Title: Grandpa Green
Author: Lane Smith
Illustrator: Lane Smith
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
ISBN: 9781596436077

Themes: Family, memory, love, creativity, remembering, story, history

Grandpa was a sailor, a husband, a gardener, a soldier and an artist…

My favourite book of 2011, Grandpa Green is a whimsical beauty, an awe inspiring treasure, a joyful surprise… you get the drift. I’ve already purchased 6 copies of this book because I continue to give it out as gifts to friends & family.

Grandpa Green is a perfect example as to the beauty of the picture book, it’s use of colour and images that flow from one page to another seamlessly, a simple take told well, visually stunning and touching.

And that it came from Lane Smith, who is possibly better known for his more comical side I think has helped it surprise us all (in a very nice way), after all, it’s not that often that such a touching, inspiring and poignant book is released. When I opened it I was expecting to giggle a bit, laugh at Lane’s wit and humourous tale, instead I found a multi-layered, emotionally charged, simple, haunting and beautiful piece of art, and I had to sit and sigh as the story made a space in my soul.

Read this tale over and over again, you’ll hear voices of the past, imagine tales of days gone by, allow the young boy to introduce you to his grandfather whom he loves dearly and his garden that holds the memories of years past.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Title: Button Boy
Author: Sue deGennaro
Illustrator: Sue deGennaro
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 9781741697971

Themes: collecting, being different, searching, generosity, helping others, being special, finding friends, looking

Button boy made me smile, a big grin from ear to ear… Such a beautiful story by Rebecca Young of a boy who always has his eyes open for something that others may have lost, who finds specialness and joy in small wonders, and how sometimes this search opened up other discoveries of wonder.

Beautifully and elegantly illustrated by the whimsical and talented Sue deGennaro the story of Banjo, the young boy who loves to collect buttons will have you checking your own jumpers and jackets for lost buttons and perhaps will inspire you to keep your eyes open for lost buttons on your travels just waiting to be reunited with it’s owner.

The repetition within the story will help you enter Banjos world of lost buttons, wonder, joy and friends yet to have been met.

Keep your eyes open, you never know what you may find…

Title: The Little Old Man Who Looked Up At The Moon
Author: Pamela Allen
Illustrator: Pamela Allen
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780670075812

Themes: meaning of life, wisdom, questions, wonder, worry, journey, nonsense

Pamela Allen writes what I like to call Australian postmodern parables. It’s not unusual to, upon completing a Pamela Allen story to find a puzzled look on ones face followed by an inquisitive sigh as one rolls their eyes towards the sky…

But that’s what makes them oh so good, it’s the surprising, unlikely and odd journey her stories take you, from wondering if a mouse really sunk a boat to where on earth was the treasure buried…

This tale of the Little Old Man and his inquisitive and understanding wife is another feather in Pamela’s cap. A wonderful adventure spurred on by a seemingly impossible mission to discover the meaning of life from the large and wise animals of the region.

I don’t want to spoil the ending of the story, but in true Pamela Allen style it’ll have you chuckling in puzzlement and awe quickly followed by that characteristic rolling of the eyes…

Enchanting and beautifully illustrated as always this is classic Pamela Allen in fine form…

Title: The Pros & Cons of Being a Frog
Author: Sue deGennaro
Illustrator: Sue deGennaro
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 9781742830636

Themes: friendship, imagination, differences, arguments, communication, personality, saying sorry

Sue deGennaro has burst onto the picture book scene with some enchanting, creative and beautifully designed pieces of art and delightfully dreamy stories. The Pros and Cons is her first solo release as author/illustrator.

This is the story of two young friends trying to find the right animal, which isn’t as easy as it sounds, especially when one of them speaks mostly in numbers and the other is a little quirky.

If you were to be an animal what animal would you be?

And what makes up a good friend and how do you work through your differences and arguments? Perhaps you need to read through the pro & cons of being a frog to help you figure it out.

Title: If I Could Paint The World
Author: Sarah Massini
Illustrator: Sarah Massini
Publisher: Gullane Children’s Books
ISBN: 9781862338043

Themes: creation, colour, art, creativity, transformation, imagination

Sarah Massini brings us the beautifully illustrated and creative musings of a young artist who ponders what the world would look like I she was the one to colour it.

What colour would you have painted the sky? What about the grass? Or perhaps the food you eat for breakfast?

Simple and engaging the story will have you imagining a world where everything is your favorite colour and leave you being amazed at the creativity and colour that surrounds us each and every day.

Title: Stuck
Author: Oliver Jeffers
Illustrator: Oliver Jeffers
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 9780007263868

Themes: problem solving, stuck, humour, trouble, determination, creativity, inventiveness

Oliver Jeffers has created a simple, creative, laugh-out-loud and ridiculous story about a young boy who meets a problem face up and who just won’t give up on trying to solve it.

Join Floyd on his hilarious adventure while he causes the community a mild case of trauma and upheaval while he tries to get his kite back.

Brilliant and simple with illustrations that are true to form for Oliver (simple, quirky & colourful) you’ll love reading the story to everyone and anyone…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Title: Prudence Wants a Pet
Author: Cathleen Daly
Illustrator: Stephen Michael King
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 9781741699654

Themes: Pets, family, imagination, responsibilities, friendship

Stephen Michael King partners up with Cathleen Daly to create this simple, beautiful, quirky tale of a little girl with a big imagination who, more than anything in the world wants a pet and her family who aren’t so sure…

So what happens when Prudence gets a pet, names it “Branch” & it follows her everywhere?

