Archive | October 6, 2020

The Secret Garden: The Story of the Movie

The Secret Garden: The Story of the Movie

The Secret Garden: The Story of the Movie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Secret Garden: The Story of the Movie

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Linda Chapman

HarperCollins, 2020

224pp., pbk., RRP $A12.99

 9780008340070

First published in 1911, The Secret Garden is the story of Mary, a  sickly, neglected, unloved and unwanted 10-year-old girl whose care has been mostly left to the servants who care for her English family in colonial India. After her parents die in a cholera epidemic, she is sent back to England into the care of her unknown uncle Archibald Craven  at his isolated mansion Misselthwaite Manor on the Yorkshire Moors. 

At first, Mary is rude and obnoxious, disliking everything about her new circumstances but eventually she warms to Martha Sowerby who tells her about her aunt, the late Lilias Craven and how she would spend hours in a private walled garden growing roses. After his wife died in an accident in the garden,  Mr Craven locked the garden and buried the key.

Mary becomes interested in finding the secret garden herself and once she discovers the key, her life begins to change…

This version is based on the screenplay of  2020 movie which has finally been released and which many students will have seen.  Telling the core of the original story it evokes a magical world that encourages self-discovery and change and perhaps an interest in reading the original.  A stunning way to introduce a new generation to a classic. 

The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Dangerous Animals

The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Dangerous Animals

The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Dangerous Animals

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Dangerous Animals

Sami Bayly

Lothian Children’s, 2020

130pp., hbk., RRP $A32.99

9780734420015

Not content with introducing us to some of the world’s ugliest animals (shortlisted for the CBCA Eve Pownall Award,  natural history illustrator Sami Bayly has now collected 60 of the planet’s most dangerous creatures into another stunning volume.

Whether it’s the tiny hooded pitohui that weighs in at just 65 grams but is the world’s most poisonous bird, the boomslang whose venomous bite stops blood from clotting, or the more familiar crown of thorns starfish, each page introduces the reader to something new and mind-boggling.   Should we be threatened by these animals or appreciate them for their incredible features?

As well as the usual information about what they look like, what they eat and where they live, there is also a paragraph about why they are so dangerous to humans or the environment and whether we are at risk of meeting one on our daily walks, especially as so many of them are Australian!.  Fun Facts give each a bit of personality but it is the lifelike drawings that will hold the fascination of even the youngest reader.  (This copy is going to a preschooler who could not get enough of Ugly Animals, even though he’s not quite reading yet.) 

My mum vs an elephant seal, Enderby Island 1968

My mum vs an elephant seal, Enderby Island 1968

Unlike my mum I am unlikely to have an encounter with a leopard seal in the Sub-Antarctic Islands, but I am grateful that the local magpie couple have good memories and remember the hand (head) that feeds them and leaves our fibres for their nests during this swooping season! Time to offer them a little more mince as I’ve just noticed a teeny-tiny head rising above the nest!

One that will keep the reader entranced, particularly those boys who have a need to gather around one book and discuss what they find,