Reviews

Fabish: The horse that braved a bushfire by Neridah McMullin

Ill. by Andrew McLean. Allen and Unwin, 2016. ISBN 9781925266863
(Age: 5+) Recommended. Bravery. Horses. Bushfires. Farm life. Fabish, once a fine racehorse known for his bravery, is put out to pasture. Here he is in charge of the yearlings, helping them understand what is expected of them, training them to obey instructions. But one day they smell smoke. It has been an extremely unpleasant summer, everything is hot, the old iron roof crackles and the hot wind blowing from the hills smells of smoke. The yearlings smell it first and become unsettled. The owner has no choice but to let them out of their yard, while he spends the night trying to save his stables, keeping the other animals calm and safe. Fabish and the yearlings are on their own.
The illustrations reflect the overwhelming nature of bushfire, with its flames licking the roof of the stable, the roaring of the fire, the constant embers falling to the ground, the smoke and heat all around them as the man fights the fire all through the night. Emerging in the morning, he finds everything is burnt and scorched, little left of his buildings, tack house, fences and trees. The earth is baked hard, embers still fill the sky, the smoke tears at his throat. He drives off in anticipation of seeing worse but in nearing his house, sees Fabish leading the seven yearlings towards him. He has done his job of protecting the young horses and somehow they have all survived.
Based on a true story, the trainer, Alan Evett had to let the horses loose, presuming he would never see them again on that terrible Black Saturday in 2009 when a firestorm rivaling the devastation of an atomic bomb, hit Victoria.
This book not only gives readers an overwhelming feeling of being in the bushfire but alerts them to the bravery of some animals in dire circumstances. As with several other books about bushfire, this will encourage discussion in the classroom of the incidence of fire in Australia, how it happens and how people can minimise its effects.
Fran Knight

The great dragon bake off by Nicola O'Byrne

Bloomsbury, 2016. ISBN 9781408839560
(Age: 4+) Recommended. Dragons. Cooking. Friendship. Humour. When Flamie Oliver is supposed to be practising his fire breathing dragon skills to graduate, he'd prefer to be cooking. He just loves pastry - all sorts of pastry, puff, rough, sweet or salty, he doesn't care. He justs loves to cook and tries his hand at all sorts of cakes and desserts and even a wedding cake. When the final day comes to graduate from the Ferocious Dragon Academy, he fails but is given one final test to prove his worth. He must kidnap a princess and eat her. He can do the first part of the task, without a hitch but eating her creates another problem as he cannot find a recipe which involves a princess. The two sit down together to nut out a solution to Flamie's problem.
A lovely story about working through a solution to a problem, and in so doing, finding a friend, told against the well known background of the bake off competitions which children will know well from television, the use of the familiar names will raise laughs as the dragon cooks his way through the book. The illustrations showing this lovable dragon with his sly looks at the princess in deciding how to eat her, or the looks of utter contentment when cooking and eating his cakes, or the animal with his chef's hat apron and back pack, are wonderful and will entreat readers to look more closely at the detail on each page. Children will gleefully recognise the various bits of cake and pastry illustrated as well as having fun working out the names of the cooks the dragons parody.
Fran Knight

Macavity's not there by T. S. Eliot

Ill. by Arthur Robins. Faber and Faber, 2016. ISBN 9780571328635
In 1939, T.S. Eliot wrote his iconic Old Possum's book of practical cats which became the foundation for Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical 'Cats'. Within that collection, is a poem which begins
Macavity's a mystery cat: he's called the Hidden Paw.
For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime - Macavity's not there!
It goes on.
Macavity's a ginger cat, he's very tall and thin;
You would know him if you saw him, for his eyes are sunken in
Drawing on those two lines as the starting point and the constant refrain of the original of 'Macavity's not there' , Arthur Robins has again relied on the poem to create a wonderful lift-the-flap book encouraging young children to investigate just where this elusive cat might be. Is he in the bedroom? The bathroom? Perhaps the kitchen? Maybe the rabbit hutch? Ahhh, there he is! Why didn't we think of there in the first place?
Using very distinctive illustrations, Robins brings Macavity to life just as he did in his 2014 version of the original poem by T.S. Eliot. But as well as engaging the young listener is the fun of discovering Macavity's whereabouts, enticing them to suggest other places to look before turning the page, it's a wonderful opportunity to explore language associated with cats - perhaps based on their observations of their own. Are they always sweet, playful fluffy kittens or can they be mischievous, cunning, aloof, even fierce? Using the cover picture, which words would they use to describe Macavity? Can you take a photo of a cat they know and surround it with vocabulary? Can you do a comparison chart between their cat, Macavity and other cats in literature?
Building their language and broadening their concepts about cats will be a great bridge to sharing the Robins' version of the original and then travelling on to his Mr Mistofolees and Skimbleshanks so they can savour the beauty of the rhyme and rhythm of Eliot's creations, marvel at his ability to tell a story and paint a picture in so few words and maybe even enjoy a performance of Cats. At the very least, they will be introduced to some superb poetry that may linger with them throughout their lives, as it has with me!
Barbara Braxton

