Winter Picture Books 2012
By Trevor Agnew
ISBN 978-0-00 742065-0
The Fishing Trip Beatrice Rodriguez, Gecko, 28 pages, hb, NZ$ 24.99
ISBN 978-1-877579-24-0
Farmer John’s Tractor Sally Sutton, ill Robyn Belton, Walker Books, 24 pages, hb, NZ$29.99 ISBN 978-1-9211150-94-4
A Mammoth in the Fridge Michaël Escoffier, ill Matthieu Maudet, Gecko, 36 pages,
pb, NZ$19.99, ISBN 978-1-877579-15-8. hb, NZ$34.99, ISBN 978-1-877579-14-1
Oh No. George! Chris Haughton, Walker Books, 32 pages hb, NZ$27.99
ISBN 978-1-4063-3225-4
The Great Orlando
Melu Kyle Mewburn, ill. Ali Teo & John O’Reilly, Scholastic, 32 pages, hb, NZ$33 ISBN 978-1-77543-027-8
The Best-Loved Bear Diana Noonan, ill Elizabeth Fuller, Scholastic, 24 pages, pb, NZ$19.50 ISBN 978-1-86943-347-5
These eight picture books have every creature from a mule to
a mammoth, a hen to a teddybear, as their main characters, but they all have in
common a marvellous sense of the potential humour in an everyday situation. It
is always a heart-warming moment when you see a young reader spotting a joke in
a book for the first time.
In his delightful picture book, The Hueys in The New Jumper, Oliver Jeffers has set up just such a
transforming moment; several of them in fact. The Hueys may just be tiny
egg-shaped figures with stick limbs, but they are all too recognisably human. “The thing about the Hueys was that they were
all the same.” When Rupert knits
himself a sweater, he suddenly looks different. His fellow Hueys are shocked
and intrigued. But then Gillespie knits himself a sweater so that he will look
different as well. And it’s here that readers’ smiles start appearing, as they
get the joke. More are to come.
Appearances can be deceptive, as Béatrice Rodriguez enjoys
showing in her series of wordless picture books about the adventures of a fox
and a hen, The Chicken Thief (2009) and The Treasure Thief (2011). Their
sequel, The Fishing Trip, begins
with Fox and Hen at a moment of crisis; there is no food. Leaving her precious
egg in Fox’s care, Hen sets off with Crab to catch some fish. The visual
aerodynamics of the pair’s battles with vigorous fish, a very hungry eagle and
a very, very hungry eel provide some gleeful slapstick fun. Then comes the
triumphant return home, and a sudden panic. Has Fox eaten her egg? Once again
Rodriguez forces her young ‘readers’ to re-examine the evidence, before they enjoy
the happy ending.
Sally Sutton has a great ear for sounds and rhythms, so Farmer John’s Tractor, her verse
account of cumulative disasters during a flood is wonderful to read aloud. “It rushes and gushes. It spurts and twirls.”
The flood creates traffic mayhem,
and soon a series of vehicles are trapped, including a tow-truck and a
fire-engine. At each crisis, the chorus reminds us that “Farmer John’s tractor lies locked in the shed.” Soon Farmer John produces the key and the
rusty tractor chugs off to the rescue. Robyn Belton’s water colour
illustrations are delightfully rich in detail, such as the procession of
piglets that trails after Farmer Jones.
The title sets the scene perfectly in Michaël Escoffier’s A Mammoth in the Fridge. A French family’s meal is interrupted when
young Noah spots the giant beast hiding in their refrigerator. “Whoops!” Firefighters fail to capture
the fleeing mammoth, which stampedes down the street and climbs a tree. When
the mammoth declines to leave the tree, everyone loses interest and goes home.
Even as the sheer ridiculousness of this situation tickles the funnybone, the
question arises: what is going on? Escoffier is in full control of his plot and
the events that follow make perfect sense. They’re also skilfully illustrated
by Matthieu Maudet, who has certainly created the best picture ever seen of a
mammoth climbing quietly up the stairs.
Oh no, George! is
both the title of Chris Haughton’s very funny picture book and the response to
the question repeated throughout it: “What
will George do?” Since George has been left at home with some pot plants, a
cat and a cake, the answer is no surprise. What is surprising is what follows when George decides to be really
good. “I hope I’ll be good, George
thinks.”
The Canterbury author-artist team of Ben Brown and Helen
Taylor has taken a new path with The
Great Orlando, a picture book about an ill-treated boy who seeks an escape
in magic tricks. His conjuring performance with a dove at his school concert is
not only a success for Orlando
Melu is the
unforgettable name of the mule, who stars in the latest picture book written by
Kyle Mewburn and illustrated by Ali Teo and John O’Reilly, (the award-winning
team who created Kiss! Kiss! Yuk! Yuk!) Melu is always out of step. “When the herd clipped, Melu clopped.”
Defying his herd’s advice, Melu leaves the sun-baked hills and sets out for the
grassy plains and gleaming sea. There are many barriers in his way but Melu
finds that with the help of new friends and their sharing of talents, a new
life is possible. This is a cheerful fable, with gentle humour and lively
illustrations.
Best news of all is that Diana Noonan’s classic The Best-Loved Bear (1994) is back as a
Platinum bestseller. Battered, balding, tatty and missing most of his left ear,
Tim’s teddybear Toby is his best friend. (Elizabeth Fuller’s pictures are a
perfect reminder of all the threadbare bears in our past.) Toby is also a
source of worry for Tim, when his class holds a best-loved bear contest.
Ashamed, Tim smuggles shabby Toby to school in a brown paper bag, but the judge
has a surprise for everyone. The children who read this prize-winning book when
it was first published are now old enough to be parents and teachers. What
memories they’re going to have as they read it to the next generation!
Trevor Agnew
April 2012
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