Little Treasure (Chanelle Gosper, illus by Jennifer Goldsmith, Lothian)
Little Treasure is a beach story, for ages two to five, but it’s so much more than that. A mother and child are at the beach, playing in the sand, and find treasures in their own imagined world in the sand and ocean. The child brings the mother several little treasures—a heart-shaped shell and sea glass in the shape of a bell— but the real treasure is later revealed as the special time spent together and being a part of each other’s imaginative and playful worlds. Written from the mother’s perspective, this is an almost heartbreaking tale about children growing up and developing their own independence. It is not just a child’s imaginary play at the beach but the mother’s too as she thinks towards the future while her child plays beside her. Goldsmith’s watercolour and pencil illustrations leave the book awash with calmness and warmth in the soft blues, yellows and browns of the beach, while also deftly capturing vast ships and endless sand dunes. With excellent awards potential, Little Treasure brings to mind similarly comforting titles such as Jetty Jumping, The Little Things, and Nanna’s Button Tin, and titles about parent love such as Our Love Grows, and Together. A wonderful choice for Mother’s Day.
Books+Publishing reviewer: Clare Millar is a Melbourne-based bookseller, and books editor of The Big Issue. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.
