Reviews

The fair dinkum war by David Cox

Allen and Unwin, 2013. ISBN 9781 74331 062 5.
(Age 7+) Highly recommended. Picture book. Looking back. War. World War Two is in the background of this family's life as it moves to the city while their father overseers a western sheep station, allowing the children to be involved in things they had never experienced before. David remembers his new teacher taking them to the street to see the American soldiers heading to their camp on one side of the town. He shows in his illustrations the newspaper of the day headlining the Japanese bombing of Darwin, and then unfolds the various ways in which the children do their bit for the war effort: putting up black out curtains, collecting old tyres. Everyday is regulated by the ration books, and an air raid shelter is built into the garden and stocked with canned foods while trenches are dug at school and air raid practices commence.
But life goes on, the milk cart ambles along the street, the pie cart stops outside the school, the rubbish cart stops for the rubbish men to empty their bins behind the horse drawn vehicle.
David Cox shows the reader the things which made up his childhood, the visits to the local greengrocer, climbing the mulberry tree for the fresh juicy fruit, men tipping their hats when women walk by, and then the circus coming to town, exciting all the residents with their antics. Some children are fearful for their fathers, some fathers do not return, but the whole community is waiting for the war to end and things to return to how they were. When the end does come, they are joyful, and the kites made with the Javanese soldiers billeted on the other side of town, fly high over their heads.
This is a charming recollection of childhood, chock full of movement and humour as David Cox's familiar drawings fill the pages. The beauty of the story and the illustrations creep up on the reader, enfolding us into the world Cox recreates so well. It pairs readily with his book published in 2012, The Road to Gunong which concerns the loss of his family's farm during the Depression.
Both books fit easily into the junior primary curriculum where classes look at life in other times, and other places, or discuss families, animals or war and its effects, particularly for those left at home.
Fran Knight

The Lost Hunters by Nick Earls and Terry Whidbourne

Word Hunters series. University of Queensland Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780702249587.
Highly recommended for ages 9+. Lexi and Al continue their adventure to find the origins of various words which may have become lost over time. They realise that, not only are they about embark on their next quest to hunt for words; they also need to search for their grandfather. It would appear that he too had been a word hunter who had become lost in the past, along with the words and their meanings. En route, Lexi and Al meet yet another word hunter whose future they had previously impacted and, consequently, he joins them to make their task simpler. Will they achieve their aim and how will their endeavours affect their lives and those of others?
Not having read the first book in the series, I was initially a tad unsure about the characters and their roles. Despite that, I quickly became engrossed in the tale and devoured it in one sitting! Ideally, I would recommend that other readers take the more normal path of reading the series in sequence, however, in order for it to make more sense from the outset. This did, nonetheless, work as a stand-alone title. The adventure was sufficiently self-contained within the pages of the book. Not only did I enjoy the premise of the story but I loved the original sketches with which the pages were liberally peppered. The full page illustrations which began each chapter served to set the scene in terms of year and location or highlighted the words for which the children were hunting. A thoroughly enjoyable experience!
Jo Schenkel

Song in the Dark by Christine Howe

Penguin Australia, 2013. ISBN 9780143567448. Pbk, 184 pages. RRP: $17.99.
Highly recommended but for very mature readers 15+. Anyone looking for a gripping and gritty read for young adults should look at this extraordinary novel with its themes of love, betrayal, forgiveness, addiction and especially hope.
Paul is a teenager who has dealt with numerous difficulties throughout his relatively short life, beginning with his mother disappearing with him - abandoning his father and his loving grandmother.
In increasing turmoil during his teen years, he falls in with friends who are definitely of the wrong kind. They lead him into more and more dark and despairing situations - he spirals from smoking pot, to dealing it, to heroin which, naturally, takes hold of him with its usual ferocity. The slim thread which keeps Paul in touch with a normal life is his Granny, with whom he reconnects when eventually his mother returns them to his childhood neighbourhood.
But as anyone who has had any intimate knowledge of addicts and addictive behaviour knows, there are no moral boundaries for those in the clutches of dependency. Desperate for money to buy the next hit, Paul attempts to steal his Granny's hidden jar of cash with consequences both dire and ironically, life-saving. The truth of hitting rock bottom before you can climb up again is evident as Paul's life begins to turn around and is salvaged through the kindness of strangers (in this case, the Salvos) as well as the belief and love that can unite family members, even though they are apart
'He doesn't want to be like that anymore. Not now - not ever.' The reader is left with an overwhelming sense of hope for Paul's future which resonates and compels empathy for his character.
Highly recommended - but for very mature readers 15+ - there is very strong language as well as the numerous drug references.
Sue Warren

