Hummingbird Lily: A Fast Flapping Foray (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781637610237)

An Australian poet-pirate-persona is a very good place to start describing this relentless-rhymer, but his books are as multidimensional as the renaissance polymath himself. Simon Mills is a gregarious, larger-than-life author who masterfully communicates on multiple levels. Courageously comedic and then soulful when you least expect it, his stories entertain the parent reader on one level and the youngster on another entirely. You will meet Violet the Virus who longingly loves people but has no idea she is harmful. You will meander through Venice with Pigeoni, the Italian consigliere whose fanciful-fairytales prove too much for his fellow feathered friends until they discover the remarkable truth of his character. Parables that ponder themes from bullying to self-belief in I Lost My Brave, and from racial harmony, in Cyril the Squirrel to social distancing dilemmas in I Lost My Hug.