Little Hare Books

Baby Wombat's Week by Jackie French & Bruce Whatley & Jasper & Abby and the Great Australia Day Kerfuffle by Kevin Rudd & Rhys Muldoon

March 2010, no. 319

Stephanie Owen Reeder reviews 'Baby Wombat’s Week' by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley, 'Jasper & Abby and the Great Australia Day Kerfuffle' by Rhys Muldoon and Kevin Rudd, and others

In the 1970s and 1980s many Australian children’s picture books had a distinctly Australian look. The local landscape, flora, and fauna predominated, and unique Australian characters abounded. Today, it is much harder to pick an Australian picture book. Globalisation and market imperatives have led authors to broaden their subject matter, and illustrators have adapted their styles so that a more universal sensibility imbues their work.

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Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury & Enigma by Graeme Base

by Stephanie Owen Reeder •

February 2009, no. 308

Stephanie Owen Reeder surveys recent Australian children's fiction

While the children’s picture book is a relatively recent literary phenomenon, most picture book authors still tap into the strong traditions of oral storytelling. Multi-award winning author Mem Fox is particularly good at this. Fox’s picture book texts are firmly grounded in the three R’s – the traditional rhythms, rhymes and repetitions found in children’s songs and verses throughout the ages. This, combined with Judy Horacek’s inspired illustrations, was what made Where is the Green Sheep? (2004) such a success.

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Avon calling!

by Ruth Starke •

December 2005–January 2006, no. 277

Ruth Starke reviews ‘The Reef’ by David Caddy, ‘Death of a Princess’ by Susan Geason, ‘The Legend of Big Red’ by James Roy, and ‘Catastrophe Cat’ by Mary Small

These titles are aimed at a primary school readership, yet there’s a wide gap in both ability and life experience between the emerging readers at one end and the almost-teenagers at the other. Some novels successfully bridge that gap, but I’m not sure The Reef (FACP, $14.95 pb, 128 pp) is one of them, despite the publisher’s classification that this is ‘for children aged 8–12 years’. It is certainly an exciting story of suspected murder and missing silver coins, but consider some elements of the plot: Tom, the young protagonist, is menaced and harassed by two nasty out-of-towners who threaten him with death and so terrify him that he has nightmares; while swimming, he’s pursued and threatened with a speargun; later, he’s assaulted and kidnapped, a sack is tied over his head, and he’s taken out to sea and thrown overboard in the expectation that he’ll be battered to death on the reef.

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