Mega! Australia’s Megafauna (Laura Holloway, illus by Liz Duthie, Wild Dog)

Move over, dinosaurs – Australia’s megafauna are stomping in with Laura Holloway’s Mega! Australia’s Megafauna. In this engaging and appealing nonfiction picture book, giant echidnas, kangaroos, pythons and many more creatures take centre stage. You might have heard of the huge, wombat-like diprotodon, but this book also covers more obscure megafauna, including the marsupial pygmy hippopotamus and the Lord Howe Island horned turtle. Holloway’s text is playful, funny and easy to follow, making it an enjoyable reading experience for independent readers aged 7+, while its accessible style and humour will appeal to children as young as 5. The conversational tone is perfect for young audiences, while the subheadings and breakout boxes ensure the information never becomes unwieldy. Liz Duthie’s artful, painterly illustrations give the book a warmer look than a traditional encyclopaedic style, with cute visual jokes that add extra moments of laughter and enjoyment. Fun details such as illustrated timelines, maps and illustrations of humans for scale give the book broader points of learning and connection. Information on how fossils and palaeontology work and evidence supporting the coexistence of First Nations people and megafauna make this book enjoyable for kids and valuable as a teaching resource, with clear links to cross-curriculum priorities. 

Books+Publishing reviewer: Fay Helfenbaum is a freelance writer and editor and was a bookseller for five years. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

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