Lay Maloney's first book Weaving Us Together is a story of identity, belonging and strength told from the perspective of Jean O'Ryan, a non-binary Aboriginal adolescent in a coastal Queensland town (2011–2013). Jean experiences adolescence, reconnects with culture and discovers oneself alongside Seraphina Landry and her tight-knit friends, 'The Crew.' Jean and her friends experience difficulties and mend the traumas of the past and weave a tapestry of hope, grief, joy and love.
Maloney is a genderfluid Gumbaynggirr and Gunggandji author who infuses her writing with the authenticity of personal experience in tackling issues of gender identity, family, healing, and ethnic origins. The writing is acutely perceptive and describing of adolescent experience while making the story securely located in the rich landscape and communities that inform Jean's experience. The book has been praised by reviewers for its emotional strength and cultural resonance. Grace Lucas-Pennington identifies it as "poetic, hilarious and heartbreaking in turn," and celebrates the importance it represents for young readers seeking depiction and identification. Weaving Us Together is an emotive and compelling read for fans of present-day Australian writing, especially tales of exploration of Aboriginal life and queer culture. It provides a true account of discovering where one belongs in the world while raising a glass to endurance, camaraderie, and self-acceptance.
Jaibir S. (student)
Themes Identity, belonging, personal growth, adolescence, aboriginal and LGBTQ+ identity.
They bloom at night by Trang Thanh Tran
Bloomsbury, 2025. ISBN: 9781526674838. (Age:YA)
They bloom at night conveys the feeling of trauma informed writing. The writing is raw and simultaneously revealing and concealing. There is a disturbing sense of something being very wrong beneath the surface. The surface doesn't look too good either. The story could be read on a literal level or on a metaphoric, symbolic level. This reader sees They bloom at night as a text that points to somewhere else - a dark place. There are hints about the cause of the personal hurt and ultimately there is disclosure and a kind of healing. Mirroring the human pain, the environment is equally hurting with the submerging town scenario serving as a metaphor for the human impact on the environment. The townspeople of Mercy are being displaced just as the central Vietnamese family were displaced from their home country.
The lead character Noon is of Vietnamese origin and still coping with the problem of diaspora. Noon has trouble living in her own skin it seems and the internal struggle and references to wanting to shed like a snake and become something new and fresh mirrors the algal bloom spead and has its roots in a trauma. Noon states, "Here's the truth: my life went apocalyptic ...when I lost my virginity...I am all the wrong shapes, skin flaking away to shell under prying fingers." Noon and her mother are coping with the loss of the family father and brother and living a precarious existence in the waterways of a broken down town called Mercy somewhere on the Mississippi floodplain close to the Gulf of Mexico. In all respects this is a town that has submerged as the result of unspecified environmental changes. Water level has risen; houses have been flooded. As Noon further states, "The bloom has claimed much of our town of Mercy, red algae spilling over the Mississippi and adjacent flood like entrails." This sentence reflects the tone and descriptiveness of the novel. The bloom, with its tendrils spreading throughout the water and reaching into bodies and under skin looks something like entrails. The land, the waters, humans and marine creatures have become infested with algal growth in a horrific, visceral way. As the red algal bloom infests everything, wildlife is mutated, the riverways and ocean become choked and there seems to be a further unknown menace from underwater. Townspeople go missing and are found in a zombie-like state - half dissolved in the algal infested water and dangerous.
Through the first person narration of Noon the reader gradually learns of her past and her courageous plan to secure a safer future away from Mercy with her mother. Along the way she makes true friends for the first time and literally and symbolically rids herself of her old skin to take on a new one. The process is painful and abhorrent. She has to escape predators, understand the problem and survive. The monsters are both within and outside.
American writer Trang Thanh Tran, author of New York Times bestselling horror story She is a haunting has delivered in They bloom at night, a psychological, environmental, dystopian, speculative horror story.
Themes Algal bloom, eco-dystopia, the monster within and outside, predators, trauma, friendship, Vietnamese diaspora, identity.
