Our Shellharbour – Karen Hendriks/Emma Stuart

Little Shell Books

November 2023

ISBN: 9780645822410

RRP: $20.00

Children love to explore their local area – especially when it’s very beautiful with much to see. And they also love to see their locale in a book and read about it. Somehow it makes their own neighbourhood take on a greater sense of importance I think. For teachers, such books are invaluable as they explore both HASS and creative writing

This book fits those parameters so well and has the added bonus of being rather lovely to read and to look at. Of course, it helps when the setting is somewhere as pretty and interesting as Shellharbour. Some of us were lucky enough to grow up visiting this part of our country pretty regularly as a child, as a teen and even later in life whenever back in the vicinity.

The Farm, Killalea: Find out the interesting history of Killaea with a virtual tour. Download the “Tread Shellharbour” App and follow the guided tour.

Karen Hendriks takes her readers along with Lani and Oli as they roam their paradise from bush to beach, exploring all this amazing landscape has to offer. From beachcombing to surf lessons, wading to whale-watching, zip-lining to fishing and much, much more.

This part of the coast has long been a haven for visitors, and there is so much to attract them. It has been a holiday destination for many familes over many years even before the addition of themed adventure parks and the like, I can vouch for that personally :-).

If one can’t explore the Illawarra region in person, what better way to do so than with a gorgeously illustrated picture book? Children will eagerly listen and look and, no doubt, pick out the aspects that hold the most appeal for themselves.

Shared reading of this will easily springboard to writing activities as well as those HASS studies focussed on local area, but even those readers not located near this area will enjoy, and then be encouraged to explore and write about their own localities and highlights. This is a lovely picture book indeed, and I would happily recommend it to you for readers from around Year 1 upwards.

Enjoy the beautiful Illawarra coast!!