Yong the journey of an unworthy son by Janeen Brian

Walker Books, 2016. ISBN 9781925126297
(Age: 10+) Highly recommended. Migration, Chinese, Goldfields (Australia), Prejudice, Australian History. When Yong is told by his father, the head man in their village in China, that many men are leaving for Australia to search for luck in the goldfields at Ballarat, he asks to stay behind and help his grandmother care for his two siblings. But his father is determined that he go too. Together they will find enough gold to end their poverty and pay back the moneylenders. Yong feels he is an unworthy son because he questions his father's aims. Told from Yong's perspective, the story of a group of Chinese men sailing from China to Robe in South Australia, then walking overland to Victoria is mesmerising, as we walk with them, tramping many miles each day, feeling overwhelmed at the four hundred miles ahead of them. We listen to the prejudice doled out to these men and find that many of the stories they have been told lack substance and the group begins to blame Yong's father for their predicament.
Janeen Brian's meticulous research gives the tale a strong base of historical truth, against which we can judge what our actions may have been in similar circumstances. All stories of migration resonate with Australians, as we are all dependent upon what our forebears did in the past to improve their lives.
When Yong finally arrives at Ballarat, after death, desertion, starvation and derision he realises that in following his father's dream he is indeed an honourable son. And I am sure that readers, like me will want to know how he copes in that mining town.
There are only a few novels containing a Chinese immigrant to our shores so this is very welcome, giving a face to some who came in the nineteenth century along with so many others (New gold mountain, Melting pot and Seams of gold, by Christopher Cheng, 2005-7, Goldseekers, by Greg Bastian, 2005, Gold fever, by Susan Coleridge, 2006).
Fran Knight

Crusts by Danny Parker

Ill. by Matt Ottley. Little Hare Books, 2016. ISBN 9781742979830
(Age: 4+) Highly recommended. Scientific endeavour, Space travel, Aliens, Humour. Two parallel stories come together in this breathtakingly original story with stunning complementary illustrations sure to have readers pore over them with awe.
Each story has a different font allowing the reader to differentiate between them as three aliens land on earth trying to find a way back home carrying most needed bread for their planet. Jacob on the other hand will not eat his crusts and to placate his mother keeps them in the shed at the back of their home. He finds a map in his room and then males plans to help the aliens return home. He works hard on his plans, gathering crusts at school, from bins and at home, until he has enough to build what he needs to build. The aliens daunted by their task return home empty handed but Jacob has built the most amazing space craft and together with his net, takes the crusts to the crumbling planet. Here he dons his crust space suit and uses the crusts he has collected to ensure their planet is restored.
The story is wonderfully imaginative, taking a very ordinary foible, that of not eating your crusts, something many children will recognise and making it into a tale of intergalactic space travel. The story also underlines the warmth of helping others, of using your imagination, of looking beyond appearances.
The illustrations are magical, from the wonderfully long limbed humans to the long nosed aliens, the stand out galavanised iron of the buildings, to the use of the crusts. I pored over the intricacy of the crusts making up a replica of the statue of David, or the space craft, the ladder and the space suit. And if that is not enough, then each page is splendidly different, making use of a variety of styles to tell the story behind the words.
Fran Knight

