DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOK
by Andy Lee and Heath McKenzie
(Upstart Press, $25)
There's a profoundly simple concept driving along this story from Aussie comedian Andy Lee. One odd-looking character spends the whole book imploring the reader not to turn the pages. My kids loved it - for the first reading, they honestly screamed with delight from the thrill of doing something they had been told not to do ("PLEASE DON'T TURN THE PAGE!"), aware on some level of the contradiction between the naughty thrill of disobeying the character and the accepted fact that pages are there to be turned. The thrill fades with subsequent readings - but boy, what a buzz on first hit!
Winston Aldworth
JINGLE BELLS, RUDOLPH SMELLS
by Deano Yipadee and Paul Beavis
(Scholastic, $21)
Like many parents, we're fighting a losing battle to get our kids to drop the toilet talk. It's difficult. On the one front, society accepts a line like Steve Hansen's "flush it down the dunny" into the common vernacular, then on another front a book about Rudolph powering Santa's sleigh purely on the energy generated by his farts enters your house. With the sleigh and reindeer stuck, Santa asks: "Rudolph, with your pong so strong, won't you pull the sleigh along?" The kids, of course, love it.
W.A.
MARMADUKE DUCK AND THE CHRISTMAS CALAMITY
by Juliette MacIver and Sarah Davis
(Scholastic, $19)
Picture book authors would be in serious trouble if the Santa-can't-deliver-the-presents meme should ever be banned. In this instance, the bearded galoot and his elf chums have all fallen head first into a crevasse and are so buried in snow that Marmaduke Duck has to round up a rag-tag team of misfits to get the delivery job done. "Substitute reindeer! Hitch to the sleigh," cried Marmaduke Duck, "then it's up and away!" It's all very fast moving and just bonkers enough to make sense.
W.A.
CAPSICUM, CAPSI GO
by Toby Morris
(Beatnik Publishing, $18)
