Why I love
Australia written
and illustrated by Bronwyn Bancroft (Little Hare Books/Hardie Grant Egmont)
PB
RRP $14.95
ISBN
9781760125127
Reviewed
by Liz Ledden
Bronwyn
Bancroft’s Why I love Australia has
been around for several years; however, Little Hare Books has just released a
paperback version.
The
story is a celebration of Australia and its varied landscapes, taking the
reader on a journey through rivers, plains and grasslands, to cities, snow and
the sea. Each landscape is introduced in a double-paged spread, vibrantly
coloured and depicted in dots, swirls and repetitive patterns punctuated by
strong lines. Evident with each page turn is a small recurring figure of an
Aboriginal person holding a traditional wooden bowl called a coolamon, used in
smoking ceremonies. This ceremony is used to cleanse a place or person,
disperse negative energy or to pay respect to another Aboriginal group’s land.
On
each spread, a descriptive sentence helps to paint a picture in a reader’s mind
of the energy of each landscape, for example ‘Gorges that plummet into
serpentine shadows’. The writing has a poetic quality, and will likely enchant
a preschool aged audience, introducing them not only to different environments
but to beautiful language too.
Why
I love Australia is an ode to the country, and pays
respect to the different traditional land owners of each region.
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