Bloomsbury, 2007 (Age 11+) Set in Poland at the end of World War One, The night of the burning tells, from a child's perspective, the horrors of being in a small village, surrounded by war. They see the soldiers coming to take men for the war, returning the narrator's uncle only when he is near death, no longer of any use. They see typhoid take many villagers, and know the hunger that gnaws at their bodies. It is a gripping story, based on the memories of stories told in South Africa, the place of safety where many hundreds of Jewish orphans came in the 1920's.
Devorah and her sister see their parents die, and living with their aunt, are saved by her at the night of the burning, August, 1920, when the Cossacks, drunk and eager to kill, mow down the Jews in the villages in the area. The girls are found the next morning under their aunt's body, by a neighbour, who sends them to an orphanage at Pinsk. Here they are chosen by a benefactor from South Africa, Isaac Ochberg, in Poland to take 200 Jewish orphans back with him. It is an amazing story of courage and luck as the two girls survive and find their way to life in South Africa, where they are adopted by two quite different families. The Ochberg orphans' stories are kept alive in this sometimes sentimental book, but it will be a fascinating insight for those who have only known peace. Fran Knight
Our little secret by Allayne Webster
Recommended.
The story of the grooming and eventual rape of young teenager, Edwina, is shocking and salutary. Shocking because the scenes detailing her rape are graphic with nothing left to the imagination, and because everyone who reads this book will be able to see just how easy it is to seduce a young girl. Salutary because it gives the readers a valuable insight into the minds of such people. So it should be read as widely as possible.
Edwina is just noticing boys, and is flattered by the attention she receives from 25 year old Tom, who works with her father. He often calls at the house, talking to, then tickling, then finally kissing Edwina, before taking her out of the town in his car. He hurts her but insists that 'our little secret' is just that, and continues to abuse her. When the suicide of a girl in the town who has been raped alerts teachers to the fact that Edwina has changed, one of them talks to her, drawing her story out until she admits that something has happened.
This book deservedly will cause a stir, some parents will not like its graphic nature, and some will not like it because it talks about such a subject candidly. But it will alert girls and parents to the predatory nature of some men and how their children can be groomed to accept their advances. So have it in your library. Some may like to attach a senior fiction label, some may have it for parents, some may keep it on a restricted shelf, but have it available because kids will ask for it, their network is much faster than ours. Fran Knight
Ruby roars by Margaret Wild and Kerry Argent
Allen
& Unwin, 2007. ISBN 9781741146134
(2+) This delightful story by award winning author and artist is
perfect for reading aloud. Ruby is a little Tasmanian devil who loves
making scary noises. She shouts 'Screekle!', 'scrunch!' and 'scrrr!' at
the animals near her but fails to scare them. What is she to do? Then
she gets an idea and is 'ready to rip and roar' with a plan to scare
her parents…
The alliteration of the text and the great animal noises will ensure
that young children will want to read along, roaring out the sounds
with Ruby. Adults will enjoy reading it out loud. Fascinating
illustrations by Kerry Argent ensure that the reader comes back to look
at Ruby's facial expressions and to follow her adventures with the
animals around her.
Having the threatened Tasmanian devil as the main character is a bonus
as teachers will be able to use this wonderful picture book in units
about Australian animals and endangered species. Part of the royalties
for the book go to the Save the Tasmanian Devil Appeal at
http://www.tassiedevil.com.au
This book is a keeper.
Pat Pledger
Uncle Montague's tales of terror by Chris Priestley
Bloomsbury, 2007
(10+) This book of short stories loosely bound together by Edgar's
visit to his uncle Montague, will set teeth chattering, as Edgar
realises that some of the stories must be true, and must be set close
by in the woods surrounding his uncle's house. Several of the stories
are vaguely familiar, but told so well, with sinister overtones and
matchless descriptions, that they are truly creepy.
