Goat Goes to Playgroup by Julia Donaldson (ill) Nick Sharratt

Harper’s just started preschool, so Julia Donaldson’s latest book, Goat Goes to Playgroup, is very apt. Nick Sharratt’s bold, clear pictures are perfect to illustrate a really young child’s (or goat’s) day: painting, dressing up, gardening … Goat’s behaviour is an excellent example of how NOT to behave, and yet this is not a judgemental book in any way. It’s just very clear that it’s better not being too silly when you are at Playgroup. This is a warm, colourful book, just right for those around two or three, and fun to read aloud with Julia Donaldson’s rhyming text. ($27, HB) Louise Pfanner

All Around the World by Geraldine Cosneau ($17.95, PB)

The longer landscape format of this book really lends itself to its theme: eight different terrains and all of the animals that live in each of the different environments. There’s the African Sahara, the Australian Outback, the Tropical Sea, the Amazon Rainforest, to name half of them. Each scene folds out to three lengths of the book, printed on substantial glossy stock, with lots and lots of reusable animal stickers. This is a very well designed novelty book, with no space wasted, featuring big join-up-the dot outlines of animal pictures, on the opposite side of the scenes. It’s also a nicely illustrated book; the pictures are all pretty colours, and the animals are charming. A really informative, fun book. Louise

Just Ducks! by Nicola Davies (ill) Salvatore Rubbino ($27.95, HB)

This is an unusual book. While being firmly based in fact, it’s been treated like the best kind of picture book—ie narrative nonfiction, which is an increasingly popular style of weaving information into appealing books for younger readers. Just Ducks! is a visual treat, starting with the endpapers, through to the index at the back. This is a picture book with a simple text about the ducks that live in the river near a little girl who is narrating the story. Duck facts are set within the illustrations in smaller print, but in no way spoiling the pictures. Salvatore Rubbino’s illustrations are beautiful, quiet and painterly, with an earthy palette that works really well with the white of the pages. He has captured the elegant movement of the ducks and their playful busyness with seeming ease. Louise

Fiction

The Secret of the Swords: Bk 1 The Sword Girl by Frances Watts (ill) Gregory Rogers

Tommy is a kitchen girl in Flamant Castle who dreams of being a knight. When she’s supposed to be peeling potatoes she watches the knights practising in the courtyard instead. After skilfully defending herself from a bully, with only a broomstick, Tommy comes to the attention of Sir Benedict, the castle’s bravest knight. He offers her the esteemed position of Keeper of the Blades and that’s when her adventures begin! With a fantastic heroine, a talking cat, and Gregory Rogers’ illustrations, this has everything I want in a book. Look out for the exciting sequel that’s available too—The Poison Plot—and the two more to come in September. I can’t wait! Especially recommended for reluctant readers. ($12, PB) Hannah

Pennies for Hitler by Jackie French ($16, PB)

In her latest historical novel, French again tackles World War II, this time focussing on cosseted young Georg, living in Germany where his English father is a university lecturer in 1939. At the uni for a celebration, Georg and his mother are devastated when the occasion is highjacked by pro-Nazi students, and they too are imperilled. Only then does Georg hear of his Jewish heritage and he is smuggled to safety with an aunt in London. Cinematically ratcheting up the tension, French shows us Georg learning to pass as English lad George, becoming attached to a relative whose unspecified work is top secret, then being forcibly evacuated along with hundreds of other children to an unknown fate in Australia. There his adopted family and friends revile the destruction wrought by German forces on their own communities and English counterparts, not realising that they have embraced into their lives one of the enemy. George’s heartbreakingly depicted anguish over his true identity is but one deeply affecting aspect of this powerful story. I defy anyone to read this book without questioning humanity, morality, compassion, or the necessity of forgiveness. Written with an immediacy that sweeps you along in Georg’s wake, Pennies for Hitler brings a fresh new outlook to a period that changed the world. Lynndy

Some New Releases

After the giant spread for our kids’ range in the May gleaner and the all-out bustle and thrill of the Sydney Writers’ Festival, it’s all back to work for us now. For me, a lesson I learnt long ago was reinforced when my computer expired without my having backed up everything—including the copy I’d already started for this June issue. Doh! Stand by for a quick gallop through an overview of some notable new releases. (By the way, did you know we now sell USB flash drives? Compatible with both PC and Mac, the Lexar memory sticks are 4GB and have a high security rating. $9.95 each, or we can order 8GB flash drives with a 2-year warranty, for $15.95.) Lynndy

Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature by Joyce Sidman (ill) Beth Krommes

The spiral—one of Nature’s most beautiful forms, mathematically perfect—is the focus of this gorgeous collaboration which prompts us to reconsider the physical world around us. Through informative free verse and vivid scratch board illustrations, highly acclaimed Newbery Honor-winning Sidman and Caldecott medalist Krommes illuminate and explain manifestations of the spiral in Nature. Whether in the coil of a fern tip, or in the geometry of marine animals and the movement of water, the spiral is a visually compelling shape explored and gracefully presented in Swirl by Swirl. Cover to cover, endpapers, glossary and all are suffused with the elegance of the spiral and its ‘promise of unfolding potential’. With its art, read-aloud poetry, science and the natural world, this is a book to share with your family and inquisitive younglings! ($25, HB)

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick by Chris van Allsburg

Get your orders in quickly for this keepsake of eerily haunting stories by an array of authors using van Allsburg’s original picture book as inspiration. At the time of writing this I’d yet to see a finished copy, but given the pedigree of the contributors, and my collection of van Allsburg books I know I’ll certainly snap up a copy. Award winners such as Lois Lowry, Jon Scieszka, Linda Sue Park and Gregory Maguire join bestselling writers like Lemony Snicket and Stephen King to create, along with the titular images, tales to linger in your mind long after you navigate the intrigue of this very handsome book. Whether you are 9 or 49, you won’t regret time spent with the mystique of van Allsburg’s art and influence. ($29.95, HB)

Vale Maurice Sendak

In May the world lost another revered literary treasure when Maurice Sendak died at 83 years young. A predominantly self-taught artist, he was a picture book creator whose work is internationally recognised and acclaimed; his most famously successful book, Where the Wild Things Are, transformed forever the style of children’s picture books. No longer need picture books focus on cheerful, harmless pastimes after Sendak unleashed the Wild Things along with typical children’s (ie human) emotions and foibles, anxiety, disappointments and misbehaviour. During the second half of his life Sendak indulged more of his great loves, designing costumes, sets and art for theatre, film, opera and ballet, as well as writing libretti. Sendak and his books have a place in the hearts of generations of readers. May they and future readers continue to cherish his contribution, and his legacy survive forever. Lynndy