately into a home, a crying baby and a parent who
is tense with anxiety, questioning her capacity to be a good and
loving mother, we are alert to the possibility of her losing
control. Sarah Vaughan challenges us to make sense of the different
situations, as well as the central issue of a baby's well-being, by
moving us in and out of different times, and also focusing on
different characters and places. Through this device, the writer
enables us to seek to understand just why the situation that
dominates the narrative has occurred. As we are drawn into this
particularly difficult and tense time, we are challenged to see how
the expectations of parenthood in the modern world pose such a
challenge to families. We are led to question how, with their drive
to be involved in the education, social life and well-being of
children, they can cope. With their own well-being, their
questioning of their competency, and sometimes bearing the added
responsibility of ensuring the well-being of the older generation,
that is the grandparents, the parents must find the strength to make
a happy family while coping with every aspect of the fast-paced
modern world.
This is a vibrant, thought-provoking, and somewhat unsettling novel,
set very much in the reality of the modern world. It is not
appropriate for younger readers but it is a challenging, and
sometimes disturbing, read for older adolescents and adults.
Elizabeth Bondar
Dry to dry: the seasons of Kakadu by Pamela Freeman
Illus. by Liz Anelli. Walker Books, 2020. ISBN: 9781760650285. 32pp.
(Age: 5+) Recommended. Another in the series of Nature
Storybooks published by Walker Books invites readers to 'delve
into the natural world'. This series of books promises that 'every
wonderful word is true' as a story develops in one font while the
facts are given in a more formal style in a different font, usually
placed at the bottom of the page. With a substantial index, and
extra information at the back of each book, they support
environmental work in any classroom while encouraging younger
readers to be dazzled by the world in which they live. Dry to dry shows us the two main seasons of Kakadu in
Australia's north. This huge wetland, now a national park of world
heritage status, supports at least 280 bird species, while many
animals known to environmentalists across the world live there.
The book opens and finishes with the dry, and we see and read of the
animals that survive during the two seasons and how they live in
such conditions. Packed within a couple of paragraphs on each page
is an enormous amount of information, told in tight, sparse prose.
Several pages along, the lightning strikes begin with the cockatoos
headed for their roost before the rain. These rains only start the
creeks flowing again, it is later that the wet comes, filling them
to the brim, overflowing into the land beyond, until Kakadu becomes
a wetland. A range of animals is mentioned, frogs that provide food
for predators, crocodiles looking for frogs and crustaceans, a
myriad of birds, some flying in from the Arctic, some from closer
realms, jabiru with its nest high in the banyan tree, while during
the downpour, snakes and goannas seek higher ground in the same
tree.
But then the rains cease and the heat bears down, drying up the
wetlands, creeks recede to waterholes, the waterholes sink beneath
the ground, the turtles bury themselves waiting for the wet to come
agin.
At the end, alongside a page of information about Kakadu, a page is
devoted to the Aboriginal way of dividing Kakadu's seasons. They
distinguish six seasons and these are explained with their Kakadu
word and given a reference to the book's pages.
This lovely book, full of information accessible to younger readers
fits alongside other Kakadu books such as Walking with the
seasons at Kakadu (Allen & Unwin, 2003) Kakadu calling
(Magabala, 2013) and My home in Kakadu (Magabala, 2006).
The mixed media illustrations are stylish and impressionistic,
colours muted and understated, and children will enjoy looking for
the many animals, birds and plant life shown. Some are given with
flair, an impression rather than a detailed examination, while
others are more carefully drawn, giving children a more precise
picture of the animal shown. I can imagine children getting out
other books about Australian flora and fauna to identify some of the
animals and plants shown. I love the glimpses of human life, the
tour bus, the kids playing around the termite mounds, the bird hide,
road signs, campervan and river cruise.
And I was overjoyed to see a pair of maps indicating where Kakadu is
on the continent of Australia and a closer map of Kakadu National
Park. Teacher's
notes are also available.
Themes: Aboriginal life, Kakadu, Northern Territory, Environment,
Animals, Birds.
Fran Knight
The Curator by M.W. Craven
Washington Poe book 3. Constable, 2020. ISBN: 9781472131959.
(Age: Adult - Senior secondary) Recommended for readers who enjoy
the mystery genre. Another engrossing mystery featuring Poe and
Tilly is sure to grab fans of this pair. In another unique plot,
following The
puppet show and Black
Summer, the pair are faced with a strange case. Why are
some women anaesthetised before they are killed and others not? What
is the mean of the message #BSC6 left behind and how is the killer
managing to leave his macabre messages behind with no one seeing
him? The intervention of the disgraced FBI agent who gets in touch,
brings even more information. She believes that Poe is dealing with
a man known as The Curator, more deadly than a serial killer.
