a happy, celebratory book, quintessentially Australian

a happy, celebratory book, quintessentially Australian

great for all ages, baby to grown-up (it's a singalong)
I grew up singing the song that provides the words for this book—if you’re Australian you probably did too. My cousin Lauren would sit in a rocking chair on the verandah of her home on a cattle property in Central Queensland and look out over the paddock singing it. She was 3 at the time

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The Trouble With Dogs!: winning Dad over!

The Trouble With Dogs!: winning Dad over!

Age guide: baby to young child
Dad reckons the trouble with dogs is that they take over your life. But really Dad is just as much in love with Rosie and Dave as the rest of the family. 

Rosie and Dave were brought home from the animal shelter in Let's Get a Pup (also by Bob Graham). Since then Rosie has cemented her place on the couch but Dave just keeps getting wilder.

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The Wrong Thing: sometimes things that seem wrong are simply out of place

The Wrong Thing: sometimes things that seem wrong are simply out of place

Age guide: 4 to 12
With surrealist pictures and a slightly tense story, this is a charming picture book. Hurricane, the cat, follows the Wrong Thing through the house, trying to protect his family who are sleeping. Until he realises that the Wrong Thing is a Lost Thing.

The Wrong Thing just needed its own place and family.

This is one of my favourite stories about things that seem Wrong being simply out of place. Hurricane worries that 'the big ones would not see it. And the small ones might want to catch it'.

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Make Way For Ducklings: Caldecott Medal winners tend to hold their appeal!

Make Way For Ducklings: Caldecott Medal winners tend to hold their appeal!

Make Way for Ducklings is the story of Mr. & Mrs. Mallard and their quest to find a place to nest and then to raise their family of ducklings. It has cult status in Boston, where the duck statues in the public gardens never need polishing because children sit on them so often they naturally keep up the sheen!

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