Little Barry Bilby had a fly upon his nose by Colin Buchanan

Ill. by Roland Harvey. Scholastic, 2015. ISBN 9781743621899
(Age: 3+) Rhyme. Poetry. Australian animals. Song.
An Australian take on Little Petter Rabbit has a fly upon his nose, will be a treat to read aloud, sing along with or listen to the CD attached to the inside cover of the book. In a classroom kids will love to be involved. At home too, kids will enjoy the repetition and range of animals included.
Buchanan has made this into an Australian song with a bilby, possum, cocky, wombat amongst many animals being bothered by a variety of bush bugs. Alliteratively, each animal is paired with an insect, so we have the bilby and a bush fly, the wombat annoyed by a bee on her behind, and an echidna with a spider on his spike and so on. Each line will create gales of laughter from the readers. They all do amazing things to get rid of the bugs until they all jump into the creek and cause an enormous splash. The infectious sing along CD adds to the fun and the illustrations by the amazing Roland Harvey will add another level of involvement.
His illustrations represent the Australian fauna and flora to perfection, and readers will love picking out the animals they know and learning the names of even more. The rocky landscape with its gums and grass trees will also endear the readers to the environment presented. For city kids the evocation of bush life is wonderful and I'm sure overseas kids will be equally enthralled learning about the Australian bush.
Fran Knight