Narelle Oliver

Narelle Oliver, who is the author and illustrator of this book.

The owl has some trouble with escaping bugs and finally catches a Luna Moth. Luna Moths only live about a week, so it seemed unfair to me that it should be caught. Luna Moths glow and so this might make sense as owls hunt at night. Oh, well, I'll get over it! The Luna Moth has no mouth so it doesn't stand a chance anyway.

This book is very cleverly made to show the trickery of camouflage and the disguise of animals. When I first looked at some of the pages I thought maybe the hidden pictures were later in the book, but when I let my eyes adjust I could see the different animals hiding. To be sure, you can check the key in the back of the book. Nonfiction information is provided at the very end which further describes the differences between camouflage, disguise, and behavior. Some animals use multiple means of hiding such as the Katydid, as it is green and so merges with the leaves, but the overall shape is like a single leaf. Quite tricky!

The author and illustrator of this book, Narelle Oliver, grew up in Australia in a family that spent much time on the visual arts. They made special trips to gather ideas and materials for the artwork. She drew ideas while exploring a prairie in Illinois, and made the drawings into linocut prints for this book. Children will enjoy finding all the animals hiding in the pictures.… (mehr)

'Then the tide goes out and the sea is calm.
It's a good time to explore rock pools.'
Each spread of this picture book features a different creature in the rock pool and most spreads contain a large, shaped flap that reveals more details about the creature. Thus the spread about sea anemones shows them with their tentacles extended and when the flap is lifted the same scene is depicted but now the anemone's tentacles are retracted. As well as anemones, this book also shows hermit crabs, decorator crabs, shrimp, goby fish, star fish, octopus, sea slugs and turban shells. After introducing all the creatures, there is a spread of the entire rock pool with an invitation to find all the animals described.
This book features beautiful lino print pictures with minimal text making this book ideal for young children who will enjoy opening the flaps and trying to find the hidden creatures. For those who would like more information, there is a glossary at the back that gives further information about the animals depicted.… (mehr)

The colored linocuts are attractive and portray the birds well enough that birders could identify the oyster-catcher, cormorant, curlew, etc. ?áThe story is a classic: of course it turns out that there is no best beak, because each bird excels in a different event. ?áGood lesson to introduce the ideas of genetic variation and natural selection (evolution). ?áAlso, good lesson metaphorically to remind kids that each of them has a talent: Sara might be the best basketball player, but Sam might be the best artist, and Lou the best at making new kids feel welcome.

I particularly liked the posted sign announcing the rules of the contest, and especially #3. The judge's decision will be final and no further bickering will be entered into.""… (mehr)