Australia Day

Antipodean Writing.

January 26th (which it already is there!) is Australia Day and so time to celebrate the wonderful writing that comes from Down Under.

As a child I was lucky enough to be sent lots of books from Australia by relatives living their. The Muddle Headed Wombat was a great favourite, to the extent that when my sister and I left home we fought over our copy and had to have another one sent to us to stop the bloodshed! Then there was Shy the Platypus, Cuddlepot and Sugglepie and We of the Never-Never. As we got older classics by Mary Grant Bruce and Ethel Turner arrived. I've reread and cried over Seven Little Australians many times!

Australian authors are still writing cracking good fiction, Garth Nix, Jaclyn Moriarty, Melina Marchetta, Morris Gleitzman and Randa Abdel-Fattah are my particular favourites.

However if I could only keep one book Australia it would have to be:



This is not only the one Australian book I would save but also the one picture book. I can only try to explain how much I love this book.

Part of it is to do with where I first came across it.
In the autumn of 2005 I went to Australia and spent some time travelling with my sister, one of the first places she took me was the fabulous children's department in Dymocks bookstore in the centre of Sydney. This book was new then and had a lovely display. We then went to Taronga Zoo and I got to come face to face with a wombat. It was love at first sight.

The other reason I love the book is how it is written, the words are good but without the pictures it would be quite dull, it really is a visual delight.

The best bit? A sequel has just come out...

... oh and my parents arrive in Australia in a couple of weeks and have promised to bring me a copy home!