Can a Skeleton Have an X-Ray? (Kyle Hughes-Odgers, Fremantle Press)

‘What powers the lights? How does sound taste? Who builds the wings for birds to fly?’ These complex but simply worded questions and others like them form the text for this beautifully designed picture book. Young readers eager to learn about the world will love the chance to explore different answers using their brains and their imaginations. The open-ended questions, accompanied by intricate illustrations, encourage children to create their own ideas about the world, and give adult readers a chance to pause with younger readers—talking and discovering together rather than trotting out standard responses. There are no rules to the reading of this book—it could be read cover-to-cover, back-to-front or dipped into. The occasional rhyme makes it enjoyable to read in sequence but this is by no means necessary, and some questions will no doubt take a lot longer to ponder than others. It is easy to imagine this book launching many pleasant dinner-table or classroom conversations between readers old and young.

Bec Kavanagh is a Melbourne writer and reviewer and the schools coordinator for the Stella Prize

Category: Reviews