Good picture books stimulate a child’s imagination. Nick Bland and Stephen Michael King celebrate creativity in The Magnificent Tree (Scholastic, $24.99 hb, 32 pp, 9781742832951). Bonny and Pops enjoy sharing ideas and making things together. Bonny’s inventions are ‘simple, clever and properly made’, while Pops’s creations are ‘big, brave and brilliant with bits sticking out’. Determ ... (read more)
Stephanie Owen Reeder
Dr Stephanie Owen Reeder is a Canberra-based author, illustrator, editor and award-winning reviewer who has been reviewing children’s books for nearly thirty years. She has also worked as a secondary school teacher, a librarian, a university lecturer and a Hansard editor at Federal Parliament. Stephanie co-edited The Inside Story: Creating Children’s Books (1987) and was the editor of the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s journal Reading Time. Her historical novel Lost! A True Tale from the Bush (2009) was shortlisted in the CBCA Children’s Book of the Year Awards in 2010, while Amazing Grace: An Adventure at Sea (2011) won the New South Wales Premier’s History Award in 2012. Her picture book I’ve Got a Feeling! (2010) was an International Board on Books for Young People Outstanding Book in 2011. Her latest book for children is Dance Like a Pirate (2013).
A common theme in picture books for children is the pivotal role of family and friends. Bee, the main protagonist in Good Morning Mr Pancakes (Allen & Unwin, $29.99 hb, 32 pp, 9781742377193), has a bevy of animal friends, all of whom must be catered for before she heads off for a week’s holiday with her family. Chris McKimmie’s idiosyncratic book explores the world from the child’s point ... (read more)
Many Australian picture book authors and illustrators continue to develop the genre in exciting and unusual ways. For example, Jeannie Baker’s Mirror (Walker Books, $39.95 hb, 44 pp, 9781406309140) challenges the very notion of a picture book. It contains dual narratives that are presented as two separate books in one. These books are designed to be opened and read simultaneously – one from le ... (read more)
A matter of style
Stephanie Owen Reeder
Once upon a time, Australian picture books were easy to pick because of their distinctive artwork, which often featured Australia’s unique landscape and its flora and fauna. Nowadays, many Australian illustrators adopt a more universal style.
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The latest crop of children’s picture books highlights the ability of this versatile genre to cover everything from the ever-popular animal tale, to sparkling stories about fairies, to introspective contemplations on the meaning of life.
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