Indie Awards 2011 – Mirror

Mirror by Jeannie Baker,

HB $39.95

 

This beautiful and unique children’s picture book has earned a well deserved Indie Award nomination.

As the name suggests, Mirror tells the story of two families; one from Sydney, Australia and one from Morocco, North Africa. Although their lives are often very different, Baker shows us that some things when it comes to family are universal.

The stories are designed to be read simultaneously and although there are few words, the incredible collage style illustrations speak volumes. Mirror is a fantastic learning tool to teach our kids about different ways of life.

 

Indie Award 2011: Children’s books

The Indie Award is run by a group of Australian Independent booksellers, who choose the books they most enjoyed reading and selling in the previous calendar year.  It is in it’s third year, and the short lists have just been announced.

There are four categories and one of them is children’s.

The short listed books for the children’s category in 2011 are:

The Very Bad Book by Andy Griffiths.

The Legend of the Golden Snail by Graeme Base

Mirror by Jeannie Baker

Keepers #1: Museum of Thieves by Lian Tanner

The winners of each category are voted on by the member, and then an overall award winner is chosen.

Stay tuned for the announcements.  It’s a great way to celebrate Australian writing and books.

Indie Award 2011: Shortlist

As I described in an earlier blog the Indie Award is chosen by independent Australian booksellers.  There are four categories, with a winner in each category to be voted upon by the member booksellers.  There will then be an overall Book of the year selected.

The short list has now been announced to the public and is as follows.

Debut Fiction:

The Old School by PM Newton

Rocks in the Belly by Jon Bauer

Book of Lost Threads by Tess Evans

The Legacy by Kirsten Tranter

Fiction:

Bereft by Chris Womersley

That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott

Indelible Ink by Fiona McGregor

When Colts Ran by Roger McDonald

Non-Fiction

How to Make Gravy by Paul Kelly

The Happiest Refugee by Ahn Do

The Well at the World’s End by A J Mackinnon

Street Fight in Naples by Peter Robb

Children’s

The Very Bad Book by Andy Griffiths

The Legend of the Golden Snail by Graeme Base

Mirror by Jeannie Baker

The Keepers Book 1: Museum of Thieves by Lian Tanner

When the winners of each category are announced and from that the overall winner chosen, we will blog again.

Mirror

Bringing us beloved stories such as Window, Belonging and Where the Forrest Meets the Sea, it has been too long between books from Jeannie Baker. But with her trademark beautiful collage illustrations, her latest offering, Mirror, is well worth the wait.

Centring around the novel idea of telling two mirrored stories at once, this title is the separate stories of two families, half a world apart. With the very different stories of an Australian family on the left and a Moroccan family on the right, Baker’s illustrations show us that a picture really can say a thousand words. As well as allowing your imagination to run wild, this almost wordless book is a clever way of saying that not matter how different we appear on the outside, there is something the same in all of us.

Recommended for kids 4+. HB $39.95