Wendy Jeffrey
Impossible creatures: The poisoned king by Katherine Rundell
The poisoned king, the second in the highly awarded Impossible creatures (winner of the Waterstones Book of the Year, British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year, Foyles Children's Book of the Year and the Books Are My Bag Readers Award) is another stunning fantasy by Rundell. Christopher Forrester is woken up by Jacques, a tiny dragon from the Archipelago, who demands that he come with him to rescue the dragons who are dying. Christopher has been dreaming of returning to that mythical place and when he meets Anya, a princess on a mission to save her father who has been wrongly accused of murdering the King, the pair embark on a quest for justice that involves flying on the back of a sphinx, meeting dragons and finding an anecdote to poison.
Rundell’s prose is a joy to read. The story flows beautifully with the mythical land and its creatures coming alive for the reader. There are fantastic drawings of the strange beasts that inhabit the land at the back of the book and it was wonderful to be able to turn to them to visualise the gagana, a bird beloved by Anya, the chimera who accosts Chistopher and Annya, the dragons who need their help and the ratatoskas who tell of murder.
Anya is obsessed with revenge for the wrong done to her father and wants to rush to his rescue, while Christopher has been called to help the dragons. They must cooperate and help each other with the differing quests, making allies along the way and facing great danger and threats to their lives.
I had not read the first in the series, but Rundell gives enough information for the reader to be able to read The poisoned king as a stand-alone book, although it would be better to start with Impossible creatures. This series, full of strange creatures, engaging characters, danger and adventure is outstanding.
The street is a great place to live, neighbours know each other, the narrator does crosswords with Mr Morris, helps Mrs Lou water her garden and makes funny faces with baby Samir.
Everyone in the street is aware of their environment, so the bins are always in use and there is no litter to be found. The bins are put out on Tuesday evening, but each Wednesday morning rubbish is found strewn around the streets, the bins askew and lids left open wide. But who is the scoundrel who does this? The people decide to stop the monster who tips over their bins. Mr Morris puts bricks on top of his bin, hoping to stop the bin monster, but it doesn’t work. Mrs Lou puts a big stick through the cover hoping to deter the monster, but it too does not work.
The narrator hears them in the night, squabbling, noisy and scattering rubbish, and draws an image of what it may look like. No matter what they do, the rubbish is all over the street when they wake up. The narrator decides to act. She listens through the night, making some armour for herself to defend the bins. But pursuing her quest when the noise occurs, she finds cockatoos pulling the rubbish out of the bins. The bin monsters have been exposed. Now what to do?
Lots of questions will occur to the readers as they read this story. Initially, they will ask questions about what the street population can do to stop the bin monster. They will laugh at the methods tried and the failures that ensue. Then the big question will be about how they can deter the bin monsters when they find out just who they are.
The funny illustrations will engage readers as they ponder the problems posed in this story. I love the images of the rubbish strewn street, rubbish even finding itself in the trees. The endpapers give a lovely double page image of before and after, with cheeky cockatoos peering out of the tree.
Themes Humour, Cockatoos, Rubbish, Recycling, Problem solving.
Fran Knight
The pearl of Tagai Town by Lenora Thaker
Text Publishing, 2025. ISBN: 9781923058392. (Age:14+) Highly recommended.
Tagai Town is a Torres Strait Islander shanty town much like the old Malay Town area of Cairns. It’s where Pearl grows up with her family, on the outskirts of the fictional white township of Figwood, with her granny, her aunties, and cousins like Curly Anne and Sam Boy. But her heart is secretly captured by Teddy Brooks, the kole or white boy, son of the Figwood bank manager, despite stern warnings from her mother, Ama Rose, to have nothing to do with kole boys. While it seems that Teddy returns her affections, the path of true love never runs smooth, especially love between people from different sides of the track.