Craven is an amazing writer who comes up with quite different plots
in his novels. This one is bizarre and engrossing and kept me glued
to the page right until the unexpected end. It left me thinking back
to the clue left early on for astute readers but which can easily be
overlooked.
After reading a couple of stories in a series, I am often a bit
fatigued by the sameness of the characters but this is not true of
Poe and Tilly. Their working relationship, trust and friendship
grows in The Curator, and DI Flynn, now heavily pregnant, is
a sympathetic character too. And the writing, full of suspense and
some humour, the bleakness of the Cumbrian landscape, flows along
smoothly and makes for a book that begs to be read in one or two
sittings.
Books by Craven are not to be missed by anyone who enjoys a good
mystery.
Pat Pledger
Tiger and Cat by Allira Tee
Berbay Publishing, 2020. ISBN: 9780648529156.
(Age: 4+) Highly recommended. Allira Tee is an illustrator and
author based in Melbourne. She loves animals and people watching and
discovering the uncanny behavioural similarities between the two.
Inspired by nature, Tiger and Cat is her debut picture
book.
And we can see her observations of friendship, of being true to
yourself and similarities between animals and people reflected in
this book as Tiger goes off to boot camp to learn how to be a proper
tiger.
He and Cat are the best of friends: they do everything together:
play, eat, explore and dance. But Tiger is sent off to camp where he
is expected to do different things. While Cat stays home, trying to
do the things they have always done together. Everywhere Cat goes he
sees Tiger, but the people he sees are not Tiger, until he comes
across a young girl in a tiger onesie. Cat tells Susie all about
Tiger, and being six years old, Susie knows exactly what to do. And
a letter is sent, and Tiger comes home to his friends.
Allira creates her highly original illustrations by hand using ink
or graphite and finished with coloured markers, pencils, watercolour
or digital techniques.
This neatly evolved story of friendship and being yourself will be
appealing to younger readers beset by instructions of how to act and
suppressing your own behaviour to fit in. Themes: Cats, Tigers,
Friendship, Belonging.
Fran Knight
A clue for Clara by Lian Tanner
Allen & Unwin, 2020 ISBN: 9781760877699.
(Age: 9+) Highly recommended. Bullied and despised chook Clara,
retreats to the farmhouse where she sits all say watching
television. Her favourite shows are detective series, Death in
the city and Amelia X Girl detective. She develops
skills similar to the sleuths she admires, determining to become a
detective herself, and solves the egg stealing episode at the chook
house, although Rufus the rooster takes all the glory for himself.
She wants to share her abilities so when a police car comes to the
farm, investigating the latest round of sheep thefts, she tries in
vain to communicate with them, but when she inadvertently finds
herself in the police car, she works out a way to communicate with
the young girl in the back seat, Olive, the policeman's daughter.
Humour abounds in this merry tale, as the reader sees a slightly
worse for wear chook, the lowest in the pecking order in the
farmyard, using her television inspired skills to solve a crime. The
contrast between what the reader knows and what Clara thinks she
knows will have readers laughing out loud. Her attempts at using
morse code to talk to the girl for example, is seen by the girl as
just an annoying peck from the strange chook on the floor of the
car. Eventually Clara works out that she can peck out messages on
Olive's mobile phone, and they communicate. Olive is being bullied
by a new girl in the school, Jubilee, and her father Mr Simpson is
the talk of the town, Little Dismal, as he has saved the pub from
being closed and has offered to install CCTV cameras to catch the
thief.
But Clara suspects his girl of being a master criminal so her
surveillance of the family leads to the solving of the crime, but
not in the way Clara thinks. The witty text is wonderfully
supportive with equally funny illustrations by Cheryl Orsini.
This smart, clever and very funny story of standing up to bullies,
of friendship in the most unlikely of places, of coping with grief,
all wrapped up in a story about a girl and her pet chook is one of
the most endearing tales I have read for a long time.
Tanner quietly introduces the fact that Olive's mother has died, and
the grief that surrounds Olive and her father is pervasive. The
efforts of those around them makes the bullying by the 'Merrycan'
girl even more despicable, and it is with a loud cheer that she
becomes undone. Life in rural Australia with the problems of stock
theft, of towns closing down, of people moving away, of a lone
police officer trying to cope with angry farmers, saddled with
drought, dwindling prices and fewer staff to help work the
properties forms a most credible background to the story.
It is a book that begs to be read and enjoyed. Teacher's
notes are available.
