Imagination is alive and well - by Penny Garnsworthy

Recently I was approached to judge a short story competition for one of the region's festivals. 

As part of this competition, grade 5 and 6 students at two local schools were asked to write, and illustrate, what they thought the region would 'look' like in 20 years' time. How hard could it be, I thought to myself as I enthusiastically said yes to the suggestion. Within a few weeks I was presented with a huge pile of entries. And what I quickly came to realise was that when the competition was announced, no parameters had been set ... for anything.

One of the teachers had been kind enough to shortlist entries for their class which should have made choosing a winner, and runners-up quite easy. But because there were no parameters, one story comprised two paragraphs, another two pages. That was fine, and I simply ignored my usually strong desire to correct grammar and spelling, and read the stories as entertainment.

Another teacher hadn't shortlisted at all so I waded through those entries only to discover that half the entries were about the requested topic, and half were about entirely unrelated topics. However, as I had for the first group, I finally chose a winner and runners-up.

Then I received another surprise. Unbeknown to the organisers (and me too of course) a number of younger children had decided to participate in the competition. These were grade 1 students who illustrated their ideas in a range of formats and the spread them across anywhere from two to eight pages! Some of them had even added text and their teacher had kindly translated any words this poor judge may not undertstand.

Reading the stories was certainly a challenge, but also a delight and I had great fun! And there was one thing all the entries had in common. Imagination.

In 20 years' time, according to the entries, adults will have flying cars, kids will ride hoverboards to school, every person will have a personal robot, mobile phones will be holograms and trips to the moon will be commonplace (some on flying horses).

iPods and iPads will be the norm in every classroom and ... there won't be any books in school. Scary thought, isn't it?

Confessions of a Bookophile - Carol Fuller

I have loved books since I can’t remember. Suffice is to say that I still remember the Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer book I was tearfully forced to leave behind in England as a small child when my family immigrated to Tasmania. A book read is a book to be owned, held onto, caressed and kept on display on a shelf, hence my small Victorian cottage is bulging at the seams with just about every book I have ever read.

But recently I have begun to question my obsession. After receiving over 800 books during the two years I was CBCA reading judge, and also being in two adult reading groups, involving therefore two books every month, plus the extra ten the focus books lead me onto, I really have had to rationalize not only the storage space but also, since retirement, the cost of this mania.

Firstly I have begun to use the library more. Next, secondhand bookshops have become the first port of call when looking for a particular book. Then finally if this fails and friends also can’t help, I will indulge myself and buy. The problem with the library is that for some reason the very book I want to borrow is NOT located at Launceston LINC, or everyone else in Launceston needs the same book and I have to wait at least three months before my turn comes. There is usually a date associated with my book group reading so timing really is important.

Last year I was travelling through Europe and when planning to be away for two months I knew I would need at least ten books to while away the long flights and rest times on the trip. The majority of my travelling was to be through foreign countries where finding books in English might prove time consuming. So here was another bookish problem. How could I possibly pack this number of books; sufficient clothes and shoes; allow for the odd purchase along the way and still come in under the thirty two kilo weight restriction imposed by airline companies?

Being a self confessed bookophile who just loves to hold a book in my hands, or admire them lined up on the wall to wall bookshelves in my study, I now have to confess that my thoughts and book acquisition habits are changing. I bought an ipad!!! This solved the travelling problem. At the touch of a button I downloaded all the books I wanted to read on my travels. Amazingly I realized that I could solve the library waiting list as well. This of course doesn’t eliminate the costs of reading but in many cases I can buy the book I want on line for less. I must confess this makes me feel very disloyal to my bookseller friends and I haven’t come to terms with that aspect of my new bookishness yet although the ipad option has not diminished that feeling that I must buy a book when I walk into a book store and that mysterious need still has me impulse buying ‘the real thing’.

And on the subject of a device not being conducive to reading in bed; I find the ipad much easier and lighter to hold in the prone position, especially with very long tomes.

After all this change of attitude, there was one book domain that I could not see altering for me and that was picture books. I am a very doting Grandmother of a child who just loves books and who has inherited all the beautiful books from my judging years plus more. His favourite book is ‘The Very Cranky Bear,’ by Nick Bland. In our eyes nothing could replace the hard copy held between us as we read for the hundredth time about ‘the jingle, jangle jungle on a cold and rainy day’. But wait, there’s more.

