Brilliant by Rosi Ngwenya and Sandy Flett

Brilliant is a quirky new picture book that will offer the opportunity for a lively discussion with young readers about words, their meanings and how ingeniously they can be used to tell a story. Told using only 16 words, with 14 of them ending in ‘ant’, this delightfully simple and surprising story will become a popular read.

The story begins with a full page illustration of an ‘expectant’ queen ant with the word alongside. This is followed by more double page spreads showcasing ‘ant’ words in various stages in the life of an ant e.g. infant, militant, contestant, assistants. There are also words such as important, abundant, triumphant and vacant cleverly used to add to the story. A humorous twist introduces the word ‘elephant’ and the resulting ‘faceplant’ by the intrepid hero of the story will definitely raise a smile or two.

This picture book is a debut for Swazi-born, now Queensland-based writer, Rosi Ngwenya. The illustrations by Sandy Flett are bold and colourful, with the glossy paper adding extra pizazz to the text. Both author and illustrator have captured the essence of humour that will appeal to the Early Years age group. The gorgeous cover with the silver embossed letters, the front endpapers with multiple images of ants plus the final endpapers sharing more illustrated ‘ant’ words alongside the hero taking a bow, add so many more dimensions to this entertaining story. A thoughtful inclusion is the very welcome facts about ants and elephants in the final pages.

Themes: Ants, Elephants, Humour, Facts, Word Play.

Kathryn Beilby