This is the era of the 1930s and 40s in small town Queensland. While there have been many Australian historical fiction novels set in war-time this is probably the first time we are presented with the story of a Torres Strait Islander girl, drawn from Thaker’s recollections of the oral stories of her family, of how life was for them in those days. It is a story of great warmth and humour, told with the inclusion of many first language words, from Kala Lagaw Ya, Meriam Mir and Yumplatok, three Islander languages. Although there is a glossary at the end, their meaning is apparent from context, and adds to the authenticity and down-to-earth feeling of Pearl’s family interactions. This is what shines through the novel, the caring and interconnectedness of family. Pearl seeks always to honour her parents’ expectations and diffuse conflict, and she expects the same of Teddy.
Thaker’s novel provides a new perspective on this era in Australia’s history. The Japanese strand in Pearl’s extended family is interned during the war years, Islander women struggle to find work to support their families, and then there is the impact of American black soldiers seeking the sense of family and community, the love of music and dance, that is found with the Islander people.
Pearl navigates all of this, staying true to her family values, yet also finding ways to assert her independence, her own sense of self. It is a thoroughly absorbing story, and a welcome insight into a view of history that has been neglected until now. It’s to be hope that Lenora Thaker, a proud Meriam and Wagedagam woman awarded the Writing NSW Boundless Mentorship in 2021, will be encouraged to go on to write more in this genre.
Themes Torres Strait Islander, Romance, Community, War, Racism, Historical fiction.
His face is the sun is the first book of a trilogy by Michelle Jabès Corpora. Within Corpora’s novel, she focuses on a fantasy world known as ‘Khetara,’ which was heavily inspired by Egyptian history and mythology. The story is structured as a multi-perspective narrative, alternating between four distinct viewpoints. It focuses on the lives of four characters: a princess, a priestess, a rebel, and a thief. The pharaoh is slowly dying and the kingdom is falling, which leads to corruption between the people below. What ties these four characters together is the potential to save the kingdom from destruction. Who will rule the kingdom Khetara?
Corpora's writing style is beautifully crafted, utilising poetic language filled with vivid imagery. Corpora’s rich descriptive language is presented when she explores the characters experiences in hardships, struggles, self-identity and romance. Moreover, Corpora’s usage of pacing is evident in her ability to shift between different perspectives, allowing her to navigate various situations effectively. As the story unfolds, Corpora emphasizes the significance of weaving together crucial life events between the four characters, which act as steppingstones toward self-discovery.
Additionally, Corpora explores the complexities of selfishness from a royal political standpoint and its impact on the social dynamics of society. She highlights the nature of royalty, illustrating how power and privilege can lead to moral dilemmas and ethical conflicts. By exploring this through four perspectives, Corpora reveals how motivations and decisions can result in consequences in self-serving actions, ultimately impacting royals but also the lives of ordinary citizens. Her focus motivates the characters to rebel and realise the implications of leadership and the responsibility in determining societal dynamics.
The setting of Khetara feels ethereal, displaying Corpora's ability to create a magical world while drawing authentic inspirations from historical mythology. The kingdom is vividly depicted, rooted in a specific time of hardships that enhances the story's emotional weight. Additionally, Corpora highlights the stark contrast between the wealth of the kingdom and the struggles of the rural areas, revealing the impact of the corrupt monarchy. Through rich imagery and evocative language, she conveys a powerful message about inequality through setting.
Truc M. (Student)
Themes Fantasy, Mythology, Historical Fiction, Romance, Power Dynamics, Self-Discovery and Identity.
Revenge of Odessa by Frederick Forsyth with Tony Kent
This is an impressive and heart-stirring story that investigates the possibility of the resurrection of the Odessa - the Nazi group known from the past, that appears to be ready to rise again. How far has their poison travelled around the world? Georg Miller is a German investigative journalist who runs into an old dementia patient in the hospital while collecting stories from victims of a terrorist attack. A sliver of a story from the old man cracks open a historical and present-day Nazi horror story that has Georg in the firing line. In the USA, a political staffer gets a hint of some uncomfortable political toxic possibilities in her role within the office of a rising Senator. She is horrified to think that fetid corruption is about to rise to the surface and is afraid for her life. With assassins and corrupt influences hiding within reliable places there appears to be nowhere to turn. Can either Georg or Vanessa survive to reveal the threats to modern society?