At the CBCA conference earlier this year, a colleague from my judging days asked had I seen the new ‘Very Cranky Bear’ app. Well two minutes later I was hooked. Our treasured book in all its exact pictorial and verbal splendour, on my ipad with even more exciting embellishments, like having it read to the pre-independent reader by someone other than grandma, Mum or Dad; music to enhance the mood, characters that move and shake to suit the situation, cards to collect for a surprise activity at the end and a microphone option that allows the small reader to read and record the story in his/her own voice. (He knows it off by heart but also knows which words go with which pages; good start to becoming an independent reader.)

Well that was a major change of attitude! Yes, there can be an electronic version of a picture book as equally appealing as ‘the real thing’, but I must say I prefer that the hard and electronic copy be used in tandem much like I would advise a teenager to read ‘The Hunger Games’ before seeing the film. Consequently the grandson now has ‘The Very Ichy Bear’, The Very Hungry Bear’ and ‘The Wrong Book’, (all by Nick Bland) in both hard and electronic versions.

I still haven’t reached the stage of believing that electronic books will fully replace hard copy books and I will continue to gaze at my bookshelves with love and satisfaction, but I am also beginning to appreciate the new dimension of pleasurable reading that technology affords us.

World of Chickens - by Maureen Mann

While reading Penny’s editorial in the last newsletter about building her chook run, I thought it would be good to focus on some books about chickens. There are lots to choose from, so of course I am only going to include a selection.

Peggy by Anna Walker (2012)

I love this story and have done since my first reading. Peggy is blown away from home by a big gust of wind and finds herself on an adventure in the big city but also wants to find her way home.

Shutting the chooks in by Libby Gleeson and Ann James (2003)

The story of the trip, through the farmyard as it gradually becomes dark, to shut the chooks in for the night. Wonderful illustrations.

Chicken Licken (various editions)

This is an old favourite, also known as Henny Penny or Chicken Little. It’s a moral tale about a chicken who believes in the disaster that the sky is about to fall in.

Bear and Chook by Lisa Shanahan and Emma Quay (2002)

The lovely story of the friendship between Bear and Chook: the supportive things that friends do for each other.

Queenie the Bantam by Bob Graham (1997)

Created in Bob Graham’s cartoon style, this tells the story how Queenie is rescued from a lake by Caitlyn and her family, how Queenie is absorbed into the family life but is eventually returned to the farm.

Hattie and the fox by Mem Fox and Patricia Mullins (1986)

A hen sees a nose in the bushes but all the other animals aren’t interested. This book is a good example of Mem Fox’s signature use of repetition.

Mr Chicken goes to Paris by Leigh Hobbs (2009)

Leigh Hobbs’ quirky vision of Mr Chicken visiting all the wonderful sights of Paris, when in fact he himself is one of the main attractions.

Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins (first published 1971)

Rosie sets out on her walk, unaware of the fox following her and hoping to eat her for his dinner. She unintentionally takes him on an obstacle course before she returns home safely.

I wonder if your favourite is included here. Please tell us all about it if it’s not.

"Not so different from Harry" - Lyndon reviews A Casual Vacancy

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE CASUAL VACANCY

What Fats wanted to recover was a kind of innocence, and the route he had chosen back to it was through all the things that were supposed to be bad for you, but which, paradoxically, seemed to Fats to be the one true way to authenticity; a kind of purity. It was curious how often everything was back to front, the inverse of what they told you; Fats was starting to think that if you flipped every bit of received wisdom on its head you would have the truth.

J.K. Rowling was right when she said in her Australian interview with Jennifer Byrne that she had promised us seven Harry Potter books, and she didn’t owe her readers anything. She might be wrong, however, if she thinks that what she writes after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will not be read through cracked and sticky-taped Harry Potter lenses, and that the now-adult readers of her original series can ever hope to conquer the insatiable desire to search for traces of the childhood friend they’ve now lost in everything that bears her name. Hogwarts casts a long shadow.

