Charlie, hot-headed and street-wise, and Nao well-off and university-educated seem an unlikely pair, but they are on the run, bound together in an escalating series of law-breaking escapades.
One evening 17 year-old Charlie comes home to find a distressed young woman, Nao, on her doorstep, pleading for a place to stay. Inside, they find Charlie’s sister Geena’s drop-kick boyfriend Daryl waiting for Charlie, and demanding the return of the gold bar that he accuses her of stealing.
Within the first chapter we have Daryl dead, and Nao desperate to hide a secret. From there, events spiral and the two girls are forced to take extreme measures to try to stay one step ahead of people out to get them, and their duffle-bag of gold. Styles has written a fast-paced crime adventure with two mismatched, but gutsy heroines barrelling in stolen vehicles through the WA outback. Her descriptions of the heat, dust and sheer distances are vivid, and compliment the tensions of the plot, while the references to mining, the stolen generation, land rights and Aboriginal cultural knowledge anchor it as a contemporary Australian story.
The story in told in chapters alternating between Charlie, Nao and Geena’s points of view, and the tension is heightened as the unsavoury connections between them are uncovered. Despite Nao’s privilege, her absent mother and controlling step-father have made life increasingly difficult for her, while Charlie’s strained relationship with her father is mitigated by the fiercely loyal bond she and Geena share.
Not much is missing in this outback adventure; several murders, physical assaults, abduction, a crooked cop and his mates, stolen gold, car chases, a tracking device, and a smattering of sexual tension make for a riveting read, as the girls make decisions born of desperation, and begrudgingly begin to look out for each other.
'Don't forget to focus on what is right in front of you'.
Ryan is obsessed with livestreaming everything. He wants to get as many followers as his idle Grimmf. Ryan becomes so obsessed with his online world and building his number of followers that he overlooks his best friend, Ishaan.
As Ryan’s obsession grows Ishaan tries to remind him that the friends he has in real life who are there to help and support him when he needs it are more important than the number of anonymous online followers who would drop him the second his content is not of interest anymore. Ryan is not listening to his friend and says some mean things to him. He then finds himself drawn more and more into the online world until one day it really happens.
Ryan finds himself in Grimmf’s studio; he believes that his sister has drugged him and is playing a prank on him. As he slowly realizes it is not a prank, Ryan starts to worry about how he is going to get back home. Will his best friend talk to him and help him or has he gone too far? He finds that he is unable to say or type his own name from the online platform. Ryan is finally able to enlist the help of his best friend and sister to get him home and to help all of the others who have been trapped in Grimmf’s online world to also get home.
A well set out easy to read book, I would recommend it to anyone obsessed with gaming.
Set after Kemmerer's Cursebreaker books, this is a cleverly written book, with the chapters written from the perspective of the different characters. As the reader slowly gets to know each of the characters you feel you can relate to their individual stories, and this changes the reader's opinion of the different characters. You start to feel like you know one of the characters and then you get more information from another characters point of view and your opinions change. As you read this book you are constantly changing and reassess the characters, are they good or bad, which side are they really on, are they loyal to the King or Queen or against them? As you start to learn more about the characters from the other character's points of view it you start to questions their motives.
Callyn and Jax are fighting to save their family businesses and get caught up in something that is much bigger than they realise.
Magic plays a big part of this story, as the story progresses Callyn and Jax are left to question is magic really as bad as they have been led to believe growing up or is there a good side to magic.
This book explores some of the character's innermost feelings as they struggle with what is happening around them and what they have always believed to be right. As the characters grow throughout the book and they start to form their own beliefs, not just relying on what they have always been told, the characters start to see what is really happening around them.
Jeevan was not happy about having to move to a new home because of his mum’s work, but he did share her interest in fossils, and he loves dinosaurs. While riding his bike in the forest he came close to several cool creatures and he let his mind run away with him a bit thinking there were dinosaurs in the forest when they were just ordinary animals. He also encountered some hunters and was able to save a deer from them, but this put him in danger. He manages to escape and get back to his mum’s lab. That night there is a accident there which manages to bring some of the fossils that were left on her bench to life.
