|
Feature Books
Early Childhood
Young Readers
Older Readers
Art + Craft Books
Indigenous Books
Ann James Books |
|
Phoebe`s Book of Fairy Stories - in three volumes
Author J E Banks Smith
Illustrator June Evelyn
Publisher J.E.B.S. Publications, 2004
Price $12.00
Charming and nostalgic, gentle and whimsical, these three pretty volumes feature stories about Australian fairies, bush sprites and sea elves.
Their adventures all in Australian settings, are brought to life in June Evelyn`s magical watercolour paintings.
Perfect read-aloud stories for older people to share with the very young, especially if you love and believe in fairies!
These books, signed by artist June Evelyn, can be purchased singly, or as a set.
Prints of some of the book illustrations are available.
Prints: $150 framed, $95 unframed |
|
Running with the Horses
Author Alison Lester
Illustrator Alison Lester
Publisher Penguin Books, 2009
Price $29.95
Alison Lester is one of Australia`s most-loved picture book creators.
Her latest picture book Running with the Horses was fifteen years in the making and features an interesting change in her style of illustration.
The story, about a young girl`s faith in an extraordinary old horse, makes this an unforgettable story of courage, adventure and friendship.
Ten year old Nina lives with her father above the palace stables at the Royal Academy of Dancing Horses. She loves watching the famous white stallions as they parade for the crowds, but her favourite horse is an ordinary mare called Zelda - an old cab horse Nina often pats on her way home from school.
When Nina`s world changes dramatically, she and her father have to flee from the city. Their journey over the mountains with Zelda and the stallions seems impossible, with danger at every turn . . . |
|
The Peasant Prince
Author Li Cunxin
Illustrator Anne Spudvilas
Publisher Viking, 2007
Price $29.95
The true story of Li Cunxin`s extraordinary life. Based on his internationally best-selling memoir `Mao's Last Dancer`, in this remarkable picture book Anne Spudvilas`s illustrations have captured the essence of one of the most inspiring stories to come from China in many years. |
|
Chester & Gil
Author Carol Faulkner
Illustrator Ann James
Publisher Omnibus books, 2009
Price $26.99
Chester and Gil live in the same goldfish bowl. While Gil just floats around the same old place, Chester knows he can save the world. His motto, 'Life is what you make it', takes on epic dimensions in this fumy story of a fishy odd couple and the power of thinking big.
Ann James watercolour illustrations are fishily dramatic and humorous |
|
Mannie and the Long Brave Day
Author Martine Murray
Illustrator Sally Rippin
Publisher Allen & Unwin, 2009
Price $29.95
Two talented picture book makers Martine Murray and Sally Rippin have created a magical story that celebrates friendship, courage and the wonder of a child`s imagination.
Mannie is going on an adventure. She is taking Lilliput and Strawberry Luca. And she hasn`t forgotten her special box of secret things, just in case the adventure gets adventurous...
|
|
Wendy
Author Gus Gordon
Illustrator Gus Gordon
Publisher Penguin Books, 2009
Price $24.95
Gus Gordon's first picture book is a treat!
Wendy doesn't want to be just any old chicken. She wants ADVENTURE, she wants EXCITEMENT. She wants TO BE A STAR!
And then a travelling circus comes to town . . .
|
|
Dog & Bird water the Garden
Author Tohby Riddle
Illustrator Tohby Riddle
Publisher Penguin, 2009
Price $14.95
A picture book for the very young by well known author/illustrator Tohby Riddle.
Slosh! Slosh! When Dog and Bird fill up their watering cans they're ready to water the garden. But not everything will need watering.
|
|
The Cloudchasers - Book 1
Author Steven Hunt
Illustrator David Richarson
Publisher ABC Books, 2008
Price $39.95
These two Illustrated books for older readers are stunningly designed. The digital illustrations are compelling and the stories engaging.
In the grey streets of Bankertown, where children are threatened with the horror of the Institute, a young girl called Alice dares to rebel. Pursued by the vermin-infested Catcher, Alice, her friend Spinner and the unwilling Thomas, escape beyond the clouds in a hot air balloon... |
|
The East Wind - The Cloudchasers - Book 2
Author Steven Hunt
Illustrator David Richarson
Publisher ABC Books, 2009
Price $39.95
On their quest to restore freedom and imagination to the bleak world of Bankertown, Alice, Thomas and Spinner's search takes them to terrifying and fantastic lands.