Rowling has certainly tried with The Casual Vacancy however, to make sure this quest is soon proven fruitless. There is no touch of Harry here, as all the wide-eyed wonder of her children’s series is quickly abandoned for bleak and bitter realism. Those who, like myself, had come to read the heavily guarded details of the novel’s release as an indication of a kind of an Agatha Christie or Downton Abbey-eqsue idyllic cottage drama, will soon see that there is more bubbling under the surface than simple political competition in Pagford. In fact, there’s everything; my friends Bill and Isobel have contrived a game - what crime doesn’t occur in The Casual Vacancy? (Hint: There aren’t many. Yes, probably not even that one.)

There is swearing too; lots of it. By page fifteen I had to put it down for a moment and take a breather. Was this really J.K. Rowling? It took a good while for me to de-tune my interior monologue, which was always calling back to Potter and trying to reconcile the two versions of Rowling as a writer. In the end trying to tie my portrait of Rowling together was fruitless - as hard as it might be, the only way to fully get to The Casual Vacancy is to push it away from Potter.

Once you grapple with the world that you’ve entered - so much more like our own, so much less like Rowling’s other England - after a gradual warm-up The Casual Vacancy is an incredible novel. Dark and tragic, by the three quarter mark it grips with the hardened intensity and oblivious midnight page-turning that only Rowling can. It’s the kind of book that could, and perhaps should, win awards bigger than the Smarties prize. There will be an inevitable backlash from people who were hoping for a more gentle novel of course, and expect many abandoned copies to show up in second-hand bins and opportunity shops, as popular readers realise that they were tricked into buying a literary text, but I think that what Rowling has done here is more important than pleasing her old fans - she’s proved that there’s an extremely serious heart beating beneath the smoke and mirrors of the Potter series. Some of us have been arguing it for years, but The Casual Vacancy proves it: Rowling is a serious writer. I’d like to see some of her contemporary hit-machines, like E.L. James (who recently outsold Potter with her Fifty Shades series), write a novel as intellectually engaging as this.

My biggest fear about The Casual Vacancy though, is that it will be hard to keep it out of the hands of kids. As a 22 year-old I can rightly insist upon reading it, having (arguably) grown up from my own Harry odyssey, but it’s difficult to imagine that a 12 year-old version of me that had just finished The Deathly Hallows wouldn’t attempt the same. School libraries, I hope, will be wise enough not to purchase it for their shelves, and parents are encouraged to be vigilant: The Casual Vacancy has lashings of sex, drugs, domestic violence and hip-hop. There is an ugly side to this sleepy village.

For mum and dad though, I think Rowling’s done it again. She’s a writer at the top of her game, and once the initial shock wears off, she’s proven she can make that adult leap that many British children’s writers - A. A. Milne and Roald Dahl as two examples - haven’t successfully been able to. This is not a novel that everyone will latch on to, but for those who do love it, it will be an all-encompassing love; the novel defines and explores the problems of an entire generation. For some, The Casual Vacancy will ring a truly resounding note, and hold a special place in their shelves and hearts. 

In that respect, perhaps it’s not so different from Harry, after all.

It's Monday! What are YOU reading? - by Nella Pickup

“What have you read lately?” My mind went blank and I felt silly and ashamed. With wonderful publishers’ reps, a great request service at the library and a huge pile of books by the bed, I always have books to read. So here is the list of the books I have read (in print and in audio formats) over the last month.

Charlie Carter Omega Squad: Time Thieves (Pan Macmillan)

The first book in series following from the very successful Battle Boy series. A clever action-packed history lesson that will appeal to children aged 6-10 years.

Cathryn Constable Wolf Princess (Chicken House) due in November 2012

Orphaned Sophie Smith lives in a dreary boarding school in London, but dreams of adventure, of forests and snow. She can barely believe her luck when she and her friends land a place on the school trip to St. Petersburg in Russia. But things don’t go quite to plan once they arrive. A magical fairy tale adventure for girls aged 9- 13.

Gary Crew & Ross Watkins The Boy Who Grew into a Tree (Penguin)

A fable about nature and our relationship with it, and about the inevitable cycle of life.

Stephen Dando-Collins Caesar the War Dog Random House

Caesar the War Dog is based on the true story of Australian military dog Sarbi and its experiences in Afghanistan, combined with the factual experiences of Endal, the devoted British dog who cared for his wheelchair-bound ex-serviceman master. For those who enjoyed Michael Morpurgo’s Shadow.

