1. Aboriginal Australians
2. Alphabet
3. Animal names
4. Art, Aboriginal Australian
5. Birds
6. Emotions
7. Friendship

A is for Anteater and B is for Bilby, but this picture book is much more than an A-Z of Australian animals. It is a fun and engaging story brought to life with vibrant Aboriginal dot paintings, and a resource that includes words about feelings and emotions.

In the story, Anteater has something amazing to show her friends and visits each one in turn, working her way through the alphabet as she goes. ‘I have something to enchant you’, she tells Ibis. ‘I have something to rattle you’, she tells Quokka. Ibis, Quokka and her other animal friends are all too busy to look until they witness Anteater’s response when she opens the mystery object at the end. Author Sally Morgan uses a simple repetitive structure for each animal encountered in the story, which provides rhythm and momentum. Emotion words, such as rattle and enchant are printed in large colourful font and can easily be drawn out of the page by more experienced readers.

‘An A to Z Story of Australian Animals’ is the result of a collaboration between two of Australia’s best-known Aboriginal book creators: Sally Morgan, who belongs to the Palkyu people of eastern Pilbara in Western Australia and Bronwyn Bancroft, a Bundjalung woman and artist.

1. Wires. Kids Pages Wildlife Education Booklet, Colouring in pages & Animal Factsheets https://www.wires.org.au/kids-pages
2. Kendra Cherry. Verywell Mind. ‘The 6 Types of Basic Emotions and Their Effect on Human Behavior’, 6 April 2021 https://www.verywellmind.com/an-overview-of-the-types-of-emotions-4163976
3. Grafton Public School. Dot Painting Outlines by TeachEzy. https://www.graftonpublicschool.com.au/Libweb/Aboriginal%20Units/NAIDOC%20Activities/DotPaintingOutlinesforNAIDOC.pdf
4. ABC TV Kids. Playschool Art Time. Bronwyn Bancroft talks about her art and several of her books, 29 July 2019. https://www.facebook.com/ABCTV/videos/1828859587259630