The thrilling conclusion to the Cloudchasers saga. |
|
Fox and fine Feathers
Author Narelle Oliver
Illustrator Narelle Oliver
Publisher Omnibus Books, 2009
Price $27.99
Narelle Oliver's latest picture book features stunning illustrations reproduced from her hand-coloured lino prints. The story is a timeless fable with a contemporary twist.
Lyrebird, Coucal, Pitta and Nightjar are birds of the forest floor.
Although as different as it is possible to be from one another, they always look out for danger and warn each other. But one day, only Nightjar is watching. Can he warn the others in time?... |
|
Simpson and his Donkey
Author Mark Greenwood
Illustrator Frane Lessac
Publisher Walker Books 2009
Price $27.95
This is the heroic story of the one man and a donkey and a strange twist of fate that brought two boyhood friends together one last time.
This telling is thoroughly researched and accessible to children.
The illustrations are suprising in their detail, viewpoint and colour and give a sense of the place and the feeling of war.
Simpson and his Donkey is an honour book in the Eve Pownall Award for information Books in the 2009 CBCA Book of the Year Awards. |
|
Leaf
Author Stephen Michael King
Illustrator Stephen Michael King
Publisher Scholastic, 2008
Price $19.99
Stephen Michael King's books include Mutt Dog, The Man who loved Boxes, Henry and Amy and Emily loves to Bounce.
Leaf is his most playful, moving and beautiful picture book to date.
It's small format makes it a book for that special gift.
Leaf is an honour book in the 2009 CBCA Book of the Year Awards. |
|
How to heal a broken Wing
Author Bob Graham
Illustrator Bob Graham
Publisher Walker Books, 2008
Price $27.95
When Will sees a fallen bird on the crowed city pavement, he stops and looks - and reaches down to help...
A simple story masterfully told by one of Australia's most well loved creators of picture books.
How to heal a broken Wing is winner of the 2009 Charlotte Zolotow Award in the USA, shortlisted for the 2009 Kate Greenaway Medal and winner of the Early Childhood category in the 2009 CBCA Book of the Year Awards. |
|
Mr Chicken Goes to Paris
Author Leigh Hobbs
Illustrator Leigh Hobbs
Publisher Allen & Unwin, 2009
Price $24.99
Mr Chicken has taken up his friend Yvette`s invitation to visit Paris. As they journey together through the City of Love, Mr Chicken is overcome by the magic of all the city has to offer - and the inhabitants of this most stylish city don`t quite know what to make of him. Mr Chicken will delight children of all ages.
Leigh is also the creator of Old Tom, Horrible Harriet and Fiona the Pig. His distinctive style has attracted critical acclaim in Australia and internationally.
`The world`s most beautiful city meets the world`s most startling chicken... Not since Quasimodo has Paris been host to a monster of such charm. In typical exuberant style, Hobbs takes us abroad with the gentlemanly Mr Chicken, who tours the magnifique sights of Paris unaware that his enormous top-hatted self is the most astonishing spectacle of all. Joyously colourful, brilliantly observed, hilariously wry, Mr Chicken Goes to Paris is Leigh Hobbs' masterpiece.`
Sonya Hartnett
|
|
Tales for Outer Suburbia
Author Shaun Tan
Illustrator Shaun Tan
Publisher Allen & Unwin, 2008
Price $35
In this collection of illustrated short stories Shaun Tan, creator of award winning books including The Arrival, the Lost Thing and The Red Tree reveals the mysteries of everyday life: homemade pets, dangerous weddings, stranded sea animals, tiny exchange students and secret rooms filled with darkness and delight.
