posted on 27 Aug 2018

WatAdventure in Australia by Richard David Lawman, illustrated by Katie Williams

What young child hasn’t dreamed about going on a magical night-time adventure with their toys? Although it is a very familiar idea in children’s literature, this imaginative picture book is a welcome addition to the genre because, apart from being a great adventure story, it also turns out to be packed with interesting information about Australia  

The opening pages show Lola sitting on the edge of her bed holding Jiblets, the toy monkey and Sirius, the toy dog in what looks like a very exciting child’s bedroom. There is so much to look at in the detailed illustrations by Katie Williams that hint at Lola’s many interests: a telescope, an art box and a selection of books on some shelves about subjects as diverse as sticklebacks, cakes, fossils and Vikings as well. She also has a star spangled-den with a globe that has special powers if given a spin – a convenient portal that takes us to an intriguing moonscape with an antique looking bus in the background. 

‘Watabus!’ shrieks Jiblet, and it seems that they can choose which country this strange vehicle will take them to visit. The rhyming story continues as they board the bus which now has ‘Australia’ on the front as their chosen destination. I really love the double page spread that shows them flying high above the clouds. We can see the tiny houses and streets far below but the eye is drawn to the highly coloured interior of the bus, which seems to be equipped with a rail of clothes, snacks, walking sticks, lots more books plus some surprising items like a large Egyptian figure and a box full of scrolls fastened with red ribbons.

Once they have landed on the sea shore, all that can be seen of Jiblets is his orange curly tail disappearing behind one of the trees in the right hand bottom corner of the page. He then takes his friends across a grassy field past a koala bear and several emus and then on another turn of the page we are on a Melbourne cricket pitch with a surprised looking Jiblets dominating the foreground holding the cricket ball in his tail:

“This monkey’s the hero! He won us the match!

I’ve never seen such a good catch!”

The captain declared, but quick as a flash,

A shake of the tail and off Jiblets dashed."

Lola and Sirius are very worried because they can’t find Jiblets but they are helped by Kangy McLaw, a friendly kangaroo, who offers to give them a lift in her pouch and on her back. The next double page spread is dreamlike as they hop across a night time desert landscape that is drained of colour. At sunrise they see the extraordinary sight of Uluru looming behind them:

“Wow!” gasped Lola.

“This has made my day!”

…whispering as Sirius snored away.

On they travel across Australia meeting many more creatures like the curious looking platypus in the thick forests, past sharks swimming around the beautiful Great Barrier Reef where they glimpse Jiblets swimming in the distance. They catch up with him at last in Sydney where he almost falls into the river beneath the famous bridge - as we are shown in another extraordinary illustration that requires the reader to turn around the whole book to appreciate the full impact. They finish up on Bondi Beach and then go back safely home into bed.     

This is the first book in a series about travelling across Australia by bus and is the result of inspiration from working with thousands of children whose art work and ideas have been incorporated into the story. The  opening pages show Lola to be the star of the story because she won a competition and every flag depicted on the pages has been created ‘by a child somewhere in the world’. The final end papers provide ‘A Gentledog’s Guide to Australia’ written by Sirius and there's also Jiblet’s Puzzle page for a bit of fun.

I strongly recommend this unusual picture book and look forward reading about their next adventures, of which I'm sure there will be many:

“We’ll travel the world again and again,

By spinning the globe in our little magic den!"

 

Karen Argent

August 2018

(click on any image below to view them in a slide show format)