Pan Macmillan, 2021. ISBN: 9781529047721. (Age:Young adult, 14+) Highly recommended.
Gone to the Woods is a unique journey of a life – a tale of survival and resilience. Paulsen has written an autobiography which reads as a compelling narrative of the life of a person who has learned to survive, despite hardship and adversity. Written as a third-person narrative, the reader joins the author looking ‘from the outside’ into his difficult life and we are caused to admire Paulsen, the author of the well-known book series which includes the coming-of-age and survival story, Hatchet. Paulsen’s life was never easy. He was born at the beginning of World War II and his emotionally-detached mother was an alcoholic and his purported father was distant - metaphorically and physically. Even as a young child, ‘the boy’ was forced to be independent, seeking his own food and avoiding danger. The book reveals so many examples of Paulsen’s necessary and hard-fought independence and survival, but also of the occasional unexpected eruptions of love and care expressed by others … but not his immediate family. There is even the nod of affection for the librarian in his hometown who wove her gentle magic upon his life. With a focus on his younger years, and the pathos of the neglect he experiences, there is limited opportunity to explore Paulsen’s adult life and we leave him before he has become an author, but with a profound respect for the rough road he has journeyed to get there.
This is a sad story and yet it is uplifting. The third-person view gives Paulsen an opportunity to separate himself from his own life and to give a fictional quality to his memories. This may allow for some inaccuracies in the remembering, but also gives the story the excitement and drama of fiction. Young readers of Hatchet will perhaps be too young to appreciate the clever approach to an autobiography, and the awful horrors of abuse and neglect revealed are confronting, but this is a book worthy of recommendation to a Young Adult audience.
Marie Curie’s story as a female pioneer in Science and her important discoveries led to her becoming a well-known and much revered figure in history. However the story of her two daughters, Irene and Eve, is less known. The three Curie women were all extraordinary in their own right and travelled the world. Marie and Irene shared their scientific research, knowledge and discoveries as well as saving lives in both world wars and wining a number of Nobel Peace Prizes. Eve, the youngest daughter, became a well-known writer, journalist and UNICEF employee.
This new non-fiction release, Marie Curie and Her Daughters written by Imogen Greenburg, is a wonderful record of the achievements of the family. It is told in an easy to read and follow manner which will engage younger fans of autobiographies. The graphic-style images by Isabel Greenburg are present throughout the book and encourage the reader to explore the speech bubbles to find out more personal information about the journey of scientific discovery the family embarked on and their daily life as a family. There are hand-written additions to the text which provide another dimension in maintaining the reader’s interest.
This book is both informative and inspiring and would be a welcome addition to any classroom, school or public library.
Themes Science, History, Women, Nobel Peace Prize.
Kathryn Beilby
The world made a rainbow by Michelle Robinson. Illus. by Emily Hamilton
The World Made a Rainbow was written in response to the amazing array of rainbows being displayed in windows across the world after millions of families were forced to stay at home during the first stage of the 2020 COVID 19 lockdown.
Let’s paint a big rainbow to put on display When people pass by it and see it, they’ll say ‘All Rainstorms must end, and this rainstorm will too’ And they’ll feel a bit happier, all thanks to you.
This book is a beautifully written rhyming story which tells the journey of one child who feels cut adrift from all that has been familiar. She misses her friends and her Grandma and has to deal with parents working at home as well as the family being together day in and day out. The lockdown was likened to a rainstorm that would eventually pass and then out would come a rainbow so the young child starts to create a rainbow out of paint and collage. With help from her family she spreads the message of hope that things will get better and the future holds many new adventures. The appealing illustrations are bright and colour and will catch the young reader’s eye.
This is a perfect story to read aloud with Early Years students although older readers will relate to its important message of hope in a difficult time.
Dr Philip Taiwo has been asked to delve into the killings that have become known as the “Okriki Three”. His studies into racial crimes in the US earned him his Masters and a Doctorate. Now back in his native Nigeria a rich, influential and bereaved father wants answers and perhaps revenge.
When flying to begin his mission he meets his first and by no means last warning that his job will be fraught with difficulties and antagonism. He is met at the airport by Chika, who will be his driver, mentor and sounding board.