This is a book that makes you wonder - can Nazi ideologues hijack terrorists of other ideologies for their own purposes? Could they infiltrate every level of society in order to position themselves ready to ‘take over’ the world? How can those who discover their lies and the horrors they plan for global political systems, escape the murderous intents of their supporters? I was really captivated by the mastery of the storytelling in an arena of spies, politics, assassins and innocence. Frederick Forsyth’s career as an investigative journalist has given us modern thrillers that are powerful reminders of evil’s influence, and his recent death means this is his last. This is a story for adults who can juggle the intensity of the murderous individuals who are involved, and the political ramifications of the Nazi power play - it is a real page-turner with action aplenty. The ending seemed to come too quickly and almost felt incomplete, until the ‘kick in the guts’ last page.
Themes Nazism, extremists, journalism, terrorism, American politics, assassins, espionage, thriller.
Carolyn Hull
Best worst farmer ever by Pat Cummins & Michael Wagner & Louis Shea
Dad, farmer Pat, along with his son, Albie and dog, Normie set out to repair some of the things happening on their farm. From the start, Albie notices the cows have been able to bypass the fence repairs to get to the other side and eat the pasture. The previous repairs: sticky tape, ice block sticks and bark did not work, so Farmer Pat has an idea which involves collecting lots of yellow things. They then build a fence with all the yellow things, and being Pat Cummins, it contains lots of cricket paraphernalia. They test by moving the cows towards the fence, relying on the idea that cows do not like yellow. And it works! Next Albie notices that the sheep are acting oddly. Pat sees that their water trough is leaking and they set off to the shed to bring back something to stop the leak. Pat blows up the paddle pool and they line the water trough with it, stopping the leaks. An old boat takes their interest, Farmer Pat was always going to set that up as a treehouse. So they set about doing just that. But in the tree house, Farmer Pat spies another problem.
Birds are eating all the apples in the apple orchard. Farmer Pat knows just what to do, and the pair run between the lines of trees with sheets trailing behind them. The scared birds fly away. They sit down with Farmer Becky for lunch and she bemoans that she has lost her yellow gardening gloves. Farmer Pat and Albie look a little embarrassed. But all is well on the farm, things have been repaired, the sheep are playing cricket, there are lots of Australian animals dotted through the illustrations, and references to cricket, of course.
A rollicking story about the closeness between father and son, as they work together to fix some of the problems on their farm. It is a wonderful read aloud which will elicit lots of laughter as readers see the problems and the zany ideas to repair things. Bright illustrations cover each page, ensuring kids attention as they listen to the story. Readers will notice all the Australian animals, the breadth of things done on the farm, the strength of the father-son relationship, and laugh along with the antics of the two. Kids will not be able to stop themselves roaring around the room, emulating Pat and Normie as they frighten away the birds in the apple orchard. And they will be able to make their own yellow fence, gathering all the yellow things they can find.
A lovely warm story about a father and son working together to solve problems on the farm, infused with lots of humour, impelling kids to join in.
Themes Father and son, Farming, Problem solving, Cricket, Humour.
Fran Knight
The colours of home by Sally Soweol Han
Thames & Hudson, 2025. ISBN: 9781760764654.
Moving to a new neighbourhood is, in itself, a testing experience for many children, but moving to a new country is something else again. So when Bomi moves from Australia to Korea, there are bound to be some dramatic changes. Yet she finds comfort in seeing familiar colours in new places, and they bring her a sense of calm and comfort as she see the grey of the bark of the ancient gum tree at the end of her old street in the grey bark of the silver birch in her new park, and purple hydrangeas dance in the sun here, just as the jacarandas did at home. But no matter which country she is in, the same silver moon watches over her while she sleeps and the same yellow sun greets her as she wakes...
Once again, as she did in Tiny Wonders, Korean-Australian creator Sally Soweol Han encourages the reader to observe and appreciate the colours around them to connect them to their surroundings. Whenever we are in a new situation, we look for the familiar so we can connect to what we already know, do, understand, appreciate and value so we can put the unfamiliar into context and so linking colours of the landscape offers a simple way to ground ourselves. This is visual storytelling at its best and offers so many opportunities for the reader to see their own world through new eyes.
