Where's Stripey?

Wendy Binks (author)

Stunned Emu Press, Australia: 2005

ISBN: 0646450018 

Genre: picture book

One small emu chick goes missing and his frantic father looks everywhere for him. Having gone to all the trouble of hatching the thirty eggs, Crikey Emu is determined to find his missing son, Stripey – preferably before his mother, Sheila, finds that he is missing. But other bush animals don't have much help to offer and Crikey is getting desperate.

The greatest strength of this picture book is the character and humour conveyed through the very appealing images. Wendy Binks is a talented illustrator with a particular gift for visual jokes and creating expression on the faces of her animals. The story is amusing and uses inventive (if somewhat contrived) names, but is a little too text-heavy, a mistake often made by first-time author/illustrators. Binks should have more confidence in the power of her illustrations to convey narrative. In its current form this is more an illustrated story than a true picture book, where illustrations and text should be interdependent and the text unable to stand alone. The constant repetitions of phrase that often irritate the adult reader may appeal to youngsters, who are likely to join in once they can predict questions and responses. Self-publishing has robbed Binks of the difference a skilled layout editor can bring to a picture book through such fine details as font style and size and text positioning.

That said, this is book that is worth buying into your child's collection simply for the wonderful illustrations and the fact that in his travels, Crikey encounters a range of Australian animals that will introduce younger readers to some very important creatures who share our remarkable country. Teachers can use the text as a starting point for discussions about life cycles, adaptations and animals and their habitats.