The Bush Concert

Helga Visser (author/illustrator)

Scholastic, Australia: February 2011

ISBN: 9781862918863

Genres: animal stories, picture book

Adavnced concepts

'It hadn't rained for a very long time. Food and water were hard to find. Everyone was feeling low. What could they do? Where could they go?'

The birds of the bush decide that keeping cheerful is the only thing and so they organise a bush concert where everybody shares their talents.

Although the rhyme is somewhat laboured at times, Helga Visser's beautiful chalk pastel images move the text from 'cute' to 'clever' with a generous dash of 'funny'. From the 'pelican-can' to the 'feather power' used by the acrobats, Visser's text and  illustrations celebrate the outrageousness of many Australian birds – comical galahs and lorikeets, the raucous voices of the 'local gang', the dramatic plumage of black cockatoos, the agility of wrens. Caricatures though they are, Visser's birds are completely recognisable, providing a wonderful challenge for the highly visual reader who can, if they wish, identify every bird from the cast list provided at the back.

Delightful.

NB: a fair amount of general knowledge is required for readers to truly respond to and enjoy this text - everything from knowing that a can-can is a famous (and cheeky) dance to having been to a circus or seen acrobats, as well as being able to recognise a number of Australian birds. Without this knowledge the book is pretty but lacks humour and adults may find themselves having to constantly intrerrupt the reading to explain why something is meant to be clever or funny, which rather disrupts the reading flow.