Summary: This book is set in prairie times. The girl has a big imagination and her mother calls it nonsense. The book's plot is about the dad going away for work and then coming back.
Opinion: This book was sooooooo boring. The illustrations were boring and I hate stories about the boring prairie times. I'm sure somebody would like this but I sure didnt! ( )

Oh, oh, my goodness. Something about this just hit me deep & piercing. Honestly, it made me cry. Maybe it was the rhythm that made me feel the passage of day after day, or the watercolors that made me feel as if I could hear the kookaburra & smell the eucalyptus. Maybe it was just empathizing with how Lizzie and the mother feel when the father comes back. Maybe it was a subconscious nostalgic connection with Wilder's Little House books.

Not really a sad book, but intense, lovely, illuminating. I would love to know how children, best ages 4-8, feel about it. I will give my copy to my son and encourage him to make grandchildren so they can learn from this book about the soul of the Australian pioneers, and about the soul of any family that has to deal with separations.

ETA - read again June 2012; still love it - it really is amazing and it made tears come to my eyes again. ( )

Based upon the stories passed down in her family, Australian-born children's author and illustrator Jan Ormerod has crafted a beautiful picture-book examination of a child's life in the bush, during Australia's pioneer days. Living in an isolated house, fifty miles from the nearest settlement, Lizzie sees only her father and mother, and her baby sibling, from day to day, and when her father must haul his sandalwood into town, her small circle narrows even further. It is her imaginative play - what her mother calls nonsense - that passes the time, and makes life bearable...

A sensitive look at the importance of make-believe, in the lives of children, Lizzie Nonsense is also a poignant, heart-warming family story, set at a dramatic moment in Australian history. The narrative immediately sucked me in, and the illustrations, done in watercolor, greatly increased my enjoyment. The two interact beautifully together - I loved the way that Lizzie's mother is saved from seeming brusque, with her constant declarations of "nonsense," by the humor in the illustrations, which reveal her sympathy for her daughter - which is a hallmark of a great picture-book. A lovely tale, one I would recommend to any young reader looking for pioneer tales. It would make an excellent companion piece to similar stories about American and Canadian settlers. ( )

The oldest daughter of a pioneer family in Australia is optimistic and imaginative, which helps when her father needs to be gone awhile.
Ages: 4-8
Source: Pierce County Library, UP Branch

tThis is the pioneer story of a young girl in Australia. The father must leave one day and Lizzie, Mama & baby must carry on until he returns. Lizzie uses her imagination to help them pass the time. ( )