Reviewed by
Dianne Bates
Baby
platypus wakes at night and cries for his mother. He’s scared of the darkness.
Happily, Mummy appears and hugs him, telling him it’s just the night. She takes
him outdoors and asks him what he sees. Of course, there is the moon and stars,
trees and the family burrow, all familiar to both mother and son.
When the
trees rattle and boom and the grass crinkles and crackles, Platypup is again
scared. Once more his mother draws his attention to the noises that he can hear
that are familiar – grasses shifting in the wind, leaves whispering… ‘just like
the do during the day’, and of course that’s not scary.
This is a
very simple picture book which could surely calm a child aged 3 to 5 years who
has night fears. The illustrations of mother and son are executed in black and
white like lino prints with muted backgrounds of purples and blues. There’s not
a lot of visual interest and the platypus don’t always look faithfully rendered
with the bills sometimes looking like duck bills. The depiction of platypus
standing upright are invalid, too. It’s a shame that the illustrations aren’t
as interesting as the written text.
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