Jackie French AM is an award-winning writer, wombat negotiator, the
2014–2015 Australian Children's Laureate and the 2015 Senior
Australian of the Year. In 2016 Jackie became a Member of the Order
of Australia for her contribution to children's literature and her
advocacy for youth literacy. She is regarded as one of Australia's
most popular children's authors and writes across all genres — from
picture books, history, fantasy, ecology and sci-fi to her much
loved historical fiction for a variety of age groups. ‘A book can
change a child's life. A book can change the world' was the primary
philosophy behind Jackie's two-year term as Laureate.
jackiefrench.com
facebook.com/authorjackiefrench Bruce Whatley is one of Australia's
most highly regarded and talented authors and illustrators for
children, both here and internationally. Since 1992 Bruce has
written and/or illustrated over 90 picture books. In 2002 he paired
with author Jackie French and illustrated Diary of a Wombat, which
was the start of an extraordinary creative collaboration.
www.brucewhatley.com
In Pete the Sheep we see the reuniting of the award-winning and adored combination of Jackie French and Bruce Whatley, this time turning their attention to sheep rather than wombats. Shaun the shearer (get it?) is a bit different from the other shearers; instead of a sheepdog he has a ‘sheep-sheep’, Pete, who, in echoes of Babe, talks very polite ‘sheep’ to the other sheep. The mutual language combined with Shaun’s designer shearing technique makes the pair very popular with the sheep and very unpopular with the other shearers with an unpredictable but amusing result. This book will, I imagine, be flogged to booksellers and to their customers as a sort of sequel to the wonderful Diary of a Wombat and while it’s a delightful book, it’s no Wombat. One of the most effective elements in Wombat was the sparsity of the text, allowing Whatley’s eloquent illustrations to carry the story. It’s the freshness of his style and the focus on his drawings that make me laugh out loud whenever I read it. Pete the Sheep is a much more text-heavy effort, suitable for slightly older children. Whatley’s illustrations are still terrific and the storyline fresh and amusing, but this book isn’t what I imagine the marketing will be promising. Eliza Metcalfe is AB&P’s editorial coordinator. C. 2004 Thorpe-Bowker and contributors
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
