Snugglepot and Cuddlepie

 

Image credit: QBD Books

Well and truly on the mend from my recent ailment, I’ve been making up for lost time concerning the ‘Australian children’s classics’. After finishing Babe –one of the sweetest little tales ever- I went totally bush and plucked and old copy of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie off the shelf. 

The book is made up of three separate tales chronicling three adventures of the gum nut baby foster-brothers Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. Beginning with their travelling from home to see a human, the gum nuts make all manner of friends and have all manner of adventures in which they escape from Mrs. Snake’s dungeon, live temporarily at the bottom of the sea, and rid the bush of the wicked Banksia men. 

While this is a very sweet little trilogy of tales unique to the Australian outback, it’s one of those children’s books that definitely works for a single age group. While I enjoyed the anthropomorphism of the flora and fauna that makes my home country so beautiful, the book itself is very much written for a younger audience. So, if you’re reading as an adult, it’s cute but rather simple and not particularly exciting. 

Image credit: www.anbg.gov.au

While there is certainly a lot of drama and sinister events taking place, the prose hand waves away the seriousness of it all by using simple sentences with a nonchalant tone that, for me, doesn’t spark any real attachment to the characters or events. I believe this book would be better read out loud in the classic oral tradition of telling stories. 

Nevertheless it’s cute and it is regarded as an Australia children’s classic, so I am glad that I have read it.

Author: May Gibbs, 1940

Illustrator: May Gibbs

Published: Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1940