Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

In the Mangle-Munching Forest there’s a Nickle-Nackle tree, growing Nickle-Nackle berries that are red as red can be. I’ll be very careful so as not to give up the end, but would you believe it’s been fifty years since first those words were penned?  That first sentence I read you is from Lynley Dodd’s Nickle-Nackle Tree. It’s a kid’s counting book that’s a bit of a Dr Seuss-ian take on New Zealand birds. And it was first published in 1976, five decades ago next year.   Truthfully, I don’t think I’ve opened The Nickle-Nackle Tree since it was read to me as a kid. But after our newborn son was gifted a copy, it didn’t take long to commit most of the Nickle-Nackle Tree to memory. My son can’t crawl or speak or catch himself when he topples over, but he can put out his fat little hand and turn the pages as we read.   Lynley Dodd enjoys a bit of market dominance at our place. We’ve got heaps of kid’s books, but there’s just something about the language of her stories that gives them that extra degr