Review: The Little Girl and the Rain

When I first received a copy of The Little Girl in the Rain I instantly fell in love with whimsical beauty of the cover, with its matt finish, subtle colours and glittery raindrops. It had a somewhat modern feel but was written an illustrated by someone unknown to me, so I did some research. I was shocked to discover this beautiful book was actually first published in 1974, in what is now known as the Czech Republic.

Review: Moonlight: Celebrating Forty Years

Another timeless and wordless picture book that, along with companion book Sunshine, top and tail-ends the day for a little girl and her family. 

This fortieth anniversary edition has a heartfelt foreword by illustrator Margaret Wild and like its partner is also a classic, beautiful book.

It’s evening, and the reader sees a little girl who is eating dinner with her parents before getting ready for bed. Opening onto a bright and cheerful dinner table, the follow-up activities of dish-washing and bath-time are colourful and fresh, yet contain the sense of taking us into a gentler, more quiet realm.

Review: Sunshine: Celebrating Forty Years

A timeless and wordless picture book that nonetheless says so much as it sparkles with delight and surprise. Very appropriate for today. 

This fortieth anniversary edition, with the most beautiful forward by illustrator Freya Blackwood, is a classic in every sense of that word.

It’s morning, and the reader travels with a little girl who wakes up as the sunlight streams in through her window. She reads her book for a while before clambering out of bed to wake her sleepy-head parents.

Review: The Happy Lion

Originally published in 1954, The Happy Lion is a classic story of a cheerful, friendly Lion set in France.

In a zoo, in the middle of town lives the Happy Lion, unperplexed that he is surrounded by a moat and fence, the Lion is pleased to be greeted daily by townspeople going about their business. ‘Bonjour Happy Lion’ they would say across the water and he would cheerfully wave and smile in return. 

Winners: We're Going on A Bear Hunt 30th Anniversary

And our lucky winners are...

Giveaway: We're Going on a Bear Hunt 30th Anniversary

To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of this very special book, We're Going on a Bear Hunt, the kid crazy people of Walker Books Australia are running an awesome competition where one lucky winner can win an entire year's worth of books! You can read all about it, here. But hurry, there are only a few days left to enter.

To increase your odds of winning a copy of this memorable edition, KBR and Walker Books are giving away two special prize packs.

Each pack contains a copy of the 30^th Anniversary Edition of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, a 30^th Anniversary tote bag, a plush bear, and a pair of bear ears.

To enter, simply tell us in 25 words or less what is your favourite Bear Hunt memory?

Guest Post: Avril Sabine on World Building By Committee

Normally when I start a book, I tend to research, create characters and do world building as I need it. 

For Rosie's Rangers I wanted to create the world before I started writing the series. I had ideas for various novels in the series and even a few ideas about some of the characters, but that wasn't what I focused on. 

I wanted to know the history of the world, the way the different countries interacted with each other, what sort of technology they had and all about their societies. I wanted to know about their animals, their plants and their environment. That way, when I started to write my series there would be a completely formed world to drop my characters into. A world that would in part dictate what was possible and what resources would be available to my characters when they solved each problem they encountered.

Review: Winnie-the-Pooh: The Great Heffalump Hunt

Based on the works of Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne and E.H. Sheppard, Giles Andreae has created a magical story in verse, with the much-loved characters Pooh and Piglet.

Best friends Pooh and Piglet are strolling through the forest. Pooh has one of his ‘Grand Ideas’. He wants to catch a Heffalump. 

Rabbit has told him that Heffalumps eat Piglets. After wondering and pondering what bait to use in their trap, Piglet suggests honey.

Vintage Review: Letters from Father Christmas

There have been various editions of this wonderful collection from J. R. R. Tolkien, originally published in 1976 as The Father Christmas Letters. The copy I have was a Christmas gift, and is a revised hardcover edition called Letters From Father Christmas, complete with reproductions of the many original letters and drawings, including some previously unpublished.