Sage Cookson's Sweet Escape by Sally Murphy

Ill. by Celeste Hulme. New Frontier, 2016. ISBN 9781925059618
(Age: 6-10) Recommended. Cooking. TV shows. Sage Cookson is thrilled that she has finally been given her own phone. She will now be able to keep in touch with her friend Lucy when she travels with her parents on their trips away for their TV cooking show. This time she is off to the west where they meet up with a chocolatier and things go dangerously wrong.
Sage is an enterprising young girl who leads a very interesting life travelling with her parents even though she does have to keep up with her school work on the way. Readers will emphasise with her happiness about finally being given her own mobile phone and she certainly makes good use of it to help get her family out of the bush safely in time for their job.
It is obvious that Sally Murphy loves cooking shows and mysteries (see her article here) and many of her young readers are sure to enjoy both as well as they learn about what it takes to have a TV cooking show and thrill to the suspense of trying to find their way back when the chocolatier leaves them in the bush. And of course there are the descriptions of chocolate and a yummy Cheat's chocolate fondant recipe at the back of the book.
This is the first in a series, and with its short chapters, interesting characters and touch of suspense, will have its readers eagerly waiting for the next instalment.
Pat Pledger

Another night in mullet town by Steven Herrick

UQP, 2016. ISBN 9780702253959
(Age: 15+) Highly recommended. Verse novel, Country town, Fishing, Humour. A new verse novel by Herrick is always eagerly anticipated and reading this reminded me why I like his books so much. I find that I stop over each line, drawing breath at the wider implications of what is written there, marveling at his economy of description, acute characterisation and restrained emotional detail.
In this story two boys, Jonah and Manx are in year ten, able to see beneath the veneer of their sleepy seaside town and willing to embark on what life may offer. They spend a lot of time fishing, drinking with the others on Friday nights, looking at the girls who have been their constant companions since kindergarten, but seem now out of reach.
Jonah realises that the arguments between his parents have intensified and one night his mother packs to go and stay with her sister at a nearby town. Jonah counts up the number in his class with a single parent and sees he is not alone.
The other side of the river sees old houses bought up by city people, then demolished and holiday houses built in their place. They lie idle for a greater part of the year and contribute nothing to the ever shrinking community. The town is on the decline, overshadowed by a larger and more attractive seaside town some k's north where they go to school.
But one Friday night, Manx goes back to the town by himself, Rachel goes off with Angelo, and Jonah and Ella come together. Each incident creates possibilities and consequences for the two boys, ones which will see them become more at peace with who they are, where they are living and their enduring friendship.
The small community is exquisitely drawn, with Manx's fishing line hanging from his front verandah, the old fish and chip shop now a coffee shop for the blow ins, the old grocery store a real estate agency complete with black BMW. It is redolent of so many country towns, but Herrick's funny warmhearted depiction of the place and its inhabitants gives all readers a fresh way of looking at the villages they pass through.
Fran Knight

Trouble and the missing cat by Cate Whittle

Ill. by Stephen Michael King. Omnibus Books, 2016. ISBN 9781742990774
(Age: 7+) Recommended. A further adventure with Trouble the dragon and feisty friend Georgia will delight readers and has universal appeal. Trouble has been banned from landing on the school's playground because he broke the asphalt, and can't land on the oval because he is burning the grass. But riding to school and elsewhere on Trouble's back is the only way that the family can get around. And then there is the mystery of Mrs Jones' cat Tibbles, who has gone missing.
This is a charming story and the reader quickly becomes involves in the lives of Trouble and Georgia. Whittle's narrative makes it very easy for the reader to suspend belief about having a dragon for a friend and the adventures of the two make for an engrossing read. Georgia is a very clever girl who really enjoys solving mysteries and puts all her ingenuity and intelligence in solving the mystery of what has happened to Tibbles, especially as Mrs Jones is missing him so much. Her compassion is evident as she gives Trouble a helping hand to overcome his loneliness and her problem solving skills are phenomenal.
Stephen Michael King's quirky illustrations add an extra dimension and humour to the beautifully written text.
Readers who enjoy some well written magic realism with their mystery stories will not be disappointed.
Pat Pledger

One more friend by Bill Condon

Lily the Elf: The jumble sale by Anna Branford

Saving Jazz by Kate McCaffrey

Fremantle Press, 2016. ISBN 9781925163582
(Age: 14+) Recommended. Sexual assault, Crime, Social media, Cyberbullying. At a Friday night party in their small country town south of Perth, some of the year ten friends get horribly drunk and one girl, Annie has pictures of her naked body shared on snapchat. Her best friend, Jazz is appalled and thinks back wondering why she had not protected her friend. Two boys have written inflammatory things over her body and admit to having a bit of fun but when a video emerges showing that the boys have digitally raped her and Jazz is complicit in this, actually sexually assaulting her friend, then the police are involved.
Rejected by her parents she goes to stay with her aunt in Perth to await the court case, but Annie's pictures go viral within the community and beyond, eliciting appalling comments from those who see them. Annie distraught about her betrayal and not able to cope with the cyberbullying, tries to kill herself, and during the court case her life support is turned off.
This is a cautionary tale like no other. The shock of what happened at the party will jolt the hardiest of readers, and force them to think about how they would have behaved in similar circumstances. Despite Jazz's years of medical appointments and efforts to reform her life, the impact of her dealings with Annie is never far from her thoughts.
McCaffrey details the effects on everyone's life: Jazz's parents, aunt and uncle, the two boys, Annie's family and the community. The story forces the reader to think about some of the more unsavoury aspects of our society: domestic violence, the impact of video games, sexual assault, women's refuges, attitudes to women and cyberbullying. Each plays a part in this tale and information is infused within the story.
The last part of the book concerns Jazz's first year at uni where she is harassed by one of her lecturers, a man she finds out later, who is well known for his sexualised behaviour towards first year female students. Although I felt this was an unnecessary addition it does give a neat contrast to what has gone on before and again the reader is put into the position of asking themselves what they would have done.
McCaffrey has written a book that will be hugely popular, gaining an audience through word of mouth, readers taking to heart this cautionary tale comparing it with the 'what might have been' in their own lives and questioning the role of social media in their lives.
Fran Knight

The big flood by Rebecca Johnson

Ill. by Kyla May. Juliet nearly a vet series, bk. 11. Penguin Australia, 2016. ISBN 9780143507031
(Age: 8+) Recommended. Adventure. Floods. Humour. Animals. Veterinarians. Another in this appealing series finds Juliet and her family facing a flood. Juliet's mother, a veterinarian, is called out to help move some alpacas to higher ground and Juliet, her friend Chelsea and her brother Max, go along to help. When the alpacas are rescued Juliet notices lots of other small animals and insects marooned on an island and persuades her father to go in a canoe to help bring them to the mainland.
Two things stand out in this junior novel - intriguing information about animals and a clever cast of children. Juliet keeps a vet diary which describes the behaviour of the animals. Readers find out that alpacas make different sounds depending on their circumstances, the names of different members of the alpaca family and that they spit when they want to frighten predators away. The spitting episode is illustrated in a very humorous drawing by Kyla May that will have the readers laughing out loud.
Readers will also be alerted to what happens to small creatures when there is a flood. Juliet and her friend Chelsea are very enterprising about working out how to rescue the animals and how to keep them safe. In addition to the information about alpacas, there is also information about other animals, stick insects in particular, that makes an interesting adjunct to the adventure of actually rescuing the animals and insects. A multiple choice quiz at the back of the book will also entertain animal lovers.
A great series to hand to the newly emerging reader or lovers of animals.
Pat Pledger

