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

Sunday, 27 March 2016

Review: Awake Beautiful Child

What I love most about Amy Krouse Rosenthal's books is her ability to surprise. Her versatility as an author is quite profound, as is her sheer cleverness.

In Awake Beautiful Child, she takes the first three letters of the alphabet, including the title, and creates a deceptively simple narrative that utilises just three words--all beginning with A B and C.

To tell the tale of children from waking to bedtime with a series of three-word phrases is quite some feat, but Amy does it beautifully, resulting in a lovingly-crafted story that will appeal to both kids and adults.


Gracia Lam's divine, graphic-inspired illustrations utilise a colour palette that shifts and changes as the book unfolds and we meet new children. The pages are a major hook for illustration and design lovers, with perfectly-balanced close-ups and long-shots, action and calm, sameness and diversity.

Ideal for focusing on specific letters of the alphabet (I'm standing by for D, E and F), Awake Beautiful Child would simultaneously make the perfect bedtime reading book.

Title: Awake Beautiful Child
Author: Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Illustrator: Gracia Lam
Publisher: McSweeney's, $22.99 RRP
Publication Date: 1 February 2016
Format: Hard cover with dust jacket
ISBN: 9781938073922
For ages: 2 - 6
Type: Picture Book