'The best books, reviewed with insight and charm, but without compromise.'
- author Jackie French

Sunday, January 17, 2010

To the Top End: Our Trip Across Australia

Ooh – I love a good travel book and this hardcover picture book by esteemed Aussie illustrator Roland Harvey, takes kids on an absolutely delectable lollop across our wide brown land from Tasmania, across Bass Straight, through the High Plains, via the Riverland, into the Flinders Ranges and over the great deserts of middle Australia.
Readers visit an incredible cacophony of famous desert landmarks before taking a cool dip at the Great Barrier Reef and its stunning islands, then continuing on to the lush rainforest and coastal marshes of the Top End.

With glorious, scattered, kid-like prose and featuring absolutely stunning and eye-swamping illustrations and the most deliciously curly text, wrapping its way around rivers, mountains and rocks – I have to say this is one of my favourite books to appear on the market in recent times.

Told in the voice of the travelling kids, the text is gloriously unwound through the eyes of children. Funny, detailed, packed with wonderful Aussie flora and fauna, I dare any Australian to read this book without puffing their chests out in home-grown pride.

An Aussie must-own.

Title: To The Top End: Our Trip Across Australia
Author/Illustrator: Roland Harvey
Publisher: A & U Children, A$24.99
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781741758849
Publication Date: Nov 2009
For ages: 6-10
Type: Picture Book