Review – Alfie’s Big Wish

Alfie’s Big Wish, by David Hardy

About: This is a sweet little kids’ tale, about loneliness and finding a friend, set within the context of nomadic Aboriginal culture. David Hardy is Aboriginal, and also Disney-animation-trained, so the illustrations have that 2D cartoon cuteness and impishness to them that really works. At first I had misgivings about Disneyfying Aboriginal folk, but then I figured Disney does that to everyone so I’d probably rather have the representation than the lack of it. And it’s grown on me.

“Why is there no one the same size as me?” My own Kid 4 and 5 say this a lot.

Good things:

• Lead is POC, Aboriginal, traditional culture
• Emotionally expressive illustrations
• Australian landscape and colours
• Rhyming text, limited number of words on a page for early readers.
• Author/illustrator is Aboriginal