The Night Librarian follows twins, Page and Turner, who are on a mission to recover their father’s rare book which was stolen when they were trying to determine its value.
It is the next book in her Illustrated Encyclopaedia series: The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Extinct Animals.
Some of Bayly’s other books include: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dangerous Animals and How We Came to Be: Surprising Sea Creatures.
The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Extinct Animals is a beautifully produced book with debossed (indented) lettering on the cover, cloth quarter binding and in-built satin ribbon bookmark, all features that help to make it both durable and a book worthy of gifting. In addition, the cover and internal design as well as typesetting is by award-winning book designer, Astred Hicks.
Upon opening The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Extinct Animals, I scan the contents page which features a silhouette of each animal in the book and note a few entries for megafauna. I don’t know about you, but any book with megafauna draws me in straight away. Of course, I’m referring to animals such as the giant marsupial diprotodon, which was related to wombats and koalas. Did you know that the diprotodon is the largest marsupial to have ever walked the Earth and became extinct about 25,000 years ago? Amazingly, these animals lived at the same time as the First Nations people in Australia for more than 20,000 years. Hang on there’s also a giant monotreme! Hackett’s giant echidna was about 1 metre long and weighed around 30 kg (about the weight of a ten-year-old child). Mind-blowing!For each animal in the book, there is a double page spread and information under the subheadings: Description, Extinction Status, Location/Habitat, Diet and Fun Facts as well as illustrations. These illustrations are exquisitely good. Each animal is depicted in watercolour with precision and detail. One of my favourites is the Kangaroo Island assassin spider with its pelican-looking head. Bayly has created rich patterning on the spider’s abdomen and its long, spear-like legs are stunning.
There are not only extinct species in this volume but also near-extinct species, reminding us of human’s impact on other animals. The Kangaroo Island assassin spider is critically endangered so hopefully the curiosity and joy generated by this book helps encourage readers to make good choices regarding the beautiful wildlife that we have around us.
In terms of use in the classroom, on top of inspiring animal lovers, this book provides a great opportunity to model headings, subheadings and tier 2 and 3 vocabulary. There are also teachers’ notes with other ideas. Thank you Sami Bayly for another beautiful book filled with wonderment. My eleven-year-old son adores his collection of your work.
Title: The Illustrated Encyclopaedia Of Extinct Animals
Plantabulous! More A to Z of Australian Plants not only helps me identify plants with indigenous, common and genus names but also captivates with its vivid illustrations and inspiring information.
Plantabolous! details 26 native plants and follows up from, Plantastic! A to Z of Australian Plants. It also includes a glossary and a map with a list of plant ecoregions.
A botanist with a passion for Australian native plants, Catherine Clowes has created a thoughtful book which exudes her enthusiasm. For each letter of the alphabet, a plant is listed with striking illustrations, an activity and facts. For example, did you know that the native palm called burrawang, is a plant from before the dinosaurs!
Pamela Allen brings us Mr McGee and his Hat, another simple, yet engaging story with imagination and humour at its core. Her rhythmic and rhyming text, helps Mr McGee adventure across the page, for example, Up in the air, Mr McGee flew, his hat and his cat and his bed went too.
Mr McGee is portrayed in clear, simple shapes and bold colours. Allen’s distinctive use of white space offsets her detailed pen and watercolour art. She expertly depicts Mr McGee’s expressions and body language, highlighting the funny situations he finds himself in. All these characteristics assist young ones to comprehend the story.
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Through its captivating narrative and stunning illustrations, the book tells the story of Maddie, a curious, maths-loving girl, who leans into her passion and yearns to find a friend to share her worldview with.
Raewyn Caisley’s writing reflects her warmth and insight, allowing her love of mathematics to shine through.
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This time it’s a gentle post-pandemic story set in an urban apartment block, at the end of COVID lockdown. Adults wear masks and children spill out from the apartment ‘like sweets from a box.’ Amanda brings the chalks and the desire to draw something. The narrative evolves as the concrete artwork grows.
Using carefully chosen words, the narrative offers layers of meaning. For instance, my three-year-old was captivated by the unfolding chalk drawing. Whereas my five-year-old felt the emotions of the story more keenly. Graham has expertly blended the themes of community spirit, optimism, and the power of creativity.
Including three stories in one book, A Swirl of Sadie follows Sadie, a determined yet kind character, who shows her love for friends, family and community through baking.
In this latest book, Sadie creates a treat for her school movie night, puppy treats for a puppy play date and desserts for a family celebration.
The book’s title roughly means 'Three kangaroos, three Tasmanian Aboriginal men’.
