Christmas Always Comes by Jackie French illustrated by Bruce Whatley

 

No it's okay I have not lost my "blogging" mind (even though I do currently have Covid).  I realise it is not Christmas but this is a new picture book published in 2021 and it is on the CBCA 2022 Picture Book of the Year Notable list.

This is a nostalgic, heart-warming and quintessentially Australian Christmas story by two masters of the picture book genre. I love the way the little boy is so insistent about the ingredients essential for every Christmas celebration and the way these things (pudding, presents, and a tree) are all there on Christmas day. 

It is a strength of this writing that I was so invested emotionally that I just sighed with happiness when all everything came together for Joey. He has unwavering faith and infectious optimism about the magic of Christmas. So many of Australian Christmas stories take a rather “ocker” approach – this one is so much better. Bruce Whatley gives the reader lovely contrasts between the pages from the cool night air to the blistering heat of outback Australia.

Jackie French shares a tiny slice of Australian rural life from the past with her readers. She is such a master wordsmith:

"It was a dusty journey down the drought-bare road verges that Christmas Eve to find water for the cattle."

"Sunrise was a pale pink garland when Joey shook Ellie awake."

"The old man's shirt was frayed. He looked as if he had forgotten how to smile."

"The land was gold, not brown, as Ellie and Joey, and Blossom and Brownie climbed out of the gully. Diamonds glittered from the cobwebs on the barbed wire."

Hopefully this book will lead to a class discussion about the events of 1932 and why this family are droving the long paddock (city kids will need to discover what this means). The time frame of this story is just over two days and yet so much happens for Joey and Ellie and more importantly for old Mr Darcy. And so much is unsaid in the text but implied by the illustrations and tone - I love this layering in the story. 

The sunshine and summer feel of the cover is very appealing but I wonder if Jackie French or Bruce Whatley discussed any other possibilities - my favourite image is the one used on the title page and later on the third double spread which shows a pair of mismatch old socks hanging on a wire fence beside a dusty paddock - I wonder if this might have been considered for the cover? 

When you explore this book with a group of older students you could perhaps compare Bruce Whatley's illustrations with the work of other artists:

This is by Jan Hendrik Scheltema

Hans Heysen An Afternoon in Autumn

Jackie French and Bruce Whately have collaborated on many previous picture books:

If you need a Christmas gift perhaps to send to children living overseas I would like to suggest you should put this title at the top of your shopping list. This book would be a terrific Australian ambassador. It explores rural life in Australia, Christmas in the Summer, our dusty landscape, the way European Christmas customs were/are followed especially in the past, and the joyful surprises that can come on Christmas Day. Christmas does indeed always come!

Read more about this book:

Paperbark Words - Joy Lawn shares the plot and some of the illustrations

Reading Time review

Just so Stories review

Here are a few other special Australian Christmas stories with similar themes:

Tea and Sugar Christmas

All I want for Christmas is Rain

Applesauce and the Christmas Miracle

The Music of the Sea by Susanna Isern illustrated by Marta Chicote Translated by Jon Brokenbrow

 

"The ever-changing music of the sea was there to keep her company. Sometimes it reminded her of church bells and other times of a great ship sailing towards the village. Once she imagined a choir of children singing together, and even a great opera."

Publisher blurb from Cuento de Luz: After a terrible storm batters a little coastal village, only Daniel the fisherman and his daughter Marina decide to stay behind. Every night Daniel sneaks out of the house, as he prepares to give Marina a wonderful surprise. The incredible music of the sea starts to play, and it changes the course of their lives.  A story about the power of hope, and the universal language of music.

The Music of the Sea was originally published in Spanish with the title: La Música del mar. Here is the trailer. You can see art from this book here. Marta Chicote has her profile listed as Marta Chicote Juiz.  Susanna was inspired to write this story after seeing this marine organ in Croatia. 

Isern’s lyrical narrative waxes poetic about the sea, whales, and the contentment found in a life close to nature, and Chicote’s illustrations, with their dreamlike quality, enhance the narrative. Kirkus

I would pair this book with The Whales' Song by Dyan Sheldon illustrated by Gary Blythe and Storm whale by Sarah Brennan illustrated by Jane Tanner.

I have talked about other books by Susanna Isern in previous posts:

The Lonely Mailman

A Mystery in the Forest

The Magic Ball of Wool

Ellie's Dragon by Bob Graham

His "little claws tickled in the palm of her hand. ... 

She called him Scratch."

Ellie is shopping at a large supermarket with her mum when she spies something on top of an egg carton. It is a newborn dragon.

