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Collecting Colour (Kylie Dunstan, Lothian, $28.99 hb, ISBN 9780734410221, March) ****

Rose and Olive are best friends. They live in the Top End of the Northern Territory of Australia. Collecting Colour depicts the girls as they accompany live’s (Indigenous) family on a special trip to collect pandanus leaves, which they then dye and weave into coloured baskets, mats and bags. This simple yet fascinating traditional activity forms the basis of a sumptuous picture book by artist and first-time author Kylie Dunstan, who was inspired by a year spent in Arnhem Land with an arts and craft collective. The illustrations echo the vibrant natural palette of the North—jade greens, berry reds and sunburnt yellows. The human figures are gaily depicted from high and low angles as they go about their festive work: collecting the leaves, avoiding ants, catching and cooking fish to eat, resting in the shade and boiling up colour from roots and berries. A collage effect is used to almost photographically reproduce the coiled fibrous look of the finished woven pandanus artifacts. The text snakes across the pages, explaining the process and giving a level of detail that makes this book best suited to primary school rather than younger readers.
This gorgeous informative picture book would be an asset to any library.

Rochelle Siemienowicz is a Melbourne writer and reviewer

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker