Review: What Jack Brought Back

Scruffy, joyful Jack loves to retrieve things. But each time his owner throws a stick, what Jack returns with is a fun filled surprise.
 

The reader is asked each time to guess what Jack brings back. Combinations such as rats and cats in hats and a goat in a coat in a boat are just two of the fabulous collections of ridiculous characters and amusing costumes and situations Jack returns with for his owner. These laugh out loud scenarios are always met with ‘Silly Jack! Take them back!’

Review; Bowerbird Brave

If you have not yet discovered the fantastic bowerbird series by Aura Parker, now is your chance. Bowerbird Brave is the fourth title in the series, and it is just as beautiful and whimsical as the books that have preceded it.

Before I get to the story, let me just stop and marvel at the glorious endpapers, a signature of Aura’s work. The opening spread is a golden daytime scene filled with so much detail that it is almost a story on its own. This of course includes the usual hidden objects for the reader to find. A quick flip to the back of the book shows that daytime has turned to night with beautiful greys and purples filling the space which again has a list of items to find.

Endpapers are the one place where artists can be free to create without being restricted by text placement. I would love to see more books embrace this space as Aura does.

Now that the scene has been set we open the first page to see a baby bowerbird with the line ‘I am an artist’. Above is the tiny bird’s creation, made with found objects (great illustration). I love this story already.

We continue along being witness to the artistic process as the baby dreams up designs and tests out various ways to bring these ideas to life.

‘I am carried away in the flurry of excitement,…‘Working late until the light is fading’… I am beginning to think this may be art reflecting life as I can easily picture Aura working late into the night, but I digress.

As the light fades and the night animals begin to emerge, our tiny bowerbird encounters a problem. The powerful owl is on the prowl. He is scary and confronting. The baby flees in fright feeling small and fragile.

What follows is a tale of courage and bravery. How does our hero emerge from hiding and confront the powerful owl, and what role do his artistic talents play?

Perhaps I am reading too much into things, but I think this story goes beyond that of a bowerbird family fending off a night time creature.

Children are born artists. They are inspired by everything around them and create magic from the simplest of things. But it takes just one person to undermine everything, making them feel small and unsure of who they are. Some children hide this part of themselves and stop creating altogether, forever fearful of what people might say. As a fellow ‘arty farty’ it can take a lot to stand up and believe in your work. One of the most powerful ways to do that is to find your tribe. ‘Asking. Trusting. Reaching out.’ Standing together with others that believe in you, can give you the courage you need to be brave.

Whether you see this parallel in Bowerbird Brave or not does not matter. Children will love this story regardless, especially the ending. The writing is rhythmical without needing to rhyme and the illustrations speak for themselves, just magical.

Bowerbird Brave will not only make the perfect classroom addition with its ability to link to so many topics, but with its stunning detailed pages it will be sure to be requested over and over for that bedtime read.

Make sure you check out the other titles in this series.

Title: Bowerbird Brave
Author/Illustrator: Aura Parker
Publisher: Scholastic
Publication Date: 1 September 2026
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781761727252
For ages: 3+
Type: Picture Book

Review: The Everywhere Train

All aboard for an adventure you won’t want to miss!

Have you ever loved a book or a movie and wondered if the next one could possibly live up to it?

Well, I’m delighted to say The Everywhere Train is every bit as special as I hoped.

This is the second book created by the wonderful creative duo Deborah Frenkel and Danny Snell, and they have absolutely not disappointed!

Review: Watch Me Bloom - A Bouquet of Haiku Poems for Budding Naturalists

What if one book could make you stop, look closely and notice the world blooming right in front of you?

Krina’s book is one of those very special books that invites readers to slow down and really look. And before you even open it, the cover demands attention. It is a magnificent work of art that could quite happily be framed!

Inside, Krina introduces us to 24 flower species, each celebrated in a beautiful haiku. You can read the book from beginning to end, enjoying the rhythm and imagery of each poem, or you can linger on a single flower and spend time noticing the exquisite details in the words and illustrations.

Review: Last Bat of the Night

It is dusk and families begin to head home after enjoying a picnic beside the river at the park. A familiar ruckus then begins as our native bats commence their search for food - their picnic.

The children become entranced with a colony of bats as they leave their roost in the trees along the river and fill the skies in search of food and drink. As the bats’ nocturnal adventures commence and the family is about to settle for the night, the desire to find the last bat leaving the trees around them, becomes a joyful game for the children.

