Author: Barry Brunning

We’re nearing the end of The Cheeky Possum and it’s time to reflect on what we’ve seen and heard. Of course, within the story, the characters too are reflecting and drawing their own conclusions. Here we’re touching on an aspect of the magic of reading to your children. We are nurturing their intellectual development in many ways.

So we have the story, the reader and the listeners. With a picture book the listeners may also be looking and thinking about the illustrations. One looker and thinker, Aria says, of the illustration of Bridgette tucked up inside her bed, “She’s a very tidy teenager!”.

It’s storytime and the lights are low.  We’re reading a pre-publication mockup of The Cheeky Possum, a real favourite with Avery.  We’re in cheeky possum world, so most of the illustrations are moonlit.  This is Peter, the cheeky possum’s favourite playground. A world of shadow and revelation, where the girls notice for the first time there is, in the picture, a kangaroo hopping.  Thank you to Derek Dadswell for the wonderful mood and graphic presentation of these illustrations.