Pan Macmillan, 2022. ISBN: 9781509889624. (Age:15+) Highly recommended.
The rising tide, the 10th book featuring the wonderful D.I. Vera Stanhope, is a stunning thriller that left me breathless. It is set on Holy Island, Lindisfarne, the birthplace of British Christianity, where a group of friends meet every five years, celebrating the time when a young teacher took them on a school trip. Five years after the first trip, the beautiful Isobel, one of their members, was drowned in tidal water over the causeway and now Rick, a well-known TV personality, has been found hanged in his room. Vera is called in and begins to uncover secrets from the past.
The landscape of Holy Island makes this a stand-out novel. The island is isolated and windswept, and the tidal causeway can be very dangerous. Vera has no qualms driving through water in her jeep, and I found myself holding my breath in case she was swept away. Pilgrim House, where the school reunion is held, was once a home for nuns and visiting the nearby chapel is a requisite for staying in the house.
Vera is indomitable, mistaken for a cleaner at one time, but determined and clever. She is very persistent and follows her instincts believing that the death of Rick relates to the past and the death of the young woman on the causeway. All the members of the group are vividly described, making it difficult to work out who is the murderer. Is it one of the group or someone living on the mainland who knew them in the past?
Cleeves touches on the theme of sexual harassment and assault and the power men wield over young women in their employment as well as divorce and cot death, all adding depth and background to the story.
Readers familiar with the TV series will have no trouble reading this as a stand-alone, while those like me who have loved the books will be thrilled to have another mystery to devour.
Themes Mystery, Crime, Suspense,Thriller, Murder.
Pat Pledger
Take me with you when you go by David Levithan and Jennifer Niven
An epistolary novel told in the dual perspectives of Ezra and his sister Bea, Take Me With You When You Go chronicles the aftermath of Bea’s sudden disappearance from their family home and small town, including the discovery of family secrets and hard truths neither sibling was prepared for.
Bea leaves with no trace other than an email address hidden where only Ezra would find it, abandoning her brother to face the wrath of their neglectful mother and abusive stepfather. As Ezra learns to navigate the loose ends that Bea has left in her wake, he discovers what it means to be truly vulnerable with those that love you, that love should always be unconditional, and that sometimes it’s up to us to face our own battles - however ugly they may be. Meanwhile, Bea learns that abandoning everything that she has ever known looks very different than she imagined, and that hope can come from the strangest of places.
With twists and turns scattered throughout the novel, Levithan and Niven depict a captivating and heart wrenching chapter of Bea and Ezra’s lives. The dual perspectives juxtapose each other, with each new challenge providing extreme but important messages to the reader, culminating in the mutual understanding that you are worthy of love and acceptance regardless of the hardships that you’ve faced and the ways that you have coped with them. Your story truly is yours to write. At its heart, this is a story of found family and of unshakeable sibling love in the face of adversity. Recommended for readers aged 15 years and older due to the vivid descriptions of abusive family dynamics, and extreme acting out behaviours.
Themes Coming of Age, Sibling Relationships, LGBTQIA+, Romance, Abuse (Family Violence), Family Secrets, Missing Persons.
Daniella Chiarolli
My dad thinks he's a pirate by Katrina Germein. Illus. by Tom Jellett
The endpapers will set kids laughing as they spy the image of Dad from the previous Germein/Jellett My Dad series of books dressed up with an eyepatch and crossed bones. A most recognisable piratical image!
Pirate Dads will be just as popular as children laugh at the humour inherent in a Dad trying hard to be funny. Puns galore along with riddles and knock knock jokes will have the target audience and many older readers laughing out loud. Puns on the word aye, wave, sail, sandwich, sure and so on abound as the family heads for the ocean to spend a day at the beach and fish. More gags are found on the jetty where dad is having trouble landing a catch but digging for buried treasure after having a windy time, sees a chest discovered.
Very funny, involving a wonderful look at family life, in sync with the others in the series, Dad is full of lame jokes, and is endearing and central to the family unit. Children will love seeing him take the family to the beach, one child on his shoulders, fishing with the other while Mum sits of the beach reading.
His continuous run of jokes, riddles and puns make for a very funny read aloud, and kids will pick the book up eagerly for themselves to learn the jokes to share them with their friends and family.
