Reviews

Nation by Terry Pratchett

Shifty by Lynn E. Hazen

Allen and Unwin, 2008. ISBN 9781741755909.
(Age 12+) Soli, whose nickname is Shifty, because he shifts in and out of trouble, has a new foster mother Martha, and new foster siblings, Sissy and baby Chance. Martha is the sort of person who trusts 'the good in people, even when the bad part is showing up more than anything else', and Shifty is happy to stay with her. However a new social worker is critical of the care being given, and Shifty is up to his old tricks of driving a car without a licence and parking illegally. Can he manage to stay out of trouble and make a new home for himself?
An engrossing and heart warming story; this book draws the reader in from the first page. Shifty tells his story in his own words, which are often humorous and heart-rending and he makes the characters in this tale come alive. He discounts any accountability for his actions, moving the blame to other people when he gets caught, but Sissy, scarred and withdrawn, is able to show him that he can take care of others and be more adult. Shifty in turn is prepared to act as Sissy's big brother and help give her a feeling of family. Martha, their foster mother, is such a big hearted woman that the reader is cheering her along in her attempts to keep this little family intact.
This is a rewarding book. It describes the trauma of being an abandoned baby, in the case of Shifty, or coming from a cruel, abusive family as Sissy has, or a mother on drugs like Chance. The need to belong and to be loved and the importance of family are emphasised. The strong themes of family love, homelessness and taking responsibility for your own actions are portrayed very well, and reluctant as well as able readers will enjoy Shifty's exploits and angst.
Pat Pledger

There are cats in this book by Viviane Schwarz

Walker, 2008. ISBN 9781406300949
(Age 3+) Highly recommended. What an innovative novelty book! The story starts with the text on the inside section of the dust jacket, instructing the reader to 'Come play with the cats in this book, Tiny, Moonpie and Andre' and instead of a title page, the text reads: 'The cats aren't on this page'. The reader is invited to turn the pages and play with the cats, winding wool, exploring cardboard boxes, having a pillow fight and being flooded with fish.

The brightly coloured cats are adorable and Schwarz has drawn each one with its own identifiable face and character. The book has strong flaps that lift and the cats involve the reader in what's happening by requesting that a page be turned, or a cat be helped.

With wonderful illustrations that are bold and brightly coloured, a story that pulls the reader in and the fun of a pop-up book, this is a winner as a read aloud, a bedtime story and a beginning reader. Walker Books have even provided knitting patterns for each of the cats!
Pat Pledger

Roland Wright at the joust by Tony Davis

Ill. by Gregory Rogers. Random House, 2008. ISBN 978174166329 7
(Ages: 7-12) This book highlights many positive human qualities, including friendship, loyalty and perseverance. It is the third novel in the Roland Wright series and shows Roland's progress as a page at Twofold Castle.
Roland, supported by his pet mouse Nudge, is continuing on his path towards becoming a knight and has been improving his sword fighting and jousting skills under the mentorship of his hero, Sir Lucas.
While Roland is looking forward to his first tournament, Jenny Winterbottom, a neighbour from his home village, unexpectedly arrives at the castle and becomes a surprising ally of Roland. The startling events of the tournament and the tension created by the antagonistic Hector, significantly impact on Roland's attitude. He achieves a greater understanding of what it truly entails to be a knight who maintains a sense of courage, loyalty and compassion, in spite of the unfortunate events that often arise in life. Roland is taught to remember the difficulties and rejoice in the triumphs.
Tony Davis appears to have thoroughly researched the medieval era and any unfamiliar terms are unobtrusively explained within the story. This novel can be easily read and understood without reading the previous books in the series. The characters are well rounded and all make important contributions to the plot and the illustrations and language are charming and often comedic. This story is likely to absorb children's attention as they begin to care about Roland and his ambitions and want to accompany him on his future adventures.
Louise Illingworth

Black ships before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff

Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2008.
ISBN 9781845078270
(Ages 10+) Black ships before Troy is the retelling of the story of The Iliad, the tale of the Greek ships going to Troy to take back Helen, taken by Paris, the son of the king of Troy. This book tells of the nature of the god of discord, Eris, leaving a golden apple before the three goddesses, with the words, To the fairest, written across it. This caused the discord which finally erupted into the Trojan Wars, and so set in train the events which followed. A fabulous retelling which will appeal to upper primary readers.
Fran Knight