Jeevan then realizes with the hunters in the forest they would love to get their hands on a trophy like a T-Rex so he needs to ensure that the T-Rex is safe and also that the people around are safe from it. With the help of the Neanderthal girl, dodo and someone who lives in the forest, Jeevan is able to find a safe place for the T-Rex to live where it can't hurt anyone and where the hunters will never find it.
This is an easy to read novel and the illustrations add another element to the story.
I loved this! It is a wonderful adventure in a world that is damaged. Wanderer is a compelling tale, scary and often thought-provoking. Animals have become extra-violent toward humans; humanity has turned on itself and become soulless, unpredictable, tribal and primitive in their behaviour. And in the middle of this world beyond the present time, a young, lone wanderer and kayaker, Dane, travels to regions unknown with his late mother’s treasured book in a waterproof pouch. In his journeys he encounters another book protector and his unsighted granddaughter, Lana. Dane continues his journey with Lana’s company, each bringing their own hardships and grief to their wandering, and the challenge to protect books continues. The struggle involves escaping the rampaging marauders who make the coastline a dangerous place, and seeking out the few remaining humans who express humanity with caring and a desire to share stories and protect knowledge. Lana especially demonstrates exceptional talents to survive in her new role as a wanderer, but her friendship with Dane must first grow through extreme hardships.
This book is powerfully written, there is tension and drama all the way through the wandering, and moments of violence are ever present and pervasive. In some ways I reflected that this book is like a strange mating of the Brotherband series by John Flanagan and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. It explores the adventure of a quest, with the drama of a world that has lost its connection to literature. Along the way there are references to other ‘stories’ and other books, with a reference to Golding’s Lord of the Flies as a notable connection to the thematic exploration of brutality in society, and The Hobbit as a literature example of a quest to protect something precious. As an example of speculative fiction, it postulates that something awful has happened in the world to lead to the destruction of the ‘Golden years’, this too gives much room to consider the direction of our world and even older readers will find value in reading this book and musing over the ideas that are explored within it. This is an awesome book, but not for the faint-hearted as there is violence at every turn. But the consideration of the idea of the value of literature, even when reading is hard, is worthwhile. This is a book to recommend to mature readers aged 12-adult, they will not want to put it down.
When first faced with the huge tome of 1012 pages, I put it aside, wondering if my arthritic hands would be able to hold it up to read, but once commenced, I had to use every spare moment I had to finish the book. The sixth novel in the Strike series kept me reading on two levels – what was going to happen with the Strike and Robin relationship, and just who is Anomie, the strange moderator of Drek’s Game.
When Edie Ledwell, the creator of a popular cartoon The Ink Black Heart, appears in the office desperate to find out the identity of Anomie who is persecuting her online Robin turns down the case because of too many work commitments. But when she discovers that Edie has been murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the setting for the cartoon she and Strike are drawn into a search for the identity of Anomie. This leads them into unknown and dangerous territory, as they try to work out who are the online players in Drek’s Game and on social media, and who has the most to gain from the death of Edie. Meanwhile, there is some movement in the relationship between Strike and Robin, as both come to a deeper understanding of their own emotions.
Not only is the novel very long, but it is also a challenge to read. The chat transcripts are often in two or 3 different columns on the page and can go over a few pages, and with a multiple of characters with difficult online names to remember, it can be a challenge to sort out what is happening. But of course, that is what makes this novel stand out – it is different, clever and every chat and tweet can be a potential red herring or real clue to bamboozle the reader.
With current themes of cyberbullying, politics, and social media drawn together with the tantalising relationship between Strike and Robin and a complex murder plot, The Ink Black Heart is sure to be enjoyed by fans of the Strike novels including Career of evil , Lethal White and Troubled blood.
Themes Mystery, Crime, Thriller, Social media, Detectives.
