Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: icecream

  • Summer Time

    Summer Time

    Best selling authors Antonia Pesenti & Hilary Bell are back with a nostalgic return to the summer holidays of their youth in Summer Time, a trip down memory lane with rhyming text, gloriously vibrant, summer colour illustration and a huge amount of fun to be enjoyed once again.

    Summer time in Australia is something very special for everyone; families gather at the beach, go camping or holidaying at some very interesting locations, staying in places far different to their homes, children are allowed more freedom to explore and ice-cream is the order of the day, whenever possible.

    It is a time of magic, a time when memories are made to last a life time and time to simply be yourself, wearing your daggy old bathers and having fun; and that’s for grown-up as well. Everyone relaxes, enjoying the long, lazy heat filled days of summer.

    Sausages are cooked on the barbeque until they are slightly charred, you feel like your melting when it gets to hot to swim, pink zinc is put on to try and stop the sunburnt noses. Back in the days before air-conditioning, fans whirred furiously trying to cool the hot air; Hair got soaked with sweat, waiting to go to the beach to cool off.

    Mozzies feasted fast and furiously in the early evening, leaving behind red itchy spots and tomorrow, it was all there to be done again. Bushfires devastate the bushlands and all too soon it was time to try on new school shoes and watch the evening skies full of stars, as Emu returned to fly for all eternity in the Milky Way.

    With summer almost here once again Summer Time brings back those halcyon days when once we were young and for the young of today, memories of their own to be made with adventures still to be discovered.

    Are these nostalgic days of summer simply an Australian myth? Most definitely not as these were the summer days of my youth and are now the summer days of my grandchildren, so no, the memories are alive and well, each and every summer at the beaches and at the swimming pools of Australia, being created once again for a new generation to enjoy.

    You can almost smell the sunscreen, the sausages cooking on the barbeque and the heat melting the bitumen on the roads, as you take your children on a voyage of once, when you were young, and summer days never seemed to end.

     

  • There’s Broccoli in my Ice Cream!

    There’s Broccoli in my Ice Cream!

    Granville the dog believes there is nothing good about fruit and vegetables. In this Children’s Picture Book, the author has used the charm of a puppy to coerce children into rethinking their dislike of “Good Foods”. The family values are discussed and used to add to the arguments as well as a little timely fantasy. The illustrations are mostly on a white background and are simple and clear. The text is varied in size to add interest and the many small illustrations on some pages bear close scrutiny. The art work is colourful and shows many humorous scenes.

     All the family members, who have each won prizes for their veggies, including the “Winner of the Colossal Cabbage Cup”, try to convince Granville that he needs to eat veggies to be healthy, but he remains adamantly opposed to any persuasion. Grandpa Reggie has a van from which he sells his home grown veggies, and supplies these with the aid of a magic watering can. It is nearly Grandpa’s birthday, and each of the family asks him what he would like. He asks Granville to help him prepare and grow a crop, and the puppy agrees. Using the magic watering can, they produce a wonderful array of veggies.

     The dog has his own ideas though. He brings along all the cakes and jellies and chocolate he can find, plants them and waters them with the magic watering can. The results are quite startling, and even his family is impressed, while grandpa is flabbergasted. Granville then is in a position to negotiate his eating habits, and is able to join Grandpa in the van selling his own combinations of Veggies and sweets.

     This is certainly one for the fussy eaters, with a lot of chuckles along the way. The page outlining all the cakes and jellies and chocolates may make your eyes water, but the reader will quickly remember the value of broccoli, peas and parsnips.