The Emerald Quest by Gill Vickery

Hysteria by Megan Miranda

Bloomsbury, 2013. ISBN 9781408834848.
(Age 14+) Recommended. Psychological thriller. Mallory killed her boyfriend Brian with a knife when she was defending herself from him. She is unable to remember what happened and gossip abounds. Her parents believe that a new start at Monroe, an elite boarding school, will give everyone a chance to recoup from the trauma, but her feelings follow her and she begins to think that someone is following her and touching her in her room. Then another student is murdered and once again she must prove herself innocent.
A gripping psychological thriller that kept me hooked to the end, Fracture is sure to appeal to anyone who wants an exciting read which not only has all the suspense associated with a mystery story, but also probes into the psychological background of the main character as well. Megan Miranda looks at conversion disorder, where physical symptoms can manifest themselves without a physical cause. A lot of the suspense comes about as the reader tries to work out if the bruising that Mallory experiences and the memories of a midnight touch and voice comes from a real intruder into her room or whether it is conversion disorder. Mallory has the difficult task of living with the guilt of having stabbed Brian and worrying about whether she is really losing her mind. She is beset on all sides by fear about who she can trust and what she really can believe. Readers who enjoy a touch of romance in their books will find it in the developing relationship between Reid and Mallory and this also allows some break in the tension.
I really enjoyed this mystery and the tension and pace made me read it all very quickly. The use of flashbacks kept the mystery of Brian's stabbing in the forefront of my mind, while I also had to decide whether Mallory was going mad. The ending came a little too soon for me (or perhaps I read it too quickly) but it was a very satisfying read. People who enjoyed Miranda's first novel, Fracture will enjoy this one as well.
Pat Pledger

Hidden by Marianne Curley

Avena series. Bloomsbury, 2013. ISBN 9781408822623.
(Age: 12+) Recommended. Paranormal. Angels. Ebony knows that she is different. Her beautiful violet eyes make her stand out and she has noticed strange bumps on her shoulders. She has been home schooled by her over protective parents who won't allow her to leave the valley where she lives. One night she creeps out to a dance where she meets Jordan who is badly injured in a fight. A strange feeling that she must shield him comes over her. She meets Nathaneal, who seems to know her and what she is. But there are strange forces at work who also want her.
Told in alternative chapters by Jordan and Ebony, these two characters stand out vividly as the reader gets to know their fears, strengths and insecurities very well. Jordan's descriptions of events and the angel Nathaneal brought the story to life for me. Ebony comes across as a feisty individual who is not very trusting. She needs to see the truth for herself and is prepared to take risks to find out what is going on.
Fans of the paranormal romance will be happy with the idea that there is a one true love destined from birth and will thrill to the growing feelings between Nathaneal and Ebony. However there is sure to be members of a Team Jordan, who want Jordan to win Ebony's heart.
Curley keeps the story going with some tense action packed scenes. The fight in the car park between Jordan and his once best friend Adam is nerve wracking as are the scenes in the hospital where Jordan lies, trying to recover from his beating. An encounter between the opposing forces of angels is also thrilling. Add a cliff hanger ending and readers will be certain to pick up the next in the series.
It is good to see Marianne Curley returning to writing after a long illness. I enjoyed her first series. I loved the quality of writing, characterisation and action in Hidden, a superior book in the popular angel genre and look forward to reading the next two books in the series.
Recommended for readers who enjoy paranormal stories and who liked the Hush Hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick and the Evernight series by Claudia Gray.
Pat Pledger

