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Review
Paula Green, Poetry Box ~ You’d be hard pressed to find an author in Aotearoa with more picture-book charisma than Donovan Bixley. His latest book, The Fantabulous Animal Orchestra, is a sublime example of how he brings image, word and story together with electric effects.
First up, I am hooked on the way Donovan writes like a poet. This is a book to read aloud with children because every sentence is word joy. Your ears will pick up alliteration, assonance, rhyme, sweet rhythms and repetitions. His musical experience – he plays saxophone in a band – shows.
There’s a honking horn section, with rumpetus trumpets,
as jungle bells jingle and ping.
Then a glorious chorus, that’s soaring uproarious,
joins the rattle and zither and zing.
Secondly, the illustrations are a visual feast of colour, liveliness, mood. It sometimes feels like the animal characters will step off the page into my kitchen and start jamming.
Thirdly, the narrative is a satisfying mix of sparkling detail, humour, tiny twists and turns. The story begins with an animal orchestra at the end of the garden rattling and zithering and ba-da-boom drumming. Such noise! Such wildness! Such joy!
About the Kiwi author
Find out more about multi-award winning, Taupo-based Kiwi author and illustrator Donovan Bixley on his profile page.
