Big Red Kangaroo

A compelling account, written with sophisticated, descriptive language, and enlightening charcoal and digital media illustrations to match * Boomerang Books Blog *
The digital and charcoal art is simply stunning, with a smudgy angularity reminiscent of the late Glen Rounds but an immersive, otherworldly earthiness all its own, and both the main text and the secondary explanatory text stand out strongly against the sandy pages. * Bulletin for the Centre of Children’s Books *
Just three page turns and Byrne’s dramatic charcoal and digital collages propel readers into one night in the life of Red, a large Australian kangaroo. * The Horn Book *
Appealing in subject and presentation, this will be a welcome addition to primary-grade nonfiction collections. * Kirkus Reviews *

Claire Saxby writes award-winning fiction, non-fiction and poetry for young people. She writes about history, about nature and more. Her books include Nature Storybooks ( Big Red Kangaroo, Emu, Koala, Dingo, Kookaburra, Great White Shark, Tasmanian Devil and Wedge-tailed Eagle) which celebrate Australian wildlife and the places they live. Her historical novel, The Wearing of the Green, explores early colonial Melbourne. Claire lives by the sea and believes our world is a place of many wonders.

Graham Byrne was born in Sydney sometime last century. He did the usual school and university time, worked as an electrical engineer for years, then went into building houses and structures. An old back injury put paid to hard physical work. An interest in art as a creative adjunct to the practical nature of building led to formal education, work installing artworks at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, and wonderings about other roads to explore. Wanting his art to have some “practical” useful purpose, to be illuminating, pointed Graham to illustration and design pathways. Explorations of drawing, painting, filling sketchbooks, making books for his grandchildren and illustrating short stories have combined to prompt his journey as a book illustrator. Big Red Kangaroo, Graham’s first picture book, was a CBCA Notable for the Eve Pownall Award for Information Books and short-listed for the Griffith University Children’s Book Award, part of the Queensland Literary Awards. His second book Emu was short-listed for the CBCA Book of the Year: Eve Pownall Award for Information Books and was a winner of the 2015 Environment Award for Children’s Literature, nonfiction category.

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