We know a place by Maxine Bebeba Clarke

Award winning Australian writer of Afro-Caribbean descent, Maxine is well known for her books, amongst which. The Patchwork bike (2016) and 11 words for love (2022) are my favourites. And here is another to add to the list.

We know a place is revealed in the most amazingly muted colours across beautifully textured pages, each page a mix of the children and book characters, accompanied by sets of eyes peeing out at the reader. The children love going to the local bookshop, the bold little bookshop in Ballarat Street, on Saturday morning. When they come home they are accompanied by the characters they read about, and this week, Mum is happy for the trolls to go back to the bookshop, the bold little bookshop on Ballarat Street. No more pirates, or trolls or monsters or giants are welcome at home, she tells them. No wild things, she says and would prefer them to bring home books about flowers or origami. After they have helped with the chores, note Mum and Dad reading in the lounge while the children ‘help’, over the page we go with the children to the bookshop, characters peering at them from behind posts, down the lane, with eyes bulging out at them as they go.  Kids will laugh at the attempts by Mum to keep the odd characters out of her home, and even more when the children say that she will forget this by next week, giving them the opportunity to bring more home.  Kids will love recognising the book characters seen on the pages, and feel at one with the engaging images of bookshops throughout the book. Younger kids will see various things that happen in a bookshop: buying books, listening to a story, looking for a book on the shelves, reading alone.

A wonderfully funny homage to bookshops and their workers, the pages are awash with gentle humour and positive images of families and bookshops.

A clip of Maxine talking about poetry and performing her poem about Tick Tock can be viewed here.

Go to Youtube to find Maxine presenting a Ted Talk about herself. It tells you about her background and what she gained from libraries, and her perseverance in trying to get published. Teacher's notes are available frm the publisher.

Themes: Libraries, Family, Bookshops, Books and reading.

Fran Knight