Australia Books

When my 4 years old son was very curious about the story when he saw the title. He wondered why the moose was called "mouse". The story is about the friendship between a moose and a girl. It is very charming. After reading that, you will also know how to make cauliflower horns.

The pictures in this book are really cute and the story is very happy, it makes me smile. The girl and the moose are best friends and they have a secret but I'm not telling what the secret is, you have to read it yourself.

It's hard to believe that a young couple would consider such a move with five little children. Connie writes in such a way that you feel you're on the trip-what an adventure! Can only say that I'm happy to know that this is only the first book in a series of four and am anxiously awaiting the second one which I understand is late 2003 or early 2004.

I found the book to be fascinating and riveting. This book compels you to read the next page just to see what happens next. Love it! I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an interesting read! :-)

My little boy is 2 and absolutely loves the Mr Men books. They are fun, simple stories with simple pictures. They are also fun for the grown up to read for the 50th time!

This is a short fabulous story in the powerfully beautiful Hargreaves Mr Men & Little Miss series. What happens to Mr Clever when he passes beyond the boundary of his Cleverland? He finds for all his cleverness, he has little practical knowledge. A friend of mine said to me that this is similar to college graduates who, after leaving university, find little practical application for all their clever thoughts. This is very true and this small book would make a good joke gift for graduates for this reason. You will find many small but profound similarities between the characters in these little books. They are sharp and witty looks at single aspects of people's personalities. No doubt adults as well as children will draw much enjoyment from them.

I read this when I was a young man living in the U.K. Some friends had me read it to their child.

"Mr. Impossible can do anything... he can... That's Impossible! You try it!" I must have said those words a million times since I read it (whenever some engineer would want me to defy the laws of physics because that was what the project should make happen).

For some reason I thought of it this week and was telling my daughters about it. I am happily suprised that I am able to get it now in the USA.

Back in college I got a job as a summer janitor at the local elementary school. One of the things I had to do was clean up in the library. I took this time as an opportunity to catch up on some reading... in the form of the Mr. Men series. Mr. Impossible is the story of a man who can do it all. Assuming you define all as things that you can't do. He will delight and entertain with his antics!

I love this book and my son loves it too. All the Mr. Men books bring back good memories from my childhood. The story is fun and easy to follow.

Mr. Skinny is a skinny fellow. The problem is that he lives in Fatland. Everything there is fat but himself. How will he fit in, being the thin peg in a fat hole world? Thankfully, with the help of a portly doctor, and a suprise cameo by another of the Mr. Men tribe, there is a solution to Mr. Skinny's problem!

Dr. Sven Wahlroos' book "Mutiny and Romance in the South Seas" provides a careful review of the Bounty mutiny without taking any sides. His analysis exposes the underlying tensions that ultimately led to the undoing of everyone involved. Reading this book cannot help but be an enriching experience for anyone who has pondered the situations that led to Bligh's epic voyage in an open boat and Christian's sad end on Pitcairn.

I truly enjoyed this book. I loved the way it was laid out in chronological order. It was easy to pick up and read for a few minutes, without getting so engrossed you couldn't leave. (But if you had a lot of time to spend, you could get engrossed then!) Each month is approximately 2 pages, and includes information on different scenarios--The Bounty, Tahiti, Pitcairn, Bligh's launch, England--wherever there is something important happening at the time that is known about, all of it is included. The author's views are presented in a manner which lets you know they are his views only, but are done in a very non-assuming way. This book is pleasant,exciting and very informational--it really draws everything together. Highly recommended!!!...

Armanno creates an atmosphere in this novel which feels somewhere between H.P.Lovecraft and Ernest Hemingway. There is an eeriness surrounding the scenes, all of which are set in Montreux, Switzerland. I couldn't wait to turn the page to see what would happen next and seldom before has a novel involved me enough to want to visit the place where the story is set. A story of love gone sour and the intrigue of a lust that can never be, My Beautiful Friend is one of the best books I have read for a very long time.

I became hooked on Armanno's writing with the incredibly sensual novel, Gabriella's Book of Fire. I have since undertaken to read all his work. Though his books are hard to acquire in this country, any motivated reader will find the effort more than rewarding. My Beautiful Friend is a gothic ghost story set by the banks of Lake Geneva in a cold, cold winter. There is a dead man around and he is working his way into the hearts of two estranged lovers, Rebecca and Aaron. During the course of this descent into a cold and lonely darkness we are slowly drawn into a world of broken dreams, ghostly visitations, and weird stories of the dead. Vladimir Nabokov even makes a (sort of) appearance, as does the artist and architect Gaudi. Barcelona provides a wonderful setting for a brilliant flashback: this novella within the novel called "The Story of the Dead Man" is one of the most brilliantly sustained pieces of creepy writing that I have ever read - and I have read and loved hundreds of the "classics". Armanno's world is a chilling yet strangely beautiful one. He writes like a poet - with the sensitivity to understand what dreams inspire us and what nightmares terrify us. And these aren't the nightmares of ghoulies or monsters - only the ghoulies and monsters of our own needs and desires. The dead writer, Marcelo Mansini, will stay with you and perhaps haunt you. If he doesn't, then Armanno's writing style certainly will. One day he will be discovered by a wide readership. My Beautiful Friend is a modern classic.