The “Okriki Three” were three students from the nearby university who were suspected of theft by the locals of Okriki, were set upon beaten and then “necklaced”. All of which was recorded on phones by bystanders. Philip Taiwo is at a disadvantage because he has been away in the States and is unaware of many of the developments in Nigeria particularly in rural areas.
The case is now three years old and the police, the university and the populace of Okriki have no desire to reopen old wounds. Philip and Chika are looked on with suspicion. They are foreigners. When their investigation becomes clear that suspicion turns to anger, aggression and puts them in grave danger.
Light Seekers is Femi Kayode’s first novel and his settings give the plot a new dimension. The tensions he reveals, political, racial, religious and social give an insight into a country we know very little about. As his narrative unfolds so do the complexities of life for ordinary Nigerians alongside their search for their rightful place in society. This in the end also leads to their propensity to be used by those who can manipulate. Unfortunately this has become so much easier with social media being accessible to all.
Kayode has written a crime thriller which keeps the reader thinking and wanting to know more right to the end. I thoroughly recommend this book.
Themes Nigeria, Crime fiction, Murder.
Fran Knight
Maxwell's demon by Steven Hall
Text Publishing, 2021. ISBN: 9781921922718. (Age:Adult - Senior secondary)
Thomas Quinn’s life is not all it could be. His father was a famous man of letters, poet, journalist and war correspondent. Thomas is noted only for being Dr Stanley Quinn’s son. His wife is away on Easter Island on a long term research project and they connect via video link. He watches her sleep along with thousands of others via the web.
Thomas wrote a book six years ago, but nothing significant since. Life is frustrating! When his father’s old assistant Andrew Black, the author of a very famous novel Cupid’s Engine, contacts him, his life begins to spin out of control. Since publishing Cupid’s Engine, Black has been reclusive. He gives no interviews and has vowed never to publish again if his work is published electronically.
Steven Hall has written a novel which is intriguing - the initial story of Thomas Quinn draws the reader into his thoughts and problems. However when Hall delves into the philosophical, theological and scientific world it left me frustrated. The references to entropy, angels, the Second Law of Thermodynamics and Biblical theories were not where I wanted to be led by a narrative that was on the surface a mystery.
The eventual solution found by Quinn after painful self doubt and questioning of his own sanity was as unsatisfactory, to this reader, as the concepts suggested by the author throughout the book. Maxwell’s Demon may be innovative but I would have enjoyed it far more without the innovations.
Mark Knight
Themes Mystery.
Footprints on the moon by Lorraine Marwood
University of Queensland Press, 2021. ISBN: 9780702262838. (Age:11+) Highly recommended.
In 1969 there is a lot happening – the Vietnam War and conscription are hot issues, and travel to the Moon has become a possibility. But in this environment growing up is still hard and friendships can be lost and gained. For Sharnie, her relationship with older sister Cas has started to fray, and becoming a high-schooler has exposed some difficulties with her old friend from Primary school. Fortunately, Grandma can be trusted as a listening ear and support, but even she is changing . . . and she won’t always be around. The political environment of the Vietnam conflict infiltrates into family dynamics and Sharnie has to work out her place in the world and how to exercise the power of her own voice and work out what mark she is going to leave in her world. This gentle coming-of-age verse novel, set in a time of change, is a testament to the power of this genre to address issues and to use language poetically and powerfully.
Addressing serious issues involving family dynamics, death and grief, school intimidation and war conflict, but doing so in a way that has a light touch and occasional dashes of humour, this book is worthy of attention. Marwood is a master of this genre. I could also see this as a text for Middle School English classes. This is a story to be recommended highly for readers aged 11+. Teacher's notes are available.
Themes Family, Death and grief, Vietnam war, Protests, Moon landing, Coming-of-age, Verse novel/Prose poetry.
Layla is back! That funny headstrong and impetuous girl that captured our attention in You must be Layla has now got her sights set on the global Grand Designs Tourismo, and the chance to travel the world to meet great inventors. Things look like they are going her way until, out of the blue, her family gets news that Habooba, her beloved grandmother, is ill in hospital and they need to fly back to Sudan to take care of her.
