Tag Penny Harrison

Jonathan! / The Best Mum

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These are two recent paperback from New Frontier Publishing – thanks to the publishers for sending them for review

Jonathan!
Peter Carnavas and Amanda Francey

Jonathan has great fun dressing up in different costumes and scaring other members of his family when they least expect it. No matter what he wears the response from in turn his dad, sister and mum is “Not scary, Jonathan.’

Disheartened he walks away and soon discovers that he’s climbing a lumpy, bumpy hill. After a conversation boy and beast head back towards the house. Seemingly he’s now found the ideal scary trick.

Peter Carnavas’ simple rhyming story accompanied by Amanda Francey’s expressive watercolour and pencil illustrations make for a fun read aloud with a twist in its tail.

The Best Mum
Penny Harrison and Sharon Davey

The little girl narrator of this rhyming story compares her mum to lots of others she knows, recounting the many ways her friends’ mums are better skilled than hers. But is there ever a perfect mum? Would she be the one who can make incredible costumes for dressing up days, or the one who roller skates gracefully, the disco dancer and pop song singer; is she the one who’s always on time or the baker of delicious treats?

Despite all her own mum’s shortcomings and embarrassing acts, at the end of the day she’s still THE best mum who gives the best cuddles. Who would have expected any other conclusion?

Lots of fun and a great conversation opener, and hilariously illustrated by Sharon Davey whose daft details are sure to make you laugh.

Emily Green’s Garden / Hodge Podge Lodge

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Emily Green’s Garden
Penny Harrison and Megan Forward
New Frontier Publishing

Emily Green’s house is perfectly lovely, so too is her busy bustling street. It’s the epitome of tidiness; likewise her house.
Emily however is tired of all this; she longs for opportunities to be playful, creative and messy.
One day she discovers a small green shoot poking up between the paving stones and this sparks an enthusiasm for gardening.

At first her parents are happy to allow her fill the house with plants; but little by little her wildness increases and eventually they decide enough is enough.

The garden must move outdoors and so it does …

The transformation is one that pleases not only her mum and dad but everyone in the neighbourhood too.

Emily’s growing passion shines forth from Penny Harrison’s telling, and from Megan Forward’s cover picture and her increasingly horticultural, watercolour spreads

Hodge Podge Lodge
Priscilla Lamont
New Frontier Publishing

In Hodge Podge Lodge live the Pigwigs, a family of very messy pigs. Their consumer life style is such that they accumulate an excess of unnecessary things and inevitably, the packaging that comes with it.

One very windy morning, a strong gust distributes all their rubbish far and wide. The consequences are a disaster for all their neighbours who suffer adversely in one way or another.

So disgusted are they that a meeting is called after which the animals collect up all the scattered rubbish and take it back to the Pigwigs residence.

Fortunately, Little Miss Pigwig decides to put project re-use into action and the result is something that pleases everyone. Moreover, the Pigwigs become reformed characters who think carefully about how they dispose of everything they no longer require.

Priscilla Lamont’s story, an unashamed swipe at our excessive consumerism and the throw away society, is a stark reminder of the importance of re-using, recycling and caring for the environment.