Peter Carnavas Little Treasures Book Review

I've been a huge fan of Queensland based author and illustrator Peter Carnavas for a many years now, so you can imagine my delight when I was asked to review his fabulous series of four mini books called Little Treasures.

Released (October 2011) and published by New Frontier Books,
Little Treasures are a collection of Peter's well known and loved picture books in a new mini size-perfect for little hands.

Each book comes with its own handy envelope which makes for easy posting this Christmas or birthday. Forget cards-send a little treasure book instead!

What I especially love about the Little Treasures series
is that each book has a carefully crafted message.



 Jessica's Box-Self Worth

Sarah's Heavy Heart-Love

The Important Things-Family

Last Tree in the City-
Environment

The Little Treasures series feature child like characters that experience a range of situations and emotions. Many which are familiar to children and may pose questions such as:

'Am I good enough?'
'Why don't I have any friends?'
'Why does my heart feel heavy?'
'When will my mum or dad coming home?' 'Where will I play now that the last tree has gone?'

To help me on my reviewing quest (with parent/teacher permission of course) I went along to my local kindergarten to share Peter's Little Treasures.

Preschool Book Review

I sat down and introduced myself to three preschool children, Oscar (4) T.J (5) and Rebecca (4). I handed each child a book to look through before asking if I could read to them. After the nods of approval, I began reading The Last Tree in the City. They listened so intently as I read the first few pages.
'There's that duck again!' Oscar cried.
From that moment on they acknowledged Edward's duck friend that appeared on every page. Their faces showed signs of concern and sadness when Edward discovered the last tree in the city was no longer standing.

'What will Edward do now?' I asked.
'He's putting on his garden gloves,' said Rebecca.
'He's going to do some gardening,' replied T.J.

On the last page, we chose our favourite characters including duck who was happily sitting on Edward's head.

I went on to read Sarah's Heavy Heart, Jessica's Box and The Important Things. T.J, Oscar and Rebecca continued pointing out the small characters in the little treasure books such as, a turtle, a bird, and a dog. This proved to me that you can never underestimate the impact that little things can have in providing children with additional heart-felt meaning.

Peter beautifully illustrates his picture books with a mixture of watercolours and ink drawings. His undeniable talent for writing and illustrating oozes emotion and meaning that I guarantee children and adults will adore.

Stay tuned for my interview with Peter Carnvas during his blog tour of Little Treasures, this Tuesday 25th October. Peter will generously share with us what inspired his Little Treasures series and his process of writing and illustrating picture books.