Reviews

Peppa Pig : George and the Dinosaur

Penguin Random House UK, 2020. ISBN: 9780241392478.
(Age: Preschool) Recommended for fans of Peppa Pig series. Another one in the very popular series, this time the focus is on George who absolutely loves dinosaurs. With his friends Richard and Edmond, he digs in the playground and in the garden, hoping to find the bones of a dinosaur. Then Mummy Pig takes the children to the beach, where Miss Rabbits tells them about fossils. Little did anyone believe that George would discover a huge dinosaur fossils hidden in a big rock. What a stunning find!
As always, the book is illustrated in lovely bright colours and fans will love the sight of George dressed in khaki, carrying a magnifying glass and looking very professional as he searches for dinosaur bones. Children will learn about fossils and the different names of dinosaurs as Miss Rabbit takes the children along the beach, and they will have lots of fun making up a name for the dinosaur fossil that George has found.
A good choice for a read aloud, children will love the connection to the TV characters.
Pat Pledger

The year we fell from space by Amy Sarig King

Text, 2019. ISBN: 9781922268853. 272pp.
(Age: 12+) Highly recommended. This deeply emotional narrative is told by Liberty, who draws us into her life as her family seems to her to be crumbling. When her father decides to leave his family, his two daughters are devastated. His wife seems to accept his choice as an expected one, and he assures them that his decision is for the best. It would be a wonderful book for both adolescent readers and adults, particularly parents and indeed for those who teach them, and is highly recommended for its beautiful writing and compelling sense of the important things in the world.
We learn about the world as perceived by Liberty, and we are drawn into her significantly intellectual rationalisation of their situation as she shares her world with the planets, the moon and stars, and most interestingly, with a meteorite that she found when it fell to earth. The wisdom that she grasps from this other world, and that she draws on from unexpected sources, helps Liberty to understand her situation and to cope with the changes.
Liberty's shining intelligence adds a special glow to the narrative, and as she relates the events, we are privileged to read about her daily life that is perceived through her astonishing level of understanding of the universe. Quirky personal statements that only Liberty can hear, by a star, or a planet, or the moon, or even ordinary objects, imbue this work with a certain something that lifts it out of the ordinary. Through her devotion to our planet, that is at the heart of her world and this narrative, her love and fascination with the universe, and her love of the environment, we realise that she is determined to make sense of her new situation. Glittering with emotions, both positive and negative, this exceptional story is as entertaining, evocative and brilliant as the world of stars itself. Teacher's notes are available.
Elizabeth Bondar

Three by Stephen Michael King

Scholastic, 2019. ISBN: 9781760664053. 32pp.
(Age: 4+) Highly recommended. In a world where he sees creatures with two legs or four or six and eight, even twelve, Three hops and skips through life, wondering at the creatures he sees, hoping that they stay safe in the city where he lives.
He is pleased that those with six legs live underground away from the stamping feet, happy for the eight legs to live in webs above the traffic; he is thankful he has no more legs than he can count, and is happy his legs are no longer than they need be.
But one day he skips out of the city to a place where there are fewer cars and here he finds animals with four legs and two horns, a bird with two legs that lays eggs, a furry animal with two large ears and even larger feet. But his best find is Fern a girl who gets down on her hands and knees and lifting one arm, pretends to have three legs, just like Three. She introduces him to other creatures he has not seen before: a hopping two legs, a flying four legs and even a no legs. Fern takes him inside to meet her mother and brother and together they make four.
This is a gloriously endearing book, one that will make every reader feel warm inside.
The story of friendship is outstanding. Fern and her family take Three in without question, he readily becomes part of the family, eating pancakes on Saturday, dressing up with the brother and singing with Fern. He has filled a spot in their lives just as he has found a family to call his own. And the rounding off of his three legs to make a foursome is a wonderful image for the readers to think about.
Counting the legs on the animals will tickle younger readers, as they take in Three's lack of a fourth leg, noting that he can do what he wants without the benefit of a fourth leg. They will thrill at the creatures in the story, working out what animal they may be from the number of legs, taking note of where they live.
King's detailed streetscapes, reflect the city through buildings and cars and people, but also the little animals that Three spots under the gaze of the people walking by. It begs the readers to look more closely at their environment, urging them not to miss things that are going on beneath their feet. In the country setting too, readers will begin to notice more than the text offers as they peruse each page more closely.
This multi-layered story with its wonderfully evocative watercolour illustrations, will be a often repeated read-aloud in homes, classrooms and libraries.
Themes: Dogs, Friendship, Legs, Family, Counting, Animals, Cities, Disability.
Fran Knight