Max and George by Cori Brooke

Ill. by Sue deGennaro. Penguin/Viking, 2013. ISBN 9780 670 07635 2.
(Age: 3+) Recommended. Picture book. Friendship. Anxiety. Being scared of your own shadow takes on an opposite meaning in this delightful book which shows Max and his best friend, George together. Max only sees George when he looks into windows, the car window, that of the train, the house windows, windows in the street and glass doors. They do everything together, and when George is happy, so is Max, when George is unhappy so is Max, when one wants to be jittery then the other is too. They are just so alike and more importantly love the same jokes.
But starting school is an anxious time for them both, so George goes with Max to the shop where he is to buy his uniform and supplies.
Once at school, Max feels very alone until at recess time he spies George waiting for him at the door. He tells Max a joke, and Max laughs, attracting the attention of another boy in the playground. Eventually these two share jokes and leave George behind.
A charming story of starting things anew, of finding friends, of losing your imaginary friend, the illustrations by de Gennaro compliment the understated story. The pastel colours filling in the pencil drawings, are gentle and unassuming, working well with the story rather than dominating it. The figures of the children are especially charming and the inclusion of numbers on the pages gives an intriguing level of interest to the reader.
Sue deGennaro also wrote and illustrated the lovely tale of friendship, which includes a preponderance of numbers, The pros and cons of being a frog (Scholastic, 2012.
Fran Knight

Zom-B City by Darren Shan

Zom-B bk. 3. Simon and Schuster, 2013. ISBN 9780857077608.
(Age: Teens) London is not the place to holiday in Darren Shan's new teen horror series, Zom-B. This is post apocalypse London, where zombies roam the streets and eat the brains of any poor non zombie creatures they find.
The unusual heroine of this story is B Smith. B is a form of zombie who doesn't associate with the living dead and tries to help the surviving humans. In fact, she belongs to neither world but is free to wander the streets observing the horrors of the city.
In book 3 we see a cult who feel they can communicate with zombies and remain unharmed, an artist who wanders the streets drawing what he sees and the very creepy clown Mr Dowling who enjoys tormenting his human captives (the 'baby' episode is particularly cruel). He features on the front cover, his clothing decorated with human entrails and eyeballs. This is teen horror and has a cover to appeal to its fans.
Shan has commented that this series of books are based on a post 9/11 world of fear and hatred. This is a dark and horrific creation with both zombies and unattractive humans. B is the only positive character is the story and it is hard to see how she can find any optimistic ending.
Where can this story go? It will be interesting to see how Shan continues the Zom-B tale. His fans are enjoying this new series and will look forward to the next instalment. This is a book for secondary school libraries.
There are several trailers made by fans on You Tube i.e.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jby_TFUfrCE
Jane Moore

Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil

Hardie Grant Egmont, 2013. ISBN: 9781742973951.
Highly recommended. Bildungsroman. The deeper we get into Melissa Keil's debut novel, the more like Australia's answer to Rachel Cohn's Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist it becomes - the nerdy boy meets larger than life girl whose dad is big in the international music scene. The blossoming romance between Sam and Camilla is every bit as delightful but so protracted that they themselves are oblivious. The narrator's inner voice and interactions with other characters are both humorous and believable although Life in Outer Space is a slower paced look at the Australian teen's secondary school experience.
When Camilla Carter arrives at Bowen Lakes Secondary, she is an exotic import who is immediately comfortable with the popular girls and jocks. To the harassed nerds and long lanky Sam, our narrator, it comes as a surprise when Camilla adopts them. Camilla's hobbies including song writing, 'World of Warcraft' gaming and computers in general, means that she has more in common with Sam, Mike, Allison and Adrian.
Everybody thinks Camilla is cool and Justin Sigoni, the resident bully, has his sights set on her when he breaks up with his long-term girlfriend. Even Justin is impressed by the respect Camilla affords the Geeks and for the first time in high school the group feel as unthreatened as the next student. But complications arise - Mike is victimized at his Dojo, Allison kisses Sam and Camilla launches her own singing career. Will all their angst be resolved by the much anticipated 'Spring Dance' which signals the end of life in high school?
Being the very first book put out by Hardie Grant Egmont's Ampersand Project, aspiring YA novelists have big shoes to fill. We can look forward to some resonant meaty books for Aussie youth if they are as layered and resonant as Life in Outer Space.
Deborah Robins

