Books & Literature

Book Review: Pea Pod Lullaby, by Glenda Millard & Stephen Michael King

A soothingly, illustrated and positive-messaged bedtime story for 4-8 year olds that talks about human connections, with themes of friendship, companionship and meaningful relationship building.

A soothingly, illustrated and positive-messaged bedtime story that talks about human connections. Each page invites the reader to work on themes of friendship, companionship and meaningful relationship building.

The watercolour illustrations tell the tale of a journey with the text providing the inspirational captions. One example of this is: “I am the fleeting breath / you are the universe / shelter me”. This example is conveyed over three pages, indicated by the forward slashes. It uses very little formal punctuation, rather using the changing page instead. I, personally, find the lack of punctuation disconcerting.

With use of the polar bear and the emotive nature of both illustration and text, this book has an Inuit feeling to it and therefore has an inherent wisdom pervading the text and emanating from each page. The text melds into the illustrations through most of the book except for the last three pages, which have large single words. These  overpower world images and tie the whole book together. “I”, “You”, “We”, along with the visual image of our planet, finishes this unique book with a “stand together in hope” feeling.

This book is more than I initially thought it would be and has the potential to be a small child’s favourite, depending on the lilt of the adult reading its chosen tone and volume.

Reviewed by Leanne Caune

Rating out of 10:  7

Distributed by: Allen & Unwin
Released: September 2018
RRP: $24.99 hardcover

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