Out in the bush the day is coming to a close and dusk is settling in. The sky is pink behind the gum tree branches. It’s time for the night watch.
With a task to complete
and a journey ahead,
Tawny Frogmouth calls a drumming call.
Moon answers, rising gently over the
stubble to meet her and light the way.
Together our tawny frogmouths fly over the landscape, passing a myriad of animals. Below them they spot a quail who is nestling into the dust below a crop. In the trees, a cockatoo is peeping out from a hollow, encouraging her fledglings to sleep. On a branch, a koala baby is tucked in tight to her mum. Below, an echidna is shuffling into a hollow log and a numbat is snuggling into his burrow. All the while our Tawny Frogmouths watch on from above. The night passes as they fly until, finally, as the moon bids goodnight, our owls drift off to sleep, becoming one with the branches again.
The artwork in this book is of bold strokes and colours of the bush. Blues, greens, yellows, pinks and browns abound. The owls have beautiful glowing yellow eyes as they fly above, the animals softly curling up for sleep below.
Beautifully done, Night Watch is a gentle caress. A perfect story for bedtime to help young eyes close.
Reviewed by Emily Ross
Age Guide 3+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR
Jodi Toering was born in the Mallee at Hopetoun and grew up on a wheat farm outside a small town called Beulah.
As a child, she was fascinated with stories, reading on her own well before school. When she didn’t have her nose in a book, Jodi spent her time drawing or writing. Jodi had two dreams: becoming an English teacher and writing picture books for children.
Fast forward several decades, and Jodi is now juggling the roles of full time teacher, mother, performer and author!
In her spare time, she loves creating artworks and spending time on her bush block with her family and the ever-growing menagerie of chickens, ducks, dogs and cats.
Tannya Harricks is a Sydney based artist known for her lush paintings characterised by gestural marks and painterly abstractions. Intent on capturing the energy of the subject through spontaneous gesture, she paints intuitively and without premeditation. The subject of her work is reimagined in the manipulation of colour and form with fluid brushwork.
Tannya has exhibited in Australia, New Zealand and Florence and has been awarded the Waverley Art Prize, Hornsby Art Prize and highly commended at the Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize, S.A. She has been a finalist in many prominent Australian art awards including Muswellbrook Art Prize, Mosman Art Prize, Gallipoli Art Prize, Gold Coast city Prize. Her work is held in private and Government collections throughout Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong including Wollongong Private Hospital.
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