Layla is distraught because she loves inventing things, and the competition is something she has worked so hard towards. At the same time, she loves her grandmother, and her Sudanese family is very important to her.
This second novel by Abdel-Magied is more subdued than the first, Layla is a little older, and the first chapters fill in a lot of the events of the previous book for the reader coming fresh to this story. It includes serious issues such as the Sudanese protests calling for a new government, and problems in Sudan with lack of water, unreliable electricity and accumulating rubbish. There is also Layla’s struggle to work out where she belongs, torn between the very different worlds of Sudan and Australia.
Abdel-Magied’s second novel for adolescents has strong moral lessons about listening, respecting elders, consideration for others and working as a team. Along the way, we learn more about life within the Sudanese-Australian Muslim family, the values, the prayer time, and the adjustments between country of origin and their new home in Australia.
A fast moving story of coming out to difficult and traditional families/communities in the deep south of Kentucky. To Phil Stamper’s credit, 17 yr old Marty defines himself predominantly as an Oboe virtuoso and someone affected by lifelong anxiety, rather than solely a frustrated young homosexual coming out in tandem with his English cousin - with very different repercussions.
Both musicians are ambitious and even though Marty’s failed entrance audition to the Knightsbridge Academy of Music in London, caused by his anxiety and his parents’ reaction to his coming out, he quickly escapes to London after he graduates, where he can be fully accepted. His Aunt and his cousin Shane’s mother, welcome him with open arms under the pretext of attending a 3 month program at the Academy. But only Marty and his close circle of friends know his term in London is a ruse to emigrate for good, and secure a job as a musician.
Problems arise as he becomes attracted to the Academy bad boy, Pierce. Astutely, Pierce is not entirely self-interested but critical of the dependence Marty had developed for his former American bestie, Megan, who seems to continue to manipulate him from afar.
This is a very detailed memoir, alternating back to Marty’s diary of the turbulent trip to London with his parents, a year prior. The narrator is mindful of his thoughts and triggers and we are privy to his decisions - mostly healthy but for a burgeoning eating disorder. First love is unpacked and not too graphically. Teens may be shepherded by Marty, who is managing his weaknesses and both aware and proactive about the balancing act between opportunity and vulnerability - always tricky in adolescence.
Navel gazing narrators are cathartic but Stamper touched on one or two expansive issues to make this funny antihero even more edifying. High praise comes from Caleb Roehrig…”A heartfelt and unvarnished portrait of the growth queer people experience when they finally set themselves free.”
Topical, given a law to ban conversion therapy in Victoria has recently been proposed.
Themes Bildungsroman, LGBTQ.
Deborah Robins
Wow in the world : The how and wow of the human body by Mindy Thomas and Guy Raz
Pan Macmillan Australia, 2021. ISBN: 9781760559991. (Age:8+) Recommended.
WOW in the World: The How and Wow of the Human Body presents a factual and amusing investigation of the human body. The book offers a detailed contents page with clearly set out titles with minor headings listed under each main body part. The personal introduction encourages the reader to read the parts that are of interest rather than reading it from front to back, as well as discussing it with family and friends. The graphic images and colourful pages draw the reader’s attention to the facts covered. The Puberty and Poop sections will be of great interest to many readers as well as the coverage of the Butt!
The authors have cleverly used different types of font as well as coloured text boxes highlighting important or interesting facts. These facts are also broken up into Fact Snacks, Record-breaking WOW, WOW tips and Share the WOW. The Thank you Letter to your Body is an entertaining activity to be done in pairs. At the end of the book there is an extensive glossary and index as well as source notes and photo credits. There is a bibliography and recommended reading page and a recommended listening page with QR codes.
This book would be a welcome and valuable addition to school or home library. It provides children with an enjoyable and humorous easy to read factual account of their body.
Themes Biological Science, Human Body, Humour.
Kathryn Beilby
The boy from the Mish by Gary Lonesborough
Allen & Unwin, 2021. ISBN: 9781760525880. (Age:15+) Highly recommended.