Given the number of children in our schools for whom Australia is a new country, this is a valuable addition to the collection to share with them as they adapt and adjust to so much that is confusing, confronting and challenging.
Hickey grabs the reader’s attention with a dramatic opening of a body hanging from the blade of a giant wind turbine, in this engrossing rural noir set in the small Victorian town of Carrabeen. Detective Sergeants Belinda Burney and Will Lovell are called to the scene and discover that it is prominent local man, Geordie Pritchard, who owned the wind farm where 300 wind turbines spun constantly. The town is divided with differing opinions about the wind farm, some believe that it will help reach environmental targets, while others believe that the land should be left for grazing. One woman believes that the turbines cause cancer. When Lucinda Pritchard insists that it was murder not suicide, with death threats to back up her opinion, the police begin an investigation. Did someone in the district want Geordie dead? How did his body get onto the blade?
This is a well-crafted mystery with a topical setting of wind farms, homelessness and class and wealth divide. Hickey pulls the reader into the mystery as detectives from Ballarat are brought in, needing the knowledge that Belinda has of the local community. She is also investigating minor thefts at the local high school and caring for her irascible father, who still holds sway in the town. Belinda and Will’s caring relationship for each other is a highlight of the story as the pair’s trust in each other helps the investigation along. Other characters are engaging and the reader gets to know them, their backgrounds and personalities.
Red herrings are strewn throughout the book, keeping the reader engrossed until the stunning conclusion. Readers who have enjoyed the work of Garry Disher, Jane Harper and Chris Hammer will want to sample this and other books by Margaret Hickey.
Themes Murder, Detectives, Country life - Australia, Wind farms.
What a strange and unusual book Treasure by Sandra Minke is! One expects Treasure at first glance to be a family saga-perhaps about a fictional family (based on historical fact) caught up in the South Australian colonial dream and (subsequent heart-breaking failure) of pushing agriculture beyond the line delineating arable from drought afflicted land which was drawn by Surveyor-General George Goyder in 1865. One expects a straightforward family narrative, perhaps spanning generations, about a struggling family and community. Sandra Minke does this but strangely and quite unexpectedly the book transforms/merges/ into a type of magical realism. A hazy dream-like quality emerges around the time of the disappearance of the mother and shimmers throughout the rest of the story around the struggles of the family as they try to wrest a living from the land north of Goyder's line. Treasure continues with one foot in the miserable homestead in the bush and the local dying town and the other in a strange atmospheric dream-like state. The dream-like state creates apprehension, fear and desolation.
This haze is so appropriate. The days are harsh. Bitter winds blow away the top soil and the seed. The heat is oppressive. There is no water.
Attitudes to the land and what constitutes good management re the natural environment have shifted considerably. The revered forefather, Cyril Treasure, who broke the land, cleared it and got a few good years off it, broke the land literally- took all it had to give. Future generations could not continue with the same model of farming. However they didn't understand and so blamed themselves for not having the magic touch of their forefather. Rural suicide, the impact of the war on family, rural hardship and isolation and small town politics are all depicted so well in Treasure. What makes a man a big man in one generation may not be viewed the same way generations down the track. Treasure is really an exploration of Australian identity moving away from the Australian pioneer farmer and bushman, (the masculine (hyper) character) towards a realisation that the ignorance of our forebears ruined the fragile land particularly the soil.
The women in Treasure represent strength, solidity and a deeper connection to the environment and fertility through their own stoic resilience and through the collection of seed and the establishment of gardens. It's a harsh story of loss and grief. Sons go missing in the war and die as a result of farm accidents. The mother (whose character is never fully developed) disappears into the haze- never to be seen again. She comes to the farm as a young wife for Barnaby and she brings music and creativity. She takes to walking and squatting...."down low to the ancient dirt and letting " handfuls of it run like ash through her fingers" and standing amongst the "murdered trees" and opening her chest "to draw the place into it". It becomes apparent that she is untethering from the world of humans into the environment. The old ladies and Barnaby are referred to by name but she is always the younger woman, Barnaby's wife...she never seems to form a solid identity. She has an affinity with the soil, seeds and plants but she is shadowy and insubstantial herself- like the fragile land from which the men are trying to force a living. There's much grief in this book and a sense of creeping doom.
Treasure ensued that Minke was a finalist in the Glendower Award for Emerging Queensland Writers(2023). In the Author's notes and Acknowledgements Minke claims a visceral connection to the land. She grew up in rural Victoria and saw the great clouds of topsoil drifting in from the drought ravaged Mallee area. Her husband grew up on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia very close to Goyder's Line. Treasure is a very interesting and very Australian read.
Themes Goyder's Line, cropping/farming in South Australia, family, inheritance, the environment, ANZAC, soil management.
Wendy Jeffrey
The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig
Little, Brown Book Group, 2025. ISBN: 9780356522975. (Age:Young Adult, adult)
When seventeen-year-old boy-king Benedict Castor rides to Aisling Cathedral high on its Tor, he and his knights are watched by six shrouded women, the cathedral’s diviners. Eager for a bit of excitement they watch as the knights pass by, begging the girls for kisses. The king has come for a divination and one of them will have to taste his blood then drown in the sacred spring to dream the omens of the king’s future before being revived. Known only by their numbers, it is Six who draws the short straw but before making her way to the cathedral she encounters one of the knights, Roderick Myndacious, unfriendly and disrespectful, yet, as she observes later, “sickeningly handsome”. Along the approach to the cathedral five limestone statues hold five items representing the magical omens of the five settlements in the Stonewater Kingdom. There is a coin, an inkwell, an oar, a chime and a loomstone. Other than the abbess the only other inhabitants of the cathedral are the gargoyles, batlike sprites, carved from stone which care for the cathedral. The king’s divination showed only bad omens but unperturbed, he and his knights stay at the cathedral hostel and the other girls are happy to lay with the knights while six, in spite of smoking some of Roderick’s intoxicating idleweed, discovers they have stolen some of the spring water. In exchange for keeping their secret the knights take the diviners to the village for a bit of fun. Nearing the end of their ten-year service to the cathedral, the girls are keen to see more of life but things are more complex than they seem. The girls start to go missing and the true quest of the king and his knights is revealed, somehow tied up with the diviners disappearance and to find out what has happened, Six must go with them.
A classic gothic fantasy romance, this has it all with a simmering sexual tension maintained to the point where they are ripping one another’s armor off! There is a great, strong female characters in Maud the knight, and the gargoyle that calls everyone Bartholemew has some fun malapropisms to lighten the story. With sprites, omens and a quest for magical objects it seems a bit formulaic, and the map at the front with the five villages making up a whole kingdom looks more like a board game, but it is an entertaining read. The cover art brilliantly captures the feel of the book, what you see is what you get, don’t expect too much more.
Themes Fantasy Gothic romance, Quest, Magic.
Sue Speck
Luna's world: Friendship fail by Hayley Gannon. Illus. by Michelle Conn
Luna and Jade both have lunchtime roles as Little Librarians for Ms Sunny, the librarian. After a rocky start Jade opens up to Luna about monopolizing the circulation desk and taking all the cushy jobs. Tensions rise but ultimately Luna understands why Jade needs to use the scanner for loans and returns. Things are looking up on the friendship front for our neurodiverse protagonist.
Friendship Fail is the second book in the Luna’s world series - we remember Luna to be the epitome of the book loving child. Intelligent and buzzing with ideas and sketches generated by Michelle Conn’s illustrations, Luna is not the most popular or socially confident student and her burgeoning friendship with Jade really gives her a boost. But everything changes when Luna accidently sees one of Jade's birthday party invitations…
Her diary entries reflect her pain as she grapples with her perceived marginalization. The relief teacher and a different routine see Luna struggling with extra stress and she takes off. It is Ms Sunny who locates Luna and calms her and Mum gives her a rest day after she collects her from school.
Hayley Gannon is the creator the irrepressible Luna Merrin, who engenders most of the traits of child bibliophiles. Immersed in the school library setting with its regular patrons, Gannon is actually a qualified teacher librarian. Her writing styles cover several genres, including useful information and facts about books, schools and neurodiversity.
Gannon’s dialogue captures the feelings and antics of young readers through the diary fiction genre and Michelle Conn has fun embellishing Luna's World with sketches, squiggles and large font appropriate and appealing to this middle primary age group.
Themes Friendship, libraries, school, neurodiversity, gifted an talented.
A vivid colourful front cover will attract many eyes as they scan the shelves for a new book. Happily each page inside the covers is filled with the same exuberance, enticing young readers to read or offer it to someone else to read aloud.
Granny is 90 and everyone on Rainbow Street has been invited along to the party. A street party is nothing new to the neighbours, as they always celebrate special birthdays, Halloween, Chinese New Year, Christmas to name a few. Dad and Papa’s table is the first, offering bush tomato soup and lemon myrtle cake, along with fairy bread, sausage rolls and party pies. Next door is Cherry’s best friend, Fern and her mum. Cherry’s family is a rainbow family as she has three homes, one with her dad and grandpa, one with her mum and stepmum, and a third with mum and Felix.
On Chinese New Year, Granny hired a fireworks expert, but when she tried some out for herself, mayhem occurred. Fern’s mum is an expert dumpling maker so they all had dumplings that day. Granny always brings paint to the street parties and the kids can paint over the street. Cherry’s ma is terrific at pavlova and today has cooked a triple decker for granny’s birthday. They still talk about the Halloween party where granny dressed the pram like a spaceship. Next house down has Ajay and his large family. His grandparents have flown out from India and the whole family plays cricket with Cherry and the other children. Ajay’s mum has made tandoori, and crisp popadams, but granny accidentally dropped a tin of red powder for Holi, onto the cat and he ran through the house, colouring everything red.
Mr Amorosi lives by himself and makes the best spaghetti and meatballs, while Granny always dances with him, encouraging everyone to get up and dance.The last table is where Cherry and her mum and mum’s partner sit. He makes the most wonderful ice cream cake. The party is ready, everyone is seated ready to eat the most wonderful food. But where is granny?
This ebullient homage to diversity, to inclusion and to a street of difference will have all readers looking at the detail on each page, smacking their lips over the glorious food, marvelling at the inhabitants of the street, and wonder where granny has got to.
This wonderfully illustrated shuffle is brimming with inclusion and fun, neighbours and family, and will have wide appeal amongst kids eager to try a shared party for themselves.
The title Hedgehog or Echidna? Animals who are the same . . . but different! gives the reader an immediate insight into what the book might be about with its appealing illustrations of the two animals. Turning the page to the rhyming narrative the reader will become engrossed as an echidna meets a hedgehog, saying ‘You look familiar...’ The story then goes on to list the differences between the echidna and hedgehog. The cute illustrations add to the information allowing the reader to visualise the similarities and differences. The echidna is bigger and older and eats ants; the hedgehog lives in a colder climate and has smaller feet. Then the reader is asked to guess if there are any other animals who might get confused and turn the pages to find an alpaca and llama, alligator and crocodile, sea snake and eel, rabbit and hare, sea lion and seal, ostrich and emu, and leopard and cheetah. Unfamiliar creatures like tuatara, ‘200 million years new’ and birds like raven, jackdaw and rook are introduced, with the last pages showing a surprise.
The illustrations are gorgeous, the animals having wonderful expressions on their faces, some showing curiosity and friendship. The alligator and crocodile have huge teeth and scary eyes while the rabbits gather in their cosy burrows. Children will learn about the animals’ habitats by looking closely at the pictures which complement and add to the flowing rhymes. They might have fun trying to think of other animals that are similar and work out why there are no hedgehogs in Australia. Extensive teaching notes will be a boon for teachers who want to pursue the topic more closely.
With its lovely illustrations and accessible rhyming text, Hedgehog or Echidna? is sure to be a hit with young readers and very useful in the classroom.
