The Sweet As Looky Book Donovan Bixley

 

The Sweet As Looky Book
Donovan Bixley

 

The Sweet As Looky Book
Donovan Bixley
Ill. Donovan Bixley
Little Moa
Hachette (2026)
Picture book
24 pages, Hardback
ISBN 978 1 86971 572 4

 This is the fifth of Donovan Bixley’s Looky Books, which speaks for the success of this intricately-constructed set of witty illustrations with carefully concealed games, puzzles and jokes.

This time Donovan is taking his readers on a quick tour of Aotearoa New Zealand. 

 The first puzzle task appears on the endpapers: twenty items which will pop up regularly in the illustrations. These range from a road cone (koeko rori) to Donovan’s favourite top hat (pōtae teitei). A typical visual pun is the surf chick (pīpī reti ngaru) which turns out to be a hen with a surfboard. Every picture also contains a gumboot and a kiwi.

 The actual tour begins at past and present Kororāreka (with lots of time-switching jokes between brigandage and tourism). Then comes the Coromandel, with a woolly traffic jam blocking SH 25, which allows readers to search for the numbers from 1 to 25. A typical Donovan touch is the trio of sheep having a cup of tea with lambingtons!

Each turn of the page produces a remarkable new landscape and a fresh puzzle. Waitomo’s caves offer tricky reflections, while twenty flightless birds are flying in highly imaginative sky-dives, just before we hit a Taranaki beach where 25 surf-crazy cows are cavorting.

Windy Wellington lives up to its reputation with flying hats to be returned to their owners. There are lots of fish to be found in the snow-bound thermal springs – but they are all chocolate fish. A whirlwind tour of our giant civic objects (except for the splendid fish of Gore and Rakaia) is followed by a cycle ride through Central Otago and a bird-matching excursion to Rakiura Stewart Island. All marvellous fun.

 Donovan Bixley’s pictures are lively, colourful and superbly detailed. They are also hilarious. Best of all, the solutions to the various puzzles are given at the end of the book.

 A tip for the parents and grandparents. When your young readers think they’ve finished The Sweet As Looky Book, get them searching for where Donovan has carved his initials. I’m very proud to have located his signature pink squid illustration. Enjoy!

  Note: the other titles in this series are still in print:
The Looky Book (2012)
The Christmas Looky Book (2017)
The Good Old Looky Book (2021)
The Sporty Looky Book (2023)

 Trevor Agnew
11 Oct 2026  [Review 3876.]