Picture Book Month Day 25

For this post I have selected a book by Margaret Wild. Margaret is one of our most prolific Australian authors and, like Margaret Mahy who I selected previously, Margaret Wild's books contain a huge variety of stories and they showcase lots of different and famous illustrators.  How can I pick one book by Margaret Wild?  

Every year in my library I read Let the Celebrations Begin (Grade 6); Something absolutely Enormous (Kindergarten); Little Humpty (Kindergarten); Puffling (Kindergarten); Mr Nicks Knitting (Grade 1); Lucy Goosey (Kindergarten); Robber Girl (Grade 4); and my focus book today - Miss Lilly's Fabulous Pink Feather Boa (Grade 2). I have also enjoyed reading Tanglewood (Grades 4-6); Fox (Grade 5); and The Stone Lion (Grades 3 and 4).

Here are some illustrators who have worked on books by Margaret Wild (there are lots more): Ann James; Julie Vivas; Kerry Argent; Stephen Michael King; David Legge; Donna Rawlins; Noela Young; Ron Brooks; Freya Blackwood; Kim Gamble; and Gregory Rogers.

I love the emotional honesty in Miss Lily's fabulous Pink Feather Boa. The Last Potoroo knows she has done something truly dreadful but she also knows it is important to say sorry to her beloved Miss Lily. When we read this book in our library we had a large pink feather boa which the children could touch and handle. 

My favourite lines are:

"I can't take this,' she whispered. 'I did something dreadful. I wanted the boa so much that I stole a bit of it.' 'I know,' said Miss Lily softly. They hugged each other, hard."

Margaret Wild is such a wordsmith. Picture books contain so few words and this makes word placement and word choice even more important in the best picture books. The two important words in this quote - words which add drama, emotion and poignancy - are 'softly' and 'hard'. Go back now and read the quote again without these words and then with them.

Here is an audio sample from Miss Lily's fabulous Pink feather Boa. Do click the link because this sample is 9 minutes and so it is actually the whole book.  This book was first published in 1998 but I am so happy to see it is still available.  My own copy is signed by Margaret herself!

Now think about the illustrations in this book.  I marvel that illustrators are sent the text of a book, possibly on one sheet of paper, and then the illustrator takes the words and adds another, often amazing and unstated, layer.  If you just saw the text for this book would you have thought Miss Lily was a crocodile!

 Here are some other equally wonderful books illustrated by Kerry Argent: