pre-teen (8 ish to about 12 years)
Ages 3 - 10
A fun book that teaches mistakes can become a thing of beauty when approached with the right attitude. The perfect gift for any child that struggles with imperfection.
About an over-excited little boy on Christmas Eve. Well versed in Christmas legend, he knows that not a creature should be stirring – not even a mouse. But our hero can’t sleep! It’s a major dilemma. Each page is full of fun!
ages baby to pre-teen
Ages 2 - 12
I once entertained a group of four teenage boys for close to an hour just by passing out these three books. Unfortunately, it was in a church meeting and the sniggering (and occasional outbursts of laughter) were not entirely appropriate!
Ages 4 to 12
Jeremy needs a new pair of shoes and desperately wants those shoes - the ones all the kids want. But Grandma says:
‘There's no room for 'want' around here, just 'need', and what you need are new boots for winter.’
Ages 2 to 10
This book pretty much requires young readers to pick a side. It’s a fabulous, fun introduction to the art of the real Picasso and Matisse—lots of brilliant illustrations and funny lines.
Bring Me Some Apples is a harvest story that follows a young girl and her family through a year of harvests. A beautiful story about capturing the very best flavours as the seasons provide.
Madame Walker was born Sarah Breedlove, the youngest child in her family and the first person in her family to be born free. Her family were slaves in Louisiana until emancipation in 1865.
Sarah was born in 1867 and lived an extraordinary life.
During her at once difficult and blessed life, Sarah married twice, had a daughter, and built a cosmetics empire.
Food waste is becoming a global concern. Economists, environmentalists and human rights advocates are all on the same page: we have to stop wasting, start sharing, and get fresh food to people who need it. They’re the sort of goals everyone can get behind.
Ages 3 - Grown Ups
This is a book full of gasping moments, the sort that deliver a sense of wonder and an appreciation for the grandeur of the natural world. And perhaps best of all, it’s lyrical to read aloud and beautiful to look at.
Ages 3 - 12
This is a wonderfully circular book. Amelia smiles, her smile is contagious and spreads all around the world and finally finds its way back to her - and she smiles again!
I love a book that shows (but doesn’t preach about) the interconnectedness of people around the world – this book manages exactly that.
And I think the key is the joyfulness of the illustrations. There’s a fuzziness* to them that invites the reader into the edges of the world each character inhabits.
ages 2 to 12 years
A perfect Australian Christmas picture book, it’s the story of Kathleen – a little girl who lives along Australia’s Nullarbor Plain – and of the Tea and Sugar Train which used to travel across the Plain each week. A charming balance to the OTT commercialism that sometimes surrounds Christmas.
Well that turned into a marathon break - the best laid plans and all that! (If you're reading this post in isolation, we took what turned into a way-too-long break from WTBA to get a few other things in order.)
Speaking of marathons :), I’ve been reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. It’s witty and conversational in tone, fascinating and eye opening. Quite inspiring.
ages 3 to grownup
I’ve been a John Williamson fan since childhood and a few months ago we were lucky enough to go to one of his concerts as a family. Amazing. There's really nothing quite like a live performance.
During intermission, I came across Christmas in Australia. I had no idea John Williamson had written a children’s book and just had to buy it—my only regret was that the kids were so exhausted by the end of the show we couldn't wait in the line to get it
a lovely book for all ages
'Opposites' books are pretty great—and not uncommon. They're wonderful for building kids' vocabularies and usually simple enough to keep even the little ones interested. Elephant Elements is a book of opposites, but it's not the common variety—more like one-of-a-kind.
ages 2 years to adult
In The Power and The Glory, Graham Greene wrote: “Hate is a lack of imagination.” Perhaps it follows that love is an abundance of imagination. There’s plenty of both to go around in the world just now, so I suppose the thing to do is notice imagination, encourage it, and let it build.
Sometimes we think of imagination as the stuff of fantasy worlds—The Lord of The Rings scaled down to everyday life, if you like. And that’s a wonderful way to imagine. But John Lennon’s Imagine reminds us that there’s more to imagination.
ages 5 to 10 years
......... Ada is known as the first computer programmer as a result of a paper she published with Charles Babbage—he was the official author, but the footnotes were credited to her. Well, her initials were on them anyway: 'She was afraid her work wouldn’t be taken seriously if people knew it was written by a woman.'
Her life is captivatingly told, from her early years as a child fascinated with flying, to her marriage, her friendships
ages 3 to 12 years
We have a wonderful old lemon tree in the back yard. It needed some pruning and love when we first moved in but it was worth it—not because of the lemons but because Ivy loves playing in and with it so much. It's just the right size for a 4-year-old to test her limits, and has been a castle, a boat, a unicorn, a great friend and unlimited food for the imagination.