Say hello by Jack and Michael Foreman

Walker, 2007
(Ages: 5-8) A deceptively simple picture book with a powerful message, Say hello tells the story of a young boy who is left out and all alone, watching while other children have fun playing together. 'When someone's feeling left out, low, it doesn't take much to say... 'Hello!' is the underlying message.
Michael Foreman's sparse black and white illustrations alleviated with some blue lines and a red ball, complement the story's theme of loneliness and sadness and bring to life the longing of the isolated boy to be part of the group. The joy on his face when he is included is a delight.
This picture book is on the 2009 Cilip Kate Greenaway Medal longlist and is sure to help children to identify with those who are left out of activities. The idea of just saying 'Hello' is a simple way to helping children to feel included. The end papers contain many different words for saying hello and will be fun to use. Discussions about loneliness, friendship, inclusion and bullying could be engendered from the book.
Pat Pledger

The Game Players of Titan by P.K. Dick

Voyager, 2008.
(Age 15+)Unfortunately, the late P.K. Dick is probably best known for movies made from his stories rather than the books themselves. As the man behind such iconic movies as Bladerunner and the Arnie cult classic, Total Recall and more recently Speilberg's Minority Report, it's sometimes easy to forget just how great a writer Dick really was. Although not his most well known work, and certainly not his best, The Game Players of Titan explores many of Dick's trademark themes; the nature of reality, artificial intelligence, psychic powers and drug (or otherwise) induced hallucination.
The story, set in a post apocalyptic America, centres around one of Dick's typically neurotic protagonists, Pete Garden, who we are told has just gambled away his wife and half of California. Devastated by war with an alien species and wracked by radiation, the Earth has cooked up a way for the virtually sterile population to rebuild itself; a privileged group of people gamble vast swathes of property and spouses in the hope that ultimately they will have 'luck' and produce offspring. The concept is weird, even for Dick, but it makes for an interesting plot. The story begins with Pete trying to find a way of re-winning his beloved Berkley, at the same time warding off his suicidal tendencies. However, the story quickly develops into a thriller in which nothing and no one is quite what they appear to be.
Although not a masterpiece like The man in the High Castle or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, The Game Players Of Titan still manages to entertain and perplex in true Dick style. Dick is always asking us what it really means to be human and that's what really sets him apart from most other sci-fi novelists. His characters are painfully human and their fallibility makes them, and his books, all the more likeable.
Michael Pledger

The volcano book by Dr Gill Jolly

black dog books, 2008. ISBN 978 174203027 2
(Ages 8+) What a delight to hold and read all that is the best in presentation, design, photographs and writing of an information book. Kids will love to read this book from cover to cover or dip in to gather information, or read a chapter or two before bed. Subtitled, Erupting near you, the book entices the reader with a cartoon volcano as the A in the title word, and the stunning picture on the front of a group of houses in the foreground with an erupting volcano behind. What child could resist opening the book? Inside the interest level is maintained with maps, photos, illustrations a glossary and short index. Each double page spread sets out one of the volcanic eruptions, such as Krakatoa, Vesuvius, Mount St Helens, and Stromboli, amongst others. Each has a side panel with a map and a drawing about the volcano. The information given is concise, but with enough detail to satisfy the middle and upper primary reader.
Each photograph used is an eye popping experience, giving the reader a bird's eye view of what molten lava is like, or a body from Pompeii, or a school bus buried by lava, or the destruction of Montserrat. The photos chosen will have students' imaginations running wild with excitement. The last two pages are devoted to several escape stories, and these round the book off nicely.
Again, black dog books has produced an information book that serves as an exemplar to other publishers.
Fran Knight

