There is a tribe of kids

Lane Smith
Pan Macmillan Australia
9781509812882
$24.99

The range of unusual colours he has used in his palette; the variety in colour textures, right to the background; and the silver shimmer through the colours on the dust jacket; all make for a more than usually elegant book for this renowned author-illustrator, better known for mischief and irony. The text is different, no longer the wisecracking humour but a clever use of collective nouns, sometimes of witty creation. Deep beneath it all, beneath the subtle use of past tense, is a message to children to work together to save the world’s disappearing wildlife.