Title: Tales from the Gum Tree
Author: May Gibbs and Jane Massam
Genre: Children’s Fiction/Picture Book
Publisher: Scholastic Australia
Published: January 2016
Format: Paperback
Pages: 24
Price: $14.99
Synopsis: Oh my!‘ cried Snugglepot. ‘I’m flying, I’m really flying!‘ He couldn’t believe he was up in the big blue sky, and it was simply glorious.
Join Snugglepot and Cuddlepie on their enchanting adventures through the Australian bush. With amazing butterfly rides, boating escapades and a surprise moonlight pageant, prepare to fall in love with May Gibbs’ classic characters. A new story based on May Gibbs’ enchanting Gumnut Babies characters.
Perfect for ages 3 to 6.
~*~
The Tales From series uses May Gibbs characters and illustrations with text by Jane Massam.
The first in the Tales from…series, (the second Tales from The Billabong, was reviewed prior to this one), Tales from the Gum-Tree reunites readers with Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, in a story aimed at early readers, and introduces new readers to a world that has never been out of print since it was first revealed to Australians at the height of the First World War.
The new series of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie stories use the same charm and style of the originals, for new and old readers alike. Where the originals can be read by confident readers of any age or to younger readers, this series can be read to children and to help teach them to read through the simple language used to tell the mesmerising tales of the bush that May Gibbs loved.
In these tales, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie embark on a variety of escapades, where they watch dragonfly races, where brave bush racers ride dragonflies in an epic race, much to the delight of Snugglepot, who wishes to join in, and the horror of Cuddlepie, whose desire to stay in the safety of the boughs of the gum tree loses against his curiosity. A boat ride across the creek sees them in need of warming themselves by a comforting fire, and lost during the night, after a feast with the possums, they stumble across a moonlight pageant in their search for the perfect birthday present for Mrs Kookaburra. These three short tales are perfect to read to young children, or as a tool to help them learn to read when they are ready, and they will learn to identify native Australian animals as they read.
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