"It was pale and luminous with shifting rainbow colours, like oil on water ... It was quite the sweetest thing she had ever seen."

Just pause for a moment and look at those words. Bob Graham is a master of illustration but he is also a wordsmith. These words let us really 'see' this egg and they are perfectly placed. Pale, luminous, like oil on water - when you pick up the book you can see an illustration of the shell on the title page and it does look luminous. Later in the story, when Scratch takes his night flight, the city and the moon also look luminous.

Ellie takes the tiny, newborn creature home and she makes him comfortable in her dolls house. She shows the dragon to her mum but mum cannot see him. Later we read the teacher cannot see him either.

"Her mum saw nothing but an empty matchbox and cotton wool."

The idea of an imaginary creature, like a dragon, that only children can see is a beautiful story device.  The child, listening to this story, will smile knowing they have this special ability to see something the adults can't. As Ellie grows so does her dragon. By the time she goes to school he learns to fly but sadly Ellie misses his first flight from the dressing table down to the floor in Ellie's bedroom. He also outgrows his dolls house home which even contained a thoughtfully placed box of dragon litter.

Scratch the dragon comes along to nursery school and he joins in with birthday celebrations. He even eats the candles on her eighth birthday cake while they are still smoking! Then one night while Ellie is asleep, Scratch ventures outside into the night sky.

Ellie lives with her mum but on weekends her dad takes her for outings. Scratch comes along too even though dad cannot see him. Bob Graham tells this very simply by saying: "Ellie's dad came to call for outings on weekends."

Ellie keeps growing and things begin to change between Scratch and Ellie. When she turns eleven begins to fade and on her thirteenth birthday "Scratch's breath barely melted the icing on the cake. He didn't even eat the candles."

Then comes the saddest lines in the book -

"And then he slipped quietly away into the night."

BUT, in a beautiful story moment, we discover that is not the end. You need to grab this book because I promise the ending will give you the biggest possible smile.

There are so many tiny and special details in the illustrations - if you know Bob Graham then you will know he is a master of this. I suggest you grab your copy of the book and I will attempt to share some of the delights I have found inside:

Dedication "For Eleanor seven pounds, one ounce".  I am guessing this is Bob's granddaughter?

Opening end paper:
Bob Graham loves to include story details in his end papers. I think my favourites are the ones in Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten and also in Max.

A man is buying a box of dog food - he looks exactly like Bob Graham himself - we know Bob loves dogs (Let's get a pup)

The lady in the pink top - I'm sure she is the mum from Home in the Rain

I spied a man who has just moved over from the checkout. I am sure he is from A bus called Heaven 

On the pages:
Egg carton complete with barcode! Look for the egg carton in Dimity Dumpty

Missing the dragon's first flight - In Silver Buttons we see Jonathan take his first step and in Queenie the Bantam the hen is the only one who sees Caitlin's first step.

Pigeons - How to Heal a Broken Wing and the row of birds on the power pole wires in Pete and Roland

Going to the movies with dad. Fans of Bob Graham will laugh to see the movie is Max. Grab your copy of Max and have fun comparing the movie screen scene with the end papers in Max.

Imaginary friends invisible to adults - we have seen these in Jethro Byrde Fairy Child

The inclusion of a sad moment followed by a very special ending - this reminds me of Pete and Roland

On the night Scratch takes his flight outside Rosie has been reading a book - it lies on the floor beside her bed - it's The Poesy Ring. Bob Graham has done this in previous books.One example is Queen the Bantam where we see the family reading Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten.

When I shared with book with Dr Robin Morrow (former President of IBBY Australia) this week she saw another special connection. Ellie asks her mum for some matches because Scratch "wants to eat the tops off."  Robin connected this with the famous Margaret Mahy book A Lion in the Meadow.

You might also think about the concept of time in Bob Graham's books.  Ellie's Dragon takes place over ten years you could compare this with Silver Buttons, for example, which takes place over just just one minute. Here are a set of teaching notes from Lamont Books for Ellie's Dragon. In a class discussion you might like to talk about the mobile phones we see Ellie and her friend's using and the link between this and the 'disappearance' of Scratch. Also it is fun to imagine the other eggs in that carton - perhaps someone else took a dragon home from the supermarket.

I have one more tiny detail to share - it is a bit of a mystery to me. On the page near the end where we see the huge 'Super Saver' Supermarket you need to look carefully at the cars parked outside. Something very odd has happened to one of the cars.

There can be no doubt this gentle story of imagination, growing up and hope will be listed by the Children's Book Council of Australia in 2021 both as a notable book and as a short listed title for the Picture Book of the Year award.