James Dashner Infinity Ring: A Mutiny in Time (Scholastic)

When best friends Dak Smyth and Sera Froste stumble upon the secret of time travel — a hand-held device known as the Infinity Ring — they’re swept up in a centuries-long secret war for the fate of mankind. First of a seven book multi author series with a multi-dimensional game at www.infinityring.com

Nick Earls & Terry Whidborne Word Hunters: The Curious Dictionary (UQP)

When twins Al and Lexi Hunter stumble on an old dictionary, they are catapulted back through time and space, with only some mysterious pegs as clues. They travel through time to discover the origin of particular words. I enjoyed the concept and the humour but some children may need encouragement at the beginning. First in a series for children aged 9-13.

Elizabeth Fensham Matty and Bill for Keeps (UQP)

Matty and Bill’s adventures continue – helping a visiting English boy escape Isabelle Farquay-Jones, ensuring Bill’s dad Troy isn’t caught up in illegal activities and learning secret cultural practices. A warm story about friendship and growing up for younger readers.

Anna Fienberg & Stephen Michael King Figaro and Rumba and the Crocodile Cafe (Allen & Unwin)

A picture book in six chapters. The irrepressible Figaro, a dog, and his cat-friend Rumba get caught up in cat-napping adventure when they ride the Very Fast Train.

Anna Fienberg Louis Beside Himself (Allen & Unwin)

Louis loves words! His father would prefer Louis to learn wrestling techniques. When a burglar breaks into the house, Louis fails to protect himself and ends up providing a refuge for the intruder instead. A humorous and entertaining read for middle school readers.

Mem Fox and Judy Horacek Good Night, Sleep Tight (Scholastic)

The story of Bonnie, Ben and their babysitter and the traditional nursery rhymes he tells them at bedtime.

Kelly Gardiner Act of Faith (HarperCollins)

Set in Cromwellian London and Europe during the Spanish Inquisition – the story of Isabella Hawkins caught up in the writing, printing and disseminating of contentious books. Thanks to Jenni Connor for recommending this CBCA 2012 Notable title.

Morris Gleitzman After (Penguin)

Continues Felix's adventures in World War Two, where he faces perhaps his greatest challenge - to reconcile hatred and healing and to find hope when he's lost almost everything. If you loved Once and Then, buy this.

Jane Godwin & Anna Walker Today We Have No Plans (Puffin)

Weeks are frantic- swimming lessons, orchestra, library, netball and soccer, school lunches to prepare, notes to sign ... and then Sunday comes. By the creators of All Through the Year – on my Christmas wish list

Oliver Jeffers This Moose Belongs to Me (HarperCollins)

I’m not a fan but this is wonderful. As with his other books the moral seems to be presented for the reader while the main character doesn't really change his ways.

Catherine Jinks The Reformed Vampire Support Group (Allen & Unwin)

Not the usual sexy powerful vampires but a fun satire and a new look at the lives of vampires.

Diana Wynne Jones The Ogre downstairs (Pan Macmillan)

Two families were merged after remarriage. The ogre (the step-father) brought each pair of children a magical chemistry set. A spot-on portrayal of how children interact with adults, with hilarious and memorable mixups.

Julia Lawrinson Losing it (Penguin)

Four girls in Year 12 make a bet: to lose it before schoolies week – and preferably in a romantic, sober way that they won't regret. Graphic, embarrassing and hilarious; a serious story about choices and relationships. Highly recommended. 14+

Candice Scott Lemon Hubert and the Magic Glasses New Frontier Publishing (Little Rockets series)

Hubert has poor soccer skills until he gets glasses. Fast paced stories for children aged 7+

Steven Lochran Goldrush Vanguard Prime (Penguin)

It starts slowly, has too many Americaniams, and a reluctant superhero who is just a loser. Keep reading for strongly drawn characters - the terrific superheroes: Agent Alpha, Gaia, Knight of Wands and Machina; larger than life villains: Metatron, Overman and Major Arcana, explosive action and flashes of humour. This promises to be a popular series for middle school children and reluctant readers.

Marianne Musgrove The Beginner’s Guide to Revenge (Woolshed Press)

A soldier’s daughter, 13 year old Romola has often moved, so making friends is difficult. Sebastian is trying to find his father and stop his mum from remarrying. Romola is “corrupted” by Sebastian’s payback mentality learned from his reading about the extreme behaviour of ancient gods. Both find that revenge has unpleasant consequences. Story of family life with links to Legacy. Engaging read.