When Harriet meets a young girl in the hallway next to a door which
doesn't normally open, she follows her new friend, but to her chagrin,
for the child is from the doll's house, and the door, one which takes
Harriet away. The Un-door is at once familiar but very spooky with its
hints of supernatural intent. Many of the stories come together at the
end, as Edgar leaves his uncle's house, wanting desperately to return
to the normalcy and calm of his parents, but what he meets in the woods
terrifies him even more.
Fran Knight
In the city by Roland Harvey
Allen
&Unwin, 2007. ISBN 9781741144130
(Ages 5+) This book is highly recommended for the joy it gives its
readers as they follow Frankie, Henry and Penny through the city on
their holiday. Harvey takes us to many fascinating places including the
city sewers, a museum where Ned Kelly's iron underpants are displayed,
the market with its stinky fish, an aquarium, and a zoo. At the same
time he shows the amazing diversity of life in the city through his
amazing pictures.
By showing the city through the three children's eyes, Harvey is able
to give a variety of opinions and interests that will appeal to
different children. Frankie is obsessed with the aquarium and fish
life, Henry's wry observations and humour are very enjoyable and
Penny's checklist of zoo animals and collection of a baby taipan are
delightful.
Harvey's witty and humourous prose and the enthralling illustrations
will have both young and older readers returning again and again to
pour over the intricate pictures and find new things on each page. The
production of the book is great, with fascinating end papers and a
double page spread for each person's observations of their visit and a
lovely dedication to the author's mother.
This is a wonderful book to have near comfortable seats in the library,
where readers can pick it up and find funny and fascinating new things
each time they look. It is sure to bring children back into the library
on repeat visits.
Pat Pledger
The Indigo girls by Penni Russon
Allen
& Unwin, 2008. ISBN 9781741752922
(Age 13+ ) Part of a series, Girlfriend fiction, The Indigo girls will be welcomed
by teenage girls who will relate to the characters and situations in
the book. Every year Zara, Tilly and Mieke meet up at the Indigo
campground with their families for the summer holidays. But this year
is different, as Mieke is late to arrive. Zara, a popular alpha and
Tilly the nerd, are left to find a new relationship without Mieke to
mediate.
Penni Russon has made the transition from her popular fantasy Undine
series, to a successful adolescent story about friendship, falling in
love, identity and dealing with a best friend's betrayal. There is a
dash of danger thrown in, with the perils of surfing alone in the dark.
The addition of cyber bullying on Zara's mobile phone adds some
suspense and insight into Zara's feelings. Characterisation is well
done, with Russon capturing Zara's non communicative family members and
contrasting them to the warmth of Tilly's parents and sister.
This is an enjoyable, easy read that has enough plot twists and
relationship issues to keep the reader involved until the end.
Pat Pledger
Amelia Dee and the Peacock Lamp by Odo Hirsch
(10+) A beautiful bronze peacock lamp hangs above Amelia Dee's staircase and if she stands on the banister she can see the intricate carved animals and a secret opening. When her yoga Master Master L K Vishwanath, introduces her to his pupil, the Princess Parvin Kha-Douri, Amelia discovers that she is not the only person to know about the secrets of the lamp.
Hirsch has described a set of engaging character and eccentric characters who live in suburbia. Her father is an inventor and her mother makes sculptures. Amelia Dee writes stories that no one ever reads until she presents her story about the peacock lamp to the Princess and captures her attention. The yoga master with his deeply spiritual approach to life poses many questions for Amelia to ponder about life and change
The story is written in an accessible style with lots of dialogue, and the younger reader will read on to find out about the peacock lamp and to savour Amelia's stories. However more mature readers will be left thinking about the philosophical beliefs of the Yoga master and considering the impact of life choices and life style of the people around her.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story about Amelia Dee. It is a book for thoughtful readers who will become engaged in Amelia's journey of self discovery and the road back from bitterness and hatred for the Princess. Pat Pledger
Ghost dogs by Susan Gates
Usborne, 2007 ISBN 978094608576 9
(Age 11+) The second in the series, Animal Investigations,
takes Meriel
and Ellis on a trip to a deep dark forest, where stories about ghost
dogs abound. Tied up with JJ, a cub reporter, trying to impress his
newspaper father, the two investigators use all of their amazing skills
to track the feral child Ellis has seen. But the feral boy seems to
have powers beyond the normal, as Ellis feels the air drop suddenly in
temperature when the boy arrives, and he feels his body starts to turn
to ice. But when JJ hires a hunter to find the boy, Meriel and Ellis
must act to save him before the media scrum get to him.