This is a fresh new novel combining Indigenous culture and fantasy adventure, in a way not seen before. Lystra Bisschop, winner of the black&write! fellowship for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers, 2018, for her YA fiction manuscript ‘The upwelling’ has now published as Lystra Rose, what seems likely to be the first in a series. Book 2 promises to be ‘The upwarping’.
Lystra Rose brings her knowledge as a surf writer to her fictional creation Kirra, a young surfing enthusiast. Kirra has been having dreams that predict the future, but nobody takes her seriously. So even though she senses that the world is going to come to an end at Jellurgal Point, she has no option but to follow through on participating in the surfing competition to be held there.
In the barrowing waves, her world does come to an end, and she finds herself in another time and space, with Indigenous groups, before the advent of white people. Her life becomes enmeshed with two other young people, Tarni, and Narn, also holders of special powers, N’gian gifts. The three of them have to face the evil Malung, intent on destroying them all.
The story, told from the three perspectives, is interspersed with words in Yugambeh language. Lystra Rose, descendant of the Guugu Yimidhirr people and Birri Gubba people, includes a note on her ties to community and her research with tradition custodians, knowledge-holders and cultural consultants. That is what gives her novel its greatest strength, in its depiction of traditional customs and beliefs.
However, in the process of reading the book, I admit to finding the mix of authenticity and fantasy rather disconcerting, never really sure when to trust what I was reading, not wanting to confuse concepts of Aboriginal Dreaming and magical mysticism. Other readers may thoroughly enjoy this original approach to fantasy adventure writing, combining an understanding of Aboriginal culture with the world of imagination. It’s a new venture in Young Adult fiction that is certain to have its followers.
Little Book Press, 2021. ISBN: 9780645027051. (Age:3+) Recommended.
A story of acceptance and friendship will be well received by younger readers as they explore the realm of fitting in. Bev a giraffe hears the same from everybody, they all comment about her size, not giving any thought to how she might feel about it. The words which describe someone’s size come thick and fast as the monkeys ask her about the weather up there, the meerkats gasp at her hugeness, the penguins think she is gigantic, so she wanders off looking for a friend. She travels through the desert and along the coast until exhausted she needs to find a waterhole. Feeling a soft peck on her shoulder she is surprised to see a little bird. Kev tells her that he likes her long neck and she stands up a little taller. Kev wants to rest with Bev and suggests they find the waterhole, together. Bev’s legs were very tired and she was thirsty but the way to the waterhole does not seem as arduous when she has someone with her to talk to and share stories. They are now firm friends and settle in for the night with a host of other big and little animals.
The value of friendship is paramount to this tale of Bev and Kev. The two are opposites but the lonely giraffe is heartened by the little bird, Kev who sees the positives about Bec’s size. Friends do that for you, heightening self esteem, sharing stories and adventures and none of this will be lost on the readers as they too will be enraptured by the unlikely friendship.
Mandy Foot’s illustrations present the reader with an array of African animals and environments. I loved spying all the different animals and was pleased to see the ingenious list of those in the book in the last endpaper. Readers will love working out what animals are at the waterhole, their eyes resting on the distinctive trees in the background.
University of Queensland Press, 2022. ISBN: 9780702265631. (Age:10+) Highly recommended.
The Wintrish girl offers high interest level and literary value to Middle School readers. It represents the best of fantasy adventure writing. Move over Harry Potter! We have our own Australian fantasy writer now, Melanie La’Brooy, with The Wintrish girl being her first novel for children.
In La’Brooy we are treated to a writer who draws from a depth of worldly and otherworldly knowledge gained from parents who gave her “a childhood overflowing with books…” and from experience drawn from living in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Evidence is in the allusions to creatures that may have been inspired by the myths, folk and fairy tales of multiple cultures. There is a plethora of mysterious talismans, unexpected realms, loopholes, “Eminent Marvels,” royalty, Night Hags, princesses and much more in The Wintrish girl.
