Reviewed by Wendy Lipke
This square hard-covered children’s picture book is ready for the end of the year celebrations with its Christmas colours, gift tag, Christmas paper, decorations and candy canes. Yet the first five pages introduce two tiny insects – a Christmas bug and a humbug, each with different personalities.
While the Christmas bug is excited about Christmas the humbug is not. So, you can imagine how the humbug will behave when he finds out that this book is about Christmas.
The following pages describe the things that make Christmas so magical, especially in the Northern Hemisphere with its snow and pine trees. On these pages you can also find the humbug displaying his displeasure. Just when he thinks he has ruined everything, he discovers that things don’t pan out as he expected.
The simple illustrations are presented on white pages and accompany the storyline in easy-to-read text.
Andy Geppert, the Australian illustrator, has produced a simple story in the tradition of How the Grinch Stole Christmas or the famously popularized “Bah! Humbug!” by Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol.
Geppert is a recipient of the CBCA New Illustrator Award and has created the SQUIGL Club – an online space connecting kids from regional communities. This club offers young artists the chance to celebrate every SQUIGL they make.
This is a new take on the celebration of Christmas.
Bah Humbug
(2026)
by Andy Geppert
Allen & Unwin
ISBN:978-1-7611-8261-7
$22.99, 36pp