Neferet's Curse by P.C and Kristin Cast

Atom, 2013. ISBN 978-1-907411-20-5
Neferet's Curse is a House of Night Novella by P.C and Kristin Cast. This novel depicts young Neferet before she was an all-mighty vampire priestess, this gives the reader an insight behind her mask of power, and this shows how she gained that power.
This novel takes place in the form of a journal kept by Neferet as a youth. It is written in way that makes it easy for the reader to relate with the main character and her various situations throughout the journal; it is very emotionally grabbing and makes you want to continue reading until the end. This novel was written for older teens because they are more likely to understand the concepts and language that takes place within the book. The language itself inside the book is a marvellous display of what it was like at the turn of the century and how formal society was with its language and manner. It gives the book a sense of time and placement throughout history.
Each character has a very different personality and they are all quite different from Neferet and how she sees the world. Their different views and qualities makes them all quite unique and defined.
The theme in this novel is more based on fantasy and change and this gets the reader thinking about what it was really like back in that time and age. Small events lead up quite well to the main complication of the story; this provides a full awareness of the character's situation at the time and how Neferet felt.
Sarah Filkin

Ticklish Tom by Susannah McFarlane

Ill. by Lachlan Creagh. Scholastic, 2013. ISBN 978 1 74283 738 3.
Silly Sam by Susannah McFarlane
Ill. by Lachlan Creagh. Scholastic, 2013. ISBN 9781 74283 737 6.
(Age: 4+) Picture book. Australian animals. Alphabet books. In the series Little Mates, these two books follow the same line as the 18 preceding books: all are child friendly, being small enough to fit in a child's hand, they are bright and colourful, use Australian animals which are readily recognised and are use alliteration endlessly, stressing the letter the book is dedicated to. All in all an easy book for parents and teachers alike to have at the ready to read and enjoy with their children.
Ticklish Tom is the story of the Tasmanian Devil, Tom, who has been ticklish since a toddler. His four friends, Toby, Tilly, Tahlia and Tim put up a teepee with a totem, but things come unstuck when the totem begins to fall, making the four friends join together to put things right. All good fun and readers will have a great time with all the 't' words.
Silly Sam is a sheep, and his four friends, Sadie, Sophie, Shaun and Sebastian, all try to help to make him less silly, but his singing is something to behold. until one of his friends tells him to be quiet. But a competition holds his attention and he goes along to sing in it, with his four friends as the backing singers. People love their silly songs and so he gets himself an audience. Again, readers will enjoy the silly story about Sam, and love looking for all the words that begin with 's'. This is not a spectacular series, but one which will find a niche in a classroom.
Fran Knight

My life as an alphabet by Barry Jonsberg

Allen and Unwin, 2013. ISBN 9781743310977
(Age: 11+) Highly recommended. Disability. Family relations. Candice Phee is a little strange and her quirks come across vividly in this engaging story about a girl who has special needs (probably Asberger's) but who has a big heart and is determined to fix the people in her life. Her baby sister has died and both her parents are grieving. Her mother has retreated to her bedroom, badly depressed, and her father has retreated to his shed, tinkering with his computer. She has a new friend, Douglas Benson From Another Dimension, who after a fall, is convinced that he comes from a parallel universe. Her Rich Uncle Brian is also a source for concern as he and her father have fallen out badly over rights to a computer program. There is certainly a lot to fix in this family.
The novel is told in the first person by Candice. Her teacher has set the class a task of writing an autobiography, with a paragraph starting with each letter of the alphabet but Candice feels that is not enough to tell the story of her life and makes it into chapters. Interpersed with letters to a pen friend in New York, the reader is drawn into the life of this strange girl, who takes things very literally but also is very honest and caring.
There is a lot to like about this novel. Jonsberg's clever writing of humour makes it an engrossing and touching read. Candice is a wonderful heroine who although socially inept, has such warmth and compassion that the reader gets caught up in her funny machinations and hopes for the best results for her efforts to fix the problems in her life.
Pat Pledger

