Title: Tales of My Uncle Bob
Author: Chris Robinson
Illustrations by: Claire Wildish
Publisher: Xlibris
ISBN: 978-1-5245-2039-7
Pages: 108
Genre: Children’s Book
Reviewed by: Beth Adams

Pacific Book Review Star
Awarded to Books of Excellent Merit

In this enjoyable children’s storybook, Tales of My Uncle Bob, author Chris Robinson takes to the lighthearted vernacular of the world “Down Under.” With the dusty and barren deserts, scorpions and snakes, Uncle Bob is the personification of a loner – a cowboy of the outback. Even the way he came into this world had a uniqueness – found in a hollow tree as a baby with his feet sticking out. He was brought to the local post office and dropped on the doorstep. An abandoned little boy, reluctantly adopted by his “Mum” and not having a name until he needed one – for a birth certificate. Fred and Mike would be just fine, but since the fee for the filing of a birth certificate was 2 Bob – hence Bob became his name. Uncle Bob was a man as course as the old fashioned cowboy image, living as a role model for a lifestyle measured by the calendar, not by the clock. Perfectly content to be left with a jar a Vegemite and a jug of water, Uncle Bob made his way among the horses and goats of the Australian outback, finding pleasure in the nothingness and needing little. Tough as nails, he taught himself how to write his name, and learned from the land the lessons of the world.