Delightful Delilah
Nigel Gray, illus. Anna Pignataro
Lothian 2002

At some stage, all children want to be independent. These three new Australian picture books from Lothian give three very different views of children going their own ways, with varying degrees of success.

Greta collects junk, everything from bent spoons to Grandma’s old hair curlers.  Her mother calls her a greenie, her father calls her a garbo.  She fills the house with it all but, one day when she overhears a plan to wreck the town park to build a tourist attraction, she finds a use for her junk.  She builds the tourist attraction, a mighty tower of junk, in her front yard, and everyone lives happily ever after.

Unfortunately, Irena Sibley doesn’t really explain what Mum and Dad actually think about this immense, uninvited addition to their house (apart from pride in a resourceful daughter) and so the recycling message of the book, like the artwork, is just a bit heavy handed.

Delightful Delilah is a much more subtle look at assertive children.  Ewan decides, each day, to have a new name.  It makes sense to him, but is a little harder for his parents to follow. From Mark, to Mark Orange, Mark Orange Banana, even Ernie and Bert (“Lots of people have two names”) he is quite sure of himself.

But soon after becoming Delilah, he meets a real Delilah, and she’s a GIRL!  This calamity has to be resolved somehow! Throughout the story Nigel Gray keeps a tone of respect for the child’s view of the world, so it is important that Ewan is able to do it on his own terms.

Anna Pignataro’s drawings also support the child’s perspective beautifully with unusual angles of view and print wandering over the page.  This is a delightful book.

In Raised by Frank, a none-too-subtle message about parents’ responsibilities is made in a very funny way.  When Professor Heather and Dr Mark Plank, famous volcano experts, suddenly race off to an island in the Pacific Ocean, and babysitter nasty Aunt Beryl is struck by lightning, Frank is left to raise the children.

The only problem is that Frank is the family cat.  So, he teaches Rory and Ruby to chase balls of string, have fish for every meal and sit on the fence and sing.  And he learns to cook and iron and drive the car, even go to Parent-Teacher interviews.  Together they fool the “man from the government” who checks up on them and have a wonderful time, until eventually Mum and Dad come home (the volcano ran out of gas).

While this is a very funny story, well illustrated by Kiran Morris in cartoon style, it cleverly points out how and where someone needs to take charge.  Raising a family is hard work, as Frank finds out, whether they are humans or cats!

Review by David Beagley

© 2002 David Beagley