Baby Business by Jasmine Seymour

A baby is born. Welcome to the world little one. Women from the community gather to complete a ritual which is filled with hope for the future.  This book celebrates a smoking ceremony held by the women in an indigenous community.  For the smoke paperbark, termite mud and green leaves are used.

Each part of the process has a very important purpose:

Warm smoke:
on your feet "to connect you to Country."
on your chest "Care for your Country as it cares for you."
on your hands "Take what you need and no more.  Give back what you can ... "
on your mouth "Keep our language on your tongue."
on your ears "care for your totem (the bee) and do it no harm."

It is a reminder to readers of all backgrounds about the importance of acknowledging and celebrating our ancestors and the land from which we came and is the perfect springboard for discussions around how cultures welcome babies to the wider communities though events, ceremonies and symbols. Megan Daley


Baby Business is a book to share with children of all ages and it would also be the prefect gift to the family of a new baby.  You can listen to an extensive interview with Jasmine from the ABC. Megan Daley has interviewed Jasmine about her book Cooee Mittigar. I hope both of these books are included in the 2020 CBCA Notables list and from there the 2020 short lists.

Nightbird by Alice Hoffman

 No one in our town knew my brother existed. 

Nightbird follows in the tradition of Pie and A snicker of Magic.  It contains delicious food, a small town filled with secrets that relate to past events and a young girl who needs to find her place in her family, her school and her town.

Twig (Teresa) and her mother have moved from New York back to a small town in Massachusetts called Sidwell where generations of the Fowler family have always lived. Mum is a talented baker and this town is famous for their pink apples. It seems Johnny Appleseed once visited. As the seasons change Ms Fowler makes delicious treats such as Pink Apple Pie (recipe), Apple Cider, strawberry rhubarb pie and peach pie. Twig's older brother James is with them too but no one in the town has ever seen him. Twig lives a reclusive life because her mother is so afraid someone will discover the truth about James.

Four generations ago a witch, Agnes Early, put a curse on all men in the Fowler family.

"Let him fly even faster from me if that's what he desires! 

Let him have wings!"

A new family move into Mourning Dove Cottage. It seems this family have a connection with the curse. When James sees the elder daughter Agate Hall he falls in love just as Agnes and Lowell fell in love two hundred years ago. Can Twig and her new friend Julia Hall break the curse which in turn will set her brother free?

Adding to all of this there is a developer who has plans to build a housing development and a shopping mall in the beautiful woods beside the town. James, who loves to fly at night, has a affinity with birds especially owls, but someone is putting graffiti messages all over the town. There is a rumour about a monster. Things disappear from porches, kitchen tables and washing lines. Is the monster James? Are people in danger? Small town gossip is a dangerous thing.

Here are some reviews:
Kirkus - Enchanting
Kids Book Review
The Book Bag - "The prose is elegant and lyrical and it flows like a dream."
KidsReads - Compelling

You can read the first chapter of Nightbird here on the publisher web site. You can read an interview with Alice Hoffman.  I would follow Nightbird with The Girl who Could fly and Night Flying by Rita Murphy. If you also want to pursue the idea of saving a wilderness area and an endangered species you could compare Nightbird with Hoot by Carl Hiaasen.