Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Kookaburra by Claire Saxby illustrated by Tannya Harricks


Publisher blurb: Kook-kook-kook. Kak-kak-kak. What is that sunrise chorus that sounds like laughter? It is a kookaburra and her family, calling over the river. Follow these iconic Australian birds as they search for food and team up to defend their territory in preparation for the nesting season. With rich paintings and poetic text, threaded through with intriguing facts, Kookaburra offers insight into the lives of these fascinating birds. Curious readers will find more information about kookaburras at the end, as well as an index leading them back through the book to explore these distinctive creatures more closely.

I adore Kookaburras and I am lucky because there is a colony of them living in the bush land near me so I often see them and hear their raucous and very distinct laughter



I picked up Kookaburra at the Book Bunker library at Westmead Children's Hospital mainly because I wanted to share the fabulous illustrations. This book would also be perfect to send as a gift to a child or friend living overseas.


Image Source: Booktopia

Here is an interview with Tannya by Kids' Book Review. 

I often think it would be wonderful to present a paper at an international conference about our Australian animals and birds in picture books especially the less well known ones or less well known overseas anyway.  You might remember I already talked about wombats (there are so many picture books about wombats perhaps because Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French is so popular). You might like to explore other books about kookaburras.







Kookaburra is from the Nature Story Book (Read and Wonder) series from Walker Books. If you have not discovered Tannya Harricks try to find her spectacular book Mallee Sky.


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