Beautifully illustrated and designed, Stephen Michael King brings this young girl and her multiple pets to life, one by one you’ll fall in love with her pets, you’ll laugh at their antics and in the end you’ll melt…

Cathleen and Stephen make a great partnership & this makes for a creative and beautiful book, tie a string to it and take it everywhere with you…

Title: The Huey’s In “The New Jumper”
Author: Oliver Jeffers
Illustrator: Oliver Jeffers
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 9780007420650

Themes: Difference, community, individualism, change, fads, popularity, friendship

The thing about the Hueys… was that they were all the same.

One thing is for sure – Oliver Jeffers understands the picture book, and the picture book understands him. If one were to judge books by their covers you’d be walking straight past his collection, & for all intensive purposes you’d be forgiven after all his illustrations look like they’ve been drawn by a preschooler…

But if you were to pick that book up and open that cover you’ll be in for a great surprise, because he’s an absolute genius.

The Hueys is a new series of books to come from Oliver, the first of which “The New Jumper” is as simple as it is brilliant.
Follow the story of a Huey who isn’t exactly like everyone else, and whose differences cause a bit of community chaos when he decides to knit himself a new jumper.

What follows is an amusing short tale of a community who’s not too keen on change, and not that enthusiastic about being different either.

After all, its (just) a jumper… what change can a simple jumper bring?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Title: The Hidden Forest
Author: Jeannie Baker
Illustrator: Jeannie Baker
Publisher: Walker Books UK
Publisher: Greenwillow Books USA
ISBN – Hardback: 0-688-15760-2 (trade USA)
ISBN – Hardback: 0-688-08918-6 (lib. ed. USA)
ISBN – Hardback: 1-85681-010-0 (UK)
ISBN – Paperback: 0-7445c7876-0
ISBN – Big Book: 0-84428 518-9

Themes: Wonder, Environment, Conservation, Forrest, Diversity, Nature, Beauty

‘When you see kelp forest under the water and you’re looking up, the sun is like the light of the sky, it penetrates the water’s surface and shoots rays down as in a rainforest. The forest is very magical and mysterious and fish, appear at times, like birds flying through the trees’. Jeannie Baker

The Hidden Forest is another unique masterpiece from the author who brought us titles The Forest Beneath the Sea and Window.

In The Hidden Forest Baker once again combines her passion for conservation and extraordinary talent with collage with an endearing story of discovery and wonder. The story follows Ben, a boy who, after getting his small fish trap caught in an underwater kelp forest, sets out on a snorkelling adventure to unhook the trap. Led by his eco-conscious friend Sophie, Ben discovers the beauty and diversity hidden beneath the surface of the bay.

Wonders such as the multi-layered, multi-textured kelp forest, the many different types of fish and even a whale are all part of Ben’s journey to discover that the underwater world is a place where everything has it’s purpose and needs to be respected and valued.

This story is, like all of Baker’s creations, a visual smorgasbord of colours and textures, inspired by the kelp forests on Tasmania’s Tasman Peninsula. Baker used a multitude of natural materials including seaweeds, sponges and sands in the construction of her illustrations and reader’s can find illuminating information on the endangered kelp forests and Baker’s creation process on the final page.

This book is again, a beautiful and inspiring encouragement of valuing and respecting our natural environment and a wonderful tool for educating the generations to come.

Review written by Holly Lobb, November 2010.

Author: Lane Smith
Illustrated by: Lane Smith
Publisher: Walker Books Australia
ISBN-10: 1596436069
ISBN-13: 978-1596436060
More on how the book came to be: On Lane Smith’s Blog

Themes: Laughter, Literacy, Books, Technology, Knowledge, Questions, Simplicity, Gadgets

A Jackass and a Monkey sit in a room together, the Monkey happily and contently reading it’s book, engrossed in the text before him he’s interrupted by the JackAss, (happily playing on it’s laptop) who is wondering what on earth he is doing, what’s he got in his hand, what does it do?

I’ve already mentioned Lane Smith’s work on this site a number of times, his work on “The Big Elephant in the Room” and “Squids will be Squids” is as hilarious as they are poignant sometimes, ad there’s nothing really special to what he does, it’s plain and simple illustrations with an uncanny knack of portraying facial expressions, even on donkeys and elephants, or in this case, a Monkey, a Jackass and a Mouse.

This timely book is as humerous and laugh out loud funny as it is cringe-worthingly plausible. I remember taking young people to the local community radio station a number of years ago and introducing them to the LP storage section, which is where I’d be asked what a LP is, and what an EP is, somehow I’d found myself in a group of kids who had never seen a vinyl record and had no idea what I was talking about. It’s plausible then, that there may be kids somewhere in the near future who use their computers to read books and to do everything that we’d normally use paper for, and when that happens I’m afraid for the future of books.

And in this world of gadgets and instant communication where people are used to quick and short messages there is a possibility that books that are 500 or more pages long may actually be too long for the short attentioned, mobile phone literate masses, why would I spend a day reading a book? One of the funniest lines in the book is where the Jackass decides to shorten the text from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island into SMS format.

Too many letters.
I’ll fix it.

LJS: rrr! K? lol!
JIM: !

So… what to make of this book.

It’s funny, it’s quirky, simple, delightfully illustrated, sleek, fun, enjoyable, clever, real…

It’s a book to read together with the kids….

and

It’s possibly a too real, too scary, too frightening possibility for a world that is quickly handing over their novels to the Kindle and iPads.

Perhaps we all need to go to the library and borrow a book and, then introduce another friend to a book that you think they may enjoy reading as well…

So, what is your favourite book, what about it is special, why did you fall in love with it?

Check out the book trailer:

Click here to view the embedded video.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars