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The Giant

Sep26
The Giant

The Giant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Giant

Sophie Masson

Lorena Carrington

MidNight Sun, 2025

32pp., hbk., RRP $A29.99

9781922858658 

Deep in his cave the giant woke and stretched.  He had been asleep for so long that moss fell out of his ears, little creatures scuttled from his hair and his beard and when he yawned a passing goat got such a fright it leapt up and nearly reached the moon!!!!

But worse was to come – when the giant began to walk to town to see all his old friends, his footsteps made it feel like an earthquake rumbling and the people fled in fear.  He had been asleep so long that no one remembered him! They didn’t recall him as being friendly and fun so they hid, which made the giant wonder why he had been gone so long, and so he began to cry.  But giant’s tears are not ordinary tears and before long, there was a river running through the town.  Until…  Because two young children recall a picture book about the giant which had portrayed him as a good friend who knew how to play, they offer a hand of friendship and acceptance in the way that kids who know no fear and accept everyone at face value, do. 

Lorena Carrington’s portrayal of the giant as a skinny ragged character contrasts with the young reader’s imagined stereotype of the huge, heavy giant, while older readers may relate him to Quentin Blake’s depiction of Dahl’s BFG  enabling them to accept that this giant may not be the menacing threat that the villagers fear, and as he and the children play together and the townspeople come out from hiding, so the giant appears to fill out more, be less rough around the edges as though knowing he hasn’t been forgotten and consigned to the memory of the picture book fulfils and softens him.  Carrington has also cleverly used a collage of photography and digital design to help little ones envisage just how big he is, perhaps inspiring lessons in vocabulary building as they discover synonyms and similes for ‘big’ and ‘small’.  There is also much to explore through the contrasting endpapers – even without reading the pages in-between, more advanced readers might like to predict what they are about to encounter. 

A peek inside...

A peek inside…

Just as with the award-winning Satin,  Masson and Carrington have given readers of all ages a story with so many layers to explore as well as new leads to follow as students read more stories, legends and folklore about giants and pierce the stereotype. 

Did Finn McCool really create The Giant's Causeway in Ireland?

Did Finn McCool really create The Giant’s Causeway in Ireland?

 

There Is No Giant In This Story

Jul11
There Is No Giant In This Story

There Is No Giant In This Story

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There Is No Giant In This Story

Lou Carter

Deborah Allwright

Bloomsbury, 2025

32pp., pbk., RRP $A16.99

9781526608208

Remember the story of Jack who swapped his mother’s precious cow for a handful of magic beans that grew into a huge beanstalk that reached into the clouds?  And Jack, being Jack, decided to climb it, found a giant’s castle, stole the giant’s stuff and when the giant chased him back to the ground, Jack chopped the beanstalk down in the nick of time and that was the end of the giant?

Or was it? 

In this follow-up to There Is NO Dragon In This Story (and companion to There Is No Big Bad Wolf In This Story) the giant has obviously survived the ending of the age-old tale because he is bored and leaves his castle, climbs down the  beanstalk and sets off towards Fairytale Land to play. But his idea of playing means tramply-stamping on stuff with his ‘huge feets’ and filling the land with his ‘boomy-shouts’  while he destroys everything in his path. Fee-fi-fo-fum! Catchy, catchy, here I come!

Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks and all their friends are terrified, until the Gingerbread Man has an idea to save the town… But can they teach the dragon to play nicely? 

Young readers will delight in recognising some of their favourite and familiar characters in the bright, action-packed pictures that accompany this new take on the old tale as they hold their breath through the drama with fingers crossed for a safe ending for all.  

But as well as being a cracking story there is lots of scope to explore all sorts of aspects….

They could discuss the sorts of things that the characters could teach the giant about how to play nicely.

They could use Bill Martin Jr’s poem that begins, My name is Tommy and I am not very big and has repetitive stanzas that follow the pattern “I am not a big as a  —–, A goat is bigger than I am with each item bigger than the last and concluding with “A dinosaur is the biggest thing I know’,  substituting ‘giant’ for ‘dinosaur’.

They could build their vocabulary by creating a word wall with synonyms for both big and small.

They could create a display for the library with the caption There IS a giant in this story.

They could explore giant things, perhaps investigating Australia’s fascination with Big Things and maybe even suggesting something appropriate that represents their region.

And they could listen to one of the best giant stories of all – The BFG by Roald Dahl.

The list goes on…

The best story books lead readers on all sorts of reading adventures and this is definitely one of those… 

 

The Daredevil Princess (series)

Aug22
The Daredevil Princess (series)

The Daredevil Princess (series)

The Daredevil Princess (series)

Golden Unicorn

9781761340437

Goblin King

9781761340451

Fire Dragon

9781761340468

Grumpy Giant

9781761340475

Belinda Murrell

Rebecca Crane

Puffin, 2024

144pp., pbk., RRP $A14.99

Her Royal Highness, Crown Princess Mathilda Amalia Charlotte Adelaide Rose – known to all as Tillie except for Mr Grimm the pompous stickler-for-manners royal steward – lived a relaxed life with her parents, Queen Cordelia who ruled the queendom of Blumenfeld, King Edwin her absent-minded inventor father and Prince Oskar, her younger brother, a would-be, swashbuckling knight. 

