Life With Riley
August 26th 2006 02:37
Life With Riley
Well, with relieve I read the results of this year’s Australian CBC Book Week Awards and saw that my wonderful new friend Riley is a winner. If you haven’t met Riley yet, you’re in for a treat. Riley, quite frankly is a rat. But a very happy rat, who is extremely satisfied with himself, his home, his family, his food. The only thing he really feels he can’t do without is a small, sharp stick for reaching that little itchy spot in the middle of his back. How rare is Riley! In comparison to Riley, we have ‘people’. Now ‘people’ are not so easily pleased. They need lots and lots of food. They need lots and lots of money, to go lots and lots of places and have lots and lots of things. They even want to change how they look – lots and lots! But they are nowhere near as happy as Riley. In fact, they’re pretty miserable.
The Short and Incredibly Happy Life of Riley is cleverly done with illustrations made entirely with Photoshop. Aesthetically pleasing and with run-on phrasing that is nothing short of fun to read, there is even the added bonus of an important life message. And I had to chuckle a few times when, turning a page, there would be a caricature of someone I knew! I dare you not to come up with the same!
Author Colin Thompson’s imagine has no limit. His illustrator, Amy Lissiat is even fictitious – an anagram for ‘It’s My Alias’.
I have been reading books to children for over 10 years (that’s a lot of CBC Book Week books, I can tell you) and when you find a character as appealing to both children and adults as Riley is, you know he’ll be around for some years. I’m even going to go out and buy it. Now that’s a recommendation for you!
Get a hold of a copy of Riley read it to a kid, a friend, a lover, hey even a grandmother. I guarantee they’ll love it.
Image: Lothian Books
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