Aaron Blabey

If you’ve been out of the Australian children’s literature scene for a few years I can catch you up in two words: Aaron Blabey.

His range of, amazingly illustrated, books appeal to many children and contain some of the most popular themes among the 3-9-year-old crowd: toilets, unicorns, pugs and huge, evil belly button fluff. Some of them also touch on deeper, more mature themes such as friendship, quirky personalities, self-esteem, honesty, and kindness.

Some of our favourites include:

Busting

We were gifted this and it made us laugh out loud. It is a book every child – nay, every person – can relate to: finding a toilet in time. The text is really funny. This is a great gift for any child under Grade 2.

Thelma the unicorn

Given the current trend for putting unicorns on everything marketed at 5-year-old girls, you might be skeptical about another unicorn flavoured item. Don’t be fooled. This is very entertaining as well as having a sweet life lesson, about being yourself, that many little girls and boys will benefit from.

The Bad Guys

This is a series of graphic novels that will most probably suit a 6-10 yr old. I was super glad my boy read copies from the library; he loved them and as such he demolished each episode (book) in about 10 minutes.

The dreadful fluff

This is another very funny book, for your primary schooler, that comes with a lovely little life lesson. The main character, Serenity Strainer, transforms from a prim, perfect ballerina into a rambo, baby-protecting, heroine.  As I have mentioned in other posts, there is a significant disparity in the representation of females to males in children’s literature, especially when it comes to females being a strong, capable and in charge. This story is an outlier.

The Brothers quibble

We haven’t had this from the library in probably a year, and it might be time to re-borrow it. We have a little brother who is getting loving, but quite aggressive, attention from a certain older sibling who doesn’t understand that one day this little brother is going to turn around and start giving it back.

Noah dreary

What I love about this book is that there isn’t the traditional happy ending. While Noah learns his lesson and stops complaining, not everything gets wrapped up in a shiny red ribbon as it does in some kids books.

If you want to check out any of his other books visit his website.