A Very Quacky Christmas by Frances Watts

11 Dec 2020 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Australian Women Writers, The Picture Book Corner Tags: , , , , , ,

Published: 23rd October 2017Goodreads badge
Publisher: ABC Books
Illustrator: Ann James
Pages: 32
Format: Picture Book
★   ★   ★   ★  – 4 Stars

Samantha Duck is getting ready for Christmas and her friend Sebastian thinks she’s silly. After all, he says, Christmas isn’t for animals. But Samantha knows that Christmas is for everyone and sets out to make sure that all the animals have a very quacky Christmas (and a tortoise new year) 

This is such a cute book. Samantha Duck is trying to spread the Christmas cheer for all the animals but is constantly being reminded by her friend Sebastian that animals don’t do Christmas. I liked this because even though Sebastian keeps telling Samantha that she shouldn’t be doing Christmas, he still helps her make decorations and presents. I also loved how they go around and collect things from other animals who want to help like eggs and wool, and it is a lovely story about how even the simplest gesture can mean a lot.

The illustrations are adorable, James has done a brilliant job. I loved the designs on Samantha and Sebastian, and having a visual as Samantha decorates and they create their presents was a great bonus of enjoyment on top of an already sweet story. The water colours and roughly lined illustrations of the characters and scenery works well and they alter between full pages and smaller drawings with the text sharing half the page. The colours bring a feeling of nature as well as the summer Christmas atmosphere which we definitely need more representation of.

There is so much heart and determination Watts has put into a seemingly simple story but is also filled with its own bit of Christmas magic and it is a truly special little Christmas story.

You can purchase A Very Quacky Christmas via the following

QBD | Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Angus and Robinson

 Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust

How to Hide a Lion at Christmas by Helen Stephens

04 Dec 2020 Leave a comment

by Amy in 3 Stars, The Picture Book Corner Tags: , , ,

Published: 4th October 2018Goodreads badge
Publisher: Alison Green Books
Illustrator: Helen Stephens
Pages: 40
Format: Picture Book
★   ★   ★  – 3 Stars

A charming holiday picture book about a girl, her pet lion, and a Christmas adventure.

Iris and her lion go everywhere together. But when Christmas comes and the family is going away, Mum says the lion must stay behind. After all, you can’t take a lion on a train. Luckily the lion has other ideas. He sets off on a festive, snowy adventure to find Iris—and almost bumps into Santa Claus!

This is the Christmas edition of How to Hide a Lion and in this story we see Iris face the challenge of hiding her lion once more because lions can’t go on trains and therefore cannot come with them to visit Auntie Sarah.

It’s a very sweet book. It’s fun to see Iris attempt to hide her lion but can’t quite make it work. Iris’ lion doesn’t want to make her sad by being left behind so he sets off to join them on their Christmas. Having not read the original book or others in the series first I was slightly underwhelmed, but I’ve since read the first book which is more substantial and this makes this a nice addition to the series of Iris’s numerous adventures of having to hide her lion.

You don’t need to have read the original per se, it’s easily accepted that Iris has a lion and no understanding of how this came about is required, but I did feel like it was missing something. Having now read the original story I can see the themes Stephens uses here which connect it to the original. But even beyond that, there is a sweet story about a lion not wanting his friend to be lonely and setting off to make sure she has a nice Christmas, albeit with a few mishaps on the way. It doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that.

I enjoyed this because there is a lion in it, which is an easy way to gain my approval over anything, but beyond that it’s also a nice, fun story. Stephens’ illustrations are bright and colourful, the mixture of full page and small illustrations suit the story and helps convey the narrative being told. Her style is simple but still full of detail, and the scenes through the book tell their own story.

I think I will have to track down more of Iris’ adventures because seeing the humorous and creative ways she tries to hide her lion, I’d love to see more of her attempts and see what mischief they get up to in the meantime.

You can purchase How to Hide a Lion at Christmas via the following

QBD | Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Angus and Robinson

 Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust

Truman by Jean Reidy

13 Nov 2020 Leave a comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, The Picture Book Corner Tags: , , ,

Published: 9th July 2019Goodreads badge
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Illustrator: Lucy Ruth Cummins
Pages: 40
Format: Picture Book
★   ★   ★   ★   ★  – 5 Stars

Truman the tortoise lives with his Sarah, high above the taxis and the trash trucks and the number eleven bus, which travels south. He never worries about the world below…until one day, when Sarah straps on a big backpack and does something Truman has never seen before. She boards the bus!

Truman waits for her to return.
He waits.
And waits.
And waits.
And when he can wait no longer, he knows what he must do.

Even if it seems…impossible!

I picked up this book because the front cover was absolutely too cute to ignore and I was not disappointed by the story inside. This is the story of a little turtle named Truman who decided to go on an adventure to find his owner.

The perspective focuses on Truman and his life with Sarah and when that changes suddenly Truman isn’t sure what to do. I loved seeing Truman’s deliberations about what it all means when Sarah left that day. The extra beans, her bow, the backpack. I loved so much of this but one of my favourite lines was “She strapped on a backpack so big thirty-two small tortoises could ride alone in it – but zero tortoises did.”

