Welcome to Children's Corner book reviews from 4MBS Classic Radio FM in Brisbane. Here you will find short annotations of the children's books reviewed by Kerry Neary in Children's Corner on 4MBS, together with the details you need to find them at your favourite bookstore. Any prices shown are the publisher's Australian recommended price and may vary depending on where you shop. You are welcome to use these reviews for newsletters and the like with appropriate acknowledgement.

Oct 2, 2015

Books reviewed 16.07.15



If the title of a children’s picture book begins with Where is... , you can be almost certain it is a hide-and-seek book. However it is quite remarkable how diverse these books can be.
Where is galah?

Sally Morgan
Little Hare Books [Hardie Grant Egmont]
ISBN: 9781921894466
RRP: $24.95


Brilliant colours in bold indigenous patterns hide Galah as Dingo wanders an Australian bush landscape looking for his friend. Galah is on the page but not so cryptically hidden that young readers can’t see him. That’s part of the fun! The simple, repetitive pattern of the text includes new sounds to mimic as other native animals enter the scene. Watch the sky closely as it marks the passage of time. At the end of his day Dingo is exhausted and turns the tables on Galah in this highly entertaining and vibrant hide-and-seek story for the very young.
Where’s Spot?
35th anniversary edition

Eric Hill
Penguin Puffin
ISBN: 9780141359915 [Board Book]
RRP: $19.99


This special edition is four times the size of the original but everything else is the same – just bigger. This timeless story for toddlers of a little dog hiding from its mother is of retrospective interest: it is the only Spot book in which he is not the main character - that is his mother, Sally; the other characters she finds in hiding places along the way are never named – only the hiding places are named; and they all appear in later Spot stories. An ideal gift for a newborn.
Where’s the elephant?

Barroux
Egmont [Hardie Grant Egmont]
ISBN: 9781405276481
RRP: $19.95

What starts as a hide-and-seek story becomes more serious. Three questions on the second page turning ask: Where’s the elephant?; Where’s the parrot?; Where’s the snake? On following pages these animals are hidden in the lush and colourful forest and have to be found. Slowly something else changes - tree stumps, then houses, roads and cars, all creep in at the expense of the forest. The animals become easier to see – exposed and vulnerable. The watercolour illustrations reveal the forest in its jigsaw diversity; then candidly portray the barren monotony of the city. This is an exceptional book to help youngsters realise the serious responsibility of our stewardship of the planet.