The pain, my mother, cyber boy, Sir Tiffy and me by Michael Gerard Bauer

Scholastic, 2016. ISBN 9781742991504
(Age: 12+) Highly recommended. Humour, School, Cats, Nursing home. When The Pain comes into Maggie's life she does all she can to avoid him. Danny is mum's new boyfriend, and loves to sing at inappropriate moments, and makes the most outrageous jokes. He was also the nurse on duty in the local emergency department when she was brought in drunk following a sleepover, so her embarrassment compounds itself. But nearing the end of year ten, Maggie has several aims: getting a partner for the end of year dance, making a good friend at her school and achieving an A for English. Seems simple enough but her attempts to achieve these goals will have readers laughing uproariously as she staggers from one disaster to another.
Bauer uses a diary like format to achieve his aim. The text is full of sentences in capital letters, an army of apostrophes and so much hyperbole that each page sings with irony and sarcasm.
He makes no pretense of showing the reader what these grammatical conventions mean and they will love him for it, learning about them with a great dose of humour.
Maggie is an outsider at her school, and so thinks that achieving her aim of a good A for English will be simple, but she has not accounted for the replacement nun, Sister Evangelista, who tries to curb Maggie's exuberance in writing while developing her editing skills. Her Macbeth essay forms a link through the novel. But Maggie needs to get a male person to be her partner at the dance, and asking Jeremy Tyler-Roy elicits the most extraordinary response. When she finds out why this happened she wreaks revenge upon some of the girls in her year group with unsurprising results. While school grinds on at home she must still put up with Danny and with the cat he brings her to babysit until he finds it a permanent home. On the night of the school dance they eventually find some shared sympathy and almost all of her aims are achieved. This is a wonderful read, full of humour and laughs, with some gems of observation. A stint at the local nursing home reveals that Sister Evangelista's wry comment about judging books by their covers has some resonance and this spills over into many aspects of Maggie's life.
I loved reading this book and was very sad to leave these characters behind. All of them are multi layered, with depths revealed as the story unfolds. Bauer is an acute spectator of these people's behaviors and it wonderful to see an author leave elements for the reader to work out for themselves.
Fran Knight

This girl, that girl by Charlotte Lance

Allen and Unwin, 2016. ISBN 9781760291709
(Ages: 5-8) Difference, Personalities. This is a unique story inspired by the author's two children, one who is messy and the other who is neat. Two girls live side by side; one is messy and unorganised and does wild things like walking along a wall while blindfolded. The other is neat and somewhat obsessive about order, doing crazy things like vacuuming the lawn. Their respective fathers are the exact opposite of them (the disorganised girl has an organised father and the organised girl has a disorganised father). Therefore, when each couple set out to build a tree house, their respective approaches to the task see them finish up with nearly identical products (showing elements of both order and chaos). As the author says of the book, it shows that 'whoever we are, we usually get to where we're going in our very own ways'. It highlights differing personalities and emphasises that it is ok to be unique and individual, even if it means we are different to our own family. The repetitiveness and the use of 'this' and 'that' adds a nice flow to the story when read aloud and the illustrations are wonderfully detailed and intricate, perfectly portraying the personalities of the characters. It is more suited to older children, as younger children may not fully understand the concept or the point of the story. They also may not understand the outlandishness of the things the characters are doing or the nuances of their extreme personalities, which require close analysis of the intricate illustrations.
Nicole Nelson

Mrs Whitlam by Bruce Pascoe

Magabala Books, 2016. ISBN 9781925360240
(Age: 8+) Highly recommended. Horses. Rescue work. A wonderful heart-warming short novel, Mrs Whitlam has great appeal because of its description of a bond between a girl and a horse, the closeness of family and the courage that one girl can show. Marnie has been given the part Clydesdale horse named Mrs Whitlam, and Marnie's mum has told her she should be proud to have a horse named after 'a wonderful woman'. Mrs Whitlam had belong to a girl who was killed in a car accident and her mother couldn't bear to be reminded so she gave the horse to Marnie.
The story is told in the first person by Marnie in her own entertaining way. She develops a deep bond with the horse, looking after her and using her as a sounding board for her life. When the two are at the beach, Marnie spots a child on the verge of being drowned, and together the pair manage to rescue the baby. When they get him back on the beach a boy from her school, George Costa, helps with the resuscitation and a friendship develops from there.
In Marnie, Pascoe has developed a great heroine and even though she faces teasing about her Aboriginal background, she learns to stand up for herself and continues to look after Mrs Whitlam. The loving bonds found within her family are equally as appealing as the friendship between Marnie and Mrs Whitlam, her mother standing out as a loving and wise woman who is compassionate and helpful.
This is an uplifting short novel that ticked all the boxes for me. Horse lovers are in for a treat and it would be an excellent read aloud in the classroom or a literature circle book.
Pat Pledger