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As we romp ever closer to that special night of the year, don’t forget to take a moment or two to sit with someone small and share some magic. You never know, it may extend into a lifetime of golden memories. Today’s classics you’ve read with your kids starts out with multi-talented SE QLD writer, […]

Okay, so the countdown is on: Chrissy pudding curing away; Christmas turkey ordered; extra chairs stacked ready for those visiting hoards. Santa’s list might even already be on its way to the North Pole but you realise you have a few more stockings to stuff. Here are a bunch of playful festive reads that may […]

Ever wondered how those sensational little nutty chunks in your macadamia crunch ice-cream got there? Well maybe not. But let me tell you it’s a long and exacting process from orchard to waffle cone, and one I’m most definitely grateful for.

Our nutty friends from Macadamia House on the Sunshine Coast give us another tantalising taste of the harvesting process through the eyes of Nosh the Nutmobile with their second release in the series, The Harvest Race.

Likeable new picture-book team, Em Horsfield and Glen Singleton along with their colourful cast of characters describe a timely notion to us all; that winning and coming first is not everything. Hard to swallow I know with the Grand Final season upon us, and apparently, advice easily overlooked amidst the excitement and build-up to Nosh’s and Max’s first harvest race.

Farmer B is anxious to collect as many nuts as possible from his bulging orchard. So are the racing teams who include; Arnold and Maureen, Gus and Borris and new comer to the scene, Pistol Pete, the fearless, green nut harvesting machine.

No nuts means no race, unfilled market orders and no winner to crown. What could possibly get in our competitors’ way this season? Hungry hogs? Marauding cockatoos? Bad weather? It’s a disaster of a more bovine nature that threatens the crop and race this time.

An entire herd of Holstein Friesians (that’s the black and white version of a Milka cow), believing the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence, escape their paddock and invade the orchard, breaking boughs, trampling nuts into the mud and most upsetting of all, leaving cow-sized land-mines all over the racetrack.

Our dauntless hero, Nosh the Nutmobile, once again hits upon the solution to a rather nutty dilemma and eventually calm is restored. However, cow-removal has prevented Nosh from collecting one single nut. Fearing they have completely flopped in their first-ever race, Nosh and Max are heartened to hear from Farmer B that they too have earned a ‘Hip Harvest Hooray!’ for saving the day.

Image by Chris McCormack Bayside Bulletin

Em Horsfield has chosen to use rhyming verse to call this harvest season’s race and manages to keep the pace blipping along as smartly as nuts popping into a harvest hopper.

Glen Singleton’s characteristic illustrations sing silliness and convincingly cement the bolder than life personalities of Nosh and his farm friends in this very pleasing continuation of what is fast becoming a quintessentially idiosyncratic Aussie picture book series.

Charming, charismatic and cheeky for 4 year olds onwards.

Harvest your copy of The Harvest Race online here.

Want a look behind the scenes? Watch this video by Macadamia House of Glen Singleton as he takes us through the process of bringing Gus, one of the characters in The Harvest Race to life. It’s almost as involved as growing macadamias! Brilliant. This whole experience has made me hungry for more. And there will be…Stay tuned for the release of Santa’s Magic Beard due out next month.

Little Steps Publishing August 2013