Children's Books discussion

Please post here the *best* books that *you know* of that were written by an author from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, or other countries in which English is the primary language but the culture is different from Britain or the US.

Please make sure that you're including only books for *children.* And please add the links. Also please mention the source/ referent culture of the author.

Mem Fox, Margaret Mahy, and Jan Ormerod are the children's authors that come to mind. I particularly love Lizzie Nonsense (a bit like Laura Ingalls in the Bush) and Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge (about the affection between a small child and a community of aged adults). These authors are from Australia and New Zealand.

I am going to start with a few Canadian authors. There will be more, but I cannot do all of them today, as that would drive me insane.

Jean Little (read and liked)

From Anna
Mine for Keeps
Little by Little: A Writer's Education
Look Through My Window
Stand in the Wind
The Belonging Place
Listen for the Singing
His Banner Over Me
Kate
Spring Begins in March
Stars Come Out Within
One To Grow On
Home from Far
When the Pie Was Opened

Caroline Stellings (read and liked)

The Contest
The dot com Leprechaun
The Malagawatch Mice and the Church That Sailed
Skippers at Cape Spear
The Malagawatch Mice And The Cat Who Discovered America
Skippers Save The Stone = Na Sgiobairean Agus An Lia Fail


Becky Citra (read and liked)

Finding Grace
The Freezing Moon
Ellie's New Home
Strawberry Moon

Bernice Thurman Hunter (read and liked)

That Scatterbrain Booky
With Love From Booky
As Ever, Booky
The Girls They Left Behind
Amy's Promise
Janey's Choice
Two Much Alike
It Takes Two
The Margaret Trilogy
Booky: A trilogy
Kimberley of Millpond

Barbara Kathleen Nickel (read and liked)

Hannah Waters And The Daughter Of Johann Sebastian Bach
The Secret Wish of Nannerl Mozart

Barbara Greenwood (read and liked)

A Pioneer Story: The Daily Life of a Canadian Family in 1840
A Pioneer Thanksgiving: A Story of Harvest Celebrations in 1841
A Pioneer Christmas: Celebrating in the Backwoods in 1841
Pioneer Crafts

Sharon Jennings (read and liked)

Home Free
A Chanukah Noel

Janet Lunn (read and liked)

The Root Cellar
The Hollow Tree
Shadow in Hawthorn Bay
Twin Spell
Charlotte
One Hundred Shining Candles
Laura Secord: A Story of Courage

Valerie Sherrard (read and liked)

Tumbleweed Skies


Joanne Taylor (read and liked)

Full Moon Rising
There You Are
Making Room

And finally for today, I recommend the entire Dear Canada series (but I do not have the energy to list all of the entries, but the ones I have read so far, have bene very good)

Also, almost everything from the pen of L. M. Montgomery but especially, the Anne of Green Gables and the Emily of New Moon series

Oh my. Can you vouch for all of these?

Cheryl wrote: "Oh my. Can you vouch for all of these?"

I have not read them all, but I have read many of them. I will add a bit about the ones I have read soon, but I will vouch for all of the Jean Little, Bernice Thurman Hunter and Barbara Nickel books.

Thank you!

Australian Patricia Wrightson wrote many award-winning books. Unfortunately she has passed away. Many years ago, I read her award-winning The Nargun and the Stars and thought it was very good. However, note the "many years ago," so now, and many books later, I don't remember very much about it.

I should probably edit my post and include only the ones I have recently read.

This is a great thread! :D

I had to delete a comment that had UK authors... the point of the thread is to list books that are *not* so well-known in the US, in order to broaden the horizons of our primarily US and UK membership.

Also, people, please make sure that you're including only books for *children.* And please add the links. Also please mention the source/ referent culture of the author.

I have enjoyed several books by Jackie French, an Australian author. She has written well over 100 books, so I won't list them all, but I used to carry Diary of a Wombat with me when I was a substitute teacher. It is a picture book, but it appeals to a wider range of children than might be expected, probably up to 5th grade. I was so taken by Ms. French's Pennies for Hitler that I actually wrote a full length musical based on it.

I have found that a lot of children's authors from Australia have a slightly different way of dealing with parents and authority figures than American authors seem to. Of course, this is probably too general of an observation to always apply, but in many of the Australian books, parents and authority figures do NOT disappear or die or leave or otherwise become absent, so that the children can solve their own problems. Rather, often the parents are very supportive and are there to help, even while giving the children some autonomy. It is a subtle difference, but it makes me appreciate Australian books for kids.