When she discovers that the royal roses are being eaten by a sassy unicorn called Honey Blossom, they form a friendship that has seen them encounter goblins, dragons and, in the latest, a grumpy giant disturbed from his sleep helping to solve problems, soothe feelings and keep the peace while still remaining compassionate tempered with a bit of her own  feistiness and independence.

Belinda Murrell who gave a previous wave of newly independent readers the wonderful Lulu Bell series, has created a new collection for the next generation of young girls who are consolidating their skills, this time building on that recurring dream of being a princess, but being bold and brave and independent and encouraged to do so despite the presence of Mr Grimm and Miss Prim. With all the supports that these emerging readers need including short chapters, larger font, and a few strategic illustrations, this series is one that will have wide appeal, not the least because there is no long wait between episodes. 

For those who are viewing the current CBCA Book Week theme of Reading is Magic through a fantasy lens, this is an ideal introduction to that genre with its traditional fantasy characters  maybe even encouraging them to imagine themselves as Princess Tillie and create their own adventure with someone or something from the imaginary world or perhaps developing a visual glossary of them to be shared with others venturing into that realm.  Research, reading for purpose, creating information… reading is, indeed, magic.  

 

Monster Hunting for Beginners

Sep14
Monster Hunting for Beginners

Monster Hunting for Beginners

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monster Hunting for Beginners

Ian Mark

Louis Ghibault

Farshore Fiction, 2021

204pp., pbk., RRP $A14.99

9780755504367

Monster Hunting isn’t as easy as it looks. And Jack should know. Because an ogre has just appeared in his garden and tried to EAT HIS AUNT. (She was the winner of the World’s Worst Aunt competition, but that’s Not The Point).
After (sort of accidentally) defeating the ogre, Jack finds himself apprenticed to a grumpy, 200-year-old monster hunter called Stoop and heading off to Cornwall, where more ogres are causing havoc.  All he has are his wits, his catapult and a magical – sometimes unreliable – book called Monster Hunting for Beginners.

Jack’s a bit worried he might not be the hero everyone’s waiting for. But then again, how many terrifying, bloodthirsty monsters can there really be?

Any book that has a warning that it contains ogres, bogeymen, zomblings, and crusted hairy snot nibblers as its blurb and is written from an author from Ireland, the land most often associated with these sorts of creatures is bound to capture the imagination of its intended audience.  Add in an ordinary, everyday little boy who is little, clumsy, wears glasses, has weird hair and who is not built for trouble -so pretty much like most of the readers -who narrates the story as though the reader is part of it, and there’s a deeper attraction already. But add to that textual effects like illustrations, short chapters, and font changes that make this ideal for newly independent readers and it is not surprising that Jack has lots of positive reviews and a large fan base already.  

Jack is the sort of everyday hero that young readers relate to because their superhero role models are a touch out of reach, and they can appreciate that even they started somewhere. Overlaid with the adventures is wit and humour and all sorts of tips like looking for a secret door or tunnel if confronted by a monster and nothing else has worked, this is the first in a new series that will appeal to those who love their good vs evil stories and who secretly see themselves in the role of the conqueror whether they are 8 or 800!. 

The BFG

Sep13
The BFG

The BFG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The BFG

Roald Dahl

Puffin, 2016

224pp., pbk., RRP $A16.99

9780141365428

When Sophie is woken by a silver moonbeam shining through a crack in the curtains, and, against the rules of the orphanage in which she lives, she gets out of bed to close the curtain she has no idea that her life is about to take her on the most amazing adventure and be changed forever.

For as she peeks out she sees a most amazing sight… coming up the other side of the street was something black. Something  tall and black. Something very tall and very black and very thin.

It is nearly 40 years since I first picked up this book by Roald Dahl, creator of classic characters like Willy Wonka and Miss Truncbull and as I read the first few pages, I could hear myself sharing the story with my students.  All these years on and countless students have met the iconic big, friendly giant as it has been my go-to book in so many situations.  Share the passage of his description, get the children to identify the keywords and then interpret these in drawing and discuss why each child’s work is different even though they started with the same information.  Drop coloured dye onto paper towelling, write your dream on it, put it in a jar and open it on  the last day of school to see if you still have the same dreams….

Using his gift for language that remains with us and his irreverence for adults, Dahl delights children with his tales and it is time now for the next generation to become fans, just as those who have met him previously have done. 

So, on this Roald Dahl Day 2020 introduce your students to one of the world’s greatest storytellers and let the fun begin.