Traditional Fairy Tales in Sculpture

To be published tomorrow Thursday October 1st 2015

Australian Writer and Illustrator  Shaun Tan  The Singing Bones  Allen & Unwin 2015 $39.99hb 185pp  ISBN 978 1 7601 1103 8  Themes: Traditional fairy Tales/ Sculptures

This is a book unlike any other I have seen that relooks at traditional fairy tales.  Artist and writer Shaun Tan, has created the essential essence of around 70 well known (and some not quite so well known) fairy tales in a handsome book of sculptures. Love, betrayal, adventure, magic, wicked stepmothers (of course), lost princesses and scary foxes are shown here in a gallery of pictures that need to be looked at again and again to understand  and enjoy their meaning. This is a project as far away from the Disneyfication of fairy tales as you could get and is a serious and important book for serious art students and students of literature.  Each plate has an accompanying brief description and there is further information at the end. The book contains an essay on the Brothers Grimm by Jack Zipes and a foreword by Philip Pullman. As Philip Pullman points out, not many fairy tales are actually ‘ pretty’ as depicted over the years by people like Arthur Rackham and his contemporaries  - actually many are quite brutal, earthy and bloody - and strange .  Not a general book for primary schools in my opinion but secondary schools and students of art should find it a marvellous resource and a book to treasure.        

Year 9 up/ Age 13 up  - and for adults.

 

ONLY TWO MORE SLEEPS TO TINDERBOX - See you there?

A contemporary fairy tale from a Tunisian writer and a Belgian artist

Tunisian Writer and Belgian Illustrator

Laila Koubaa, illustrated by Mattias De Leeuw

Azizi and the Little Blue Bird

Book Island 2015 $17.99hb 28pp

ISBN 978 0 9941 0986 6

Themes: Fear/ Greed/ Justice
Azizi lives in the Land of the Crescent Moon, a place ruled by two despotic leaders who keep order by fear and theft and have a particularly nasty habit of locking up all the country’s beautiful and innocent blue birds. But change is coming and with the help of one farsighted bluebird Azizi is able to bring freedom back to the land. Read into it what you will but it is also a great story just to read aloud without looking for hidden meanings. What makes it outstanding are the illustrations. These have been created by a young (26 years old) Belgian artist whose work has been likened to that of Quentin Blake. The images are clean and white but with a feeling of great dry heat – and you can almost smell the jasmine as you turn the pages. Like nearly all books from this publisher, this is a special example of high quality book production.

Year 2 up/ Age 6 up

An Iranian Refugee's Story

Iranian Writer (now lives in the USA) Abbas Kazerooni The Boy With Two Lives A continuation of On Two Feet and Wings Allen & Unwin 2015 $17.99pb 246pp ISBN 978 1 7433 1483 8 Themes: Boarding school life/ Homelessness/ Refugees/ Sequels/ Stress

In a much darker story than the writer’s first book about his early life we pick up where he is sent to England having fled conscription into the Iranian Army at the age of ten. Things are not much better there as he is placed in a boarding school where he is badly treated and finally when he has just turned thirteen, he finds himself 'homeless' and with no way of keeping contact with his mother who is still in Iran. The story is told simply and one of the things that shines through this account of a tough life is the complete lack of bitterness on Abbas’s part. 

He is now a successful lawyer, actor, writer and producer. He lives in California, USA

Year 8 up/ Age 12 up

New Zealand's Native Forests - Book Four in the Explore and Discover series

IN SHOPS NOW

NZ Illustrator & Writer Ned Barraud & Gillian Candler In the Bush – Explore and Discover New Zealand’s Native Forests

Explore and Discover series Potton and Burton 2015 $19.99pb 36pp ISBN 978 1 9272 1354 4 Themes: Native flora and fauna

In the same style as the other books in this series here we are taken for a detailed look along a bush track observing the forest floor, the tangles of bush and vines and then high, high up in the canopy. Birds, trees, mammals, fungi, reptiles and amphibians all come under the microscope of this artist and writer and the book is full of information that is easily assessed by the youngest children through to older primary students.  A special feature of the book is a pull away chart showing 20 birds you might be lucky enough to see even from your own window if like me you live on the edge of the bush or you could put it flat in your pack when out in the forest. (I’ve yet to see a Kiwi strolling through my garden though – even late at night).  

Preschool up/ Age 4 up

Elephant Hide and Seek

COMING IN OCTOBER

UK Writer & Illustrator

David Barrow

Have You Seen Elephant?

Gecko Press 2015 $19.99pb 32pp

ISBN 978 17765 7009 6

Themes: Elephants/ Hide-and-Seek
Is there an elephant in the house or garden? It’s hard to tell because he is SO good at hiding (or maybe adults and the little boy in the book are not very good at finding). I tried this out with a small group of four-year-olds the other day and they had no trouble deciphering what was just an armchair or a TV and what was actually Elephant masquerading as one. Cheerfully illustrated in muted shades which makes the ‘finding’ even more rewarding. 

Preschool up/ Age 4 up

ONLY NINE MORE SLEEPS TO TINDERBOX

Will you be there?

A tale of betrayal, jealousy, brotherly love and freeriding.

NZ Writer Aaron Topp Hucking Cody Mary Egan Publishing 2015 $18.99pb 264pp ISBN 978 0 4733 2668 5 Themes: Bullying/ Love stories/ Mountain Biking

For Cody, life is at its best when he is crouched over the handlebars of his mountain bike concentrating on the bush lined trail ahead and forgetting the baggage of worries that wait for him later. Then he falls in love with a girl and a new bike and the kaleidoscope that his life has become away from the trail become suffocatingly real.

Aaron Topp, who lives in Hawkes Bay, has already proved himself as a writer of books for young adults to watch out for. His first book Single Fin, based on the true story of a boy obsessed with surfing, won the NZ Post Book Young Adult Fiction Honour Award in 2008  and was also on the Storylines Notable Books list.Google his name fo rmore info. 
Go to:  http://tinyurl.com/o8ywjj2 
for an interview with Aaaron on Desna Wallace's Blog.  Desna is the librarian at Fendalton School Christchurch
Year 9 / Age  13 up

Aaron Topp- acknowledgements to Hawkes Bay Writers Festival

Christchurch Earthquake rebuild. A new Quaky Cat story

NZ Writer and Illustrator Diana Noonan, illustrated by Gavin Bishop Quaky Cat Helps Out Scholastic NZ 2015 $18.99pb 32pp ISBN 978 1 7754 3297 5 Themes: Being traumatised /Christchurch earthquakes 2010 – 2011/ Christchurch rebuild/ Homeless pets/ Sequels/ Stories in rhyme

Tiger AKA Quaky Cat, cosily half asleep on his friend Emma’s feet in their warm safe home that’s now mended and strong after the Christchurch earthquakes is suddenly reminded of something. He thinks of all the homeless cats around town. There is lonely Toffee sitting in a letter box waiting for the family that fled the city; May who is still hiding under the table; old Bill who once moused the churches; Samantha who now lives in a caravan. Tiger is reminded that once they all had FUN and so he plans to organise a little social get together. The first Quaky Cat story helped many children in the initial stages after the quakes. Now  that the children are living through the long re-build years, Diana Noonan and Gavin Bishop have produced for them another story into which they will read so much more and put into it their own interpretations.    

Year 1 up/ Age 5 up