Lorin Nicholson The Amazing Bike Ride (Wombat Books)

This is a true story about a boy who decides to ride over the mountains despite his lack of vision. Aimed at children, this is an awesome story that will encourage every reader, young and old.

Sally Odgers & Lisa Stewart Bushland Lullaby (Scholastic)

A beautifully illustrated book of Australian animals with a gentle rhyme which will appeal to children and adults alike. (Tasmanian author)

Annabel Pitcher Ketchup Clouds (Orion) due November

Very different to the award winning My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece. Zoe writes to a man on Death Row; her letters are a confession for a crime she committed, and to all intents and purposes, got away with. A story of teenage relationships intermingled with family problems; at times brutally revealing, an emotional read.

Tohby Riddle Unforgotten (Allen & Unwin)

The text is a simple poem. The pictures are thought-provoking. A book to be read and reread.

Emily Rodda The Silver Door (Scholastic)

Further adventures of Rye and Sonia in the world beyond the Wall of Weld. Highly recommended.

Veronica Roth Insurgent (HarperCollins)

An addictive sequel to Divergent, a bleak dystopian Chicago ruled by "factions" exemplifying different personality traits collapses into all-out civil war. The violence is graphic, grisly and shockingly indiscriminate.

Marcus Sedgwick Fright Forest Elf Girl and Raven Boy (Orion)

Elf Girl and Raven Boy are very different from each other, but they join forces to find out who is destroying their home.  Perfect for 8-12 year olds who love adventure, a touch of magic, or just a really funny story. 

Rebecca Stead Liar & Spy (Text)

A seventh-grade boy who is coping with social and economic issues moves into a new apartment building, where he makes friends with an over-imaginative home-schooled boy and his eccentric family. A delightfully quirky tale by a Newbery Award winner.

Laini Taylor Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Hodder)

A story of star-crossed lovers – in this case an angel and a demon. Powerful, emotive and brilliant writing. Looking forward to the sequel in November.

Vikki Wakefield All I ever wanted (Text)

A brutally honest slice of life on the other side of the tracks. A CBCA 2012 Notable. Looking forward to reading her next book Friday Brown.

The adult reads:

David Baldacci Divine Justice (Macmillan)

The usual action packed good guy versus corrupt government officials.

Anne Bartlett Knitting (Penguin)

A chance meeting sparks a friendship between two very different women – recently widowed Sandra, a rigid academic, and Martha, a knitter with her own secret store of grief. Anne Bartlett is currently an author in residence in southern Tasmania.

Chris Cleave Gold (Sceptre)

The story of two cyclists, who are competitors for a spot in the Olympic Games team and what drives them to succeed. Thankfully, not as horrifying as The Other Hand.

Lene Kaaberbol & Agnete Friis Boy in the Suitcase (Soho Press)

Do you remember her Tasmanian visit in 2006 with her excellent fantasy series - Shamer’s Daughter? This is the first English translation of a crime series starring Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, and a compulsive do-gooder. For fans of Wallander and The Killing.

Lynne Truss Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door (Fourth Estate)

A rallying cry for courtesy.

Currently reading Lian Tanner’s Path of Beasts (Allen & Unwin) and listening to Catherynne M. Valente The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Corsair). Wonderful so far. Looks like I’ll be purchasing the sequel.

It's Monday! What are YOU reading?

Autism, Prime Numbers and Dead Dogs - Maureen's review of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time ... at the theatre!

I am lucky enough to have recently spent several weeks in London, over the Olympic Games period, looking after a friend’s flat. It was a great opportunity to visit some of the lesser-known London sights as well as indulge in music and theatre.

One of the most memorable things I saw was the National Theatre’s adaptation, world premiered in late July, of Mark Haddon’s challenging and entertaining The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, published in 2003. I loved the book, have very strong memories of it, so if you haven't yet read it I highly recommend it. Critics gave the stage production rave reviews and it became one of my must-sees. The relatively short season was sold out and the only way of getting tickets was queuing at the box-office first thing in the morning. I was lucky to get the last available ticket for the evening performance that particular night and I was so glad that I did so.