Re: LauraW, I found what you said about the difference in Australian books for kids to be very interesting, and because of that very nice difference, I will be looking for some for my 9 yr.old great granddaughter and 6 yr.old great grandson! Thank you for sharing that insight.

LauraW, I'm glad I'm not the only one who has noticed that. The books that I've read for teens are even more notable like that; I find it fascinating to see the teens have so much responsibility for themselves.

Cheryl wrote: "LauraW, I'm glad I'm not the only one who has noticed that. The books that I've read for teens are even more notable like that; I find it fascinating to see the teens have so much responsibility fo..."

I am thinking of Looking for Alibrandi as an example. It is a YA book, so perhaps not relevant in this group, but the parents (though separated) both play significant roles in the book.

by Joanne Schwartz

This book is on School Library Journal's Best Books list for 2017. Author and illustrator are both originally from Nova Scotia, and both now reside in Toronto.

The story is about a coal mining town somewhere on a 1950's Canadian coast, and contrasts a young boy's day above ground with his father's day mining coal underground. I really liked it, but it was a tad depressing (the father's part, that is), and the fact that coal mining is what the boy can expect to be doing when he is old enough.

All the books from Old Mate Media are written in Australia. In particular the Willy Nilly series is very much based on Australian culture, like going to the beach.

The book Can You See the Magic is by an Australian nature artist and and Australian author, and it uses from the Australian landscape as the basis for the illustrations.

Stunno's Surf Adventure is also great, by Mark Reside - very Australian.

Also on SLJ's Best Books list for 2017:

by Jean E. Pendziwol
This one comes to us from Canada as well, and has interesting acrylic paintings on panels.

Beverly wrote: "Also on SLJ's Best Books list for 2017:

by Jean E. Pendziwol
This one comes to us from Canada as well, and has interesting acrylic ..."

And her poetic Once Upon a Northern Night is also amazing with wonderful illustrations by Isabelle Arsenault.

I did not realize until today that an author whose picture books I have been reading is also from Ontario, Canada--Wallace Edwards. His artwork in amazing, and he has a couple of books where he creates mixed creatures, such as whalephant, cowaconda, and other unlikely creations. Some of his books that I have read in just this past month:
Monkey Business (English idioms)
The Cat's Pajamas (English idioms)
The Painted Circus: P.T. Vermin Presents a Mesmerizing Menagerie of Trickery and Illusion Guaranteed to Beguile and Bamboozle the Beholder (optical illusions)
Once Upon a Line
Unnatural Selections (crazy, mixed-up creatures)
Mixed Beasts by Kenyon Cox, with illustrations by Edwards

This here book is a Middle Grade book about a boy with OCD (a good book, but not great, but the author is from Ajax Ontario and has OCD himself), OCDaniel (the mysteries are a bit far fetched, but the way Daniel is described feels authentic).

Obviously Lucy Maud Montgomery is the very best 19th century Canadian author!

I second the Dear Canada series. I read as many as I can get in the U.S. There's another series a friend sent me for slightly younger readers called Our Canadian Girl. I only read one book. It wasn't bad but it wasn't the best book I've ever read.Buffalo Hunt. My friend also sent Winds of L' Acadie. I found it very interesting.

I like Jean Little's books a lot.

There's also Our Australian Girl, none of which I can find here in the U.S.
http://www.ouraustraliangirl.com.au/

Nurse Matilda series is Australian, believe it or not Hollywood! They're charming, very funny tales of very naughty children and their magical nanny.

Now even though, I found the German language spelling mistakes and the tendency to sometimes present too many cultural stereotypes with regard to Adeline's German food choices personally annoying, I still do very much recommend Linda Aksomitis' Adeline's Dream, as the story itself is very well written, the thematics approachable and relatable (and unless one speaks and reads German and is as anal about proper spelling and word choices as I am, the German language mistakes probably would not feel all that problematic and likely even be noticed). I also know that the publishing house that brought out Adeline's Dream, has other books for middle grade readers about the immigrant experience in Canada (historical, not recent though), but I have not read any of these.

Mem Fox
This is a very popular Australian picture book author, and most of her books are available in the United States. I have read all of her picture books that I could lay my hands on. A couple of examples:

Koala Lou
Wombat Divine
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes

Jackie French
This is another popular Australian author of picture books and chapter books. A lot of her picture books are illustrated by Bruce Whately, also of Australia. I have really enjoyed her wombat picture books:

Diary of a Wombat
Diary of a BABY Wombat
Christmas Wombat

Oh, yes, great team. I need to reread Pete the Sheep-Sheep!