Fran Knight
Ten sleepy sheep by Renee Treml
Penguin Random House Australia, 2020. ISBN: 9781760896768.
(Age: 0-3) Highly recommended. In a gentle rhythmic narrative that
reads aloud beautifully, the young child is invited to count
backwards from ten, looking at the animals that could be found on a
farm. Ten sleepy sheep walk back to the shed. 9 sleepy pups settle in bed.
Right from the beginning when 5 sheep and 5 little lambs can be seen
walking back to the shed on an Australian farm, the young child will
enjoy counting sleepy puppies, foals, chicks, calves,
ducklings, parrots, lizards, foals, koalas and a joey.
The pastel backgrounds fit beautifully into each of the pictures - a
soft brown to show the background of the Australian farm with white
sheep walking across it, pale green grass for foals to lie on, a
gorgeous blue for baby ducklings and pretty lilac for parrots. Each
of the animals or birds is outlined in black and filled in with soft
whites and browns, with detailing bringing the fur of the kangaroo
and koalas alive.
This is a lovely, gentle board book that will be appreciated at
bedtime as the young child is soothed to sleep.
Pat Pledger
We're going on a treasure hunt by Martha Mumford
Illus. by Laura Hughes. Bloomsbury, 2020. ISBN: 9781408893395.
(Age: 1+) Recommended. Lots of fun can be had as four bunnies go off
on an exciting quest to find ten gold coins and a treasure chest.
Children will enjoy following the cute rabbits, all dressed as
pirates, as they prance along avoiding obstacles and uncovering gold
coins one by one.
The repetition of the refrain on every second double page spread
ensures that children will be able to join in as they hear it again
and again: We're going on a treasure hunt. Yo! Ho! Ho! Help us find the golden coins . . ARRRRR! Off we go!
Even very small children will enjoy the rhythm and repetition and
will love to see the cute little animals and birds on the way. Older
children will find the repetition of every second double page will
be a great help when they are just beginning to read and the story
is sure to be one that children who want to start to read aloud will
pick up. Sounds made as the cute little rabbits chase the coins add
to enjoyment of the narrative: Watch out for the Crabs . . .
Snip, snap, snip! and the parrots, squawk, squawk,
screech.
The lift the flaps are quite sturdy and reveal a gold coin with the
number written on it. This will enable older children to enjoy
counting from one to ten. Other lift the flaps reveal animals and
even a very hungry shark to delight all and bring smiles to faces.
Laura Hughes illustrations are very engaging. The rabbits are so
cute, dressed in pirate hats, bandanas and eye patches and the
bright colours of the beach, sea and vegetation are gorgeous.
This is perfect to read aloud for younger children and one that
older children can use to practise their reading as was the previous
book, We're
going on an elf chase, which followed a similar
format. It is sure to be a keeper.
Pat Pledger
Jacinda Adern: A new kind of leader by Madeline Chapman
Nero, 2020. ISBN: 9781760641818.
(Age: Senior secondary/adult) Highly recommended. There are few
women in powerful positions around the world, and this story of
Adern's rise makes for an amazing read, one which may excite other
young women to strive to follow their passion.
Adern came from an unusual background, a small farm in Muruparo the
daughter of Mormon parents. The book details her early foray into
human rights issues at school, then attending Waikato University and
volunteering at the New Plymouth by-election. From there she worked
for a grass roots MP in Wellington when she became attracted to the
Young Labour Movement, eventually becoming world president of the
International Union of Socialist Youth in 2008. A spectacular rise
for one so young, but as the book points out, she did not become
president through being naive. She was clearly cunning, astute and
clever, using her opportunities to perfection.
On leaving home her views of the world changed and she espoused
Maori rights and climate change action as well as championing gay
rights, bringing her into conflict with her family and her religion.
The Labour Party at this time was trying to bring more women into
leadership roles. She was in the right place at the right time. And
she is a worker. Through a series of quick leadership changes in
2017, she became leader of the party just a couple of months before
election day with Labour polling 23%. Tirelessly promoting a
positive position, using social media to perfection, her boundless
enthusiasm saw her party neck and neck with the National Party which
had ruled for the past nine years. The NZ First party backed Labour
and which led to Ardern becoming Prime Minister in a minority
government. Here she promoted climate change policy, gender equity
and Maori rights. She attended the UN world summit in 2018, the
first world leader to bring a baby into the proceedings. Her speech
promoted the need for gender equality around the world, trade and
climate change and was universally applauded. But, it was her
response to the terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch in
2018 that has defined her. She received the news at 1:50 pm about a
situation in Christchurch on her way to speak at New Plymouth. She
went to the police station, by 4.20 pm held a press conference, and
by 7 pm gave an address to the nation. This speech, quoted in the
book named the killer as a terrorist, and called not for revenge,
but love and kindness. She flagged the changes to gun laws and
within the week this was being formulated. She attended the Muslim
Centre wearing a headscarf as a sign of respect, calling for peace.
