lucinda gifford | Lost in a Good Book

A is for… A Rabbit’s Tale by Jackie Hosking

17 Oct 2025 1 Comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Australian Women Writers, The Picture Book Corner Tags: aussie books, australian women writers challenge, children's picture book, four stars, jackie hosking, lucinda gifford, picture books

Published: 2nd July 2025
Publisher: Walker Books Australia
Illustrator: Lucinda Gifford
Pages: 32
Format: Picture Book
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4.5 Stars

A quirky, funny and clever alphabet book with a twist – with bright and colourful illustrations by much loved illustrator Lucinda Gifford

A is for A rabbit.
B is for Buy this book!

A hilarious alphabet story – for anyone who ever wanted a pet … and for everyone who loves a wonderful tail, um, tale with a twist!

I love this book. It’s such a clever play on the A is for… structure. Everything in this book is connected to rabbits and there is no narrative outside of the ABC format, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a fun story.

As we go through the alphabet we see our character connect to rabbits in a fun way, A is for A rabbit, B is for Buy a rabbit and so on. The best thing is R is not for Rabbit (though Hosking does point out in a small note that R is also for Rabbit). But my favourite one is ‘U is for Understandably, you want your own rabbit’.

Cleverly through this alphabet non story there is a story about sharing, about jealousy, and above all loving your new awesome rabbit. There is a fabulous twist at the end and it was surprising how a simple format with very few words could be so delightful and funny. I love Hosking’s approach to this and Gifford’s illustrations add context and humour and aide the unspoken narrative remarkably well.

You can purchase A is for a Rabbit’s Tale via the following

Dymocks | Booktopia | Wordery

Fishpond | Amazon Aust

Whitney and Britney, Chicken Divas by Lucinda Gifford

09 Oct 2020 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Australian Women Writers, The Picture Book Corner Tags: #1millionkidsreading, #aww2019, #nss2020, aussie books, australian women writers challenge, aww 2019, children's picture book, four stars, lucinda gifford, national simultaneous storytime

Published: 1st October 2019
Publisher: Scholastic Australia
Illustrator: Lucinda Gifford
Pages: 35
Format: Picture Book
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

Whitney and Britney are two gorgeous chooks, Fluffy and silky with stunning good looks. Dora is perplexed about where her chooks go each night. Little does she know, they are Whitney and Britney, Chicken Divas!

Filled with dazzle and sparkle this is the vibrant story of Whitney and Britney, two chooks owned by Dora Von Dooze. The story itself is straightforward enough, but Gifford adds some sparkle with fun rhymes and pacing that helps add to the pizazz of the story. The rhymes are simple and easily flow with the story, the melody and rhythm of Gifford’s writing making reading effortless with help from fun formatting to promote emphasis and exaggeration.

The illustrations are also wonderfully fabulous. With a mixture of full page and split page illustrations Gifford’s style is full of sparkle and dazzle which is ideal given the key characters, but she also captures the tone and environmental changes in her colours and designs. Whitney and Britney are decked out to look like the divas they are and Gifford’s use of strong contrasting colours highlights each bit of bling and sparkle these girls have to offer.

This is a fun and uncomplicated story about celebrating your inner diva and having unbridled fun.

You can purchase Whitney and Britney Chicken Divas via the following

QBD | Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Angus and Robinson

Fishpond | Amazon Aust

AWW Update Oct-Dec

24 Dec 2019 4 Comments

by Amy in Australian Women Writers Tags: #aww2019, aimie kaufman, aura parker, australian women writers challenge, aww 2019, aww19 update, lucinda gifford, natalie murray, ruth park, tabitha bird, tara east, vikki conley, yassmin abdel-magied

This is my final update of 2019, but I will be posting my complete wrap up post later on with all the books I read for the challenge. There is still another week left on the month and year but I am doing my round up early because I know the books I am planning on finishing won’t count to this challenge unless something wild happens. In the past three months I hit my new 40 book goal which was tentative and promptly forgotten about after my last update so to see I exceeded it is quite exciting. The October #LoveOzYABookBingo helped my numbers a bit and getting to catch up a bit on my review requests was another boost I was grateful for.