Ivy decided that her friend the tree needed decorating, so we made a colourful spider web for it
Did you watch it? I know, soooo good. Links here to @LevarBurton and @NeilTyson. But seriously, no pun intended, the planets are lining up for a revival of Good Night Moon. (Did it ever go away?)
It's a nostalgic revival, yes, but also an adult recognition and a nod to a book that's as effective and heartwarming now as when it was first published in September 1947—70 years ago!
ages 4 to 12 years + parents!
Art is about more than reproduction—it’s about interpretation, vision, and creation—and it’s easy to assume that license to create comes only after mastery of artistic skills.
Henri Matisse famously wrote that "Creativity takes courage" and, for many of us, finding that courage happens most easily with a bit of help
We need some structure, some guidance, and an assurance that our art will be good enough. These two books take exactly those approaches.
ages 2 to 10 years
When Joan was a (very) little girl her parents owned a milk factory and she and her brother would ‘borrow’ the milk trucks and drive around town. It was a two person job: Joan on the gears and keeping a look out, brother Warren steering and giving directions! Hilarious and terrifying—but according to Joan, ‘just something we did’! .....
Since every adult in the world may now drive, we’ve gathered a collection of books about driving
ages 5 to 10 years
When you’re young, history is learned in snatches—a story here, an idea there—all designed to offer a sense of one's own place in the history that is being made today. Trouble is, the snatches approach can sometimes inadvertently lead to whitewashed or selective understanding.
If you’re looking to share snatches of Australian history that are respectful, balanced, and full of interest, M is for Mutiny is perfect.
Generally, for kids aged about 4 to 12 years.
Perhaps you have a special book that represents freedom to you—or perhaps freedom came as an accumulation of many books. Either way, reading is both a gateway to freedom and a freedom in itself.
Here are 5 books about the path from literal slavery to freedom, they're books that also illuminate the path to freedom from metaphorical slavery, making them particularly wonderful for kids and adults alike. These are books that tell the truth and invite moral thought, with words and pictures that entrance and intrigue.
ages 4 to 12 years (and older!)
Fake news is such a fraught and difficult topic! No matter which side of politics (or life in general) we align with, fake news can lead us astray.
It’s an issue for kids too, making skills like critical reading, viewing and listening increasingly important. But no one wants to overburden them or take the joy out of learning—and this book is a terrific help. It teaches critical thinking and watching skills and it’s heaps of fun for kids and adults to work on together.
ages 4 to adult
Having an enemy doesn’t always require a war, but always (always!) requires separate camps! Those camps could be foxholes, but they could also be duct tape lines across a shared bedroom floor, places to sit during lunch at school, or even a divided family.
In this book, 'There’s a war on.', and two soldiers are facing each other from holes in the ground. Just one soldier speaks to us, but we see both
ages 4 to 10 years
Sometimes we just need an adventure, where we get to try new things, see new places, learn, grow and test our limits. Mostly our adventures are quite small and close to home, but sometimes they're really BIG, taking us to far-off places and distant lands.
Sir Charlie Stinky Socks is a bold brave Knight and one day he decides that it’s time for a really BIG adventure. So
ages 4 to 10 years
Chris Hadfield (astronaut, musician, author, celebrity crush for stem-loving women around the world) has said: "Every single thing that you learn really just gives you more comfort.”
He was talking about taking the opportunity to learn any skill, any idea, at any time—embracing the notion that knowledge is power and that with knowledge comes freedom. And one of the freedoms most everyone seeks for their children is freedom from fear, real or imagined. The Darkest Dark is about just that: overcoming fear. It's also a love story, a promise, an inspiration.
It's the story of a boy, his love for space, and how that love overcomes his deepest fear: fear of the dark.
ages 2 to 10 years
There’s quite a collection of pregnancy/new baby books on my shelves (favourites: this one and this one) and I’m forever on the lookout for others with a fresh and interesting approach.
This one, 9 Months, is great:
Each month of a pregnancy—from conception to birth—is given a two-page spread that clearly sets out the stages of a baby’s growth.
If you'd like special suggestions, please send us an email. We totally get that a need doesn't always fit neatly into an age group or category.
Ages 4 - Adult
I'm so grateful when stories like this are shared. It's inspiring, yes, but more than that it's a thing of beauty. Here, Uri Shulevitz tells a story of his own childhood; the story of his life as a refugee and the impact of a brave decision that his father made.