Cricket I just love it! by Alister Nicholson. Illus. by Tom Jellett

With the endpapers outlining some of the aspects of cricket, this book with its lively illustrations will please all comers. The zany words that absorb cricket fans are all there: wide, appeal, Yorker and duck plus a few I had not heard of, all designed to inform the uninitiated. The final endpaper gives potted stories using the words learnt, all designed to inform, please and tickle the funny bone. Kids will love reading of the sport, this book out just in time for the summer season, which will see teams arrive from across the world to play in Australia. Well, that is the plan!

In rhyming pairs of lines, the story is outlined of a number of children playing their favourite game. The verses include nearly all the words associated with the game, reinforcing the images and text on the endpapers, and shows the kids playing at school, in the garden, on the street, in the hallway at home, on the beach and on an oval. Each place reveals different games with different rules. In the hallway, catching is most important to avoid smashed windows and crockery, in the street, a safe place should be sought, on the oval, whites are worn and spectators watch from behind the fence.   

We are shown a child’s equipment, and some of the strokes a cricketer may make and on one double page an outline of the field is presented so that understanding positions like mid on, gully and cover are less enigmatic for the beginner.  Famous names are included which will whet the appetites of readers, eager to find out more about these people who the children wish to emulate.
Practice is stressed as the main characters talk about their dreams for their future in cricket; wearing the baggy green and scoring one hundred at the G.

A wonderful introduction to Australia’s favourite game, this engaging book is informative and involving as the reader learns lots about the sport and is prompted to try it out for themselves.

Themes: Cricket, Sport, Community.

Fran Knight