Everything we ever saw by Roland Harvey

Allen & Unwin, 2013. ISBN 9781743313671.
(Age: 7+) Recommended. Australia, Travel, Geography. Subtitled, From the beach to the bush and more, this smaller sized, hardcover book is a reissue of the last six Harvey books; At the beach, In the bush, In the city, To the top end, All the way to W.A., and On the farm. Each book wittily shows aspects of life in Australia. In the first book, the family packs their caravan and sets off to the beach, going on to explore the bush, then continue their family holiday to the top-end, then WA and finally come back to help Uncle Kev on his farm.
All the while the family has a range of very funny adventures, told in Harvey's style of small drawings, littering the pages with a myriad of things to find, hunt out and recognise. Each page is a delight to open, full of life and colour, wit and humour, as Harvey gently lampoons some Australian customs, myths and legends. Readers will laugh out loud at the family's antics, particularly when Uncle Kev goes missing, and enjoy the trip around Australia using the map on the end papers. Harvey's watercolours fill the pages with recognisable Australian features, and readers will be able to pin point these on the map.
In the smaller edition, the little pictures will draw the eyes of younger readers, happily picking out some of the little characters, people, animals and places on each page, sometimes rivalling a Where's Wally picture book.
Fran Knight