Mark Wilson (8)

7/10

This is definitely the best book about polar bear taxidermy that I have come across. It's linked to an art project to track down and photograph all the stuffed polar bears in the UK. I saw the exhibition of the photos at the Horniman, and it was fantastic. This book provides a narrative to those photos, and includes some other linked essays on taxidermy and polar bears, along with some fascinating old photos of the Arctic.

A fifteen-year-old Australian farm boy lies about his age to enlist and is caught up in the horrors of World War I in Egypt and on the Western Front, where 5,500 Australian troops were lost in two days at Fromelles alone. This boy's story in this unique, stirring picture book is based on true stories of the 23 teenage soldiers, one only fourteen, who fought with the Australian army in World War I. The story is extremely moving and evocative of the real tragedy of that worst of all wars.

Ben and Gracie's visit intertwines a story through eight of Frederick McCubbin's paintings. Mark Wilson's interpretations of McCubbin's paintings are exquisitely brought to life through the vibrant colours and the canvas texture backgrounds. The addition of sketches demonstrates the process an artist goes through to make a painting. The McCubbinest end pages is a tactile 3D image.