Radio stations broadcast the Muslim call for prayer, and Adern's
names was broadcast around the world, showing a compassionate leader
putting herself on the line. Her speech is well worth reading.
The book gives hints to what makes her such a fine leader, that
fearless determination to do what she sees as right for New Zealand
and all of its population. Sometimes she appears naive and sometimes
it is hard to separate that from a born politician, but people do
not call her the 'smiling assassin' for nothing. Details about
election wins, take up many pages, but then it is a biography of a
politician.
This is an eminently readable, sometimes frustrating, book which
gives a broad look at a woman who has made a difference.
Speeches are quoted at the end of the text, with pages of sources
and a useful index. Themes: Jacinda Adern, Biography, Christchurch
NZ, New Zealand, Politics, Terrorism.
Fran Knight
Hound the detective by Kimberley Andrews
Puffin, 2020. ISBN: 9780143774655.
(Age: 5+) Highly recommended. Hound is known for always solving his
cases, hunting out clues to find the answer to the question, but
this time he is stumped and asks the readers to walk alongside him
as he follows the clues on each page. Readers are at once saddled
with a quest, to seek out the clues on each page, noting
things which may lead Hound to a conclusion, and along the way
search for the 17 hidden caterpillars.
Readers will love searching through the detective paraphernalia
illustrated, from magnifying glasses to the deerstalker hat, while
notes, scraps of paper, letters, postcards and signposts all muddy
the waters ready to sweep the avid sleuths onto the wrong trail.
Each page has a different clue, given in the rhyming stanza,
pointing the reader to look in a certain way and travel along the
path given, through several houses, and gardens, a village fair,
shop and cabin in the woods, a train station, and finally to a dark
part of the town with overhanging Elizabethan timbers to meet his
fate.
A fun time will be had as readers follow the sleuth, finding with
him the answers to the questions posed in the stanzas, marvelling at
the sumptuous illustrations, taking in the huge amount of detail
before their eyes, watching out for the array of animals on each
page, hunting for the caterpillar, and above all having fun.
Author of Puffin
the architect and Song of the river, Kimberley
Andrews lives and works in Wellington, after training as a biologist
in Canada and living and working in London, New Zealand and Borneo
before settling in New Zealand where she is able to pursue her
passion for the plants and animals of that country.
Theme: Detecting, Clues, Animals.
Fran Knight
The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde
Hodder & Stoughton, 2020. ISBN: 9781444763638.
(Age: Adult). Recommended. Jasper Fforde is back with a satirical,
absurd but surprisingly relevant novel, The Constant Rabbit.
Known for his Thursday Next series helmed by The Eyre
Affair, Fforde is no stranger to outlandish and humorous
stories. What he has managed to do with this book however is to
intertwine the ridiculous with the less savoury aspects of recent
times.
Set in an alternate England where rabbits have anthropomorphised
into six feet tall talking humanoids, The Constant Rabbit
centres on Peter Knox, a mild-mannered father living in a small
village who is forced to make a moral choice. Peter works for the
Rabbit Compliance Taskforce and his job is to ensure the largely
segregated rabbits are following human laws and living peaceably in
society. When Prime Minister Nigel Smethwick of the UKARP (United
Kingdom Against Rabbit Population) party announces a plan to
forcibly move all rabbits into a facility in Wales, Peter is torn
between his job and the concerns of his fellow villagers and his
increasingly complex relationships with rabbit neighbours and
friends.
The novel paints the picture of a society where xenophobia, paranoia
and "fake news" are the norm. The story is an irreverent but clear
dig at contemporary British society where racism, anti-muslim and
anti-immigration sentiments and Brexit concerns have dominated the
social and media landscape in recent years. It is a challenging
though excellent read and the reader will be constantly pulled
between the witty, dry jokes and the realisation that the plot is
hitting too close to home. This book is recommended for fans of
Fforde's previous work as well as those who enjoy cutting but
humorous observations of human life. Themes: Rabbits, Xenophobia,
Humour, Satire, United Kingdom.
Rose Tabeni
What Zola did on Tuesday by Melina Marchetta
Illus. by Deb Hudson. Puffin, 2020. ISBN: 9781760895167.
