Picture book treasures for Christmas

Christmas is peak book-buying time and picture books make perfect gifts and stocking fillers for littlies. The bright colours and enchantment of a good story and illustrations never fail to delight.

Three of the books shown above are being published by HarperCollins in early December, just in time for busy parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, friends (and Santa) to buy for the big day.

The fourth, How to Make a Snowman, has been in bookshops since October this year. I have written previously about how much I love Nick Bland’s Bunny and Bird series. As always, in this new version of the friends’ adventures, Bunny is embroidering his fanciful tale whilst being completely oblivious to the action going on behind his back. While he talks of a magical hole from which emerges a bull, a tiger, a bear, sticks, stones and a wombat, Bird has been quietly building a snowman. When it starts to snow, Bunny decides they had better head home when – oh look! – the magic hole has turned into a snowman!

Small readers can again use their observational skills to enjoy the sly humour of this story that plays out in the pictures: an early lesson in subtext, if you will.

The Hullabaloo About Elephant Poo will definitely appeal to the scatalogical tastes of youngsters while teaching them something about the many uses for elephant dung: compost, paper, coffee (!!) gas to power stoves or lights, smoke to repel mosquitos… It is funny, colourful and educational. A nice little package. Dee White’s rhyming text works well with the bright illustrations by Christopher Nielsen.

Costa’s Garden: Flowers by ABC TV favourite Costa Georgiadis and Brenna Quinlan is all about – well, flowers. The motif of a garden gnome is a clever device to get up close and personal many types of flowers we might see in our gardens, and the parts of flowers and the special roles they each play. There is also reference made to the the role of watching and noticing by First Nations people:

Flowers tell stories. They are like a bush billboard. First Nations people read Country and have shared their science and stories of connection to land, sea and sky for generations. Flowers are a signal that other things are happening in nature.

Costa’s Garden : Flowers

There are also some lovely references to Costa’s early garden love, sparked by his grandparents; early memories of sweet peas, carnations and orchids grown by them.

I once lived next door to a four year old who was mad about plants and gardens. He’d be in his late 30s now, but I imagine that if this book had been available then, he’d have absolutely loved it.

Last but not least, Boss of Your Own Mind is the latest offering by the Teeny Tiny Stevies (Byll & Beth Stephen, with illustrations by Simon Howe.) This one is among a welcome and growing number of books addressing young people’s mental well-being. Boss of Your Own Mind talks about some of the situations in life where children can’t control their circumstances (and, being children, there are many.) From the trivial (changes of plans or routine, the weather) to the more profound (hurt feelings, unfair behaviour by others.) The one thing anyone, child or adult, can control, is their response. It’s actually quite a grown-up concept but presented in very child-friendly language and with examples and illustrations that all youngsters could identify with. And definitely finishes on a positive note:

And even though you’re the one deciding,
you might find some days YOU need reminding.
YOU’RE THE BOSS OF YOU’RE OWN MIND!

All four books are published by HarperCollins Children’s Books and I thank the publishers for the copies to review.