Title: Let's Build a Backyard
Author: Mike Lucas
Illustrator: Daron Parton
Publisher: Lothian Children's Books
Publication Date: 27th April 2022
ISBN:  9780734421289
For ages: 3+ years
Type: Picture Book
Themes: Family, Backyards, Gardens, Gardening, Sustainability, Rhyming ​
Let’s Build A Backyard is the newly published companion book to Let’s Build A House, both written by South Australian author Mike Lucas. This latest release is a lively and vibrant account of a time spent in the backyard of the father and his young daughter from the first book, working together to create a very special place. 
From the very beginning of this delightful and energetic book the young reader will enjoy the action that the clever rhyming words impart. Each step of the building a backyard journey is labelled clearly, followed by the short rhyme, and with three action words highlighted across a double page spread.
Mix in some compost.
“Use your fork to turn, turn, turn.
A little help from all the worms.
Watch them wriggle, see them squirm.”
Squirm! Squirm! Squirm!
The bright and colourful illustrations by Daron Parton complement the text perfectly and showcase the steps needed to create the new garden. This book has a very welcome and gentle introduction to the topic of sustainability for young children with mention of looking after a tree, making a possum box and a bee hotel, installing sprinklers, creating a vegetable patch, as well as adding compost. 
This is a perfect book to read aloud to young children and engage them in the story by allowing them the opportunity to do the actions as it is read. A welcome addition to a home, school or public library.
​Reviewed by Kathryn Beilby.

In this post, I am sharing two wonderful new children’s non-fiction picture books which each have a special story to tell about survival and conservation.

One Potoroo: A story of Survival written by Penny Jaye & illustrated by Alicia Rogerson
CSIRO Publishing ISBN 978486314645
This fabulous story is about a Gilbert Potoroo, one of the last survivors of a bushfire at Two Peoples Bay in Western Australia. The book tells of the journey to safety for the potoroo, which is the world’s most endangered marsupial, and the conservation efforts to save the species. The full-page illustrations are beautiful and you will learn some new facts such as how the potoroo loves to eat truffles which are the fruity bulbs of underground fungi.

Tiny Possum and the Migrating Moths written by Julie Murphy & illustrated by Ben Clifford
CSIRO Publishing ISBN 9781486314621
Tiny Possum, a mountain pygmy-possum, lives high in the Australian Alps and during the summer months must find food and shelter to survive under the snow during the long winter months. Without the migrating bogong moths as a food source the species will not survive. Along the migrating path of these moths, conservationists have encouraged residents to turn off their lights at night so the moths will not be distracted on their journey. This is an amazing story with striking illustrations.

Did you know that there are only 14 species of Handfish that are found in Australian waters? The majority of the species are found in Tasmania, with the Spotted Handfish, Red Handfish and Ziebell's Handfish listed as critically endangered.

There are two new books for younger readers that share some interesting information about the unique Handfish.

Hold On! Saving the Spotted Handfish was shortlisted in the 2021 CBCA Eve Pownall award category of the CBCA Book of the Year Awards. It is a factual fiction book which tells us all about Handstand, a Spotted Handfish, who lives in the waters off Tasmania. He is tiny, just measuring 13 cms, and walks along the seabed on his hands (pectoral fins). He does not have a swim bladder like other fish so cannot always swim away from danger. The Spotted Handfish was one of the first marine species to be on the Threatened Species Red List as his habitat is threatened by introduced predators, climate change, fishing nets and dredging, pollution and rubbish as well as anchors from boats. This is a great read and the illustrations are vibrant and full of life. You will learn all about this amazing creature that has survived since the time of the dinosaurs.

