ABC Dreaming by Warren Brim

Magabala Books, 2015. ISBN 9781922142627
(Age: 3-5) Reminiscent of Bronwyn Bancroft's An Australian ABC of animals, this book takes the reader through the alphabet with an Australian creature for every letter. The artwork of Brim, a celebrated Queensland artist, is the real feature here. Descended from the Djabugay people, his art is inspired by the Dreaming stories told to him by his family and his bright hand-coloured linoprints and acrylic paintings are striking examples of Indigenous art. Each page provides a large artwork of an animal or a plant, presented with the name of the creature with the initial upper and lower-case letter alongside it.
Many of the creatures will be familiar to children (ant, owl, turtle) but many are less well-known (Ulysses butterfly, quandong fruit, long-nosed bandicoot). Each of the animals or plants can be found in the author's rainforest home in Far North Queensland. Useful for introducing young children to the alphabet, Indigenous art and native plants and animals, this book is a great resource for early childhood educators. While its simplicity is more suited to pre-school children, it could also be a useful resource for teachers in the early years of school, particularly for work around art techniques and native flora and fauna.
Nicole Nelson