Review: A New Kind of Beautiful

A New Kind of Beautiful by Suzy Zail is a raw and wonderfully written novel for teens. 

Year 10 student Paige Wilding has a clear plan for when school is over. She will move to New York with her best friend Jazz, win a scholarship to the New York Academy of Art, and hone her realistic style of painting that is precise, literal and perfect. 

When Paige gets a diagnosis of Stargardt Disease, a degenerative eye condition with no cure, she decides to ‘live big, no regrets’, which includes jumping off buildings and breaking into the school pool to go skinny dipping. She is also determined to keep her condition a secret from everyone at school, except Jazz. But even Jazz is not fully aware of how hard it is becoming for Paige to navigate the world. 

Sunday Shelfie - Hello, Moon and Hello, Stars

Happy #sundayshelfie day! It is my pleasure to welcome back the wonderful Rory H. Mather. 

This week we are celebrating the beautiful picture book Rory has created with Mimi Purnell, 

Hello, Moon and Hello, Stars.

The sun sinks down in the sky.
Before it goes, I wave goodbye.
Farewell, sun, I’ll see you soon,
but now I’ll say hello to …
moon.

From dinnertime to bath time, say hello to all the things we do before bed in this gentle picture book that encourages nightly routines.

Written by Rory H. Mather
Illustrated by Mimi Purnell
Published by Affirm Press

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12 Curly Questions with author/illustrator Laura Stitzel

1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you.

I’m addicted to white noise. I listen to airplane, rain sounds or outer space sounds whenever I can, even layered on top of music. My favourite white noise video automatically has captions, which just say “ooooooo”. Makes me laugh every time.

2. What is your nickname?
People just seem to like saying my rather silly last name, so I often get Stitzel. As a teenager, my older sister got the nickname Stitz, so I became Mini-Stitz. I quite enjoyed that, and it’s on theme with my latest book!

Review: Pocket Observology: A Field Guide

Let me begin by saying that I had not come across Giselle Clarkson’s work before reading Pocket Observology: A Field Guide, so I had no idea what to expect but was excited to see what I would find.

As soon as I opened the cover I was hooked. I’m not sure if it was a deliberate pun referring to the pages (or leaves) of a book but the first thing I was presented with was a fold out flap with the illustration of a leaf and one simple statement. ‘Reasons to turn over this leaf’. The leaf in question had markings, droppings, a slime trail and a nibbled edge. So I turned it over as any curious child would and found a collection of little critters just waiting to be examined.

Review: The Lost Island

From the start we are thrown into an action - packed story with 11 year old Theo aboard a cruise ship with his father, new stepmother Lyn and his over-achieving stepsister Mozzie (maybe the name reflects how annoying she is being so ‘perfect’?!).

Theo has struggled with the shift in his relationship with his father since his mother died in a car accident. His new stepmother and stepsister seem to take up all his father’s attention and Theo’s tendency to overcome his anxiety by collecting and reciting fast facts about anything and everything fails to help him feel any more secure, as they sail away on their holiday.

Review: Being Eve

Being Eve is a warm, funny, and authentic graphic novel about friendship, neurodiversity, school, family and first crushes.

Written and illustrated by popular and well respected Autistic and ADHDer speech pathologist Em Hammond, AKA NeuroWild, Being Eve gives the reader an enormously generous window into the lives of three early high school friends.

Eve is 13 and an ADHDer. She loves art and singing, is brilliant at creative writing, and utterly paralysed by ‘gross’ fractions.

Eve’s best friend Sasha loves playing the piano, cacti, and has a brand new Autism diagnosis.

Zack is the new boy at school. Despite his harsh and critical mother, he is trying to learn about neurodivergence and how to be a good friend to Eve and Sasha.

Review: Animalia 40th Anniversary Edition

Some picture books are read. Others are explored, investigated and returned to again and again. Animalia is definitely the latter.

This book has been a favourite in every one of my classrooms. It was always well loved, and I can still remember the excitement as children discovered something new hiding in the illustrations each time, we opened the book.

Created by the brilliant Graeme Base, Animalia takes readers on an alphabetic adventure, with every page packed with extraordinary detail. From the very first glance at the front cover, there is an invitation to look closely. What can you spot? What might you have missed? What will you discover next time?

And then there is the language!