Children will enjoy seeing all the accoutrements of being a pirate, with Dad sporting an earring, an eye patch, a funny hat and left unshaven, while teaching a parrot to talk, carrying a sword and looking for treasure.
Jellett’s illustrations set the scene perfectly, inviting readers into the family, seeing how they interact, looking for clues which underlies their closeness. A wonderfully warm and positive image of family is spread over every page, highlighting the things families do together, modelling a happy involved family group.
This novel opens with a letter written by Eden to her dear husband, Andy Farrelly. In a sad and wistful manner, Eden reassures Andy how much she loved him, and now how much she misses him. Eden tells Andy that he has a beautiful daughter, who will never know how good and lovely her father was, in a deeply passionate tone. She had not believed in the notion of soul mates, but having lost Andy, she realises how much he had meant to her.
Eden is struggling to cope with Andy’s death, but in the letters she writes to him, she tells him how she is managing and how much she loves their daughter, Lila, describing their life together, deeply sad without Andy as father and spouse. She visits the seaside to watch the sun shining on the ocean, the sunsets gloriously reminiscent of their joy in living during their years together. She tells him how devastated she was to lose him, and fills him in with her life in the present time. She has chosen to work as a care-giver, her training as a physiotherapist supporting this choice, as she works with people who are physically compromised, and loves her work.
When Eden bumps into a childhood friend, Rafe, she is captivated by his support of her, and the unlikely coincidence that they have a daughter of a similar age and their girls like each other. Eden is intelligent, and her discovery of Rafe’s PhD in nanotechnology supports her realisation of his work and research as important, as he works in a research laboratory in Dublin. While their emotional, intellectual and physical attraction is immediate, there are issues surrounding this situation, particularly the response of Andy’s family, who are not as supportive as Eden might have hoped.
This vibrant novel is captivating, O’Flanagan plunging us into the world of a very modern and beautiful Ireland, creating a complex world and a narrative where the characters are challenged to meet their situation, and to make appropriate emotional and pragmatic choices. We are drawn into this world as Sheila O’Flanagan presents a world where sudden changes are disconcerting, difficult to deal with, and demanding of our capacity to adapt to a new world. This beautifully written novel would be highly suitable for adolescent and adult readers.
Charlotte, a normal teen with a 'goth' fashion sense and a fascination with death, made a miraculous recovery from a near fatal crash on a school bus trip but suffers from 'visual disturbances' explained by head trauma. Now she sees vivid and disturbing reflections of how people will die. But one of the reflections is not a death scene but someone who can see her and knows her name. The scene shifts to a fight scene two years ago where the man in the mirror kills someone and is incarcerated in ‘Eon Facility' as 'Inmate Zero'. This is Eli whose back story involves an experiment he and a friend, Victor, conduct when they were medical students investigating near death experience where the subject is revived at the last minute with adrenaline. He becomes “Extraordinary” like Charlotte but he regards himself as an 'Avenging Angel' and a 'Sword of God', his mission to kill all 'Extraordinaries'. 'We are proof of the divine and an affront to God'. His superpower is an inability to die so he is able to hunt and kill with impunity. Now he is hunting Charlotte.
The graphics are energetic with strong colours, consistent characterisation and a good flow of frames. Different points of view are used effectively including birds eye, above and below sightlines and interesting effects like foreshortening and breaking out. An interesting twist on the superhero story with a brave female protagonist though I am not sure I really like the God references. This graphic version in V.E. Schwab’s Villains series is sure to appeal to readers of her Vicious and Vengeful novels.
Willa and Woofis a short feel-good story about 8-year-old Willa, her best friend Tae, and her Irish wolfhound companion, Woof. In this story Willa visits her grumpy elderly neighbour called Frank every day. She humours him and softens his heart with her jokes and antics. In turn he tells her stories and gives her crackers and lime cordial. Frank was once a champion pigeon racer but now his life at Sunset Views Retirement Village is restricted by rules. He has one pigeon left called Mimi and one day she goes missing. Willa blames herself and enlists Tae to help find Mimi. One of her strategies to find Mimi results in the neighbours being annoyed by plagues of birds and bird poo. Then Frank goes missing too.
