Australian Story

An Illustrated Timeline


by Tania McCartney

NLA Publishing (National Library of Australia). Australian, Picture Book. Paperback RRP $24.95

Guest Reviewer – Jackie French

It’s all here, from the discovery of gold to Cathy Freeman’s Olympic glory, from dinosaurs to the Black Saturday bushfires. It’s a picture book that you can leaf through in five minutes, or find a lifetime of inspiration to follow. Australian Story isn’t the actual stories of Australia: it’s a tantalizing time line that will lure kids to find the history behind the images in the book.

Tania McCartney has done a brilliant job, choosing not just what events matter, but the ones that matter to kids- beginning, of course, with the dinosaur. The national library material she’s worked with is stunning: images, photos, paintings and sketches from their archives that tell our history in a way that is simple to understand but also beautiful.

This is a book that every six year old needs to read, to see as early as possible the threads of our history. It’s also a book that every high school should have, so the stories a history lover knows, can be put in chronological context.

http://www.taniamccartney.com/books.html

The Reading Stack reviewed Tania McCartney’s Riley and the Grumpy Wombat in August 2011.