Windy Washing Day

Windy Washing Day by Yvonne Low, illustrated by Kate Talbot (MidnightSun Publishing) HB RRP $29.99 ISBN: 9781922858672

Reviewed by Dannielle Viera

On a hot, dry day, a child and their mum decide to hang out a load of washing. Then a mighty breeze springs up. It rips the clothes off the line and sends them flying to the zoo next door. Excited animals grab the garments: ‘Seal slipped on a singlet … Camel took Dad’s cap … Mum’s nighty suited Fox.’ But there aren’t enough pieces for every animal, so they begin to fight. The child tries to ‘calm things down’, but it’s Monkey who gathers the washing and gives it to Toucan and Pelican to carry back home in their beaks. The child knows that next time they’ll ‘double up the pegs’.

Told in rhyming couplets, Yvonne Low’s hilarious story swoops from the familiar to the fantastic in two shakes of a toucan’s tail. Four- to eight-year-olds will adore the animals wrapped in human attire, especially the birds adorned with the family’s ‘multi-coloured undies’. Amid the wacky antics, littlies will discover that helping out with household tasks can be a blast.

Strong colours surge from Kate Talbot’s playful illustrations and sweep readers through the striking spreads. Her characterisation of the protagonist as androgynous allows each child to see themselves in the story, and the animals are bursting with quirky personalities. The endpapers are particularly eye-catching – kids will love to search for creatures concealed in the greenery.

Windy Washing Day is a wildly whimsical picture book that will blow youngsters’ socks off. Witty words are paired with happy hues and folded into a basketful of good clean fun.