This was a very enjoyable story told by the big hearted and spirited Willa. Her family are equally kind and Tae adds a little bit of eccentricity as he dresses up as a different heroic character each week. There are many comic illustrations throughout the book that match the fun tone of the story. The subject matter is light but broaches matters of respect for others, honesty, and responsibility for your actions. Willa and Woof is very suitable as a class read-aloud or for children who are beginning to read short novels. The next in this new series is due in September. Jacqueline Harvey is of course the author of other popular series such as the Clementine Rose and Alice-Miranda series.
Themes Older people, Birds, Kindness, Honesty.
Jo Marshall
Look inside a coral reef by Minna Lacey Sam Brewster
Despite it being in board book format, this is one for anyone with a new interest in coral reefs, their formation, inhabitants and the secrets they hold. The board book format allows it to have a sturdy lift-the-flap feature encouraging readers to explore further and learn more as each phenomenon is explained in a little more depth beneath the flap. Watch here.
And for those who want to know even more, there are the usual Quicklinks that accompany most of the books from this publisher, including games and activities.
Ren is thoroughly committed to helping her best friends Anna and Jez in their crowdfunding bid to raise funds to take their terminally ill 8-year-old daughter Lottie to Germany to participate in a new drug trial to target brain cancer. While the local community bands together to donate, it’s not enough money, and the search becomes desperate to find more sources of funds. It’s not surprising that the stress starts to show cracks in Anna and Jez’s marriage, and Ren finds herself running ragged trying to be a support to them both, and to little Lottie, to the extent that it starts to impact her own work life.
Ren feels concern for Lottie in the process. The child craves normal childhood fun and friendships at the same time as battling her illness and fear of death. Ren tries to give her some of the fun and laughter that she needs. She would do anything to help Lottie.
But sometimes, when everyone is focussed on one goal, little things are overlooked. Slowly niggling questions start to arise about some things. Anna usually has all the answers, because she has always been confident and highly organised. But the questions build up in Ren’s mind.
This is a thriller with a difference. It moves quickly, carried mainly by the conversational style, in dialogue between Ren and other people. It starts out as a moving family drama, but veers unexpectedly into more of a detective story. I won’t add any more spoilers, other than to say it is a good read that will hold your attention until the last page.
Jazz has had to relocate from the sun and surf of coastal Australia to beachside Brighton in the UK. She is not happy to leave behind her friends and the surfing culture that she loves because of her father’s career move, and now she has to attend a posh new school where everyone treats her like a lemon. If it wasn’t for her cousin Amber (from the original Moonlight Dreamers) and the advice she gives (with the help of Oscar Wilde) she would be forever resentful, lonely and painfully isolated. Making new friends requires her to be proactive, and some Oscar Wilde wisdom connects her to some new potential friends all with the desire to experience more. Slowly the new Moonlight Dreamers discover new directions and new options in their lives and weave together in ways they never thought possible. Jazz’ impetus has forged a new community that provides benefits beyond her own distress, and gives them all an opportunity to look beyond their own problems.
This is a story of friendship and overcoming major and minor dilemmas by working together and daring to dream. It travels into the lives of the young teens looking at their challenges within their families and their relationships, and giving them a chance to see things differently. One of the girls is battling a major health-scare diagnosis, another has to determine whether her current friends are really healthy for her, another has a heart for animals, and Jazz is experiencing the distress of unwanted disconnection from her friends and favoured environment. The story unfolds fairly quickly with some simple twists along the way. It has heart and moments of joy as the girls discover their new connection and the hope of looking at life differently. As Oscar Wilde says, ‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.’
An informative text alongside detailed illustrations about the things you might find in your own back yard is sure to please younger readers as they become aware of what lives around them. An index inside the front cover tells able readers what they will find inside: ladybird, moth, butterfly, snail, spider, bee, termite, blue tongued lizard, green tree frog, garden ant, while the last page shows younger readers how to make a pet rock.
On each double page is an explanation of the animals in question. Half a dozen sentences give a brief outline of the insect and this is mirrored by a page of illustrations that will make readers laugh while a the same time, acquaint them with the main features of the creature.
One double page is about the snail. Half a dozen sentences tell us about this lovely slow moving creature and compares it with humans. We are told he likes the journey not the destination and baby snails would never ask, ‘Are we there yet?’ On the facing page more information is given in the illustrations. A size chart is shown, along with their colour and main food delight, and when the best time to see them is. For younger readers, a host of information told in a humorous way is repeated with illustrations that will inform and delight.
