Brilliant

By Rosi Ngwenya and Sandy Flett
Reviewed by Margarite Igras

This debut picture book by African born Australian Rosi Ngwenya puts the spotlight, in 16-words, on the life journey of this single impressive ant. The theme of the word ‘ant’ is echoed throughout the book with some clever selection of words that minimally, narrate the story, including words such as Contestant, Militant, Triumphant, Abundant and Expectant.

The sparse text, together with Sandy Flett’s bright and animated illustrations is sure to engage the reader with discovery of vocabulary, and the joy of extracting the humorous information from each double page. Sandy is best known as the illustrator of the junior fiction series Juno Jones, Word Ninja by Kate Gordon, and is also the creator and presenter of her very own YouTube Channel Kids Art School.

The story begins with an expectant Queen ant, followed by the infant and its assigned role in the colony as a soldier or militant ant. Eventually our ant must leave the colony to forage for food; discovers some foes, especially the elephant, requires medical attention from the Antbulance, and eventually, guides the worker ants to an abundant food source for the colony.

Each double page is filled with a single word in large font and an expanse of colourful animated illustrations. Each of the single words end in ‘ant’ providing the reader with some imaginative clues and discovery of both language and the ant life cycle. Important is illustrated with our ant being farewelled by the other worker ants as it heads off alone, in search of food carrying a sign All You Can Eat This Way.

The life cycle of the ant is presented in detail on the back pages of the book. I feel these facts need to be covered first, enabling the reader to be delighted with the play on words and the discovery of the details when reading the story. The end page continues with the fun of new words ending in ‘ant’.

An informative and quirky book sure to engage 4- to 8-year-olds.

Riveted Press 2024

Rosi Ngwenya

Sandy Flett