In addition to the magical strangeness of the characters, settings and events is an obvious joy in the use of language. La’Brooy is a self-confessed word nerd and editor. Her writing plays out, in its energy and vitality, as a vital demonstration of good literature and a celebration of things that count for something - like libraries, librarians, clever kids, sharp thinking, courage in the face of fear and precision in the use of language. Clever word play dances through every description and piece of dialogue. We have “Malevolence” and “Malevolents” and “Marvelance” and “Marvellous”. We have the panthera (altogether much scarier than a panther). “When will people learn that precision in language counts for something?” (Portentia p. 328).
The core of the book could be when Arthur explains why he and his friends are a threat to the Arylians (p. 343) … “Because we’re different. And if there’s another way of being, then their way isn’t the only way. If there even is such a thing.” A commentary on our times may be within Portentia’s statement… that “The Sword of Destiny is no guarantee that boy will become mighty warrior… both Warriors and Kings must make their own destiny… time passed, and illiteracy and ignorance came into fashion…” (p.329)
The Empire of Arylia is divided into distinctively different realms each severed from the other by impenetrable barriers. Loopholes are found by accident and through magical means. Evil has to be overcome. Our heroes, each different and outcast, form a crew as they face dangerous enemies and discover their separate abilities. The settings and action sequences are cinematic and freshly imaginative. Could a film-maker recreate the escape in dragon’s eggshells down molten rivers of lava, smacked on the way by a Laviathon’s tail or the slow-moving maze of teetering books, precisely “organized according to the Hypatian system, which is based on the mathematical system that all knowledge leads back to the One” in the Librarynth?
Penn, Arthur and Juniper are our thoroughly likeable and courageous heroes. They are, in this book, only just beginning to find that they have talismans and learning about their individual powers. La’Brooy has the reader hanging on the edge of their seat throughout the action-packed The Wintrish girl (Talismans of fate book one)
Readers will impatiently await The Wintrish Girl (Talismans of fate Book Two). Teacher's notes are available.
Fire Reads, 2022. ISBN: 9781728222325. (Age:Young Adult) Recommended.
After a high-school prank goes wrong, leaving her vilified on social media, 18 year-old Riley Ozment decides that the best way to redeem her reputation is to sign up for a reality TV show that she hopes will portray her in a more positive light.
Transported to the TV set on a small island off the coast of Brazil, she and nineteen other teenage contestants must divide into two teams to complete challenges, and avoid eviction. They also learn that the island may harbour a deadly curse, as well as a hidden cache of Spanish gold that they can search for using an old map and cryptic clues. In this, Riley is ahead of the game, as she had previously visited the island with her treasure-hunting father and mysteriously murdered godfather, and has access to an internet-based treasure-hunter chat group.
Written from Riley’s point of view, she is soon as concerned about how she will appear to the other contestants and the TV viewers, as she was about her social media profile. She is constantly worried about making and being abandoned by friends, misplacing trust, and being judged. In this, she and several of the other characters are drawn realistically and sympathetically, mirroring what many of today’s teens experience.
The plot itself is convoluted, with a large cast of characters and a number of surprising twists as their schemes and motives are slowly revealed. The descriptions of behind-the-scenes conditions and machinations are a sobering insight into reality TV. The daily challenges and clandestine dashes around the island following the treasure clues keep the plot moving, and as alliances are formed and romances develop, manipulation, deception and rejection follow.
Originally published as Reality Gold in 2018, the book was promoted as Survivor meets Lord of the Flies. Readers expecting something as edgy as either of these, may be a little underwhelmed, but it is a well-paced adventure with enough action to keep you turning the pages.
Allen & Unwin, 2022. ISBN: 9781760877026. (Age:8-12) Highly recommended.
Living on an isolated property near a remote township in the Pilbara WA, 13 year old Mia finds herself home alone when her mother has to make an unscheduled vet visit to another property. While she is away, an alert is issued for Cyclone Veronica and Mia has to make herself and a household full of farm and rescue animals safe. While weathering the terrifying winds, she successfully protects the house and property, provides first aid to a neighbour, and saves an injured horse.
