Once upon a cloud

The environment, the world of Totoro, and a chicken keeper losing her memory feature in new picture books.

LOST, by Mariajo Ilustrajo (Frances Lincoln, $27.99)

Getting the message of climate change across to picture book readers is a special gift. The 2020 winner of the World Illustration Awards, who demonstrated the inexorable rise of sea levels in Flooded, delivers another environmental message in Lost. Our homesick hero first appears as a tentative foot, one among many on a subway platform. Everyone is far too busy and distracted to take notice of this wintry white stranger – until a kind redhead (keen eyes will have spotted her earlier) invites Bear home to her place. The food is strange and hot (echoes of Goldilocks) and the bathtub sea very small, but a handy picture book about the North Pole suggests a solution for the misplaced mammal. A tad anthropomorphic, but the tragic reality of survivors stranded, each on their tiny patch of ice, is there for the observant reader/teacher.

LIZZY AND THE CLOUD, by The Fan Brothers (Frances Lincoln, $27.99)

Lizzy just wants an ordinary cloud. They’re a bit out of fashion these days but still available at the park, so she takes home one she names Milo, complete with care instructions. This is where the smart reader gets a jump on the visual kid, because “caring for your cloud” signals a few warnings concerning downpours and thunderstorms. Subtle details include the rainbow that shines in Lizzy’s room when Milo waters her orchids and ferns, and the snowflakes falling gently on her Janet Frame-like head of hair. A sweet take on “if you love someone, set them free”.

THE MIDNIGHT PANTHER, by Poonam Mistry (Templar, $27.99)

Black as night, Panther struggles to find his place among the more showy big cats, using natural materials to disguise himself as each in turn, in an attempt to fit in. He takes feathers from the birds to make Lion’s ruff, pollen to paint himself with tiger stripes and leaves to simulate Leopard’s patches – but nothing succeeds until the moon reveals his true beauty, sparkling and shimmering like stars. My café friend Janvi, a preschooler whose heritage is celebrated in these dark, ornately patterned and intricately detailed double spreads, was entranced.

MAMA’S CHICKENS, by Michelle Worthington & Nicky Johnston (EK Books, $25)

How do you convey the heartbreaking impact of early-onset dementia to little ones? In this autobiographical revelation, an award-winning Australian author’s daily reality is demonstrated through her relationship with her chooks. As Mama starts to lose her memory, she still enjoys watching them scratch and they still follow her around. And when the words won’t come, she can still show them – and those other chickens, her own children – how much she loves them. The illustrator has done a splendid job of capturing the messy details as this family holds on to what’s left.

GHIBLIOTHEQUE, by Michael Leader & Jake Cunningham (Welbeck, $45)

Everything I know about Ghibli Studios I learned from my granddaughter. Amelie, 9, has been a fan of My Neighbor Totoro for as long as I can remember, and when references to Ghibli appeared in the adult novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow it was to her that I turned. So when this “unofficial guide to the movies of Studio Ghibli”, encompassing the very best of Japanese anime, popped up in Scholastic’s Book Club, we had to have it. It’s the first “book of the podcast” that I’ve come across. And in case you hadn’t spotted it, the title is a clever pun on the French word for library. ▮