Review: Australian Geographic - World's Most Freaky

If you love animals and love being able to wow your friends with random fun facts, then Australian Geographic’s World’s Most Freaky is for you.

 
Sorted by world regions and with plenty of ‘freaky’ animal facts clearly sectioned with a photo and a small amount of text, this book allows readers to either dip in and out or devour the details from cover to cover.

The facts within are not intended to horrify, repulse or make you cringe – as the title word ‘freaky’ may imply – but rather to intrigue, fascinate and elicit the ‘wow – no way!’ factor. The whole point is to open your eyes to the uniqueness and tenacity of nature, with a side dose of awareness, so we can all step towards conserving these beautiful creatures for generations to come.

 

Review: Australian Geographic - World's Most Extreme

Would you rather be a capybara and stay underwater for up to five minutes or a bee hummingbird and fly backwards with incredible precision?

From the moment I picked up Australian Geographic: World's Most Extreme, I was hooked. This is the kind of non-fiction title that invites readers to dive straight in and explore.

Several features immediately caught my attention. The title sparked my curiosity, the textured cover added another layer of appeal, and the animal-print endpapers had me smiling before I even turned the first page.

The format makes this book highly accessible for readers of all ages. Each continent is explored, allowing readers to travel the world and discover fascinating creatures. Clear headings help readers navigate the text, while intriguing subheadings encourage them to keep reading. Fast fact inserts provide bite-sized information, and the stunning photographs bring every page to life.

For educators, this book offers countless opportunities for classroom learning. It provides a wonderful springboard for geographical investigations as learners explore where animals live around the world and compare continents, environments and ecosystems. The fascinating facts and measurements throughout the book create authentic opportunities for mathematical thinking as learners compare, estimate and order sizes, speeds and weights.

Science lessons can be enriched through investigations into living things, adaptations, habitats and the remarkable features that help animals survive in their environments. The stunning photographs also make this a valuable resource for art, encouraging learners to examine colour, texture, scale, composition and the power of photography to tell a story.

One of the strengths of this title is its ability to spark wonder. Readers will find themselves sharing facts, asking questions and making connections long after they close the book.

This is one title in a series, and I can confidently say I need every single one on my shelf.

Highly recommended for classrooms, libraries and curious readers who love discovering the incredible world around them.

Title: Australian Geographic -World's Most Extreme
Creator: Australian Geographic
Publisher: Hardie Grant Children's Publishing
Publication Date: 28 April, 2026
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781761218064
For ages: 6+
Type: Junior Non-fiction

Review: Green Cities: How Green Infrastructure Helps Heal the Planet

Green Cities: How Green Infrastructure Helps Heal the Planet, a book by Sheila Boudreau and Katy Dockrill, is an introductory exploration of nature in the urban environment, emphasising the importance of green spaces and green infrastructure.

It’s got a modern, yet retro feel, and is filled with bright illustrations, colourful text boxes, and lots of green to match the theme. The design uses plenty of subheadings and every turn of a page offers visual elements. 

It starts by looking at the history of cities and how city planning can be transformed and improved by working with biodiversity and even creating a walkable city. It also considers the impact of climate change and the way building cities can contribute greenhouse gases, heat islands, and the risk of water pollution.

12 Curly Questions with children's author Yvette Farmer

1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you.

Sometimes when I’m bushwalking alone I like to have a chat with the trees and currawongs.

2. What is your nickname?
Vettie. When I was little my parents called me 'chops'. 

Review: Storm

Do you get mesmerised by a storm and love to look out the window? This book is for you!

Storm is such a beautifully presented book that it could easily sit proudly on a coffee table. I was captivated by its fold-out spread. Written by Claire and illustrated by Jess, this well-researched title is one book in a collection that invites readers to look closely at the wonders of our world. It is a joy to read aloud. Claire’s thoughtful use of verbs immediately draws the reader in and creates that wonderful urge to keep turning the page to discover more.

Review: Exploring the Elements - A Complete Guide to the Periodic Table

This book – and its companion books (see below) are like the perfect day for me. With caramel on top. The joy they bring me – I can't even.

The thing about this stunning series is that it is intensely comprehensive yet served in bite-sized pieces... an intellectual smorgasbord that keeps you coming back for more.

In Exploring the Elements, my periodic table fangirl side entered overdrive. Earth's elements are a regular fascination but this deep dive, sans too-boggling jargon, will cram young heads with wows. 

Review: Australian Backyard Buddies

There is something truly delightful about a book that encourages young readers to pause… to look closely… and to notice what has always been there. Australian Backyard Buddies does exactly that.

This engaging text celebrates a range of living creatures that share our everyday spaces. It invites curiosity with its unique contents page, drawing readers into a world that is familiar yet often overlooked.

Each double page offers bite-sized information about backyard creatures - their habits, habitats and behaviours. 

Review: Milly Meelyu

For years now we have seen children and schools becoming more actively interested in conservation and caring for the environment and wildlife. It's now well over 30 years since my first teaching gig with Year 5 when I created a literature-based unit of inquiry based on Fern Gully, we wrote a (published) letter to the editor of the Courier-Mail regarding the threatened destruction on Mt Warning and started an enthusiastic Environment Club.

But it is far more recently that we have begun to share and teach the cross-cultural perspectives of how our First Australians have always been custodians and caretakers of the land, water, plants and creatures.

Now we aim for this more inclusive approach to our conservation efforts and thus welcome any support for these endeavours including books such as this one. I'm not terribly familiar with wildlife of Western Australia beyond the most well-known and these meelyu - spiny-tailed skinks - were new to me entirely.

Review: A Farm by the Sea

Would you rather live on a farm or by the sea? 

In A Farm by the Sea, Jillian Packer uses simple lyrical text and exquisite illustrations to reveal life on a farm and by the sea.

The story is narrated by the youngest member of the family, and we experience life through her daily rhythms. 

The day begins with the farm chores and saying ‘Good Morning’ to all the animals. 

Review: Blue: Dragon of the Sea

Aleesah Darlison has a deft hand when writing books about wildlife and, as she is herself passionate about critters of all kinds, shapes and sizes, that comes as no surprise.

Little Blue is a nudibranch and if you’ve never heard of them, seen them or even read about them before, why not check them out because this book is bound to spark much interest with your little people. After all, you will want to be the font of all knowledge for them when they start wanting to know more! 

These super-colourful shell-less sea slugs are often referred to as ‘sparkly sea cupcakes’ which is a pretty cute description and with over 3000 varieties with an emphasis on varieties - such a range of colours, shapes and features, it’s pretty appropriate.

Review: Freddie Jones: The Mystery of the Troublesome Trees

Kate Foster has become such a leading light in middle grade novels featuring neuro-diverse characters. In this, she brings her own personal experience, so always there is such authenticity and wonderful voice. With this new series, she hooks into the ever-popular mystery genre and, more especially, kid investigators which will have great appeal for such a wide readership.

Along with that, this new narrative also has a strong family theme and, in particular, the connection between quirky grandchild and equally quirky grandmother. Freddie Jones is autistic and quite matter-of-fact about that. He is very self-aware and is generally able to self-regulate. His great asset in this is Hobnob, his assistance dog. 

Review: Feathers of Farwood and the Gripps Curse

Eva Feather has moved with her mother and two sisters to the little town of Farwood – a town like many other little country places in Australia but with many secrets. Eva’s secret is that her father has been infected by the Gripps, a mysterious condition affecting many, which causes a person to transform into an animal – in the instance of her dad, an owl.

Eva is already sprouting some feathers. She is desperate to rescue her father from being permanently trapped in owl form as well as to stop her own transformation. To add to the drama, there are the Hunters who roam looking for those who are Gripps-affected and effectively isolating them and banishing them.

Eva loves their new little weird and quirky house and she also likes Farwood very much but she is pretty much an outsider and friendless until she meets new boy, Harvey. Harvey also has secrets but he quickly becomes her staunchest ally and her partner in her mission to find the mysterious and long-hidden book that will reveal answers to help not only the girl and her family but all those who are in the grip of the Gripps.

Review: Going Fishing with Nana

Going Fishing with Nana is another superb Magabala Books publication written by Frances and Lindsay Haji-Ali and illustrated by Karen Briggs. It is an adventurous follow-up to On the Way to Nana’s, published in 2017.

The day has finally arrived to pick up Nana and go fishing.

It will be a long drive, but luckily there are many interesting things to look at along the way. 

Waterholes, boab trees, and the peeping, squinting, glaring eyes of many Australian animals, birds and insects.