As it becomes apparent that climate change is responsible for many of the environmental issues that she is concerned about, Mia finds an inner strength, and realises that there are various ways that she and her friends can make positive change.
Both compassionate and capable, Mia suffers anxiety and panic attacks, and is also worrying about whether the arrival of a new girl in town is affecting her relationship with her two best friends, her emerging feelings for her friend Nick, and preparing her persuasive speech for her English class.
This is a simply told but engrossing story that contains many issues that would resonate with readers, together with possible solutions that teens could take on board. As the plot develops, we learn a lot about animals and their care, life in the outback, techniques for dealing with anxiety, effects of climate change, and cyclones. A number of scenes describe animal injury and death, but Mia deals with these with a common sense and can-do attitude.
Without making them the focus of the book, Wolfer seamlessly weaves details about local history, geography and climate, aboriginal sites, the mining industry and tourism into Mia’s story.
The book concludes with Author’s Notes outlining the background facts on which the story is based, a timeline of Cyclone Veronica’s 2019 movements, and resources for further information.
Mia is one in the series of Through My Eyes; Australian Disaster Zones, and teaching notes are available here and here.
This is a heart-warming and believable story: a fine example of writing that both educates and entertains the reader.
In a world where many young people have lived powerless existences in tunnels and hideouts as ‘human rats’, a new Administration and charismatic leader has emerged that implies that she has a solution to the woes that the young teenagers have faced. Taking Ally, her boyfriend Bon, and her friends out of the tunnels and into the re-purposed and commandeered buildings of former high-class hotels, they are set to work in virtual servitude, but always with the promise that better things will come. The discovery of lies that have been told and the fear that they are being used, leads them to take risks to uncover the truth and give them autonomy over their lives. But while they are ‘under guard’ and useful, any action in defiance of authority may also lead to their death. And what is the significance of the symbol of the moth? And where has Bon gone? And can Ally protect her friends by finding answers to questions or has she been conned by deceivers?
This is a book for lovers of Dystopian fiction, as it has a similar feisty female lead character as The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) and The List (Patricia Forde) and the same undercurrent of fear that pervades many Dystopian dramas. There is certainly a real violence that the characters face and the difficulties of prioritising protecting self or fighting against the unscrupulous administration, or coping with the attitudes of fellow citizens who see them only as ‘rats’ or filth, all create a real dramatic background to the storyline. The drama escalates as the teens start to unravel the threads of their existence and the pace increases to the last page, where we realise that there is no immediate conclusion and we must wait for the next book to be published in April 2023! I almost wanted to scream as I was really enjoying this reading journey and had become invested in Ally’s rage against the forces at work against her and her friends. I was whole-heartedly going to recommend this book for teen readers, but I almost want them to wait for the publication of the conclusion, or they too will be left hanging in frustration as I was. Despite that, if you know a reader who is desperate to 'read another book like The Hunger Games', they will also be entranced by The Snow Laundry. Let them devour it now and then re-read it before the April 2023 release.
Highly recommended.
Themes Homelessness, Dystopian society, Human experimentation, Powerlessness, LGBTIQ+.
With the mobility of population in our current age, increasing numbers of children face a lot of change. For schools a mobile student population is so common that it is unremarkable. This does not however diminish the fact that being that new person is always difficult. Hence there is a growth in numbers of books that deal with change. How to be the new person by Anna Branford is such a book.
Branford is author of the equally delightful series about Violet Mackerel. How to be the new person, is told through the clear eyes of ten-year old Hazel Morrison. Hazel loves to secretly make up instructional videos for doing all sorts of things. In the opening of the story this habit is becoming quite frenetic as Hazel feels the residual effect of her family going through a very hard time with Hazel’s older sister Tess. The reader gains a small, limited window into Tess’s issues as would be the appropriate and normal perspective for a young sibling narrator such as Hazel. Extreme bullying resulting in mental issues for the victim (Tess) is alluded to. So serious is the issue that the family have had to relocate. With such an upheaval and such concern for the vulnerable Tess, the younger sibling (Hazel) is quite ignored. We as readers though have a very real insight into Hazel’s problems which seem to go unnoticed by her parents. Hazel becomes increasingly reliant on repetitive list making and increasingly agitated.