Coco, the Fish with Hands is the first book in the Endangered Animal Tales series. It tells you the story of Coco, the Spotted Handfish, who goes on a long journey to find somewhere safe to lay her eggs. Coco usually lays her eggs around a sea squirts or sea tulips but the Northern Pacific sea star has eaten many of these plants so Coco must find somewhere else to go. Along the way she is in danger from crabs but she cleverly outwits them! Coco eventually finds a mate and lays her eggs in a safe place. The Spotted Handfish stays with her eggs until they are hatched. Did you know that the babies are called fry and are only 6mms long? How tiny! The illustrations are bright and colourful and this is a lovely story to learn some new facts about a very clever little marine creature. 

What's happening to protect these unique fish?
The National Handfish Recovery Team (NHRT) was formed in 2014 and coordinates the research program for the three species of handfish in Tasmania. You can find out more about their projects here.

Year 4/5 students at St Joseph's School Tranmere came up with an interesting and unique way to celebrate this year’s Book Week theme.
They created these great displays of garden themed miniature worlds and labelled their works in Italian. 
If anyone else would like to share their activities for Book Week, we’d love to see them.

What’ya reading, Bren?
 
I'm reading The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne, which starts in post war Ireland and goes the whole lifetime of a young man from pre-birth to death. It's one of those novels where you don't really understand what you're reading when you set off but you understand that it's heartachingly honest and full of flawed people, and you slowly fall in love with many elements of it during the journey and when you finish, you feel like the character is an old friend and you just left his house for the last time.
 
What do you enjoy snacking on when you write?
 
Sesame curry peanuts. I'm addicted to them.
 
What risk have you taken with your writing that has paid off?
 
I took on environmental themes which are sometimes seen as scary for children, and I took on the challenge of telling these stories in unusual future voices. My stories are set in a very different future and I wanted them to feel like another time with a different kind of voice. The risk is that many readers have set ideas about what is appropriate for children, and how stories should be written.
 
Why did you choose to become an author?
 
It's a form of creativity that's always interested me, and I've tried other forms of creativity but always come back to writing. I just love to create stories. As a farm kid, having people sitting around telling stories after a long day of shearing etc. was one of my favourite things.
 
Is there a book by another author you would recommend everyone should read?
 
I really loved This is How We Change the Ending by Vikki Wakefield. I just love how she's captured the hopelessness of growing up in poverty, of having poor parenting, of how all encompassing poverty traps are. It's heartbreaking. I loved that novel.
 
In Dog Runner, did you envisage the Ella in a specific part of Australia, and if so, can I ask where?
 
I feel like it's somewhere between Shepparton and Wangaratta. Dookie, maybe. Shepparton is famous for canned fruit.
 
Were there any real-life dogs which you used for inspiration for the dogs in Dog Runner?

I went to a forest in Logan to see The Sled Dog Racing Queensland people practising running their dogs through forest trails, so that was wonderful. There was also a twitter account I followed where a girl had four malamutes, a brown, a grey, a black and a much larger one who was tall like an Alsation. So I kind of modelled the family dogs on three of her dogs. I've grown up with dogs and so I found it easy to write in the dogs.
 
What indigenous foods have you eaten and enjoyed which might surprise people?

Yams! I love all yams and sweet potatoes, give them all to me!
 
You’ve had considerable success writing about environmental themes. Was there a time, place or event that led you down this path, and do you think you will always weave these themes into whatever stories you write?

When I started out there weren't many environmental-based stories around but suddenly they're everywhere... so I think society decided it was important and that's where the success in these themes came from. I just write what I think is interesting, what I want to explore and what is on my mind. I like to focus on the future, on where we're going, like most people who write science fiction do, so I think I'll always be thinking about what comes next. Maybe it came from a childhood under the threat of the cold war and always being worried about the future. I see that same kind of worry in today's children about the environment and the need to explore what a changed future might look like.
 
Could you give your readers a sneaky hint at what your next book will be about?
 
I've teamed up with Zana Fraillon. We're each writing a character born 100 years apart. We're bringing you a novel set in a post-pandemic, post-city world, one where surviving humans have learned their lesson. But it turns out history truly won't stay buried.