Each Christmas, Tolkien’s children received a spidery, handwritten letter which appeared to be from Father Christmas himself. They were sent in carefully decorated and addressed envelopes, with unique stamps and postmarks designed to match. Just as he did with the world of Middle Earth, Tolkien created an entire world inhabited by Father Christmas, polar bears, goblins and a host of other characters. Life at the North Pole is not boring.

Vintage Review: Polar the Titanic Bear

Published in the 1990s, Polar the Titanic Bear, based on a true story, is written from the perspective of a toy bear and was found in a family trunk long after its creation early in the twentieth century.

A young boy named Douglas is fortunate to travel the world with his family, and at the beginning of one such trip he is given a parting gift - Polar, a Steiff teddy bear made in Germany and bought at a store in New York. So begins Polar’s first international expedition, staying in hotels and playing outdoors. Companion to Douglas while quarantined by chicken pox, Polar is even subjected to a disinfectant bath.

Vintage Book Review: Elvira

Everyone knows dragons like nothing better than fighting other dragons and gobbling up princesses. Well, everyone but Elvira!

This little dragon doesn't like fighting and she doesn't like eating princesses either. In fact, she much prefers to sit on the grass and make daisy chains … which doesn't make for an easy life.

Vintage Book Review: The Borrowers

As a child, I was entranced by the idea that tiny people could be living in my home, 'borrowing' from my family what they needed. As an adult, I still find the idea delightful — plus, it's a useful explanation for when a sock somehow goes missing in the wash: 'the borrowers' took it!

It seems I'm not alone in my love for Mary Norton's classic tale of the Clock family — fourteen-year-old Arrietty and her parents Homily and Pod — who live under the floorboards of an English house and borrow what they need from the 'human beans' who live above.

Review: Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

In this timeless classic, Virginia Lee Burton brings personality and character to steam-operated machines that are gradually being replaced with newer technology. 

Mike Mulligan is the proud owner of Mary Ann, a beautiful red steam shovel. They’ve enjoyed many years of life and work as a team. They’ve filled in ditches together, dug canals together, and excavated cellars for towering buildings together. 

Review: Famous Classics for Girls and Adventure Classics for Boys

One of the regrets I hope never to have, is that I never read enough of the classics. Most of us probably have great visions of immersing ourselves in not only the greatest adult classics of all time, but the great children’s classics, that have very much shaped our literary lives and become the stuff of legends.

Review: Moomin’s Little Book of Numbers

This cute board book is the perfect size for tiny hands. The book follows the adorable Finn Family Moomintrolls on a counting journey from one to ten.

In case you are not familiar with the Moomintrolls, they are smooth, round, hippo-like creatures, created by the Finnish writer and illustrator Tove Jansson (1914-2001).

The Moomins are carefree and curious little beings who like to spend their time looking for adventures and making friends. The main family of Moomins includes: Moomintroll, Moominmama and Moominpapa as well as a menagerie of quirky friends.

Review: The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Generations have grown up with Peter Rabbit and friends. Beatrix Potter’s first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit was published over 100 years ago in 1902.

Peter Rabbit is not like his siblings Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail who are quite content to gather blueberries. Peter’s natural curiosity leads him to Mr McGregor’s garden, which just so happens to be where his mum tells the naughty bunny not to go.

Vintage Book Review: The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Generations have grown up with Peter Rabbit and friends. Beatrix Potter’s first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit was published over 100 years ago in 1902.

Peter Rabbit is not like his siblings Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail who are quite content to gather blueberries. Peter’s natural curiosity leads him to Mr McGregor’s garden, which just so happens to be where his mum tells the naughty bunny not to go.

Review: The Australia Book

Anyone who has read my reviews for a while now knows my deep love for three specific elements in a children’s picture book. Different. Vintage. Educational.

Of course you can stack on top of that: beautiful, moving, whimsical, among many other things, but for the purposes of this review, let’s stick to the top three – plus one other that’s personally dear to me – books on Australia.