This exciting adventure has the two investigators using all of their
powers to find this strange boy. But Meriel remembers her days as a
feral child, and can hardly resist moving in with the dog pack. This
new series is sure to please those seeking adventurous stories with a
dose of the paranormal.
Fran Knight
Noodle Pie by Ruth Starke
(Age 11+) Andy and his father are flying to Vietnam, Andy to see the place of his father's birth for the first time, his father, Tuoc, to see his family and friends for the first time since escaping after the Vietnam War. Through Andy's eyes the reader sees the country from an Australian point of view, and as his eyes become more attuned to things Vietnamese, the reader too, is drawn into the rituals and customs of this very different way of life. Andy makes many mistakes. He is unable to see that the family restaurant is a successful and thriving business, full of Vietnamese customers from the neighbourhood. Instead he sees a small smelly place where people squat to eat, where the food is prepared in conditions less than savory and the money paid laughable. Befriending his cousin, they hatch a plan to increase the earnings of the restaurant, and produce a flyer which they then give to tourists. The resultant influx of customers causes some problems with the neighbours. But all is resolved, and Tuoc takes his son out to explain some home truths, and open his eyes further to the debt owed by him to his family. Ruth Starke is able to distill complex issues into an understandable and neatly resolved story which is at once engaging and informative. Fran Knight
Chicken Dance by Jacques Couvillon
Bloomsbury, 2007 ISBN 978 0 7475 8930 3
(Age 11-14) Don is a loner, few other kids take to him at school, and
at
home his parents are cold and distant. When he finds his birth
certificate coupled with the name of a private investigator, he is told
that his sister, Dawn, did not die before he was born, but was
kidnapped. While at a chicken judging competition, he strives to find
his lost sister, hoping that his family will once again be whole, a
real family.
Don's capers will cause much laughter as kids will sympathise with this
loner, trying hard to be liked by friends and parents. Living on a
chicken farm, his one interest, chickens, causes him to win the local
chicken judging competition, and this brings him fame and friends for a
while. Even his mother is impressed, eventually, but he continues to
strive for her attention. Finding his lost sister becomes his aim, and
he puts all his energies into doing just that.
A funny wry look at families and what makes them tick, Chicken Dance
will appeal to middle school readers looking for something different
and quirky.
Fran Knight
Love like water by Meme McDonald
(15+) Sometimes you read a story that keeps reverberating long after you finish it. Love like water is one such book that has stayed with me. It's always wonderful when you read a deeply moving tale that gives you insights into many things. Cathy, the young woman, arrives in Alice Springs after the death of her fiance in a crop dusting accident. Deciding to put the past behind her, Cathy leaves her country life behind to find a new existence with her friend Margie, a fun loving city girl. When she meets Jay who is working for the local radio station, black and white worlds clash and lives change. There are subtleties in McDonald's story - white binge drinking at Bachelor and Spinster balls, black suicide because of racism, colour bars at hotels. Not only has this compelling reading made me ponder racism, and given me a greater understanding of its effects, but it has made me think about white people's relationship with the land and the tradition of properties passing only into a son's hands. If you were a woman and wanted to stay on the land, you had to marry someone who had land, and younger sons often had to find a job away from their parents' properties.