I recommend The Bone Sparrow by Australian author Zana Fraillon. It's about the Rohingya refugees, which has been in the news recently, but it's been going on for quite a few years.

Just came across this Canadian/Cree book today:
When We Were Alone by David Alexander Robertson
A grandmother is telling her granddaughter about some of her experiences in an Indian School. Author lives in Winnipeg, and illustrator is of Cree-Metis descent.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Pamela Allen or Lynley Dodd. While they are both very different, each author uses language superbly in a format that children enjoy. I can highly recommend anything from the Hairy McClary series from Lynley Dodd and my personal Pamela Allen book is an often overlooked one, entitled "One Sunday"

Pamela Allen
Lynley Dodd
are both from New Zealand.

Please remember that links and notes regarding nationality are what will make this thread useful to others.

Blabber Mouth
Sticky Beak
Gift of the Gab

An Australian series by Morris Gleitzman about a girl born with no vocal chords. Have read the first and enjoyed it, very funny, even though the topic could have been a sob fest, but Morris Gleitzman has created a main protagonist who does not simply see herself as having challenges, who has a sense of humour (and also feels annoyed when others, for example, her father, embarrass her).

A Kirkus Best Picture Book for 2017 comes from Canada:

Stolen Words by Melanie Florence; illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard

The author is from Toronto; the illustrator is from Sherbrooke, Quebec.

The story is about a Cree girl and her grandfather. When she asks him to say something in the Cree language to her, he tells her that his Cree words had been stolen from him (in Indian school).

My Beautiful Birds by Suzanne Del Rizzo

An Ontario author writes about Syrian refugees, featuring a young boy who had to leave his homing pigeons behind.

Pretty Salma: A Little Red Riding Hood Story from Africa by Niki Daly.

Hm. A very fractured, and very amusing, retelling. Pictures perfect for the story & style. A West African setting, by a (male) South African author. No author's note, and only two vocabulary words (on the copyright page). 3.5 stars rounded up because we in the US do need more tales from Africa; I'd round down if this actually had competition worth mentioning.

I will look for more by the author.

Found several more! I just very much enjoyed Niki Daly's Once Upon a Time and highly recommend you explore whatever you can find by this author!

Lynley Dod's Hairy Maclary series and Slinky Malinkey are brilliant. With the cabbage trees and other little details in the illustrations you can't help but know this isn't any old town in made up land, these books ooze New Zealand Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy

Surprised no one has mentioned Blinky Bill or The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie Australian childhood in a (gum)nut shell.

For board books Watch Out, Little Wombat! is great. The Bunyip is one of those Australian characters like the Drop Bear and the Hipol that no Ozzy child (or anyone trying to understand Ozzy humour) should ever miss out on.

There is also a beautiful wordless book called Window by Jeannie Baker

Set in the Australian outback it explores our unintended impact on nature and the concept of exponential change.

A mother and baby look through a window at a view of wilderness and sky as far as they can see. As Sam, the baby, grows, the view changes.

Sams mother had no intention of taming the wilderness outside her window but her presence attracts others.

It's a book that asks us wether we are truly aware of the consequences of our actions, whether we can learn from the past. The ending made me cry.

Oh, yes, Baker's books are wonderful. And the 'fiber art' collages that she makes to illustrate them are amazing. I gave five stars to both Window and Home, and high marks to the others that I could find. Thanks for reminding me to look for more, now that I have other libraries that I can access!

X Marks The Spot by New Zealand children's writer Joan de Hamel

I am a big fan of Matilda Woods who lives in Australia. The Boy, the Bird and the Coffin Maker and [The Girl, the Cat and the Navigator] are both enjoyable reads that take you on a lovely and heartwarming adventure.

I will see if I can find anything in my libraries by Matilda Woods.

Sonya Hartnett, from Australia. Patricia Wrightson, too.

Margareth Mahy, from NZ.

Ruskin Bond, from India.

Brian Doyle, from Canada.

Already mentioned, but I second Niki Daly and his marvellous picture books from the Jamela series.

Hartnett is amazing but not much is for children, per se.
Mahy def. belongs on this list. Very prolific, much of her work is for even very young children and is avl. in the US.
I'll have to check up on Ruskin Bond and Brian Doyle.

From Hartnett:

Picture books: Come Down, Cat! (my favorite), The Boy and the Toy; The Wild One;

Early readers (chapter book): Sadie and Ratz (brilliant!);

For older children: The Children of the King (lovely), The Silver Donkey (marvellous).

Ok, I have some more hunting to do; I haven't seen those picture books. And I agree, the others are wonderful.