Here’s the synopsis of the play taken from the National Theatre’s website (http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-night-time ). Christopher, fifteen years old, stands beside Mrs Shears’ dead dog. It has been speared with a garden fork, it is seven minutes after midnight and Christopher is under suspicion. He records each fact in the book he is writing to solve the mystery of who murdered Wellington. He has an extraordinary brain, exceptional at maths while ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, he detests being touched and he distrusts strangers. But his detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a frightening journey that upturns his world.

The production was staged in a National Theatre venue with only about 300 seats and performed in the round, so each member of the audience was always close to the action and there was no real ‘front of stage’. Mathematical concepts are an important part of the book’s structure and were carried over to the stage. Seats, which were prime numbers, had an extra envelope attached to them – for interest not participation. The floor was a mathematical grid on which the character Christopher used chalk to emphasise some of his statements and at the end of the play came back on stage to explain a complex concept referred to. I had to keep reminding myself that Luke Treadaway, playing the demanding role of Christopher and on-stage for almost the whole play, did not have Asperger’s Syndrome and that all his behaviours had been learned for the production. He was brilliant. The rest of the cast were also excellent.

Now I am home again, I must go back to re-read the book and remind myself why it made such an impact. The theatre production certainly did.  

Is it all about the money, money, money? by Maureen Mann

On my wanders in and through bookshops recently, I have particularly noticed the new book displays which retailers present to the public. Of course, I know, intellectually, that these are always designed to entice the shopper to buy the targeted title – as are all merchandise displays. The retailer may have different reasons for showing off certain titles than we, as purchaser, expect. Sometimes the retailer may highlight titles with a high profit margin because of astute buying or extra discounts from suppliers; or titles which though new are not selling well; or titles which are regarded as popular rather than quality literature, or even to clear old stock in preparation for new arrivals.

But on the other hand, have I always been aware of it? And are you? It’s great to be able to walk into a shop and have my (our) attention focussed on the glitziest display – whatever genre or format it might be. But does it mean that I (we) miss other things which might fulfil our need just as much? And do we miss seeing the most recent publications?

Recent visits to a couple of large multi-national bookshops have reinforced my view that as a shopper I need to look carefully at the stock and not rely on the retailer’s choices. On a visit to the children’s section of one particular store I didn’t see any ‘proper’ displays. There were books ‘cover out’ but very few of these were newly published. There were piles of titles with discounted/reduced prices, almost of which were definitely older publications. In itself, that’s not a bad thing, although it is if the shopper is not knowledgeable and thinks that they are buying new. It is also something which has even more impact in our digital age, particularly if online buyers rely on the website to ‘recommend’ titles.

So the old adage, “buyer beware” is sound advice for all of us. As is the need for each of us to make sure we keep up to date with what publishers are producing. And the best way to do that is to be a regular visitor to your local bookshop.

*What do you think? Are you influenced by book displays? Do you think they're all about the money? Having worked in the children's section of a book shop, I know I displayed the books I loved! But is it always the case? Let us know your thoughts!

There Is A Bird On Your Head - Patsy Jones blogs about Mo Willems

3 September - my blog should be finished by now – what to write? What to write?

And then Rosemary (just after we’d finished a pigs and elephants Storytime at the Supermarket session with some lively three-to-five-year-olds) – said ‘What about Elephant & Piggie?’

We had enjoyed the story; the children had enjoyed the story; the grandparent and carer present had enjoyed the story; so I thought that was a good idea….

How many of you are familiar with this series, written by Mo Willems? He also wrote the Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus series and the Knuffle Bunny series, but to me, Gerald (the elephant) and Piggie (the pig) are totally the best.

The books are right for reading to and with pre-readers, and for first efforts with new readers. The language is simple, the vocabulary is limited, with a good proportion of phonics-based words that can be deciphered by ‘sounding-out’. The illustrations support the text, especially through emotions shown emphatically by the facial expressions and body language of Gerald and Piggie. And visual clues such as size of letters, bolding, and italicizing also assist in understanding the text.

But a particular advantage of these titles is the opportunity they provide to discuss the emotions and feelings shown by the characters, an essential part of the development of empathy in young children. For some children, it is not easy to ‘read’ the feelings of their peers, and the books provide plenty of scope for initiation of discussion of body language and facial expression.

And the books are witty and very funny – you will laugh out loud in parts of them and this will, of course, enhance your enjoyment of the reading session, whether it’s with your children, your grandchildren, or your students.

You can find these books in the State Library, so have a look at them. They may also be on the shelves of a school library near you.