I would pair this book with:

And with these junior novels:

Yin's Magic Dragon

Falcon's Egg

One more book from me. This one is very old (1962) and I only have a vague memory of the story but it is one that might link with Ellie's Dragon:

Sarah's Two Nativities by Janine M Fraser and Helene Magisson

Sarah has two nativities because she has two grandmothers. One tells her the story about Jesus from the Koran and the other tells her the Bible story.  Janine Fraser introduces Sarah's multicultural family. She is the daughter of Sadek and Anna. Her grandparents are Ali and Azar and Maria and Paul. With Grandmother Azar, Sarah makes Kofte. We see the two sets of grandparents arriving at Sarah's house. Azar is carrying a tagine and Maria has a casserole.

Image source and recipe

With Grandmother Maria Sarah makes cupcakes.

Image Mary Berry Cupcake and recipe

"In Sarah's house, the Bible and the Koran sit together on a shelf - two books bursting with stories."

Sarah listens to her Grandmothers tell their Christmas stories about the birth of Jesus.

"I like these stories. They are the same in some ways but different in others. So how can they both be true?"

Her Grandmother Azar replies: "Some say only the story in the Koran is true, and some say only the story in the Bible is true. But how can we say one is truer than the other, when both tell of the mystery of God?"  I like the open ended nature of this answer. There is such a beautiful tone of cultural acceptance in this story.

On the last pages this blended family sit down together and share a meal - a meal of peace and family and love.  Take a close look at the final double spread.  Ali and Azar are sitting beside the cupcakes and Maria and Paul are looking at the dish of kofte.

If you are using this book with an older class and you wanted to explore the idea of a multicultural family sharing a meal take a look at this old television advertisement. It has lots of layers - the family, their clothing, the music track and all touch with a light touch of good humour.  I have had long discussions with groups of Grade 6 students using this ad in the past. We used to watch it two or three times as a way to "unpackage" all the ideas.

Thinking about the concept of belief, there are lots of Christmas books which highlight different cultural traditions at Christmas but this is the first book I have seen which compares important stories such as the ones in the Bible and the Koran.  Added to this, I appreciate the way Janine M Fraser has aimed her book at a younger audience. Take a look at this interview with the illustrator Helene Magisson. Even though it is not a Christmas book I would pair Sarah's Two Nativities with Same Same but Different.

I have been thinking about the 2020 CBCA awards this week and then this book popped up.  Surely this beautiful, important and timely book will reach the Picture Book of the Year short list next year.

Janine M Fraser is the author of a junior book series that I enjoyed many years ago - Sarindi and the Little bird illustrated by Kim Gamble.

Almost Anything by Sophy Henn

I take huge delight in reading picture books like Almost Anything. The premise seems almost obvious. Has any other picture book author thought of this idea? Belief in special magic, shared by a wise elder, can give you the courage to try new things.

Little George the rabbit has huge doubts. He thinks he is a failure or he has fear of failure so he declines every invitation by his forest friends. No he won't try kite flying. He won't dance or roller skate. He is certain he cannot paint or even play a game of skittles. While everyone is busy with "this and that" George did nothing.

A wise old bear observes the scene. The bear takes a piece of paper and folds it:

"For you,' said Bear as she handed him a small paper hat. 'It's magic.' 
'Really?' asked George.
'Really,' said Bear. 'If you wear this hat, I'm quite sure you will be able to do almost anything, even roller skating."

George puts the hat on and tries roller skating but he is just too wobbly. Bear reassures George that he can ride those skates he just needs to give the magic a little more time to work. This is all the encouragement he needs. George preservers and after a little more practice he finds he can roller skate. This gives him the courage to try other things like dancing, painting, reading, knitting and even a game of chess. Keen eyes will notice something though. The hat is gone!  What will George do now? Can Bear step in and offer more gentle wisdom - of course she can.

This is the first time I have encountered Sophy Henn but I now discover she has an impressive body of work including board books and other titles for preschool children.  Take a look at this review where you can see inside this book.  Almost Anything has been short listed (see image below for all the shot listed titles) for Oscar's Book Prize (2019) which is a UK prize awarded to the best preschool book of the year. The winner for 2019 was How to be a Lion by Ed Vere. Click the title to see a video of the book and watch out for the word meandering - how wonderful to see this use of vocabulary in a book designed for the youngest readers. I am keen to check out more of these short listed titles.

Little Mouse and the Red Wall by Britta Teckentrup

"There will be many walls in your life, Little Mouse. 

Some will be made by others but most will be made by you.  

But if you open your mind and your heart, those walls will

disappear one by one, and you'll discover how beautiful 

the world truly is."

