Australian Children's Living Picture Books

“Children and books go together in a special way. I can’t imagine any pleasure greater than bringing to the uncluttered, supple mind of a child the delight of knowing the many rich things God has given us to enjoy. Parents have this wonderful privilege, and books are their keenest tools. Children don’t stumble onto good books by themselves; they must be introduced to the wonder of words put together in such a way that they spin out pure joy and magic.” Gladys Hunt— Honey for a Child’s Heart © 1969

Living Books

I never really understood the value of living books until I started to home school. I had two bookoholic friends who kept giving me recommendations, and as a new homeschooler, I was  listening. 

My  bookcases started growing. My taste for books changed. I began to exercise some discernment in the type of books I bought. Glossed up textbooks were less  tempting. I saw through the eye-catching graphics and bite sized information compiled by a team of experts. I was looking for more quality in the content that I read to my children. I wanted them to learn and love their books, to thirst for good books. I wanted their books to be delicious, captivating, brain and soul food, pure pleasure!

To strictly classify a living book is difficult for what excites you may be very boring for me. I am sure you can remember a time someone handed you a ‘must read’ book and as you struggled through each page you wondered what was all the fuss about.

Living books have something special about them. They flow, they capture the imagination, they tell us the facts while they give us the story. A living book is written by a passionate author (not a committee) who communicates this passion to the reader in a literary language.

In Australia we have some fine living literature. And one of the core values of Downunder Literature, is to help homeschoolers find Australian and New Zealand living books. So we have poured our energy into this. Three living books that we have just republished and had updated are The Wonderland of Nature , Our Sunburnt Country and Crowns of Fire.

Living books can be used as living texbooks. They are perfect starters for unit studies. We also have a literature based unit study based on living picture books called Australian Book Traveller.

Our Downunder Copywork is full of quotes from Australian living books. Our literature links will show you even more living books.

We didn’t choose these books because they were something new, but rather they were already highly sought after in the Australian home school  community.

Australian Picture Book List 

(Books marked with an * are used in Australian Book Traveller)

*Our Sunburnt Country: An illustrated history of Australia by Arthur Baillie
© 2008  ISBN 9780980508703  tells the story of Australia's heritage, from Aboriginal settlement until the present. Each chapter reads like a story.  This book is not a boring fact dissection that has  attempted to cover everything.  Instead it offers the reader a smooth flowing piece of good literature that captures the historical events that have shaped a nation and culture.

The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie by May Gibbs
©1940 Two cute little gumnut babies go on some adventures. The illustrations are too cute!

The Adventures of Blinky Bill by Dorothy Wall
Blinky Bill is naughty, very naughty but his adventures are exciting and the pictures gorgeous.

*Are We There Yet. A Journey Around Australia by Alison Lester
© 2004 ISBN 0670880671
A family travel around Australia in their campervan.

*You and Me and Murrawee by Kerri Hashimi
© 1998 ISBN 067088370
A child looks back 200 years ago. Each illustration depicts the little Aboriginal girl and the girl telling the story in the same place but at a different time in history. Set in South Australia along the Murray River. The book is filled with beautiful nature illustrations.

*Walking with the Seasons in Kakadu by Dianne Lucus
© 2003 ISBN 16508867
This is based in the Northern Territory. Follow the seasonal calendar of the Gundjeihmi speaking people of Kakadu. Look at the changes each season brings to the plants, animals, insects and birds of this rich inspiring land.

*My Place – Nadia Wheatly & Donna Rawlins
A home in Sydney and its inhabitants is traced back 200 years.

I Wish I’d Sailed with Captain Cook by Leonie Young
Tells the life of Captain Cook as a boy and how he ended up being chosen to sail the Endeavor.

*Papunya School Book of Country History by Nadia Wheatley
© 2001 ISBN 186508526
Written for the school as a record of history, when white settlers came into central Australia and how that affected the Aboriginal people that lived around the region. *Highly recommended

*Sand Swimmers. The Secret Dead Heart of Australia by Narelle Oliver
© 1999
This book traces the journey of Charles Sturt in the outback of Australia. It shows how the explorers struggled with the harsh climate and how the animals who live there cope.

*To the Goldfields by Rachel Tonkin © 1997
Life in the Goldfields of Victoria of the 1850’s.

Eureka Stockade by Alan Bordman © 1981 ISBN 1863887083
Set in Victoria Ballarat during the Eureka Stockade.
 
The Legend of Moondyne Joe by Mark Greenwood
© 1997
Moondyne Joe was a bushranger in the 1850’s in Western Australia.
 
Bright Star - Gary Crew
© 1996
Set in 1881, Windsor, Sydney. When Alicia goes to school and  meets John Tebbutt, the Australian astronomer, her potential is noticed and Tebbutt invites her to come to his observatory. Ages: 7 upwards

Advance Australia Fair by Peter Dodds McCormick
© 1991 ISBN 0207170061
Australia’s national anthem coupled with famous Australian art works such as; Drysdale, Roberts, McCubbin, Preston and Namatjira.

The Pipeline CY O’Conner Built by J Lefroy & D Frylinch
© 2003 ISBN 1920731601
In Western Australia in 1903 a water pipeline was constructed. This book tells the story.

*Papa and the Olden Days by Ian Edwards
© 1989
A book based in war times.

Days with Gran by Catherine Farthing Knight
© 1995
A little girl goes to visit her Grandmother in Melbourne in 1942.

Photographs in the Mud by D Wolfer & B Harrison-Lever
© 2005
Set in World War II. Two soldiers, an Australian, and a Japanese, are wounded in combat. Both men think of their families as they lie next to each other wounded. One soldier survives.

*When I was Little Like You by Mary Malbunka
© 2003
Set in central Australia. Mary, an Aboriginal woman, tells about her early life on the Papunya mission station, in the 1959.

*When I Was A Kid by Rachel Tonkin
© 1997
This book is hysterical! Based on life in the 1950’s.

*Nardika Learns to Make a Spear by Chris Fry
© 2001
A young Aboriginal boy in Arnhem land makes a spear with his father. Age 4 and up.

Isabella’s Bed by Alison Lester
A grandmother who left her home country in South America talks about what she left behind when she came to Australia.

See our World Geography picture book list