Tales from Outer Suburbia is the winner of the Older Readers Category of the 2009 CBCA Books of the Year Awards. |
|
The Arrival
Author Shaun Tan
Illustrator Shaun Tan
Publisher Lothian Books
Price HB $39.99
The Arrival is a migrant story told as a series of wordless images that might seem to come from a long forgotten time. A man leaves his wife and child in an impoverished town, seeking better prospects in an unknown country on the other side of a vast ocean. He eventually finds himself in a bewildering city of foreign customs, peculiar animals, curious floating objects and indecipherable languages. With nothing more than a suitcase and a handful of currency, the immigrant must find a place to live, food to eat and some kind of gainful employment. He is helped along the way by sympathetic strangers, each carrying their own unspoken history: stories of struggle and survival in a world of incomprehensible violence, upheaval and hope. |
|
The Lost Thing
Author Shaun Tan
Illustrator Shaun Tan
Publisher Lothian Books, 2000
Price HB $28.99 PB $17.99
The Lost Thing is a humorous story about a boy who discovers a bizarre-looking creature while out collecting bottle-tops at a beach. Having guessed that it is lost, he tries to find out who owns it or where it belongs, but the problem is met with indifference by everyone else, who barely notice it`s presence. Each is unhelpful in their own way; strangers, friends, parents are all unwilling to entertain this uninvited interruption to day-to-day life. In spite of his better judgement, the boy feels sorry for this hapless creature, and attempts to find out where it belongs.
The Lost Thing received an Honourable Mention at the Bologna International Book Fair, Italy, was named an Honour Book at the CBCA Awards, won an Aurealis Award and a Spectrum Award for illustration in the United States. Original illustrations from the book were exhibited at the Itabashi Art Museum in Tokyo.
A London-based film production company, Passion Pictures, is currently adapting The Lost Thing as a short animated film, and the Canberra-based youth theatre company Jigsaw has staged a multi-media adaptation of the story at the National Gallery of Australia in October 2004. |
|
The Viewer
Author Shaun Tan
Illustrator Shaun Tan
Publisher Lothian Books, 1997
Price PB $16.99
Written by acclaimed horror writer Gary Crew, The Viewer tells the peculiar story of a boy whose obsession with curious artefacts leads him to discover an strange box at a dump site. It proves to be an ancient chest full of optical devices, one of which captures his interest; an intricately mechanical object which carries disks of images; scenes of destruction, violence and the collapse of civilisations throughout time. The boy is afraid, but also cannot help but look into the machine time and time again as the images shift and change... |
|
The Red Tree
Author Shaun Tan
Illustrator Shaun Tan
Publisher Lothian Books, 2001
Price HB $28.99 PB $17.99
The Red Tree is a story without any particular narrative; a series of distinct imaginary worlds as self-contained images which invite readers to draw their own meaning in the absence of any written explanation. As a concept, the book is inspired by the impulse of children and adults alike to describe feelings using metaphor - monsters, storms, sunshine, rainbows and so on. Moving beyond cliché, I sought painted images that might further explore the expressive possibilities of this kind of shared imagination, which could be at once strange and familiar. A nameless young girl appears in every picture, a stand-in for ourselves; she passes helplessly through many dark moments, yet ultimately finds something hopeful at the end of her journey.
The Red Tree won the Patricia Wrightson prize in the NSW Premie`s Book Awards, and was awarded the 'le Prix Octogones 2003' prize by the Centre International d'Etudes en Litterature de Jeunesse, following it`s translation into French. It is also published as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Spanish and Canadian/US editions. |
|
Child of Tibet - a lost innocence
Author Shane Marden
Illustrator
Publisher
Price $60
I enjoy telling stories and there are just so many stories to tell in the world. There is nothing I enjoy more than to interpret the world through visual exploration. One image has the power to influence change, and change is the seed for progress. This motivated my direction towards photography and the still image.
I am also passionate about freedom. Freedom to think; to feel; to communicate, and freedom to believe. The freedom to find happiness in the small portion of time we have. I am fortunate. I live in a free country so I feel somewhat responsible to help those who are less fortunate.
Upon learning about the plight of Tibetan people and their slow, painful, systematic evaporation into the sands of history, I felt a need to visit this ancient mystical land and experience the place for myself. To photograph the hope and joy and the future that remains for Tibet.
So I decided to photograph the children. With the ambition to raise awareness about the beauty of Tibet but also their turbulent history and current oppression, and from sales, help raise funds for an established charity involved in the cause.
In Buddhism there is a saying that a bird needs two wings to fly - wisdom and compassion. |
|
