Mamma Ocean

Mamma Ocean by Jane Jolly and Sally Heinrick, (Midnight Sun Publishing), September, 2020, HB RRP $29.99

ISBN: 9781925227659

Reviewed by Karen Hendriks

Mama Ocean is a picture book that gives a voice, and a heart and soul to the ocean. Mama Ocean is a character with great sparkling beauty. She rules her world but is powerless to outside forces. Her children bestow gifts to Mama but these only cause Mama sadness and distress. For Mama is the lungs of the ocean and her tears are our tears, for her gifts are rubbish.

 

Jane Jolly’s poetic writing has such an emotive pull with its evocative simplicity, strong verbs and alliteration, for example, ‘The creatures stared at her. Distressed.’ Her words sweep and swirl just like the ocean’s currents and the short sentences have punch and panache. The creatures of the ocean are Mama’s children. Their gifts to Mamma to make her well are found in the swirling, bobbing ocean currents. When this doesn’t work, the children must use their own powers to save Mamma Ocean. Jane Jolly’s writing empowers the reader to think.

Sally Heinrich’s swirling lines, patterning and colour choices create a mesmerising visual narrative that enchants. She creates lots of movement, uses fine detail with her linework and captures the reader with her characterisation. The wordless double page spread is a powerful visual environmental message as the spread of the rubbish is laid out bare for all to see. Heinrich’s illustrations are a perfect fit for Jolly’s words. The watercolours of blues and greens with pops of colour for the sea creatures give the story a mythical appeal that showcases the ocean and its creatures and as the rubbish builds up the water darkens, and Mama suffocates.

Mama Ocean is a picture book that has been created by the same team that created One Step at a Time, a CBCA Honour Book, and Pappa Sky, a CBCA notable book. This is a dynamic combination of master storytellers. Mama Ocean is a stunning book that’s suitable for children in primary school from Kindergarten to Year 6. It fits beautifully into the school curriculum

The Mad Capper's Tea Party

Diary of an AFL Legend

Diary of an AFL Legend written by Shamini Flint and illustrated by Sally Heinrich (Allen and Unwin) PB RRP $9.99 ISBN 9781760295141

Reviewed by Daniela Andrews

Nine-year-old maths extraordinaire, Marcus Atkinson, is (shall we say) a good sport. (Not to be confused with the phrase ‘good at sport’.) He has so far bitterly sucked at cricket, track and field, basketball, tennis, soccer, swimming, taekwondo, golf and rugby. Yet there he is, at the opening of the tenth novel in this popular series, buried ‘under an AFL pack’. Oh Marcus. 

Let’s blame his perfect cousin (Spencer) who should really know better by now, right? Marcus progressively messes up the rules of the game in his special, flawlessly uncoordinated way. Despite his father (the self-help book novelist) having a philosophical conversation with him about the pursuit of happiness, he stubbornly refuses to give up. There’s no way he’s going to let Spencer down. When Spencer and his father secretly come up with a way to help Marcus miss an important game, believing they are doing him a favour, Marcus finds a way to turn up anyway … and puts on quite a show.

This latest installment in the (non) sporting series for 7–11-year-olds is chock full of hilarious, face palm moments that we’ve come to love and appreciate from Shamini Flint. The format of the book matches the others. The story is told via diary entries, each highly illustrated with the amusing black and white cartoons of Sally Heinrich. (The majority of the text actually appears in speech bubbles within the illustrations.) The narrative in the diary entries connects to the text in the speech bubbles, so there is perfect flow between the two. For example, Marcus writes ‘I asked Dad …’ and then we see a cartoon of Marcus and his father with the question in the speech bubbles. The diary entries also feature the odd ‘post-it note’ from his sister, supposedly reading and annotating without his permission.

The ending was great – very credible and totally in line with Marcus’ character and, er, his sporting prowess. Shamini Flint has once again provided an entertaining read with a clever way of inadvertently teaching her readers the rules of a sport.

One Step at a Time

One Step at a Time by Jane Jolly, illustrated by Sally Heinrich (MidnightSun Publishing)

HB RRP $27.99

ISBN 9780987380951

Reviewed by Dianne Bates

The cover of this picture book immediately grabs one’s attention as it is bold and attractive, showing that the artwork is obviously the result of print-making. Opening it, one is amused by the fly pages showing an elephant trudging across the page in line after line. The illustrator, Sally Heinrich, has been recognized through various fellowships and this book, the first picture book from an Australian publishing company which established in late 2014, is pictorially stunning.

Set in Thailand and based on fact, the story is of a boy, Luk, who is keeper of Mali an elephant; together they help Luk’s grandmother drag timber from the forest. However, disaster is moments away when Mali steps on a landmine and is downed. Saffron-robed monks from a temple chant ‘aged-old blessings’ on Mali and the small boy tends her. Happily, a practical solution is found to help the crippled elephant and all ends well.

The publisher claims this is a ‘ground-breaking story’ and portrayed in picture book form, it most likely is as it draws a child reader’s attention to the dreadful problem of more than 110 active mines scattered in over 70 countries around the world – a fact mentioned in a post-script.

That Jolly is a fine writer is evidenced by the fact she has won three CBCA Notable mentions for her picture books. This is a beautifully designed book with illustrations which are dramatic in parts and tender in others. The illustrator makes frequent use of border illustrations that are in keeping with the oriental feel of the book. Jolly and Heinrich and MidnightSun Publishing ought to be well-pleased with this special book for children aged 6 years and up.