Beautifully written, this is a gentle romantic story about Jackson, a young Aboriginal boy gradually coming to terms with his sexuality and his attraction to the new guy just out from juvenile detention, taken under the wing of his Aunty Pam. Jackson and Tomas are thrown together, when Pam's family comes to stay over Christmas, but the wariness slowly gives way to a tentative friendship and collaboration on Tomas's writing project, and then the beginnings of a deeper relationship.
There are plenty of tough issues brought up in the novel: racism, bullying, homophobia, victimisation by police, and alcohol abuse, but the strengths of the Aboriginal community, the family, camaraderie of friends, and the care and spiritual guidance offered by elders shines through it all.
But most moving of all is the love story – there are moments that will bring tears to your eyes. Lonesborough has said that he wanted to write a book that didn’t exist for him when he was young – a YA story featuring an Aboriginal LGBQTI+ character. You can hear him discuss the genesis of the novel in a Booktopia podcast and his hope that it will offer comfort and reassurance for some young readers. But I think any reader could not fail to be moved by this story.
After rereading The girl of fire and thorns series and The empire of dreams, I decided to try the first in The gold seer trilogy, which I had missed when it was first published in 2016. Once again, I had found a book that I could not put down, with a young woman whose courage and determination made it a stand-out read for me, and I rushed to the public library to put a hold on the next two books in the series.
Walk on Earth a Stranger is essentially an historical adventure set in the days of the gold rush to California in 1849 with a small taste of fantasy thrown in. When Leah Westfall’s parents are murdered by a man who wants to control her ability to sense gold, she disguises herself as a boy and sets off west following the trail to California, where gold has been discovered. She experiences adventure after adventure on her perilous journey. She is attacked by bandits on the road, and manages to escape them, but her biggest adventures occur on the trail to California, after she meets up again with her friend Jefferson. She must maintain her disguise, working as hard as the young men on the trail and it is her skills that give her the ability to help the young trainee doctor when the trail master’s leg must be amputated. Her ability to sense gold helps her track a missing child to whom she has given her gold locket to help him be brave, and she is fearless in her efforts to look after other people in the wagon train.
I found the descriptions of the hardships of life in a wagon train on the road to California engrossing and all the characters, both major and minor, came alive for me. Carson also draws a picture of the diversity of the gold seekers, and the prejudice that faced the confirmed bachelors, African Americans and Native Americans.
Readers who enjoyed this may also like the mixture of Western and fantasy in the Frontier magicseries by Patricia C. Wrede, Dead reckoning by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill and Dread Nation by Justina Ireland.
Finbar Hawkins has delivered a confident and accomplished debut with the historical young adult fiction novel, Witch. Quite simply put, Witch is breathtaking. Hawkins writes with a style that is both sparse and lyrical. Chapters are short, dialogue is key and extraneous details are non-existent. The reader can feel, see and hear 17th century England on every page.
The novel tells the story of Evey, also known as Eveline of the Birds, and her younger sister Dill. In the opening pages the sisters watch their mother being beaten to death by self-authorised “witch hunters”. Listening to her dying screams fade behind them, the sisters flee across a bleak landscape to their aunt, leader of a secretive coven.
What follows is a story of revenge, bloodshed, friendship and sisterhood. Evey and Dill lose and find each other multiple times as Evey embarks on a one-woman quest to seek justice. Evey’s fraught relationships with her mother and sister mirror many real life situations; they are universal to any time and any place. Hawkins aims to demonstrate that those we love the most are also the ones that can cause us the most pain. It is up to Evey to come to terms with everything that she has lost, before she can appreciate what she has left. Witch is a quick read and the fast pace makes it difficult to put down. Violence and death are constant themes in the novel however, which make it appropriate for more mature young adult audiences.
As a fan of the The girl of fire and thorns series, I couldn’t resist picking up these three novellas, originally published digitally. They were an enthralling read, giving the background to beloved characters in the series. In a note from Rae Carson at the beginning of the book, she writes that when she was an aspiring author, she was given advice “to imagine a rich and unique personal history for every single character, even the minor ones” even though it might not make it onto the pages. Thus, in this trilogy, the reader finds out the secret that Hector must keep forever, when he is a young recruit in the Royal Guard, in the novella The King’s Guard. How Mara got her scars and her immense courage in guiding child survivors from her devastated village is described vividly in The Shattered Mountain. The shadow cats brings to life the rivalry between Elisa and her sister Alodia and gives the reader a glimpse into Elisa’s life as a younger sister.