How to write a great story by Caroline Lawrence

Piccadilly Press, 2019. ISBN: 9781848128149. pbk., 177 pgs.
(Age: 9+) I personally think this would be a great secondary and adult guide to writing too. I actually feel like writing a story now, so I will have this on my shelf in class so kids and I can use it as a reference. Bet it would get kids writing and enjoy doing so. I think every classroom should have a copy. I think it would get reluctant writers writing.
Caroline Lawrence visits school events and workshops talking to children and encouraging them to write. She has now managed to share her best tips in this illustrated guide to creative writing and storytelling for readers and writers aged 9+ and personally anyone at any age. I would recommend this for secondary and adult writers.
So loved reading Caroline Lawrence's guide to writing that I managed to read it in one sitting. Ok, ok a sitting and a half. It was very easy to read and enjoyable. Illustrations from Linzie Hunter in black and white were lively and added humour to the book.
I really enjoyed how Caroline wrote and pulled apart all kinds of stories and movies that the everyday person knows and relate to like Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, The Incredibles, Star Wars just to name a few. Oh yeah, and lots about ancient Greek and Roman mythology.
She explores every aspect of writing, from brainstorming a setting, to creating an opponent and choosing your hero's greatest weakness, like an Achilles' heel. She teaches you about your left and right brain and she uses it. If you want to be a writer there is great advice in this book.
Caroline does mention her books in this guide and how she got ideas for the stories. I am so tempted to read the Roman Mysteries now and then watch the TV series they were made into.
How to write a great story is a must in every library and classroom. Bet it would get anyone writing.
Maria Komninos

Take heart, take action by Beci Orpin

Hachette, 2019. ISBN: 9780734419866. 24p.
(Age: 5+) Recommended. A bright beautifully designed book, the 20 catchy phrases in Take heart, take action will have readers determined to make the world a better place. The twenty ideas contained in this picture book are illustrated on a single page each and written on a solid colour background with the thick dark words inside a picture that signifies what the action means. The reader will see a yellow sun with the words 'Use Clean Energy' typed around it, the words 'Plant Trees' are inside a stylised tree, while 'Eat Less Meat' is inside a mushroom and 'Save Water' inside a green water drop.
The illustrations are strong and memorable as are the ideas and there is something there for every reader to take away. Ideas range from advice to be kind, show compassion, recycle, support local and ride a bike. At the back is a small picture of the advice and a paragraph describing what the phrase means and what could be done to put it into action. For example in 'Consume Less', the readers could buy less, or buy second hand, asking themselves if they really need the new item.
This book would make a wonderful aid for a library or classroom teacher or parent to display and discuss ideas with children. I can see it being used as a handbook to remind everyone what can be done to improve the Earth and that every individual can do something, even small, to make our planet a better place to live in.
Themes: Hope, Sustainability, Personal growth.
Pat Pledger