The transition to a new school is skillfully described including the all too common uncomfortable, forced buddy system where the embarrassed newcomer is paired up with an unwilling student “friend”. Because How to be the new person is partially set in a current real-life classroom, projects and books typical of current class work are mentioned including Pearl versus the universe and the verse novel Toppling by Sally Murphy. Literally toppling maybe symbolic of what is happening to Hazel. Both Branford and Murphy beautifully evoke small protagonists learning how to deal with the hard realities of life.
A special aspect of How to be the new person is the important and protective friendship that develops between Hazel and the old lady next door called Veronica. The message that change is not confined to when you are young but rather is a life-long issue that has to be faced again and again is an important one.
How to be the new person is a delightful and easy read for mid-primary school age students and an instructional book about learning to accept and deal with change.
There are eleven word for love in the Arabic language and each of these is shown in this impressive picture book, as a family flees their homeland for safety in another country. They carry only a small suitcase, but it is full of the love shared between the members on the family. Their journey reveals the love between friends, that sudden feeling of love when a new baby appears, or the love of strangers showing kindness. Each form of love is shared with the readers, showing the Arabic word and calligraphy for that word. So kindness is al-Hanaan, love between friends, al-Wid. The family knows all the words for love as they become refugees searching for safety. In fleeing they recall cherished moments, particularly of people who have died, and of those who have died on their journey. They recall the love that hits you, the love that keeps growing, the love that makes you yearn for your homeland left behind, but wanting to go back one more time.
All the words relate to someone leaving their country for another, forced to flee, but taking memories and a connection with them that will stay forever in their heart.
The dazzling illustrations reveal a family with a suitcase of love, pictured in postcards and images from an album, underlining the transient nature of their journey, sending cards to loved ones left behind, taking photographs to send to relatives in their homeland to show they have arrived at their destination and as a record of their family together.
There are more than 50 words describing nuances of love in the Arabic language. And this remarkable book focusses on just eleven. Teacher's notes are available.
Themes Love, Family, Refugees, Kindness.
Fran Knight
Uncanny angles by Sean Williams
Wakefield Press, 2022. ISBN: 9781743058923. (Age:15+ - Adult) Recommended for lovers of Sci-fi.
Lovers of Uncanny Angles will have three things in common – a love of the Sci-fi or speculative fiction genres; a profound appreciation of the pleasure of a good short story; and joy in seeing the world and relationships from completely different angles. Sean Williams is a master in all three of these areas, and this is a book that weaves them together in interesting ways. But it is not for the faint-hearted. Williams incorporates quantum leaps in his sci-fi vignettes that integrates matter transfer and transportation via de-materialisation and re-materialisation through his D-Mat booths or machines and the struggles for individuals in love and relationships as they negotiate time and space. Each story has its own ingredients of futurism and science understanding, but each has an underlying element of understanding humanity’s foibles, and some stories are also seasoned with the addition of alien characters. But they are all stirring and sometimes profound. Some stories link, but all are stand-alone experiences and the sparkling power of a good short story shines through them all.
Williams has also gifted the reader with brief explanations of his own inspiration for each of the stories, and this insight is a joy in itself. An extra potential delight is the opportunity to follow the ‘choose your own journey’ suggestions as the route for reading the stories. This means that the reader does not need to read from front cover to back, but can follow a path based on a preference for a ‘type’ of story or a theme to be explored. This ‘quantum leap’ possibility for reading this book adds a personal interactive quality that is intriguing, but I confess I am a little too conventional to have explored this route as I worried that I might miss a story and consequently have missed the ‘largest gem’ along this exploratory path. I do not really love the sci-fi genre, but can see that this anthology of short stories might bring joy to devotees or introduce new enthusiasts to the possibilities of discursive creative thinking.