One beetle too many by Kathryn Laskey and Matthew Trueman

Candlewick Press, 2008. ISBN 9780763614362
(Ages: 10+) This strange picture book, concerning the life of Charles Darwin is neither one thing nor the other. Written in the form of a wordy story, it purports to be a biography, presenting Darwin's early life, culminating in the voyage of The Beagle in 1831. He collected specimens from all over South America, filling the ship with animal bones never seen before; shells collected from the tops of mountains and finch skulls from the Galapagos Islands. He sometimes came into conflict with the captain of the ship, over the ideas developing in his remarkable brain, questioning the story of the ark and the great flood of the Bible.
Back in England he spent many years, refining and developing his ideas on how the animals of the world emerged. His first published book, his journal of the voyage of The Beagle, appeared ion 1839, and his tome which described the ideas he developed, On the origin of species, finally appeared in 1859, with similar success as the journal, but arousing much controversy. Laskey devotes much space to the idea prevalent at the time, that god created the earth, man and the animals, trying unsuccessfully to explain why Darwin's book was controversial.
So we have a biography/picture book, attempting to make Darwin's life and ideas accessible to readers in junior primary school, but using a text that is difficult to read and illustrated in such a way that makes Darwin an eccentric cartoon character. The facts given in the book are sound but if it is to be an information book, why not use the marvelous techniques used by better non fiction publishers: time lines, fact boxes, side panels, photographs etc. I missed that reinforcement of information, and came away with just a story of a strange man who did not discipline his children. People wanting information about Darwin and his ideas will need to look further.
Fran Knight

Lord of the animals by Fiona French

Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2008. ISBN 978184507916 1
(Ages: 4+) This retelling of a Native American Creation Myth was first published in 1997, and tells the story of how man was created by the Coyote which created the world. Each animal is asked what he would have as the lord of the animals, but each has a different idea, based on their own attributes. Coyote asks them to fashion their own idea in clay, and then as they sleep, their clay models are swept away by the river, and only the one made by Coyote remains.
When he breathes life into his model, man stands up with the legs of a bear, the sight and hearing of the deer, the skin smooth like a fish, and with his ability to swim, and most of all, the cunning and cleverness of the coyote.
Fiona French uses the patterning of the Indian Nations to fashion her bright, angular drawings, recalling the detail on the hem of the Indian woman's dress, the decoration at the top of the tipi, the saddle on the horse and the armbands on the warrior. The story is taken from two sources quoted on the publication details page, and is a story of the Miwok Indians of what is now California. The book, a reprint, is a beautiful introduction to the myths and legends of the Native Americans.
Fran Knight

Stories from the billabong by James Vance Marshall and Francis Firebrace

Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2008. ISBN 9781845077044
(Age: 8+) I approached this book with trepidation. The cover, colour and illustrations all reminded me of many illustrated books from the 1950s and 1960s when books of Aboriginal stories were first produced, without Aboriginal verification or involvement and told wholly from a European perspective. These books told Aboriginal stories as if there was one nation, without regard for the variety and difference between the groups spread over an area larger than Europe.
Dipping into this book I found, initially that I was wrong. There is regard for Aboriginal ownership. Stories are authenticated and the illustrations are done by Francis Firebrace, a Yorta-Yorta man from the northern Victoria, southern New South Wales region. Acknowledgment is given on the fly leaf that the stories are from the Yorta-Yorta people, and in the introduction on page 6, a nod is given again to those people.
But going further, the stories are from a range of areas. They are not all from the Yorta-Yorta people, nor do they remain in the Murray River district of western Victoria. The stories range from Central Australia (The lizard-man and the creation of Uluru) to Northern Australia (Why brolgas dance and How the crocodile got its scales) to Queensland (Why frogs can only croak). And I cannot imagine many of them being told around a campfire in the Australian desert, as most are set in much wetter areas.
So I was disappointed. There is a need for a well illustrated, educational book of authenticated Aboriginal stories reflecting the range and variety of Australian flora, fauna and land forms, involving Aboriginal people in all stages of production, but this is not it.
Fran Knight

Paper towns by John Green

(Age 13+) This deliciously funny story about the relationship between two people, Quentin, Q to his friends, an 18 year old unspectacular nerd and his next door neighbour, the beautiful and most unpredictable Margo Roth Spiegelman, will have readers rolling with laughter. The opening chapter details one night when Margo, distraught by the fact that her boyfriend is sleeping with another, takes revenge. And what revenge. She wakes Q in the middle of the night, enlists his help with his mother's car, and takes him to a supermarket where he buys a strange assortment of disparate goods, then spends the night with her, exacting revenge on the people who have been a part of the conspiracy to keep her boyfriend's liaison secret. During the course of the night, Q sometimes detects a wistfulness which is unlike his strong, confident friend, and he is aware that her strings may be coming unraveled.

When over the next few days, Margo fails to turn up at school or home, her parents, tired of her antics, change the locks on their door. Q is distraught, and following what he believes to be clues left behind by Margo, becomes closer to her than he ever imagined. He drives large distances across Florida, using Whitman's Song of myself as a guide, tracking down the places she has stayed.

