'The best books, reviewed with insight and charm, but without compromise.'
- author Jackie French

Saturday 29 December 2018

Review: On the Day You Were Born

In this joyous celebration of new life, change comes with the birth of the child. Images are sharper; sounds are more finely tuned. Light surrounds everything. 

It is a combined burst of nature; an awakening of the senses in a new and astonishing way. It’s a rebirth of self; the way a new world is created. For you, nothing will ever the same after holding the newborn in your arms.

Margaret Wild’s prose is full of tenderness and love. The pages are filled with vibrant life and the movement of the nature. Night bows to the day; the sweetness of living is magnified and depicted in the humming bees and the glorious smell of honey. It is also a hymn to family and what the entrance of new life brings.

Ron Brooks as always excels at translating words into visuals. The bold outlines hold in the dazzling colours and define the shapes of trees and rocks, animals and birds.

The divine double-spread image of the old tree with the initials carved into the trunk reveals a story of its own. The flight of the birds and the feather slowly falling into the child’s hand, symbolizes a spiritual experience, and reflects gratitude and a full heart expanding further with the child’s arrival.

There is a sense of purity and overwhelming calm through the book. It as if nothing can stain the event. On the day you were born, the moon was full and white.

This is the perfect book for a newborn and as an offering during the celebrations that follow. Outstanding in every way, On the Day you were Born is presented in fabulous layout, design and colour, with illustrations created in acrylic paints on watercolour paper.

Title: On the Day You Were Born
Author: Margaret Wild
Illustrator: Ron Brooks
Publisher: Allen & Unwin, $14.99
Publication Date: 29 August 2018
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781760633004
For ages: 3+
Type: Picture Book