The Best Hiding Place by Jane Godwin illustrated by Sylvia Morris

 

Hide and seek is a game that all children (dare I say even around the world) love to play. One of my favourite books to read to the youngest children in my school library for over 20 years was this one about little Moonbear playing hide and seek with his friend the moon.

One night Moonbear decides to play hide-and-seek with the moon. When it’s Moonbear’s turn to hide, the moon finds him every time. But when the moon ducks behind a cloud and doesn’t come out, Moonbear gets worried. Is the moon lost forever?

In this new Australian picture book - The Best Hiding Place - a group of children - perhaps they are cousins - are playing hide and seek inside their Grandparent's house. It seems as though they have played this many times before and so all the kids have found terrific hiding places except for the littlest child - he always climbs into the washing basket. 

The cover of this book is SO perfect showing all the rooms where the children hide during their game. I have special memories of other books from my childhood that showed houses in cross section like this. I love exploring all the little domestic details.  AND notice this is game to play inside AND this is a game that does not involve devices! All of that is a lovely, perhaps unintentional message. 

Sylvia Morris has met some interesting challenges here in a creative and effective way – showing multiple points of the action on one page; giving readers an insight into a domestic environment – probably one that children will recognise; and allowing us to “hear” the boy inside the cupboard. As readers we watch his emotions change from confidence (he won't be found) to doubt and even terror (perhaps he will never be found). 

The scene where we see the boy hiding in the darkness inside the musty cupboard adds a perfect amount of tension and feelings of claustrophobia, especially with the addition of the slightly scary, and possibly smelly, old teddy bear. Readers will feel every long minute or perhaps hour that the little boy waits to be found. One of the best illustrations in this book is the close-up image of the boy’s face with just a slither of light coming from the slightly open door. 

The final illustration is perfect – show don’t tell – no need for the words to say anything, little Sam is heading back into his favourite hiding place and this is exactly what a child his age would do! The addition of the bead necklace invites readers to re-visit the illustrations to work out where this trinket came from. The colour palette has a slightly retro feel which is very appealing. 

The title page, which has all the children and their names, works really well – notice how Archie standing slightly away from his siblings or cousins. 

Jane Godwin says: This story was partly inspired by re-reading Winnicott’s iconic book Playing and Reality, and thinking about the traditional, well-loved game of hide-and-seek, and realising that although it appears simple, it is actually rich with meaning. No wonder it has endured for centuries and throughout the world! Hide-and-seek reflects a child’s personal development. It’s a game that deals with both sides of our selves - the private, ‘hidden’ self, and the communal, public self. We love to hide, but being found, being discovered for who you are, is also a great joy. Hide-and-seek is a game of aloneness and togetherness, and the power and intensity of both.

Sylvia Morris is an illustrator for our NSW School Magazine. This is her first picture book and it was a New Illustrator short listed title. (I was one of the judges for the CBCA 2021-23).

Here are the judge's comments (which might repeat some of my words because I contributed to this):

The colour palette in The Best Hiding Place creates a lovely retro and nostalgic quality. Each and every image allows the reader to peek inside different parts of the house, often showing multiple points of action on one page. Archie’s claustrophobia in his hiding spot is conveyed effectively to create a sustained moment of tension that readers will identify with. Distinct characters and relationships are shown, and some humorous details invite readers to re-visit and examine earlier illustrations. The illustrations perfectly capture those mixed feelings of playing hide and seek as a child, which will appeal to readers of all ages.

Jane Godwin is the author of picture books, junior novels, middle grade and young adult novels.

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What do you wish for?

The Boy who Flew by Fleur Hitchcock

Written with great gusto but also much subtlety, The Boy Who Flew is a thunderingly good period adventure. And it has a lot to say about the virtues of friendship, family, and courage. The BookBag

Athan is living in very impoverished circumstances. We don't know the date but it feels like the late 19th Century. Suspicion and superstition abound. Athan has a disabled sister. His grandmother thinks the real Beatty has been kidnapped and that the child in their house is a changeling. This is nonsense but it is dangerous nonsense.

Athan is a boy of science. He has been working for a scientist called Mr Chen but everyone around Athan is suspicious of this foreigner. What they don't know is that Mr Chen has been designing a flying machine. Mr Chen is close to completion when a murderer strikes. Mr Chen is dead but Athan has seen the plans and he knows he can build a machine that will fly and better yet a machine that can win the huge reward on offer. But the murderer is still on the loose and worse he has befriended Athan's mother.

This is an action packed story. I loved the way Fleur Hitchcock only gives us fragments of information and as a reader we are expected to 'join the dots'. This is also a highly atmospheric story. Here is a perfect example when Athan looks for the flying machine plans which are hidden in an outside latrine:

"The smell almost makes me vomit, but I gulp it back and breathe thinly through my mouth ... With my chest bare, I stretch my arm down the privy pit and my head gets closer and closer to the seat, and the stench. My fingers brush the cold slimy sides of the pit before I can feel something different."

Huge thanks to Beachside Bookshop for my advanced reader copy of The Boy who Flew which was published in March this year.

I would pair this with the Barnaby Grimes series by Paul Stewart. Athan does most of his thinking on the rooftops of the city just like those wonderful tick tock lads in the Barnaby Crimes series. Steam Punk fans will love this book.  I don't often talk about age appropriateness of a text but there are some quite violent scenes in this book and (spoiler) a character does die in awful circumstances. The publisher lists this as suitable for 9-12 but I think 11+ would be a better guide. Some of my labels might give you further ideas about this book.

Here are some review extracts.  You can click the links for more plot details:

a thrilling, murderous tale set among the steep rooftops and slippery characters of Athan's intricately imagined world. Love Reading 4 Kids

This story is set on the gritty, grimy streets  and rickety snow-covered rooftops of the big city where life is cheap and danger lurks around every corner. Library Girl and Book Boy

Fast-paced and thrilling, this truly is a edge-of-your-seat adventure, full of twists and turns that will keep you holding your breath to the very last page. Book Lover Jo

The story flies across the rooftops with an exhilarating plot of danger and intrigue. Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books