I picked these up, thinking that I could take a breather from longer novels, and just read a novella occasionally, but as always I found Carson’s plots and characters enthralling, and couldn’t put the book down until I had devoured all three novellas. Of course, it helped that I had just finished rereading Carson’s trilogy and reading the fourth in the series, The empire of dreams.
This is a series for all readers of fantasy, young and old alike.
Themes Fantasy, Short stories, Courage, Secrets.
Pat Pledger
The fabulous cakes of Zinnia Jakes : The tumbling tortoises by Brenda Gurr
New Frontier, 2020. ISBN: 9781921928796. (Age:9+) Recommended.
Zoe Jones is holding her own as a trendy commercial baker but she’s undercover because she’s just a kid. She shares this trait with her dad, a world famous food critic, travelling incognito for the sake of accurate food journalism. Only Dad, Aunty Jam and her BF, Addie, know her true identity – but increasingly it looks as if Polly, top of their class, has her suspicions.
Tensions mount as Zinnia Jakes (aka Zoe) wins the local zoo’s cake design competition, with a gorgeous Galapagos tortoise design. To complicate matters, her class is awarded an invitation to the Wildside Zoo for the launch of their endangered animal display. Since the “Tumbling Tortoises” cakes will be viewed and launched at the opening, Zoe faces the problem of delivering the cakes without blowing her cover.
Family pitches in with ideas, but what ever goes to plan in a gorgeous easy chapter book, featuring an endearing and enterprising young girl of absent parents? This new series based on Zinnia Jakes, and undoubtedly inspired by pop culture demand for reality cooking shows, has everything you could want in a mystery book plot. Plus, readers score Zoe’s full Chocolate Swirl Cupcakes recipe as well as a sample chapter of “Crumbling Castles”.
Recommended for middle schoolers but cover with clingwrap in the kitchen – you don’t want to stain this culinary mystery for the next borrowers. Better, the publisher’s teaching notes for both books in the series so far, contain recipes for these cupcakes and Medieval Gingerbread.
Themes Mystery, Adventure.
Deborah Robins
Florence Adler swims forever by Rachel Beanland
Simon & Schuster, 2021. ISBN: 9781398501355. (Age:16+) Highly recommended.
Florence is one of those people that everyone loves and admires, beautiful, smart and funny. She easily tunes into the imaginative world of her 7 year-old niece Gussie; she befriends Anna, the Prussian refugee; and she has clearly won the heart of the besotted lifeguard, Stuart. She is a champion swimmer and she is determined to break Gertrude Ederle’s record for swimming the English channel. And yet, in the first chapter, something unimaginable happens, the lifesavers haul back her lifeless body from the sea.
This sets the scene for the central premise of the novel – keeping the news of Florence’s death from her elder sister Fannie, confined to a hospital bed in the last stages of a risky pregnancy, for fear of precipitating another premature birth. Hyram, her first baby, survived only three weeks.
It is 1930’s Atlantic city; a time of bizarre exhibition of premature babies in sideshows, speculative money-making schemes, and the ominous Nazi threat gathering pace in Europe. Florence’s family are Jewish; even in Atlantic city, Jews are excluded from prestigious hotels.
Against this backdrop, Florence’s family, friends, and the hospital staff all conspire to keep Fannie in the dark. It is a story of secrets. There is the overarching secret of Florence’s death, but others also carry hidden stories – their father Joseph and the woman from his past; Anna, the mysterious foreigner; Isaac, Fannie’s husband, with his secret schemes; even young Gussie is aware of the many secrets that adults attempt to keep from her.
The story quickly draws the reader in with each chapter presenting the viewpoint of a different person involved in the lie. We see how people handle grief differently, how each is generally good intentioned. The suspense builds as it becomes more and more difficult to hide the truth. I found the story fascinating and breathlessly read on, but must admit to disappointment that though the threads are all neatly tied at the end, the anticipated climax never really arrives. I think there must be another book in the making – about Fannie. How could one ever reconcile being the centre of such a deceit, no matter how well intentioned?