Dave mangenner Gough, a proud trawlwoolway man, shares his family’s connection with tara (male forrester kangaroo), linking readers to ancient Tasmanian culture.
Award-winning author Coral Vass has written an entertaining story with a strong message about the importance of perspective. Vass has expertly employed rhythm and rhyme.
When I’m reading Whingeville to my two-year-old and five-year-old, the words roll off the tongue, adding to the dreamlike quality of the story.
Sam and Harry move with their parents from the city to a remote, dilapidated manor during the COVID-19 pandemic. The boys explore the labyrinth-like house. They find spooky portraits of long-dead people and secret rooms.
In the dust-coated library, they discover a book in which a riddle appears and transports them back in time to 1919.
With chapter names like ‘The Horror’, ‘The Manor Attack’ and ‘Disappearing Doors’, Tracey Hawkins has created intrigue. The writing propels readers into each new scene.
Hawkins has created a realistic brother relationship layered with both camaraderie and power shifts.
Books
with spark come around again and it’s Thunderstorm
Dancing’s turn to return with a ‘crackling zap! sizzling snap!’
Having
a bad day? Feeling blue? Made a mistake? Well, may I introduce you to, Tomorrow is a Brand-New Day, the follow
up to All the Ways to
be Smart by the
super-talented, author-illustrator duo, Davina Bell and Allison Colpoys. Also from this stellar creative pair are the books, The Underwater Fancy-Dress Parade and Under the Love Umbrella.
Tomorrow is a Brand-New Day gives a snapshot into the lows and highs that two friends face over a couple of days, from ripping pages in a book caused by pangs of jealousy, to finding ways to say sorry like picking some flowers. It’s what happens afterwards that matters.
Set in the mountains in China, the story starts with the mysterious line, ‘Mountains always have secrets’. This sets the scene for 12-year-old Billy Chan’s entry to Camp Dragon. Billy would rather be back home in California, surfing, but instead he is on a summer camp, learning about his Chinese heritage and improving his limited Mandarin.
Once settled, Billy is paired with three campmates Dylan, Charlotte and Ling-Fei. He soon learns that Dylan is funny and pessimistic, Charlotte likes to win and has fierce determination and Ling-Fei loves nature and is kind.
After the first activity, the four children stumble upon a secret entrance into a mountain. There they find magnificent dragons who have been trapped in the mountain for over a hundred years. And what’s more, the dragons have been waiting for them … Billy and friends are then thrust on a nail-biting quest to save both the dragon and human realms from destruction.
Dragon Mountain is the first book in the Dragon Realm middle grade series and is written by Katie and Kevin Tsang, a wife-husband team. The Tsang pair have written a thrilling quest tale and have cleverly used humour to cut through the high tension. The characters hurtle through the action and must keep growing, being flexible and adapting to what’s happening to them, to ensure that they have a chance of succeeding. It is through this growth that the authors have highlighted important themes of friendship, loyalty and individual strengths.
The story leans more towards action than complexity, suiting younger readers, but there is room to develop the characters further in the rest of the series. I, for one, am looking forward to the next instalments of this suspenseful story.
Readers who like fast-paced action will enjoy this book. I read it aloud to my ten-year-old daughter and my eight-year-old son is eagerly awaiting a reserved copy of the audiobook on Borrowbox. Further, in the classroom, the moral dilemmas embedded in the story will raise interesting debate.
Dragon Mountain was shortlisted for the Sainsbury's Children's Book Awards. It was also shortlisted for the Children's Book of the Year (British Book Awards) and longlisted for the Diverse Book Awards.
I highly recommend this story. It’s heart-pumping stuff, making you feel alive. It certainly left me feeling wired for more.
It's nearly time for those underground minibeasts to tunnel their way to
the surface: cicadas! Last year, in 2020, we had a glut of cicadas here in the Blue Mountains. We found countless shells. We spotted many species. We heard the deafening buzz of cicada songs.
Fly free with our native feathered friends in Backyard Birds by Dr
Helen Milroy and celebrate their majesty and splendour.
Milroy is a descendant of the Palyku people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. She was not only Australia’s first Indigenous doctor and psychiatrist but also AFL’s first Indigenous Commissioner.
Here we celebrate her work, Backyard Birds, which was shortlisted for the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards. Also by Milroy is Backyard Bugs.
In a riot of colour and sound, Backyard Birds brings birds to life and will have you dancing, prancing and singing along with them. Some of the birds like the kookaburra were already familiar to me, while others like the ‘twenty-eight’ were excitingly new. The twenty-eight is the colloquial Western Australian name for an Australian Ringneck parrot, so named because its cry sounds like ‘twenty-eight’.