Review: Ruby's Perfect Fire Safety Plan

Ruby is a highly intelligent child. An ideas girl. A perfectionist.

She plans everything.

Organisation is her best asset. Always with a clipboard in hand and her computer open to fill in her programs, she records everything.

The most important plan is missing from her list until the local fire-fighter visits her school to talk about fire safety in the home.

When the family is gathered, Ruby brings up the subject. She calls attention to the need for a check list concerning fire hazards in and around their home.

Review: Mr McGee

The newest edition of the first Mr McGee book is now in board book form. 

Originally published in 1987, Pamela Allen again brings to life her most popular character of eight titles, the adventurous McGee. Someone who is always ready for anything. 

He is unusual, full of life and misadventure, a performer and attention seeker.  

The sprawling apple tree which covers McGee’s table and chairs, and his bed where the cat also sleeps, accommodates his life amidst nature. 

Review: This Bird: Noticing Our Urban Birds

‘Oooooo … doo-doo-doo-whipp!’

‘Pew pew.’

That's the call of an eastern whipbird, one of the many wonderful birds I hear living in the Blue Mountains in NSW. 

Also full of vibrant native birds is a new book called, This Bird: Noticing Our Urban Birds, created to help identify and celebrate birds in our backyards, local parks and streets. 

This Bird is written and illustrated by Astred Hicks in collaboration with Dr Holly Parsons, an ecologist and community educator. The book is a stunning way to connect with nature and be in the present moment.

Review: The Observologist

Observology: the process of carefully watching and analysing the world around you. 

This is a Handbook for Mounting Very Small Scientific Expeditions. That means, setting out to find hidden creatures in places not previously thought of, and learning how to identify them. 

Boring is a word often repeated by children. But it is one that can be silenced simply by looking down to discover a fascinating, alive world at one’s feet.  

Observology encourages children to explore the natural world through short excursions to find not only what is above

Review: Once I Was A Giant

I was fortunate enough to see the drafts and incomplete storyboard of Once I Was A Giant when meeting Zeno Sworder in person for the first time some eighteen or so months ago. Both experiences were profoundly moving and memorable.

Which pretty much sums up this extraordinary picture book. With no preamble, the Giant’s story begins, at the ending, with a premise that could easily reflect a reoccurring dilemma for many creators; a stymie of creative flow. 

When the picture book maker, with a strong resemblance to the author himself, experiences this impasse, his trusty pencil inexplicably springs to life.

The wee stub shows him her life’s journey from germinating seed to grand dame of her forest kingdom. We are taken through life cycle after life cycle. From a sapling’s view point to that of a towering giant’s, residence to a whole eco-system of invertebrates, animals and birds. It is a wondrous and all-encompassing experience to stand before this giant and gaze skyward at her unfathomable brilliance, so strong, so assured, so steadfast.

Review: This is Us - Essential Australian Poems for Young People

There is music in everything around us. The music of poetry reflects the music of Life itself. 

That's how it is in This is Us: Essential Poems for Younger Readers, a celebration of life. 

An outstanding collection of poetry chosen by Libby Hathorn and Jude Fell, it contains 61 poems chosen from states all over Australia. 

At times, full of nonsense and laughter, they include the sky and Earth, and everything in between. 

Lots of free verse is mixed in with rhyming and rhythmic poems - about Nitz, mosquitoes, swans in their majestic beauty, wombats and lyrebirds.  

Tender and deeply moving ones such as 

Guest Post: Margrete Lamond on Gilbert's Cake

Gilbert’s Cake is the story of our story …

Readers often wonder where story ideas come from. They come from many places, but rarely from as deep a place as Gilbert’s Cake.

As author Emily Mir explains, ‘Our first baby, Gilbert, was stillborn in 2010. Two years later, we welcomed Gilbert’s twin siblings. As young children, the twins wanted a party, complete with balloons and a cake, to mark Gilbert's birthday. It was painful at first, but an annual tradition began. Gilbert’s Cake is the story of our story.’

After working with families who have experienced miscarriage and stillbirth, Emily was inspired to share her family’s story of love, loss . . . and pelicans. 

Emily is both a counsellor and a bereaved mother, and hopes her story sparks joy and love as well as evoking holistic ways of healing in the face of loss and trauma.