The dragon in the library by Louie Stowell

Nosy Crow, 2019. 224pp., pbk. ISBN: 9781788000260.
Kit can't stand reading. She'd much rather be outside, playing games and getting muddy, than stuck inside being quiet with a book. But when she's dragged along to the local library at the start of the school holiday by her two best friends, she makes an incredible discovery: the local library is run by wizards . . . and she's one too! The youngest wizard ever, in fact.
But someone is threatening to tear down the library and disturb the powerful magical forces living beneath it. And now it's up to Kit and her friends to save the library . . . and the world.
The first book in an exciting, imaginative and brilliantly funny new series, which Miss 8 curled up with on Christmas afternoon when it was too hot to be outside. Full of illustrations and written in short manageable chapters, it is a fast-paced story with the perfect mix of reality and fantasy to capture her imagination. It also captured mine and it sheds a new light on the value of both libraries and reading for those who think neither has anything of value for them.
This is the perfect book to recommend to teachers as the first read-aloud for the new school year to encourage students to investigate the magic in your school library.
Barbara Braxton

The sea and us by Catherine de Saint Phalle

Transit Lounge, 2019. ISBN: 9781925760415.
(Age: 16+) Highly recommended. The Sea and Us is a fish and chip shop, with rooms upstairs to let, and that is where Harold ends up, returning to Melbourne as a 36 year old, after spending 18 years in South Korea. Gradually we learn about why he walked out of his home as a young man, leaving behind his Czech mother, deserting her just as his father did years before. And we learn of his love for the beautiful Korean girl Ha-yoon, his apprenticeship with master potter Do-yun, and his friendship with street girl Marylou, and the wrinkled old man Sung-ki.
The old friends in Korea and the new friends Harold makes in Melbourne are like 'flotsam, jetsam, ligan and derelict'. They float in and out of his life, and he has to discover who can be rescued from abandonment, and who it is there is no hope of reclaiming.
It is a gentle story of kind people and genuine friendships that warm the heart. There are themes of abuse, deception and disappointment, but they are dealt with understanding and compassion, and the overall feeling one is left with is of the magical connection between people from many different walks of life. It is a treasure of a book, a pleasure to read.
Helen Eddy

Nop by Caroline Magerl

Walker Books, 2019. ISBN: 9781760651251.
(Age: 3+) Highly recommended. When Nop looks around him in the Dumporeum he sees lots of goods just like him: old and tattered, unsure of where they belong, crumpled, piled in heaps on the floor. But each night many tealights are lit and the others get out thread and buttons and sparkle and mend each other so when people come into the Dumporeum the next day, paper bags are filled with the mended toys. But Nop is left on the shelf: the buttons do not look right, the scarves are too big and the ribbon too long. He picks up a discarded bow tie from the litter which has fallen to the floor and puts it on, remarking that a bear with a bow tie can go anywhere, and so begins to plan.
Next morning he stitches together the scraps and rags and string until he has made a balloon which takes him over the houses until he spies a small green space and he leaps from the basket into the arms of a friend.
This charming tale of friendship, of never giving up, or making a plan will appeal to younger readers as they perhaps grapple with the idea of making friends. Nop flies long way away from his home in the Dumproreum to find a friend, making use of the rubbish around him. Readers will delight in the detail given in the ink and watercolour illustrations, searching for the lonely figure of Nop on each page. The soft hues underline the transient nature of the Dumporeum, and the impulse to sneeze at the dust and heaps of discarded clothes and toys tickled my nose.
The endpapers too are a treat for inquisitive eyes, working out just what is meant by dumporeum, and searching for one such shop in their own community.
Caroline Magerl is an author illustrator known for Maya and Cat, and Hasel and Rose, both books about hope. Classroom ideas are available.
Themes: Bears, Loneliness, Adventure, Decision making, Hope.
Fran Knight

