The Most Amazing Thing
Ian Hayward Robinson and Matt Shanks
Allen & Unwin

Henry is stuck indoors on account of the rain, the other members of his family are at home too: mum is busy working on her novel, his sister Greta is doing an experiment, his father is cleaning his telescope lens and brother Simon is meditating. But Henry with nothing to do, is bored, so he consults his mum who suggests he might draw the most amazing thing. What could that be though? Henry has no idea so he decides to ask his family. Each has a different answer: telling her brother to look down her microscope, Greta says life is the most amazing thing; to Henry, the mind is the most amazing thing, whereas Dad’s response is the universe.

Mum, finally free for a short while, surprises her son with her answer.
Both words and pictures take us through the various parts of the house where Henry goes for inspiration; it’s evident that he learns a considerable amount in his quest for an answer, some of it about himself. Matt Shanks’ watercolour, pencil and gouache illustrations of the images that might be forming in Henry’s brain as he talks to each of his family are full of fascinating details.

A thought-provoking story showing that with an abundance of wonderful things in the universe and a great many different ways to find that wonder, it’s unlikely that two people will have exactly the same view: we all see the world through different lenses. Try asking the children in your class or members of your own family: who or what will they decide is THE most amazing?.

Footprint
Phil Cummings and Sally Soweol Han
Allen & Unwin

There’s a line in a Native American poem wherein the author prays to the Great Spirit of Life to give him the wisdom ‘to walk softly on the earth’ acknowledging that it is the responsibility of each of us to care for our planet and its natural environment.

In this book, author Phil Cummings and illustrator Sally Soweol Han remind us of the wonders all around us and that we should walk carefully leaving only good behind us. The author’s lyrical rhyming text invites readers to join the children in various parts of the world as they wander out into the morning, looking and listening, but also taking time to pause, ponder upon what they see and hear and to breathe in the beauty,

be that of the deserts, mountains, valleys or wherever they find themselves. Each of the environments – a tropical forest with a river flowing through, the (melting) polar ice, the sandy desert, the smoky city and more – is depicted in Sally Soweol Han’s soft pastel and coloured pencil scenes, each of which shows how we can all, like the children depicted, look after our precious planet. Only that way can the young have the rich futures they hope for and deserve.