And I can imagine lots of kids and classes delving into their backyards or playgrounds whenever they have the chance.
Themes Insects, Backyard, Common creatures, Humour.
Fran Knight
Sherlock Bones and the art and science alliance by Renee Treml
Allen & Unwin, 2022. ISBN: 9781761065729. (Age:7+) Recommended.
In this book our museum-dwelling mystery-solving trio are back: tawny frogmouth skeleton Sherlock Bones himself, along with his sidekicks, Grace (a live raccoon) and Watts (a stuffed parrot).
The new Art and Science Alliance exhibit in the museum is amazing – it showcases weird and fascinating artworks, animals and plants (some real and some fictional). Best of all the exhibit has brought with it a mystery. Stories tell of a ghost in the Hydra painting that comes alive at night. There are definitely hissing and clicking sounds, and then there are the red eyes …
This story is full of very silly word play that children will love. The graphic novel format keeps the pages turning as readers find the clues and try to solve the mystery alongside our trio. While younger readers will enjoy the story and the fabulous black and white illustrations, older readers will pore over extra details in display signage in the backgrounds – learning some Greek mythology, art facts, and animal information as they go.
Renee Treml has a background in environmental science which makes her writing and illustrations informative as well as an engaging. At the back of this book is a double page spread showcasing three of the museum displays: micro-beasts; factual vs fictional creatures; and weird, wonderful and real wildlife.
Themes Mystery, Teamwork, Science, Graphic novel.
Kylie Grant
Pirate Queens by Leigh Lewis Illus. by Sara Gomez Woolley
NatGeo Kids, 2022. ISBN: 9781426371950.
In 1995, September 19 each year was proclaimed International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Created as a bit of fun by two friends in the US, in Australia, at least, it has become a major fundraiser for Childhood Cancer Support with schools getting involved in a range of ways to support students and friends. According to the Cancer Council, it is estimated that, on average, about 750 children aged 0-14 are diagnosed with cancer each year in Australia with leukaemia accounting for about 33% of cases, and brain cancers, 25% so it is likely that a school will be supporting a student through this - if not yours, then nearby.
Thus, what might have been a frivolous suggestion more than 25 years ago, can now have a significant impact on those we know and this new book from NatGeo Kids can provide an opportunity to investigate the lives of some of the women who were just as fearsome as the more well-known males such as Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, Captain Hook or even Jack Sparrow. As is often the case with history, the past is viewed through a male lens because men were viewed as the gender capable of writing and reading, they became the scholars, and thus wrote the history books which were mostly written to please kings, generals or male politicians and so only portrayed the male perspective.
Thus, even though there have been female pirates since the dawn of piracy, including Ching Shih (aka Zheng Yi Sao) who tormented the South China Sea with her fleet of 70,000 raiders in the early 19th century, our children have grown up with male-dominated images and stereotypes.
Easy to read with lots of detailed illustrations, the author has trolled the few resources that do still exist and this collection of six stories of powerful female pirates who forged their own path is but a small part of the stories of other women whose stories have been lost or forgotten. Spanning the Caribbean, the Irish and North Seas, the Mediterranean and even the Pacific, this is a fascinating look into the lives of these women that had me more intrigued that I imagined and immediately I could see its place in a serious study of these seafarers who not only captivate young readers in folklore and fiction but who also were real and shaped history so that International Talk Like a Pirate Day could have a legitimate place in the curriculum and thus, its associated fund-raising boosted.
Older students might investigate the qualities of leaders and leadership and whether rule by fear is the most successful way, while perhaps the next pirate a younger child draws might even be female!
Themes Pirates.
Barbara Braxton
The brink by Holden Sheppard
Text Publishing, 2022. ISBN: 9781922458643. (Age:15+) Highly recommended.
Plans go wrong for a group of teenagers set on serious partying for Schoolies week, when they end up isolated on a remote island, only just tolerated by the nearest mainland community. It starts out fun, but tensions build, and then when a dead body is found, it all turns into a teenage nightmare version of ‘Lord of the Flies’.
The story is told by three alternating voices, Leonardo, Kaiya and Mason. And whilst the three of them are on the outside of the popular group and each dealing with personal issues, they turn out to be the most trustworthy individuals amid a bunch of highly volatile personalities.
