Picture books
Greg Bruce
DINGO
by Claire Saxby and Tannya Harricks (Walker Books, $28)
The loose and beautiful brushwork provides a softness to this frank examination of a day in the otherwise fairly harsh life of a dingo. The book starts with a question: “Can you see her?” and there she is — just a few tiny swipes of brown hiding in among the rocks and bush. We see dingo with her family and then we see her striking out into the wild looking for food and eventually, somewhat confrontingly, finding it and carrying it home in her mouth. Each page also contains useful factual dingo information alongside the main story.
BIRD BUILDS A NEST
by Martin Jenkins and Richard Jones (Walker Books, $28)
Prior to the title page, there is a declaration of intent — “This is a book about forces” — and a brief discussion about forces and how they work. Personal experience suggests you’re best to skip this bit when reading to the kids and go straight to the uncluttered and striking pages with their bold, simple pictures of birds in muted colours. Our hero eats a worm, she builds a nest and she lays some eggs. It’s a nice little narrative and apart from the wordy preamble, its “learny” message is well-concealed until the book’s final page.
GRANNY McFLITTER THE CHAMPION KNITTER
By Heather Haylock and Lael Chisholm (Penguin Random House, $20)
The charming central character of Granny is a delight and her clear and obvious addiction to knitting provides good, mad story fodder to go with the book’s exuberantly illustrated characters. Granny McFlitter’s family is overwhelmed by her knitted output, so she starts knitting for animals instead. The environmental disaster of the 2011 Rena oil spill provides the turning point. Penguins are in desperate need of sweaters in the wake of the spill. Who could possibly knit all those sweaters? We won’t spoil it here.
GRANDMA Z
by Daniel Gray-Barnett
(Scribble, $30)
The odd and fantastical Grandma Z continues the grand-parenting theme. It’s based around the giant-coated grandma of the title having an extraordinary day out with grandson Albert. Their joint determination to avoid dullness leads to them building a palace, being invited to summer with the King and Queen of Osternovia and teaching Icelandic horses how to dance the can-can. With its restricted colour palette of black, white, orange, blue, it’s a captivating book both to look at and read.
ARLO AND THE GINGKO TREE
by Sophie Siers and by Kate Twhigg (Millwood Press, $20)
A simple story about a boy who watches from a special spot in a tree in his garden as baby fantails hatch and grow, leave their nest for winter. He continues to watch as spring brings new blooms and new life and, eventually, the birds’ return. The illustrations are in soft pastels and the book conveys a sense of wonder at, and love for, the natural world, which is no surprise given that author Sophie Siers grew up on a farm and was highly commended in the 2017 Enterprising Rural Women Awards.