The space we're in by Katya Balen

Illus. by Laura Carlin. Bloomsbury, 2019. ISBN: 9781526610942.
(Age: Mid upper primary +) Highly recommended. Katya Balen's The Space We're In is a moving story about autism. The behaviours and the situations experienced by Max and his family members are perceptively painted. It would be a hard-hearted reader who could remain unmoved.
Autism is grounded in the life and world, universe and cosmos. It is a book about love, acceptance and joy. It's about where we all fit in and how love binds us together - that we are all made of stardust - and somehow everything makes sense like the existence of the Golden Ratio.
The story is told from the perspective of ten year old Frank. He is initially embarrassed by and ashamed of his brother, five year old autistic Max. He loves and protects Max but (before he learns to be proud) he joins others who deride Max. As if life isn't hard enough, his family is knocked for six with further tragedy. Somehow love prevails through time and the care of steadfast friends, family and community.
I want to lend this book to friends with autistic children. I want teachers to read this book to classes to build an empathy for disability and the lived experiences of families. It's a searingly sad but uplifting book. It helps us to understand our own part in community.
There is a lot a teacher could do with this book. Frank has an affinity for numbers. Code permeates the book. When deciphered, it forms chapter headings, which make a lot of sense e.g. meltdown, sorry, joy, fury, magic, wild, fight, treasure. A wordle created from the vocabulary would capture the essence of living with disability. Text to text background reading for children and teachers are Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are and Michael Rosen's We're Going on a Bear Hunt.
The illustrations by Laura Carlin, including quirky fonts and layouts, are in themselves, a soft and subtle visual journey that travels with the storyline.
Wendy Jeffery

The end and other beginnings: Stories from the future Veronica Roth

Harper Collins Children's Books, 2019. ISBN: 9780008347765.
(Age: 14+) Highly recommended. Veronica Roth is amazing! Her Divergent series was hugely successful and her youthful understanding of young people is again demonstrated in this collection of short stories set in future worlds and imagined scenarios of beginnings and ends. This book contains six short stories that are equally compelling and potent in their exploration of what might be expected in the future. The scenarios are set in an array of different earth or space-inspired locations, all with some similarities to our present world but with a variety of warped situations or circumstances or technological advancements. The characters though are all battling recognisable challenges or internal conflicts, and the short story genre gives a relatively quick (but certainly not saccharine) resolution to each complication. This is a brilliant short story collection to recommend to lovers of science fiction or dystopian fiction and the skill of Veronica Roth in creating new Sci-fi vernacular or possibilities is note-worthy. Despite the genre implications of 'new worlds', there is something very familiar about the young teen characters who contend with the internal challenges in the world of the future.
This is certainly something to recommend to younger readers, but the Short Story genre is well handled by an author who is creative and sometimes unnerving in her view of what the future could look like. I am sure there will be many readers who wish that Roth had extended each story into a longer novel.
Highly recommended for readers aged 14+ and for lovers of sci-fi and short stories. Themes: Short stories; Futuristic fantasy; Science Fiction; Dystopian worlds; Extra Terrestrials.
Carolyn Hull

An unwanted guest by Shari Lapena

Transworld, 2019. ISBN: 9780552174879. 320pp.
(Age: Adult) Recommended. What a thrill to try and work out 'who dunnit' in this nod to the locked room mystery genre. Instead of a room, Lapena has put a group of guests who don't know each other into a luxurious boutique hotel in a remote forested area. Then a blizzard causes all roads into the hotel to be closed and the electricity is cut off, and it becomes totally isolated from the outside world. Suspense and tension grows as the guests begin to be murdered, one by one, suspicion falling in turn on each one of the guests, leaving the reader desperately trying to figure out who has committed the crimes among a myriad of red herrings and alarming back stories of the guests.
Easy to read in one or two sittings, Lapena has developed her guests so well that the reader feels that they know them and their fears and feelings. It is very difficult to work out just who could be the murderer as each character has strengths and flaws which Lapena skilfully describes as the body count grows. Each murder has different characteristics - a fall down the stairs, a drug overdose, and a bashed head, all of which makes it hard to know if there is more than one person on a killing spree or a stranger lurking in the hotel picking off the guests. And that twist at the end! What a well-constructed and satisfying finale to a great read.
I really enjoyed this book and will be sure to pick up other books by this best-selling author. Fans of Adrian McKinty and Ruth Ware may enjoy this book.
Pat Pledger

