Maisie Moo doesn’t want to be an angel – and certainly not
in the Venice Christmas concert; she would much rather play the drums or be the
donkey. Life has its drawbacks when you live in a palace in the middle of
nowhere. Especially if it’s a shop, called The Gone Bonkers Discount Palace,
that mainly sells gondolas; and your Dad drives a truck and isn’t home much.
It helps, though, to have an invisible friend called Lucy,
even if she gets you into trouble with Mum from time to time: like objecting to
sweeping the floor of The Gone Bonkers Discount Palace. Kicking a box of
gondolas, and having them scatter like stars, is bound to make Mum go nuts!
Chris McKimmie’s inimitable capacity to marry text with
illustration, producing a work that captures both a child’s and adult reader’s
imagination, shines through in this cleverly crafted book. McKimmie’s sense of
the ridiculous laughs all over the page in his depiction of all things Venice
in the middle of outback Australia. Maisy Moo and Invisible Lucy is suffused
with delightful humour and light-heartedness; it brings the reader close-up to
the special relationship between father and daughter, made all the more
poignant in light of the father’s truck-driving occupation.
This is a book that invites the reader back for a second
look. There is a naivety in McKimmie’s ‘Dylan and Blake’ font and child-like
illustrations that attracts the attention of the young reader who is bound to
discover new detail in each subsequent reading.
Maisy Moo and Invisible Lucy would be suitable for children
aged about five to ten. It is a wonderful springboard for discussion about
invisible friends. This topic opens the possibility of delving richly into the
world of the imagination through art, drama, music, and writing (stories,
poems, journals, letters). Similarly, the issues of father/daughter
relationships or parent absence can be explored. Children can also list and
work with their favourite and least favourite colours, letters, pets and
past-times.
Maisy Moo and Invisible Lucy is not a picture story book for
the faint-hearted. Be warned. If you don’t believe in invisible friends, have
trouble reading sideways, and don’t approve of wild excursions into the world
of the nonsensical, then this book is not for you: especially if you don’t like
the word ‘bum’.
Allen&Unwin 2007
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