(Age: 6+) Highly recommended. The second in a series of books about
the irrepressible Zola, has the year two girl becoming interested in
knitting, partly because her Nonna is trying to knit a scarf, but
also because the new family next door is doing some knitting. When
her teacher encourages the class to do something for those less
fortunate than themselves, Zola suggests knitting a scarf. But once
she has suggested this she remembers that perhaps her Nonna is not
such a good knitter.
Full of humour and brimming with the close ties of family, alongside
new arrivals in the community, children will love reading of Zola
and her life. She helps Nonna in the community garden, tries hard to
make her dog obedient, plays with her friend Allesandro who lives in
the house behind her, and now makes new friends with Bianca and Omar
next door.
With gentle subtle humour, Marchetta parallels the arrival of
Italian migrants to these shores several generations ago with the
newer arrival from the Middle East.
Each family is strongly family oriented, with a grandma living with
the families. They come together over their animals and knitting,
while the two families share some of their culture with each other.
This is a charming story of Zola and her eagerness for make people
feel welcome. The book is one of a set of seven and has two pages of
knitting instructions at the end of the book for those so intrigued
that they want to try it themselves.
Theme: Family, Immigration, Knitting.
Fran Knight
The Verindon Alliance by Lynne Stringer
Rhiza Edge, 2020. ISBN: 9781925563993.
(Young Adult) Recommended. While The Verindon Alliance is a
prequel to Australian author Lynne Stringer's Verindon
trilogy, no prior knowledge of the original stories is needed to
read this standalone novel. Set in the same universe as the trilogy
but with a more immediate and explicit focus on the science fiction
genre, The Verindon Alliance is a fast-paced and enjoyable
story for young adults who enjoy their action with a dash of
romance.
The novel centres on Princess Vashta of the Vendel and Brandonin,
the prince of Verindal (the confusing proliferation of V-words
eventually begins to make sense). The Vendel and Verindal races have
been warring for centuries and this conflict influences every aspect
of the royals' lives. Vashta has just graduated from combat training
and is ready to actively join the fight when, unexpectedly,
Brandonin approaches the Vendel monarch seeking peace. The two find
themselves working together, despite the hostility of their
families, to face an external danger that threatens the future of
both their peoples.
Both main characters are well-developed, three-dimensional and
easy-to-like, particularly Vashta, a strong-willed and determined
young woman who refuses to conform to any stereotypes associated
with princesses. Stringer is also adept at blending the romantic
aspects of the plot with the action sequences and does not go
overboard with either. The Verindon Alliance is an easy and entertaining read from
this emerging Australian author. Readers of the Verindon
trilogy will especially enjoy the fleshing out of the story of
Vashta and Brandonin's love and alliance. Themes: War, Love, Family,
Aliens.
Rose Tabeni
Small town by Phillip Gwynne
Illus. by Tony Flowers. Puffin, 2020. ISBN: 9781760893484.
(Age: 4+) Highly recommended. Irresistibly charming, this tale
applauds the work done by small communities which have welcomed
refugees into their midst, offering accommodation, work and support
in their new country. Small cities such as Toowoomba, Bendigo
and Newcastle and even smaller communities such as Nhill, have given
these new arrivals a place of safety.
Gwynne tells of a small community losing its population to the city,
putting their economy and school in peril of shutting down. This is
not a new occurrence, but how some communities respond is
wonderfully new. Milly is aware that some of her friends have left
and her class is smaller, but when the loss of girls imperils the
future of her basketball team, she decides to act. Her teacher has
told them of war, famine and privation overseas and the class has
discussed refugees, so Milly writes and asks that some come to her
town where there are jobs and housing to accommodate them.
The mayor questions what she is doing, but she has an answer for
every negative point he brings up. The children make a video of
their community and send it to the refugees.
They wait and wait and another family leaves, but then a convoy of
cars comes with refugees. The whole town pitches in and welcomes
them, repairing the empty houses, helping them unpack their
belongings, finding them work, happy to have a doctor in the town at
last.
The contrast between the town as it was and the town as it is now is
subtly shown with the naming of Millie's basketball team. Initially
it was made up with four girls called Chloe, and Millie. Now
it is two Chloes, Farhia, Hanan, Amina, Sharifa and Millie.
Wonderful in its seeming simplicity, Gwynne uses powerfully spare
prose to get his message across.
Flowers' watercolour illustrations reveal small town life in
Australia with dots of houses spread over vast areas, windmills, a
runway and tin roofs with a soft pallet of colours, reminiscent of
long sunny days in the country.
The town's unusual name is used as a refrain, 'my town is so nice,
they named it twice' repeated through the story encouraging children
to join in as it is read to them and forming a link between the old
and new generations.
Themes: Small towns, Refugees, Inclusivity.
Fran Knight
