I’m Still Awake, Still! (Elizabeth Honey & Sue Johnson, A&U, $27.95 hb, ISBN 9781741753219, May) ****

This great-value book and CD package will delight children from two to eight years, and be snapped up by schools wanting to adapt it for their own musical performances. Elizabeth Honey is a versatile author/illustrator (novels for primary-school-aged readers, picture books such as Not a Nibble!) and here demonstrates her read-aloud talents too. The story of young Fiddy’s efforts to get to sleep forms a linking structure on which to hang eight original lullabies. The illustrations are lively and flowing; favourite spreads for me include the scene of an imaginative landscape appearing on Fiddy’s pyjamas, and the final dreamy picture of his drifting away in his pod-shaped boat. The book works well on its own, but is especially enjoyable in conjunction with the CD reading. The songs are incorporated, and then repeated separately, beautifully sung by their composer, Sue Johnson, with varied accompanying voices and instruments. How refreshing to extend the quality repertoire for young listeners who love to sing along. ‘Goodnight Gumboots’ in particular is bound to become a family hit, allowing endless adaptation by adding ‘goodnight’ to one’s own clothes and toys. Other selling points: vocabulary building; a strong sense of the natural world; and a groundedness in loving family life.

Robin Morrow was a specialist bookseller and now teaches and reviews children’s literature

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

Tags: elizabeth honey, sue johnson