Good
Enough for a Sheep Station by David
Cox (Allen & Unwin)
PB RRP $24.99
ISBN 9781743319031
Reviewed by Yvonne Mes
David Cox spent five years as a jackeroo on outback
sheep and cattle stations before he became an author and illustrator.
Set in 1940s, the story follows a young boy’s
upbringing on a Queensland sheep station. It shows its outback characters and
understated humour as told in various anecdotes. The story is full of quirky
details from how the boy completes his schoolwork via correspondence to
learning stockman’s skills from his dad and learning to drive a truck from a
young age.
This picture book documents a way of life that may
be unrecognizable to many modern children raised in the city, but the story
goes deeper than that; it tells of loss and handing down tradition but also, as
David Cox writes in the foreword, it is a story about many kinds of love.
Cox’s fluid watercolour and ink illustrations
create a colourful bush world. Dogs run in and out of the pictures as they would
in real paddocks and the horses outnumber the sheep. The longer word count makes it a picture book for
primary school aged children.
Yvonne
Mes is a children's writer and illustrator. Her fpicture book, Meet Sidney Nolan (Random House) and Oliver’s Grumbles (Dragon Tales Publishing) are
scheduled for release in October 2015. www.yvonnemes.com
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