.

What's it like growing up on an Aussie farm? Read Alison Lester's "My Farm" and you will be captivated by her reminiscences.

You will follow young Alison and her two brothers and sister through the highs (many) and lows (a few) of their young rural lives.

There's lots of Aussie bush humour shining through. Painting clay stripes on an old black horse gives you a "Native Australian Zebra" and entering your Kelpie sheep dog in the dog high jump is all part of the fun.

We are not shielded from the harsher realities of life in the bush. We are threatened by bushfires; round-up runaway cows and we even assist mum to deliver a newborn calf.

We enjoy the bounties of nature and go picking wild blackberries and field mushrooms.

There are some esoteric references to which only Aussies might relate, such as children swinging on the rotary clothesline, best known as the iconic Hills Hoist.

Alison's illustrations have a quirky charm. Faces are simply drawn, but the atmospherics of the landscapes and farm scenes are exquisite.

"My Farm" is the most sophisticated of Alison's works and neatly supplements her other works such as "Bouncing and Bumping" for the younger reader and "Imagine" her most successful book.

Some readers may want a glossary of Aussie terms eg chooks = hens, drover = cowboy, mobs = herd, but these all give a delightful flavour to a book which will have great appeal to all young children.

This book attracted me with its beautiful cover, and I expected a well-illustrated, serene pastoral. I was right about the pictures, they're uniformly superb but "My Farm" has a greater narrative and emotional range than its simple title suggests. Between the covers, Lester shows us the fun and the hard work of living on an Australian sheep and cattle farm.

"My Farm" skirts the boundaries between the picture book and the chapter book by using three pictures per page, acoompanied by Lester's tightly constructed, informative narrative. Lester is also capable of poetic images that match the soft visuals. This autobiographical book follows the seasonal chores and mischief on a mid-20th centure seaside Australian farm. Lester invokes another time and place through Australian terms (explained at the back of the book), and her pictures of the farm and its surroundings. While farm life (big family gatherings, humorous encounters with siblings, home grown games, horseback riding, community faires) are pleasingly light, Lester doesn't settle into an easy sentimentality. Baby and older animals don;t always make it, and sheep may be slaughtered for food. The latter is depicted by a soft version of something you might see in a butcher shop, nothing gory, but you know what you're seeing.)

A recurring subplot involves Lester's desire for a bigger, faster pony. It's no surprise when she finally gets on, but young kids not used to this formula may enjoy the suspense. Disappointed one summer Christmas (Lester reminds us later that the seasons are "reversed" in Australia), young Alison gets her dream horse one Christmas later, waiting for her under an apple tree just ready for plucking. With gorgeous pictures and funny, informative, and sometimes touching vignettes, this is a heart-warming piece of Australiana.

Humble family beginings to world champion, husband to father, party animal to entrepreneur. Through all this Nat Young was destined to be a surfer and one of the best the world would ever see. This book is a fascinating combination of surfing history (Australian in particular) and the history of a man who pushed to get every ounce of enjoyment out of life. This is a very informative, yet light hearted book with more than its share of incredible surfing tales. From surfing the best waves the world has to offer, the early days of the world tour and the unavoidable changes of the 70's. This book is nothing short of the ultimate life style a surfer could wish for. Reading this book inspired me on more than one occassions to get out in the waves and make the most of my life. A must read for all surfers.

This book is long overdue. As a surfer and skier who grew up in the 70's and 80's Nat Young was the inspiration to us then and to teenagers today. He was one of the front runners who not only showed us how to do it but he did it with a passionate, laid back style. This read gives you the chance to know Nat as a person and to be inspired by his youthful, adventurous soul.

NAT YOUNG BRODZIAK - CINCINNATI, OHIO (9/9/99)

...and it's dedicated to me, so I kind of had to read it. Still, I'm glad I did. It was more interesting than I expected, discussing the evolution of settlers to being "native" to North America and the Antipodes. About a chapter into it, I stopped reading out of fillial duty, and kept going because I was interested. (How could I resist the events on-board the H.M.S. Bounty being described as "a crisis in labor relations"?)

Now, I'm going to have to read his other books. So, in my unbiased opinion, buy lots of copies so that I can go to grad school.

...and it's dedicated to me, so I kind of had to read it. Still, I'm glad I did. It was more interesting than I expected, discussing the evolution of settlers to being "native" to North America and the Antipodes. About a chapter into it, I stopped reading out of fillial duty, and kept going because I was interested. (How could I resist the events on-board the H.M.S. Bounty being described as "a crisis in labor relations"?)

Now, I'm going to have to read his other books. So, in my unbiased opinion, buy lots of copies so that I can go to grad school.