Review: Martin Pebble

Title: Martin Pebble

Author: Jean-Jacques Sempé

Publisher: Phaidon, A$29.95RRP

Format: Hard cover with dust jacket

ISBN: 9780714846224

For ages: 2-10

Type: Picture book

About: First published in 1969 as Marcellin Caillou, Martin Pebble was penned and illustrated by Jean-Jacques Sempé, a famed French cartoonist and illustrator and creator of the classic book character, Nicolas.

This lustrous, large format, hard cover edition published by Phaidon, is a masterpiece of gorgeousness - visually evocative, charming, funny, totally adorable in every way. With its egg-yolk yellow cover and the most adorable line drawings on vast, milky-white matt pages, little readers will be entranced - and adults most similarly so.

Little Martin Pebble finds it hard to fit in. He's always blushing, you see - but mostly when it's least expected. In fact, when he really should be blushing, he often doesn't, and when he should be, he - well... does.

It's not a huge issue for Martin. He's more than happy buzzing around alone like a little red aeroplane on his own - not being part of the 'normal' crowd doesn't seem to phase him. And his blushing problem also doesn't seem to cause a sweat. But still, he'd really just like to know what it is that makes him blush.

Then Martin makes a new friend - Roddy Rackett - who also has an unusual problem. He can't stop sneezing. Does this both Roddy? Not really. Does it bother his new best friend Martin? Not in the least. Sometimes they discuss the problem, sometimes they just sit quietly, sometimes they run around having fun like young boys do. But the blushing and the atishing... well, it's just part and parcel.

Then one day Roddy moves away. Martin is shattered. But then he makes new friends. And then he grows up and then one day, as a grown, still-blushing man, he meets Roddy once again. But will things be the same between them? Yes, yes they will.

The storyline of this gorgeous book may sound a tad uneventful, but it is far from it. Using that très French, laissez-faire, c'est la vie attitude, Martin Pebble is all about life - a nice little slice of it and the glorious everydayness of it. It's about friendship, for sure, but it's also about acceptance, and even self-acceptance. It's about getting on with life even if we don't 'fit in' or can't 'explain' things.

The line-drawing cartoons are simple yet mind-bogglingly effective, punched here and there with stunning spots of colour and coupled with dialogue balloons holding funny, clever commentary from the various characters dotting the book.

But this is not cartooning in the traditional sense - the pages are strikingly and most effectively laid out to make this a stunning picture book - a far, far cry from the weekend newspaper funnies.

It's just scrumptious to pour over the pages and saturate oneself in the clever use of words - beautifully and most effectively translated and probably slightly modernised, but not glaringly nor frustratingly so.

For those with a love of vintage books, anything French, classic book design or even plain old cartoons, this is a must-buy. C'est tellement belle.

These books are available online

Review: The Complete Adventures of Blinky Bill

Title: The Complete Adventures of Blinky Bill

Author/Illustrator: Dorothy Wall

Publisher: HarperCollins, $14.99 RRP

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 9780732284350

For ages: 7+

Type: Picture Books

About: Re-released today as a paperback novel, Dorothy Wall's most beloved and classic koala is back in The Complete Adventures of Blinky Bill. But not to worry, Wall fans, the author's iconic illustrations are still featured in this 'older' edition as black and white ink drawings that are beautifully reflective of the original very colourful illustrations.

One of Australia's best loved (and best selling) books for children, this junior fiction version about a little koala and his bush friends - Mrs Kookaburra, Mrs Magpie and Mrs Grunty are favourites I remember well - is sheer delight for kids of all ages.

Encapsulating the real Aussie bush and its marvellous creatures in stories of adventure and friendship, it really is a must-read - and all hail to HarperCollins for leaving Wall's original dialogue untainted.

This version is suited to older readers - around 8 to 12 - and won't fail to enchant today's kids as it did the children of yesterday. Long Live Blinky.
This book is available online