A complex, confronting story about black and white relationships, love, friendship and country life, this is a book that is not to be missed. Highly recommended.
Pat Pledger
A penny to remember by Kirsty Murray
National Museum of Australia Press, 2007 (Making Tracks)
(8+) When young George is caught stealing and sentenced to
transportation, his only thought is for his sister, Hannah. On board
one of the hulks, he is befriended by an older convict who spends his
time making keepsakes for the other convicts to give their wives and
families before they sail to the other side of the world. George is
shown by Will how to rub a penny smooth, banging it first to flatten
the marks already on it, and then rubbing it constantly to make it
ready for an engraving. Using a nail, George scratches a message to his
sister, in the hope that they will meet again.
One in the series, Making Tracks, this story
retells the story of transportation in Australia's early European
history through the eyes of two young people. Full of historical facts,
the story will engage the reader, making learning about this portion of
our history anything but dull.
Fran Knight
Beowulf by Michael Morpurgo
Walker Books, 2007
Morpurgo brings the story of Beowulf excitingly alive in this richly
illustrated version of the old Anglo-Celtic legend. Michael Foreman has
given Grendel, the dragon and the sea hag life and style in this
version for younger readers. Called to Denmark to help the king,
Hrothgar, who in building a huge hall for his people, invoked the wrath
of the monster Grendel. Each night it came to the hall, bringing death
and destruction in its wake. The appearance of Beowulf meant that there
would be a huge fight to the death. After dispatching Grendel, Beowulf
settled in for the night, but Grendel's mother, the awful sea hag, came
looking for him.
Winning this battle, Beowulf and his followers take a well deserved
rest, but many years later, the dreaded dragon, asleep under the sea
for hundreds of years, comes looking. The fight to the death between
the much older Beowulf and the dragon ends with Beowulf's death, and
the end of the story shows Beowulf's funeral pyre. The story is many
hundreds of years old, and has been recently filmed in a graphic
version. The film is very gory and sexually explicit (different from
this book version) deserving its M rating.
Fran Knight
The day I was history by Jackie French
National
Museum of Australia Press, 2007 (Making Tracks series)
(8+) When Auntie Fee and Uncle Damien take Sam to the museum, they are
most surprised when Sam tells them the story of the Canberra bushfires.
Seeing a burnt hub cap, with the charred remains of a tyre still
attached, recalled for Sam the most terrifying time of his life, when
the fires near Canberra suddenly turned towards the city. Dragging the
reader into a story is Jackie French's specialty and this is no
exception. The smell, heat and drama of the fire permeate the whole
story, making the reader very aware of the danger the city and its
inhabitants were experiencing in 2003.
This series (Making Tracks) from the Australian Museum in Canberra has
at its heart the sharing of artifacts in the museum with a wider
audience. Each of the authors has taken an artifact which has some
resonance with them and written a short story about it for younger
readers, and so we have a series of about 15 books, set firmly in the
past, with an engaging young character.
Fran Knight
Teacher's dead by Benjamin Zephaniah
Bloomsbury Books, London, 2007
(Age 11+) When Jackson witnesses the murder of a teacher by two of the
pupils at his school, his life becomes inextricably linked with that of
the dead teacher's wife, and surprisingly, the killers. Refusing the
counseling offered by the school, he decides that the best way he can
deal with what he has seen is to ask questions, and try to work out why
the boys took the extraordinary step of murder. He enlists the help of
Mary Joseph, the dead man's wife, and goes to the houses of the two
boys to ask questions. The reader will identify with his need, but be
aware that he is stepping into territory where anything could happen.
An involving story of one boy's search for the truth, Teacher's dead is often
uncomfortable as Jackson takes steps which take him to places where
harm can and does befall him. Written by British poet, Benjamin
Zephaniah, the story is poignant and enthralling as we follow Jackson's
path to find the truth. A most realistic story set in the schoolyard
against a background of bullying, violence and intimidation.
Fran Knight