The illustrations are adorable, Cummins has done a brilliant job depicting Truman to bring his little turtle self to life. I instantly became invested with him and his relationship with Sarah. There is a great synchronicity between the words and what is shown on the page. The illustrations are realistic but rough, with a sparseness to them but still with detail that reflects the words of the story. The world is seen through Truman’s eyes and Cummins brings to life Truman’s worldly view as things loom around him and seem vast and expansive. The use of perspective is fantastic and I loved how the world looked to Truman versus the reality.

The story is incredibly sweet and I loved seeing a bond between owner and pet that was unconventional and loving. It was a genuine love and devotion between Sarah and Truman and getting to have a little adventure and mystery thrown in the mix was fabulous. I loved this story from start to finish and it is an absolute delight to read. You will love Truman and his bravery and devotion.

You can purchase Truman via the following

Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Angus and Robinson

 Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust

Princess Kevin by Michaël Escoffier

06 Nov 2020 3 Comments

by Amy in 3 Stars, The Picture Book Corner Tags: , , ,

Published: 7th April 2020Goodreads badge
Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books
Illustrator: Roland Garrigue
Pages: 32
Format: Picture Book
★   ★   ★  – 3 Stars

This year, Kevin is going to the school costume show as a princess. His costume is perfect but he knows that the best costumes are authentic. So he is outraged that none of the knights will partner with him and complete the look. Things don’t go quite a smoothly as he planned. Next year, there is only one thing for it. He will just have to be something even more fabulous.

This is a heart-warming and funny story about imagination, diversity and persevering at expressing your fabulous self.

I liked this book because it allowed an exploration of self and breaking gender norms without it having to be purely for trans or other identity reasons. Through the narrative, Escoffier notes that girls can be knights and cowboys so why can’t Kevin be a princess?

It showcases that kids want to play dress up and be the different characters they read in their books and whether that is a knight, a butterfly, or a princess then what does it matter? Kevin can be a princess because he is becoming someone different for the day.

There is some minor bullying towards other costumes and the lack of great design, but it doesn’t go any further than that. Ideally it would be better without this inclusion, no matter how trivial and small because in a book where Kevin is trying to have fun and be his best self on the day, having him join in mocking another student is not the best thing.  There is an apology that’s offered right after which is a slight redemption so I’ll grant Escoffier that.

There isn’t a moral to the story, Escoffier isn’t offering a grand statement in Kevin’s expression because as children do he finds the costume constrictive after a while and hard to play in. I liked that this story is such a non-event. It’s about a dress up event at school and nothing more. Escoffier normalising this behaviour is a great positive because letting boys chose to be princesses simply because they want to be is something I wholeheartedly support.

You can purchase Princess Kevin via the following

QBD | Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Wordery | Angus and Robinson

 Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust

A Scarf for Keiko by Ann Malaspina

30 Oct 2020 Leave a comment

by Amy in 3 Stars, The Picture Book Corner Tags: , , , ,

Published: 1st February 2019Goodreads badge
Publisher: Kar-Ben Publishing
Illustrator: Merrilee Liddiard
Pages: 32
Format: Picture Book
★   ★   ★  – 3 Stars

It’s 1942. Sam’s class is knitting socks for soldiers and Sam is a terrible knitter. Keiko is a good knitter, but some kids at school don’t want anything to do with her because the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor and her family is Japanese American. When Keiko’s family is forced to move to a camp for Japanese Americans, can Sam find a way to demonstrate his friendship? 

This is a good book with an important message but it’s also one that is incredibly text heavy which may be a deterrent for younger readers. Each page has around a paragraph of story on it, accompanied by a large illustration. The text included dialogue and narrative but with this set up across all 30+ pages it is a long read.

While it may be long, the story isn’t overly complicated and the message and history Malaspina is trying to convey is important. The focus is through Sam and we see his perspective and understanding of the world around him. As the story goes on you can see Sam’s opinions being shaped by what he hears around him but you also see him learn and realise that those opinions might not be right.

The bigger message of the camps is addressed but the focus is on how a child may view the world during this time so we only see Sam’s experiences during this time and his interactions with others. Malaspina isn’t giving a complete breakdown of the war, instead she is looking at it from an individual perspective and humanising what happened. This works better in my opinion because as Sam is the focus of the story we see events play out around him and seeing Sam’s growing understanding of what is happening demonstrates how opinions can be changed and how the loudest voice isn’t always the right one.

The full page illustrations help visual what is happening on the page, something that helps given it is such a text heavy book. The colours help reflect the era the story is set, a lot of browns and tans as was seen during the war. The few colours we see stand out on the sepia type illustrations varying between full page pictures and framed images that reflect old photographs which I thought was a clever choice by Liddiard.

The ending is left open but there is also a lot of historical information at the end of the book to learn about the real camp and the real ways Americans treated their fellow citizens. It was an interesting book and maybe having such a detailed story works in its favour because you get to see a lot more than if it had been condensed down. There is definitely a sense of injustice throughout and having a child like Sam have to realise his own mistakes is a great lesson for kids to see.

You can purchase A Scarf for Keiko via the following

 Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Fishpond

 Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

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