Michael Leunig, typically referred to as Leunig (his signature on his cartoons), was an Australian cartoonist. His works include The Curly Pyjama Letters, cartoon books The Essential Leunig, The Wayward Leunig, The Stick, Goatperson, Short Notes from the Long History of Happiness and Curly Verse, and The Lot, a compilation of his "Curly World" newspaper columns. Leunig also wrote a book of prayers, When I Talk To You. He was declared an Australian Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia in 1999.
This is a book of great joy - both illustrated and captioned by one of Australia's greatest living treasures. His ability to find joy in the most humble of circumstances offers a yardstick for us all to pay special attention. The poems of love (The Bottle & Christmas Wish) bring about a true spirit of what that generous emotion is truly about. I particularly love this book above some of his other works. The little guy characters became so popular that Brian Brown brought about their animation which was later made available on DVD.
I am unashamedly a Leunig fan. I find his combination of pragmatism, metaphorical expression and relational wisdom enchanting and both emotionally and intellectually challenging and enriching. Close to the end of this book is a poem, 'Love and Fear'. Leunig suggests these are the only two feelings, languages, motives, frameworks... I am reminded of the little story - there are two wolves fighting within you, one light, the other dark. Which wins? The one you feed.
My God what a beautiful book. Reminded me of Silverstein. I would definitely take this with me in the backpack as a travel book, if it were mine (but it is Janine's). What a profoundly beautiful book. Wow.
This book was so cute! I loved how the poems ranged from adorable and quirky to deep or down right weird. It was a lot different to what I usually read so it was a nice change.
This was pretty cute. I like the graphics especially how font plays into the poems presentation. The themes are prominent and the poems have a great narrative flow
This book seems to be written for children just like some before - bedtime stories. But it is not. This book contains some short poems, simple illustrations and some short guides or messages which convey such abstract and thought-provoking meanings. As far as I can understand, it mostly covers the autheticity of life's happiness which liesnot in materialism but in the simple things we often take for granted , people's traits that should be preserved and some tiny things that keep us sane and lift us up amid life crisis and this crazy world. Guess I have not experienced much in life, which stops me from understand thoroughly what the author means in those short notes. I think I will pick this book to read again on one random day in the future to feel the writer's message more.
I'm not used to evaluating works of poetry. Some of the little poems are lame, some are beautiful, some are profound. My wife and I enjoyed reading them together, one at a time each night.