Title: Mulga Bill’s Bicycle
Author: A. B. Banjo Paterson
Illustrators: Kilmeny & Deborah Niland
Background Information:
The book was first produced in 1973 and this copy was made in 1975. It was printed in Hong Kong by the Dai Nippon Printing Company and has a distinctive 70’s feel to the style and colour of the illustrations.
Strengths of Resource:
This large picture book combines various illustrative techniques to highlight the verses of the poem.
Illustrative style: Kilmeny and Deborah Niland have illustrated the form of Mulga Bill with a technique known as bracelet shading which gives the form distinctive volume.
Layout: Traditional layout of text is used with words placed at the top, bottom or side of the page in small verses. Layout of illustrations is varied with main technique of frames used to highlight images. The Niland's have also combined the bleeding technique with smaller montage’s of images.
Colour: Light pastel tones are used throughout most of the illustrations with minimal saturation of colours. White backgrounds highlight the foreground with black backgrounds used on only two pages.
Text: Words printed clearly in approximately size 16 font.
Weakness of Resource:
Banjo Paterson is clearly recognised as the author both on the front cover and endpapers, however the history of the poem is not displayed within the book itself. Some information is given on the author, illustrators and the poem in the endpapers yet the information is not obvious, especially for children who may want to know more about the book.