The illustrated encyclopaedia of ugly animals by Sami Bayly

Lothian Children's, 2019. ISBN: 9780734419019. 130pp., hbk.
If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then ugly must be too and so natural history illustrator Sami Bayly has collected the creatures for this compendium to celebrate her passion for all things weird and wonderful.
There are more than 60 unusual creatures to explore through scientific illustrations and facts and figures, some of which will be familiar but many not-so. With information about what each looks like, what it eats, where it lives and its conservation status, as well as a collection of fun facts, readers are introduced to creatures such as the hellbender, the maleo, the sarcastic fringehead and the black rain frog. Just the names are intriguing.
This is a unique book, something totally different to add to the 591 section and to introduce to your budding natural historians. I suspect it will become one of those that groups of boys, particularly, will pore over in that group reading experience which is so essential to their literacy development.
You can learn more about the creation of the book and the selections within here and here while comprehensive teachers' resources are available here.
Barbara Braxton

Nine Elms by Robert Bryndza

Cold Fear by Mads Peder Nordbo

Greenland book 2. Translated by Charlotte Barslund. Text, 2019. ISBN: 9781911231301. 400pp.
(Age: Adult) Recommended for lovers of dark Nordic noir, Cold fear takes the reader on a cold and grisly trip through Greenland as Matthew Cave tries to solve the mystery of his sister's abduction and father's disappearance. Cave first appeared in The Girl Without Skin and while Cold Fear could be read as a stand-alone, it continues the story that had been hinted at in the first novel. Matthew is faced with the question of why his father disappeared so many years ago, and why he was accused of a double murder. Now that his cold case has been reopened on the suspicion that he is still alive, it becomes imperative to work out what happened. But more immediate is the urgency of finding what has happened to his sister. Tupaarnaq, the woman with many tattoos, returns to help find his sister, while on her own quest for revenge.
Not for the faint hearted, Cold fear has many horrifying scenes of child abuse and imprisonment, grisly murders and dangerous attacks all set against the cold bleak landscape of Greenland which Nordbo describes so well. There are many twists and turns to keep the reader guessing as old secrets are brought to light. Readers will be fascinated by the role that Greenland has to play in international politics and could find themselves looking up locations found in the book.
Throughout all the nail biting events Matthew Cave's determination and persistence in carving through the lies and treachery lends authenticity to the story as he works out what has happened with skilful investigation. And what a thrilling and unexpected ending!
Pat Pledger

Invisible in a Bright Light by Sally Gardner

Zephyr, 2019. ISBN: 9781789544848. 320pp.
Recommended for those who like a challenge, aged 14+. The dream-fantasy scenario and premise of this book has all the logic and clarity of a medication-induced dream. Initially very confusing, the book follows the characters Celeste and Maria who are one and yet two, and who must rescue the people who have disappeared from the ghost ship. Their life in the theatre is muddled with their former life before the mysterious disappearance of many of the ghost ship's characters; they are in the spotlight and also invisible. A formidable man in an emerald green suit (akin to Rumpelstiltskin) appears and enables the girls to win a contest to save the lost souls. Along the way, they rescue the daughter of an objectionable operatic genius and perform like stars on stage.
Sadly, this bizarre narrative is so perplexing and dream-like as it ripples through time, with characters appearing and disappearing, acting with eccentric personality traits in an unfamiliar context, that it may leave young readers floundering. However, if you loved Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and like to be confused as you read, then this book is for you. Entering someone else's dream is automatically confusing, but ultimately a persistent reader may actually enjoy the theatrical journey of this book and the rescuing of the young character Hildegard and putting the broken shards of the 'glass' back into some semblance of order. Be prepared to be confused! Themes: Fantasy; Dreams; Ghosts; Theatre.
Carolyn Hull