Alliteration is one of the standout features of this book. Each letter introduces a playful collection of words beginning with the same sound, creating phrases that are delicious to say aloud. Animalia makes playing with language feel like fun rather than work, and there is something wonderfully satisfying about hearing children repeat those tongue-twisting phrases with enormous smiles.

Of course, the illustrations are where the real treasure hunt begins. Every spread is filled with fascinating details, tiny characters and clever visual surprises. It is the perfect book for curious minds, keen observers and anyone who loves art.

In the classroom

There are so many ways to turn Animalia into a springboard for learning.

Lucky dip a letter and challenge learners to generate as many powerful or interesting words as they can. Can they find words they have never used before?

Invite learners to choose an animal they adore and create their own Animalia-style page using alliteration. An animal, a collection of carefully chosen words and a whole lot of imagination can result in some fabulous writing.

Publish writing into individual posters, create colourful bunting for the classroom or collate the pages into a class book for everyone to enjoy.

And at home? Simply choose a page and look closely together. Ask, “What can you see?” then “What else?” You might be surprised by how long one page can keep a child talking, laughing and searching.

I was also delighted to see the beautiful 40th anniversary collector’s edition, complete with foiling. It is a gorgeous celebration of an Australian picture book classic. I particularly adore the genuine message from Graeme Base on the title page. It feels like a lovely little connection between the creator and the readers who have loved Animalia across generations.

And now there is even more Animalia fun with the release of a colouring book, giving young artists another opportunity to step inside Graeme Base’s wonderfully detailed world.

Forty years on, Animalia still has the magic. It encourages children to look closely, listen carefully, play with language and notice the extraordinary in the ordinary.

If you have an old classroom favourite that still has children gathering around the pages, pull it off the shelf and share it again. And if Animalia is new to your family or classroom, prepare to lose yourself in the details!


Title: Animalia 40th Anniversary Edition
Author /Illustrator: Graeme Base
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: 1 September 2026
Format: Hard Back
ISBN: 9781761622311
For ages: 5+
Type: Picture Book

Review: Emma Memma: Auslan Alphabet

Learn the Auslan alphabet from A-Z with Emma Memma and Elvin Melvin in this beautifully presented fingerspelling picture book. 

On each page you will find a clear photo of Emma or Elvin signing a letter of the Auslan alphabet, along with an illustration of the correct finger position. 

In addition, there is a helpful guide to some everyday Auslan words and phrases such as Hello, My Name and Thank You. At the back of the book is a QR code linking to the Auslan videos for all of Emma Memma’s books. 

Sunday Shelfie - Starfish Can't Ride Bikes!

Happy #sundayshelfie day! It is my pleasure to welcome Jess Horn and Mo Davey.

This week we are celebrating Jess and Mo’s delightful picture book Starfish Can’t Ride Bikes!

When the animals say starfish can’t ride bikes, Starfish has news for them: it’s the bike that can’t be ridden. Can they make the perfect bike, and will it be enough to get Starfish pedalling?

A bold and original take on accessibility with a twist you won’t see coming

Written by Jess Horn
Illustrated by Mo Davey
Published by Larrikin House 

Visit Picture Book Book Club @picturebookbc on Instagram

Review: We Did It Anyway

What starts as a week of camping, beaches and hanging out with friends takes a very unexpected turn in We Did It Anyway when Alex, Otto and Jasper discover a fortune in gold bars. Unfortunately, they’re not the only ones interested in the treasure.

Carla Salmon’s follow-up to We Saw What You Started brings back many of the elements that made the first book such an enjoyable read: short, fast-paced chapters, plenty of friendship, a touch of romance and just enough danger to keep the pages turning. When the boys find themselves on the run from armed smugglers, their holiday takes a decidedly more dangerous direction. Meanwhile, Luna and Milly are left wondering what has happened when the boys fail to show up at their designated rendezvous.

Review: John Farnham

“You’re the voice, try and understand it…”

Do you remember taking the time to bravely write your name inside the front cover of your Little Golden Book? There is something rather special about seeing that familiar golden spine and knowing you are about to open a book that might become a favourite.

This Little Golden Book biography celebrates an Australian music legend, John Farnham, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, I found myself singing along as I read!

The realistic image of John on the front cover immediately sets the scene for this non-fiction text. And of course, there is that wonderfully traditional Little Golden Book size and binding that makes these books instantly recognisable. This biography is part of a series introducing young readers to the lives and achievements of well-known people.