Ten Blue Wrens: And What a Lot of Wattle!

by Elizabeth Honey

A playful and original counting book that celebrates special things to love about Australia
 


Count the busy wrens on their fine stick legs, the bowerbird’s treasures, his bottle tops and pegs. Count the stems of wattle and the potaroos and pies, and the lively farm dogs and the one hundred flies. Count the fat strawberries on that lucious pavlova. Quickly count the lamingtons before there’s none left over.


 

Children and adults will enjoy this friendly all-Australian counting book with playful rhyming text counting from "one little nipper" to "twelve kelpie legs" to "trillions of stars" and fireworks over Sydney Harbour Bridge. A warm-hearted book for little children learning to count, it also includes pies, potaroos, and ten blue wrens.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2011

About the author

Elizabeth Honey was a weedy child who always seemed to have a sore throat, so her parents didn't send her to school until she was nearly seven. The Honeys lived on a farm in the bush near Wonthaggi, Victoria. There were four kids and Elizabeth was number three. With her younger sister Mary, Elizabeth puzzled over jigsaws, played with the dogs, climbed trees and one way or another did a lot of pretending, on horses or tractors, in dress-ups or with glove puppets, round old trucks, cubbies, dams and hay sheds.
Following Swinburne art school, adventures overseas and a variety of jobs Elizabeth became an illustrator, then also a writer, for children. Her first book, 'Princess Beatrice and the Rotten Robber' was published in 1988.

She lives in Richmond, Melbourne in a house of books: picture books, poetry, art (Matisse particularly) zines and strange books. Fortunately, her retired graphic designer husband is also a bibliophile. They have two grown-up children and a granddaughter in Amsterdam. All her life Elizabeth has zoomed around on her bike - not a lycra rider, just a charging-round-the-place rider - and that vibrant bike city in the Netherlands has become an inspiration. She's also passionate about streets for people not cars, public parkland and place-making, and an abiding passion is habitat for wildlife, for the survival of our unique Australian animals.

Reviews

[Karen Dransfield]

A lovely counting book with an Australian animals theme. I liked how the art work was created. It's all done by stencils, cutting the designs out of plastic paper and dabbing the paint with a sponge. It creates an interesting effect. I might try doing this with an art class some time.