Tag: Alphabet

Great Goal! Marvellous Mark! by Katrina Germein ill Janine Dawson

Aussie Rules is awesome.
I always arrive on time.
Out on the boundary Bailey warms up.
He takes a bounce and boots the ball; a banana kick bends to me.

‘Great Goal! Marvellous Mark!’ begins with the arrival of players at an AFL football game, continues through the game and ends as the game does. Told from the perspective of one of the players, it is also an alphabet book. As the game progresses, so does the alphabet. Every player has a chance to shine, whether it’s taking marks, making a pass, or kicking a goal. The rain may come down, the grass may turn into mud, but nothing can dampen the enthusiasm of these ball players. Illustrations depict a dull and rainy day with umbrella-wielding parents cheering from the sidelines.

‘Great Goal! Marvellous Mark!’ celebrates junior AFL football, and all the things it should be about – having fun, having a go, learning teamwork and sliding in the mud. The alphabetic sentences read easily and are full of football-ness. The illustrations are full of extra elements for the reader to find, from the mud following the flight of the ball on the ‘f’ page to the child eating under the watchful eye of a magpie on the ‘v’ page. A broad range of cultures and body types are represented, as is the child who lives, eats, breathes and sleeps football. Recommended for early-schoolers.

Great Goal! Marvellous Mark!, Katrina Germein ill Janine Dawson
Ford Street Publishing 2017
ISBN: 9781925272673

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s author and bookseller
www.clairesaxby.com

Koalas, Kites and Kangaroos: An Australian Alphabet Book by David Ridyard ill Doreen Gristwood

Koalas, kites and kangaroos,

Penguins and possums and pelicans too.

Worm-eating wagtails and wombats at play,

Surf-riding seals on a hot summer’s day.

Rabbits on roller-skates, lizards on land,

Card-playing crocodiles, shells on the sand.

Turn over the pages and take a close look

At this wonderful, colourful ALPHABET BOOK!

Koalas, kites and kangaroos,

Penguins and possums and pelicans too.

Worm-eating wagtails and wombats at play,

Surf-riding seals on a hot summer’s day.

Rabbits on roller-skates, lizards on land,

Card-playing crocodiles, shells on the sand.

Turn over the pages and take a close look

At this wonderful, colourful ALPHABET BOOK!

‘Koalas, Kites and Kangaroos: An Australian Alphabet Book’ is exactly what it says: an alphabet book. As well as Australian animals, there are words describing the Australian life including kiting, surfing, ‘beaching’. There are also a broad range of other words that young readers will be familiar with including shapes, foods and plants. Words are listed down each side of openings, with two letters sharing an illustration. Illustrations are in watercolour set in frames on each opening, although the ‘characters’ often burst beyond their frame. A list in the final pages, offers the opportunity to return to images to find other, perhaps less obvious words.

Koalas, Kites and Kangaroos was originally published in 1985 and reprinted several times before this new edition from Scholastic in 2013. It’s pitched at young children beginning to access written language. The animals are anthropomorphised to extend the alphabet into scenes familiar to many young Australians. Echidnas feature on the ‘A’ page, and the list at the end identifies them as ‘anteaters’, providing the opportunity to talk about animals being named by their activity as well as having a scientific name. A zebra does appear on the ‘z’ page, but it is in a zoo, opening the discussion about native and other animals. Recommended for pre-schoolers.

 

Koalas, Kites and Kangaroos: An Australian Alphabet, David Ridyard ill Doreen Gristwood Scholastic 2013 ISBN: 9781742838724

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com