A Is for … A Rabbit’s Tale

A winning threefer: an alphabet book, a conflict-resolution story, and a rib-tickler. * Kirkus Reviews - Starred *
Right from the touchy-feely cover to the title – everyone knows “tale” doesn’t start with “A” – and even the “misspelling’ of the word “tail” this is a book that is going to intrigue young readers, because books that start with “A is for…” are usually followed by words and pictures like apple, ball and car. Even young children who have no concept of the alphabet yet will be able to enjoy this because the story flows so well even without that added twist, while those who are a bit older and may be just learning English will also appreciate it, perhaps even using it as a model to practise their own writing using a personal experience as a catalyst to tell their tale. Sometimes the books that seem the most simple at first glance offer so much more than expected, telling not only an engaging story but expanding learning and understanding as well. This is one of those. * The Bottom Shelf *

Jackie Hosking began writing for children after completing a creative writing course and her first children’s poem, “If I Were a Giant,” was published by The School Magazine in 2005. Walker Books published her first picture book, The Croc and the Platypus, in 2014. It was shortlisted for the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards in 2015. Jackie wrote the book as a writing exercise to see if she could emulate Edward Lear’s The Owl and the Pussycat, with an Aussie twist. In 2019 she was awarded a May Gibbs Creative Time Fellowship where she worked on her writing in Canberra for a month. Jackie loves to write in rhyme and when she’s not writing in rhyme she loves to help others with their rhyme via her Rhyming Manuscript Editing Service or through her writing course, Metre Matters.

Lucinda Gifford is the author and illustrator of many well-loved children’s books. She was brought up in the north of Scotland, where there are a million times more seagulls than humans. To get away from the seagulls, Lucinda went to Edinburgh to study architecture. After this she had a fantastically successful career in advertising, coming up with over-the-top campaign ideas and doodling masterpieces on a big pad of paper. Years later, Lucinda realised that her favourite things were doodling and exaggerating. So she put some of her best drawings and most unlikely stories in a folio and started looking for work in children’s books. Lucinda has since illustrated over 30 books, eight of which she has also written. She lives in Melbourne, Australia. But sometimes, from her studio, she can still hear the squawk of the gulls and the roar of the North Sea. Her favourite things to draw include wolves, dragons and castles.

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