Simon & Schuster, 2022. ISBN: 9781761107559. (Age:Adult)
Gay Uncle Patrick, aka the Guncle or GUP, has been asked to look after his niece and nephew, Maisie and Grant, after the sad death of their mother (GUP’s best friend from his College days). His brother, the father of Maisie and Grant, has wisely (or possibly unwisely) decided that Patrick is the best option to care for his children while he seeks rehab for an addiction. Patrick is an out-of-work actor whose career on a much-loved series made him famous a number of years ago; he even won a Golden Globe award. His own grief in the loss of his partner after a car accident has left him hollow and he lives an isolated life in Palm Springs – a gay man, with a quirky view of life and an unconventional perspective on many things. The arrival of the children throws a left-field twist to his life. They are grieving (but so is he), and GUP must protect them and support them, but he does it with Oscar Wilde truisms and Gay Uncle Patrick rules that are eccentric, yet filled with an amazing tender wisdom. His almost accidental success at being ‘in loco parentis’ leads Maisie and Grant through the difficulties of grief.
This is a charming story filled with compassion and LGBTIQ flavour, with insights into the life of a caftan-wearing TV star battling his own personal griefs. The eccentric humour of the gay man totally out of his depth as a ‘replacement’ parent is charming and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. All the decisions he makes in caring for the winsome Maisie and lisping Grant would never be recommended by parenting or grief experts, but the children receive his care and wisdom at just the right time. Ultimately, the children and Patrick are given time to rediscover a healthy way to grieve and remember. Along the route of this story there are numerous examples of portmanteau wordplay – beyond brunch, there is lupper; his LGBTIQ neighbours are in a throuple; and alongside Patrick’s quotations from numerous films or plays there is a theatrical treatment of language that is entertaining. This book is an adult book with heart, but not really recommended for a school library.
Subbie and his mate by Corinne Fenton & Mark Wilson
Ford Street Publishing, 2022. ISBN: 9781925804980. (Age:5+) Highly recommended.
Readers who love a heart-warming story and those who love a story about horses are in for a treat with Subbie and his mate. Subzero was the grey horse that won the Melbourne Cup in 1992 and Fenton has written a moving story about his life, first as a winner of the Melbourne Cup and then as the horse that Graham Salisbury, the Clerk of the Course, rode to conduct horses on the racecourse and to help train apprentice jockeys. Later Graham and Subbie went to schools, hospitals and aged care homes bringing cheer to everyone they met as well as raising money for charity.
In the extensive teacher’s notes, Corinne Fenton tells how she was inspired to write the story and met Graham and Subby, getting to know both well. She wants readers to know their story, about how they influenced horse racing and how they brought smiles to the faces of all they met. Her narrative certainly is successful. It was heart-warming to read the story of how an outstanding racer became a horse who with his beloved Graham, raised over $12 million for charity.
The illustrations by Mark Wilson are outstanding. His pictures of Subby and his surroundings stand out. On the front cover Subby looks like a cute old grey horse with a whiskered nose, while other illustrations show him galloping to the winning post in the Melbourne Cup, chasing after a runaway colt at the races and standing calmly with a young apprentice on his back. Wilson has used a variety of mediums, including doing sketches with lead pencils, watercolours, and acrylic paint, all making the horse come alive on the page. In the teacher’s notes he tells of his use of photographs and films to get a realistic picture of Subby.
This would be an exceptional book to use in a classroom if the Melbourne Cup was being discussed, and an ideal one when talking about human-animal interaction.
The setting of a 1987 coastal community unveils life for teens who love the surf and training for Ironman competitions. But within the idyllic setting there is a disaster waiting to happen. Sam lives in a caring family as the eldest of five sons. His mother is inspired by her Catholic faith to be benevolent and generous to people in need, and his father is hard-working but exhausted due to his long commute. Some of Sam’s friends from school are also involved in surf training, but it is Emily who is his oldest friend, even though they have been estranged for some years. When Emily seeks him out because of her need to escape her dysfunctional family circumstances he is thrust back into her life, but it seems she only wants limited help and on her own terms. School life becomes interesting when new girl, Rei, sets Sam’s head spinning. Her social justice focus challenges his status quo thinking. Sam and Rei’s friendship becomes more intense, and later Sam discovers that there are more issues in his friendship circle than first thought. His own problems at home are minor in comparison to the difficulties that others in his social circle are facing. These difficulties explode in unexpected ways and are confronting.
This story does not hide that there is trauma coming, as it foreshadows the final moments of a horrific event with each chapter giving a timeline countdown to this event.Quotes from onlookers and participants are included at the beginning of each chapter and these are an almost light and ill-informed signpost to the coming trauma. Slowly we travel with the lead characters as the circumstances of their lives progress inexorably towards the distressing event. The story is sad, and yet there are lighter moments scattered through the teen drama. Exploration of sexual experience, examining faith issues, and the challenges of school success and working to save for a car as a symbol of independence are also woven through the story. This story reminds me of Nova Weetman’s Everything is Changed in that we are never unaware that the story will end sadly. Only readers who can cope with the difficult violence of the story should read this book, it is not for the naive. But if it stirs the reader to think compassionately about the struggles some teens face and of life in the era before mobile phones. It is worth recommending, but the gritty details of social distress are quite confronting.
Themes Grief, Poverty, School-based drama, Mental illness, Family dysfunction, Family life - 1987, Violence, Abuse, Murder-suicide.
Carolyn Hull
Warna-Manda baby: Earth walk by Susan Betts and Mandy Foot
Little Book Press, 2021. ISBN: 9780645027020. (Age:3+) Recommended.
An Earth Walk in which Allurra becomes connected to her home and instilled with knowledge of the environment and that of country will enhance young children’s appreciation of the multi layered aspects of the land around them. Not only a place to explore or walk over, but a place to see with different eyes, to come to see it as a place we need to protect, a place with history and presence. Just as Mother Earth fulfils all our needs, so too she needs looking after, and from the land and sea and sky above, she is watching over us all. Allurra walks on, following footprints which guide her, watches the birds in the sky, the animals on the ground, seeing the shiny star up above her head, reminding her that all is family, all is there to guide and protect. And she is part of it all.
The soft, brightly coloured illustrations use a range of Aboriginal motifs, stars, footprints, bird prints, circles and dots to engage the reader. The journey Allurra takes is well shown as she walks over land and near the sea, a continuous flow along the bottom of most pages. Children will enjoy looking out for known objects. And will enjoy practising the words given a the end of the book.
Published by Little Book Press, as part of the Raising Literacy Australia organisation which aims to enrich children’s lives through literacy, this book is one of several reviewed in Readplus. Check them out: Shoo you crocodile!, Look Baby! and My first baby Australian animals. Raising Literacy Australia can be found here.
Their books are published by Little Book Press which has an extensive catalogue to be downloaded, with facts about the books, how to use them as well as information about the authors and illustrators.
Mischievous and witty, Beedle the Bard's stories are a deeply satisfying read in the tradition of all great fables and fairytales. Kindnesses are rewarded and selfishness shown to be the ruin of many a wizard. Burping cauldrons, hairy hearts and cackling stumps are met along the way. Each tale is brought vividly to life with Riddell's trademark wry humour and elegance. (Publisher)
Verdict: The tales of Beedle the Bard really help to flesh out Harry Potter's story, especially the last few books.
The illustrations are really good. They are masterly drawn. I feel that those people who enjoyed the Harry Potter books would really like this book.
Tommy K. (Age 11)
Themes Magic, Wizards, Sorcery.
The rising tide by Ann Cleeves
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.
