Liarbird by Laura Bunting

Illus. by Philip Bunting. Scholastic Australia, 2019. ISBN: 9781743831571.
(Age: 5-10 years) Recommended. Themes: Australian Bush Animals, Telling Lies, Lessons to be learned. Laura and Philip Bunting have combined once again to produce an entertaining and thoughtful tale of what could happen if you continuously tell lies or fabricate the truth.
The lyrebird is very clever and spends its time mimicking other creatures, concocting and playing tricks on the other bush animals and telling outright lies. He is not a very likeable character as the reader will identify with and will possibly know someone who is like this in real life. Unfortunately for the lyrebird your lies can catch up with you and when he needs his bush friends the most, they have seemingly abandoned him. After extracting itself from danger, the lyrebird then decides that honesty is now going to be the best policy but this proves to be quite hurtful to the other creatures. The lyrebird still has lessons to be learned.
The simple yet beautiful illustrations capture the text perfectly and you are drawn to the gorgeous use of pinks, greens, creams and browns.
Kathryn Beilby