The brink is about young people on the brink of adulthood, trying to find themselves amid parental expectations and the stresses of old friendship groups, and uncertain about the future. And then, as fear mounts, and hopes of rescue fade, they also find themselves on the brink of anarchy and brutality.
It is then that Leonardo, Kaiya, and Mason, each come to their own understanding of what is important to them. They, more than any of the others, find their inner strength and sense of identity.
Sheppard presents issues of anxiety, teenage sexuality, entrenched bullying, anger, alcohol and drug abuse, as well as issues of self-esteem and personal ethics. It reads like a thriller, and is a thoroughly gripping book.
12-year-old Alice England does not have the lifestyle of most girls her age. She lives in the same building where her father runs his funeral and undertaking business, and she works to assist him in preparing the deceased for their memorial farewells. Her own life has been shadowed by its own sadness. She is the surviving twin, although with a permanent impairment, from a difficult birth. Her mother abandoned the family early in Alice’s life, but Alice is incredibly close to her caring and staid father. And it seems that the dead also are able to hint their needs to her. This very unusual environment and her unusual personality leads others to give her a wide berth, but Alice is not very distressed by this. She has a formal, proper and almost sombre approach to life, and does not realise that she is unusual. Her complete honesty with her father adds a unique perspective to her pre-teen life. When George Devenish is brought to the funeral home it seems that Alice realises that his death on the sea-side quay is not all it seems. His unusual ‘sunshine’ allergy and anaphylaxis is not everything there is to know about his death. The otherworldly communication in the story is subtle, but leads Alice to begin investigating. She is also introduced to a potential, although unwilling, new ‘friend’ and companion in the inquiry in Violet Devenish (similarly allergic as her Uncle George). The investigation twists and turns, but it is Alice’s doggedness (and occasional tactlessness) despite opposition that leads her into unfamiliar territory and to an understanding of George’s death.
My concern for this book is for the readers who have experienced recent grief. The discussions about embalming and preparations for funerals are perhaps on the edge of macabre and may be a little raw for young readers struggling with their own losses. Alice has a personality that is both naive and mature, perhaps even eccentric and comical, but it is her unruffled and almost blase and nonchalant response to death that is the most unusual. The twists and turns in this mystery and the understanding of an unusual allergy are intriguing and keep readers turning the pages. There is also a connection to an environmental issue and to some teens who live a slightly edgy life on quayside. Although this book would introduce the murder mystery genre to a younger audience, and in some ways it has a similar, but more modern, appeal to the Enola Holmes series, I suspect that the environment of bereavement may need to be read by those aged at least 13+. School Libraries should recognise the need to protect some psychologically vulnerable readers.
This charming tale begins with a bang when 11-year-old Lisette bursts into the bookshop Arlo is minding. She manages to hide while a menacing monster of a man called Silas scours the place for her. But once Lisette is safe, she presents a parcel to Arlo. He recognizes that it is from his mother who died a year ago because of a car accident. The parcel contains an extremely old, rare book called a grimoire and mysteriously one of the stories within was written by Arlo’s mother. More mysteriously it seems the story is mirroring events that start to take place in the lives of Arlo and Lisette. Over the past year Arlo has been heartbroken and has chosen to live a very quiet life with his kind uncle, who owns the bookshop. His only companion is a smart brave mouse called Herbert. Silas continues his pursuit of Lisette and when she is kidnapped Arlo needs to control his fearfulness in order to help his new friend. What’s more Lisette believes her grandmother died as a result of being hounded by a property developer, Marcellus, to vacate her bookshop. Marcellus is employing Silas to get hold of the grimoire. This all makes for an exciting page turning story.
A lot of things happen in this novel but it is delightful and easy to follow. This is due in part to a lot of dialogue and just the right balance of suspense and magic. Abela enticingly teases the reader into believing that Arlo might actually be experiencing what is happening in his story. Arlo and Lisette are both smart with wonderful hearts and his Uncle Avery and friend Gertrude are comically eccentric. It reminded me of the Eerie-on-Sea series or Jaclyn Moriarty’s Kingdoms and Empires series. It would be a great read-aloud book for children from 8 to 12 years old. Abela wrote it as “a love letter to books, book sellers, librarians and reading” and it most certainly is that.