Little Mouse and the Red Wall is one of those wonderful books that seems to take a very simple premise but presents it in a way that will encourage so much discussion and deep thought. I love picture books like this that work on so many levels - from the youngest children right up to our senior primary students.

Little Mouse is curious. It is true that the wall has always been there but he wants to know what lies beyond. Following a familiar format just like the one used in Are you my Mother by PD Eastman, the mouse asks each animal in turn,

Scaredy Cat
"The wall is there so nobody can come in ... it protects us ... it's dangerous on the other side."
Old Bear
"I don't remember ... the wall has been here for so long that it has become a part of me, a part of life."
Laughing Fox
"I don't care what's behind the wall ... you ask too many questions. Accept things the way they are and you'll be happy like me."
Lion Who had Lost his Roar
"There is nothing behind the wall, just a big black nothing."

Take a closer look at these responses. Cat is scared so his answer reflects his fears. Bear is old and has lost his memory. Fox lives for the here and now with happiness as his only life goal. Lion is defeated. His roar is gone. He is depressed. He can see no hope.

Luckily a Bluebird flies over the wall and mouse is small enough to climb onto his back and finally see the other side for himself. Readers will gasp on turning the page. The new scene is wonderful. Mouse now wants to share this with his friends but Bluebird cautions him "they may not be ready."

You could use this book with a younger child to discuss the answers by each animal. With older children you could discuss how these link to each character perhaps even talk about archetypes. You could also talk about the existence and non existence of the wall and what this means, the power of our thoughts/perceptions, facing our fears and even some themes of philosophy. Take another look at the text I quoted above.

Here is a set of teachers notes. Take a look at my comments about two other titles by Britta Teckentrup.  Britta has an impressive body of work which you can see here.

I would pair Little Mouse and the Red Wall with Suri's Wall.

Take a look at my reviews of some other wonderful picture books which would be perfect to use with senior students.

• The Thing
• Smoke
• The Big Question
• Mayfly Day

Despite the simplicity of her telling, Britta Teckentrup’s beautifully illustrated story is profound and would be an ideal starting point for a community of enquiry style philosophical discussion ... its timely themes of discovering freedom and embracing change, both personal and in the world, will resonate with both children and adults. Red Reading Hub

Mr Bear Branches and the cloud conundrum by Terri Rose Baynton

c o n u n d r u m

I do like this word.  I like the sound of it and I like the implication of a puzzle to solve.

Mr Bear Branches and the cloud conundrum is a book where science and imagination can meet. This is also a story about compassion and friendship and clouds.

Bear Branches is a scientist.  "he was reading - books on quantum physics, pterodactyls and the biology of amoebae."  Liftfrey Longfellow is a dreamer.  Together, though, they do enjoy watching clouds.  "They would lie on the soft, cool grass and watch as the clouds drifted by.  Bear Branches called it 'Cloud appreciation' and Lintfrey certainly appreciated them."

One day Liftfrey talks about sitting on a cloud.  Bear Branches offers a scientific explanation about why this would be impossible.  He mentions condensation and evaporation.  Lintfrey becomes sad. Bear Branches recognises his friend has a dream which he has, perhaps inadvertently, crushed so the pair pack supplies, including a flask of peppermint tea, and set off out of town.

There are some beautiful words and phrases in this book :
through gullies and grass
tender toes
cramped calves
buoyant clouds
gesturing
cottony clouds

While the illustrations in this book seem quite simple I did like the retro pallet of cream, brown, black and red accents and I do like books about clouds. One of my all time favourites is a very old book called Clouds by Peggy Blakeley.

Make sure you take a look at the end papers of Mr Bear Branches and the cloud conundrum.  At the front there are lots of buttons - is this our scientific and man-made world? At the back are leaves and seeds - perhaps this represents nature.  Compare these with the end papers in the Anthony Browne book The Tunnel.  Here is a set of teaching notes.  This book also reminded me of Henry and Amy right-way-round and upside down by Stephen Michael King.

Are you curious about why I picked up this book?  Is was published in 2012 and so has been in our school library (undiscovered I imagine) for four years.  We have begun to cull our picture books. This is a difficult process but our shelves are too full.  I have begun pulling out older books and some of the very simple picture books which might not appeal to our students. Among them I found Mr Bear Branches and the cloud conundrum.  I picked it up to read and noticed it came from a trusted supplier. Naturally I bought it home to read and now I have shared it with you.  It won't go on our culling pile.

Terri Rose Baynton is from New Zealand and she is the daughter of the award winning author Martin Baynton.  You may have read his Jane and the Dragon series or seen the animated films.