But it is graduation night that he finally assembles the clues, and works out where she is. Together, he and his three friends drive to New York State to find her, and her paper town. What could have been a sentimental journey becomes one of revealing themselves to their friends, and Q realising that no one really knows another. Although he has lived next door to Margo all his life, he doesn't really know her or what motivates her. A funny, sometimes desperate look at friendship and relationships, this novel will be eagerly read by middle secondary and senior school readers, and impel them to look more closely at those around them.
Fran Knight

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

Bloomsbury, 2009.
(Age 11+) Highly recommended. The harrowing story of slavery in the Americas is given full reign in this tightly controlled story about Isobel, a young girl, who along with her five year old sister, Ruth is sold onto another after the death of her mistress. The girls had been told they would receive their freedom, but the person to whom they are sold treats them with disdain and coldness. The plight of young girls, slaves in a household, where they are expected to be up before dawn and go to bed after everyone else, is told in punishing detail. Living in New York, the fact that it is 1770, adds a greater terror to their lives.
The American War of Independence is all around them, in their household where the owners are loyal to the British, to the streets crammed full of soldiers, to the shops, closed through fear of reprisal, to houses being burnt to the ground, to the prisons where captured American soldiers are starved and left to rot, their naked bodies thrown into common graves. The air is full of war and spying and death, and Isobel becomes a go between for several captured soldiers and their officers, allowed to live in boarding houses.
It is a time of fear and retribution, and Isobel knows full well to stay out of her mistresses' way, but falls foul of her often enough to incur dreadful punishment. This amazing story will thrill its readers, and they will gain an awful insight into the role of slavery in the foundation of the United States of America, and the personal lives of girls taken from their parents and made to live lives of drudgery and fear. Isobel's story will be continued in the sequel, Forge. Highly recommended for upper primary and lower secondary readers.
Fran Knight

Tender morsels by Margo Lanagan

Allen and Unwin, 2008. ISBN 9781741147964
(Age 16+) Published as an adult book in Australia, and young adult in the US, this is an engrossing, horrifying tale of Liga, a young girl who is abused by her father and raped by a gang of village youths. Liga lives in a medieval-like community, where there is little help for a young girl and less compassion for one who has a fatherless child. Unable to tolerate her situation any more, she mysteriously manages to retreat to an alternative universe where all the people are kind, and where she brings up her two children, quiet Branza, and inquisitve Urrda. It is a world which lacks conflict and danger. Inevitably the real world intrudes on the trio in the form of a dwarf looking for treasure and boys transformed into bears, and Urrda, longing to explore, makes her way across the border to reality. Eventually all three must adapt to a place where good resides beside evil and kindness beside cruelty.

The first section of this book is harrowing with its descriptions of incest, abortion, gang rape and the effect it has on Liga. I felt unable to continue with it and put it aside for a couple of months until positive discussion on Adbooks, an online US based young adolescent literature group, motivated me to finish it. The second half was less traumatic and very thought provoking. How much can we live in a fantasy world before the real world intrudes? Should we retreat from the real world or live in it fully? How much protection should a parent give a child and when do they allow adolescents to move forward from the safety of the family home? How does a parent help their children when they discover that the real world is often hard and cruel?

Lanagan's writing is superb and she has created unforgettable characters and events. This is not a book for the faint hearted with its violence and dark themes, but it is a memorable coming of age story for a mature and intelligent reader.
Pat Pledger

Victor's quest by Pamela Freeman and Kim Gamble

Walker Books, 2008.
ISBN 9781921150319
(Ages 7+) When Victor is sent on a quest by his mother, the queen, to find a princess to marry, Marigold the gardener gives him a series of small pots containing balms and ointments to use. Knowing that he is not too clever, she gives him strict instructions, and he finds on his quest, that they come in very handy indeed. He gives the wounded bat some salve for its wounds; the blind eagle is given some sight restoring balm, while the witch with the calloused and rough hands is given some rosemary and glycerin to put her right.
Each body that he helps repays his kindness when he finds Valerian, trapped behind a garden full of overly large and ferocious chickens, keeping her captive. Although not a princess, Victor does save her and brings her back to the queendom to marry her, just as his mother instructed.
This delightful story was shortlisted for younger readers in the 1997 Children's Book Council of Australia awards, and has been republished by Walker Books, along with its sequel, Victor's challenge.
Fran Knight