I'm a dirty dinosaur by Janeen Brian

Ill. by Ann James. Puffin, 2013. ISBN 978 0 670 07615 4.
(Age: 4+) Highly recommended. Picture book. Dinosaurs. Verse story. In lovely inviting verse, Janeen Brian tells the story of one dirty dinosaur, rolling around in the mud, getting different parts of his body dirty, until he is so dirty that he must run to the edge of the swamp and jump into the clear water beyond.
Each page has the first two lines of a stanza, telling which part of the body is affected by the dirt, then the next page completes the stanza with words to describe what he is doing. Each stanza is followed by four lines which repeat some of the stanza before, written in bright bold print, making sure that every child who reads the book, will want to shout out those lines in particular. The simple wash illustrations by Ann James suit the verse amazingly well, as the line drawing of the dinosaur scrabbles in the brown wash at the bottom of the pages.
As a read aloud in a classroom, or at home, or an older child, by themselves, this is a standout book. I couldn't help myself reading it out loud, the words are so infectious, and the rhyme easy to follow and learn. I think it will be read out loud often and with gusto.
Notes are available on Janeen Brian's website, and include activities which could be done with the book in a classroom.
But this would be fantastic as a class activity, each student learning a line and the class reciting the book as a recitation.
Fran Knight

Gallipoli by Alan Tucker

My Australian Story. Scholastic, 2013. ISBN 978 1 74283 693 5.
(Age: 11+) Recommended. World War One. ANZAC. Historical. Diary. I began to read this book with some trepidation as I have read some 30 books for children and young adults concerning war and particularly Anzac over the past twelve months, as the centenary anniversaries of the beginning of World War One and the Anzac landing approach in 2014 and 2015 respectively. I was not disappointed as Tucker's story in the My Australian Story series deals with Anzac through the eyes of a young man of fourteen which will appeal to the middle school reader, and along the way allow them to ingest many details about the whole campaign.
Moonta boy, Victor is eager to enlist when war breaks out and with his parents' permission travels to Adelaide, passing the test due to his strength and fitness. Camped at Morphetville he describes the training and new friends in his diary, eager to go to France to fight, although disquiet is apparent with news that his family friend, Hans, has been taken to Torrens Island, the detention centre, because he is German.
Landed in Egypt his diary describes the tedium of training and not knowing what is happening, until finally they are packed off into ships and wait orders to land at Gallipoli, part of the 10th Battalion of the AIF.
Everyone knows that this day and the subsequent eight months spent on that peninsula in Turkey were miserable, resulting in over 8000 Australian deaths (and 2700 New Zealand deaths) with an ignominious withdrawal almost as meticulously planned as the initial landing.
Through Victor's imagined diary we see his growing maturity and dismay with all that is going on about him, we see death and disease, the longing for home, the news from the home front, the day to day boredom punctuated by hard fighting, brutality on both sides, the comradeship and humour generated by their close living quarters, and in the end the utter futility of war.
The voice of this young man will keep the readers reading, imagining what they would do in his place, seeing things afresh from the view of someone their own age. I was amazed at the amount of detail Tucker was able to subtly infuse in this tale. Each page I came across things I had not read before. This book will make an excellent class set to study the landing and its consequences for this conflict is seen as a turning point in the nationhood of both Australia and New Zealand. But have some maps ready, as surprisingly no map was included, although a most useful glossary and explanatory notes by Tucker are added at the end.
Fran Knight

Armoured Defence by Robert Irwin and Jack Wells

Robert Irwin Dinosaur Hunter 3. Random House Australia, 2013. ISBN: 9781742750910. 96p.
Recommended Reading Age 6-9. Themes: Palaeontology, Time-travel, Adventure, Dinosaurs. This third book in the Robert Irwin Dinosaur Hunter series takes Robert and his best mate Riley camping in the Canadian badlands in Alberta. Riley's Uncle Nate is a returned soldier who tells the boys stories about his time in Afghanistan on the car trip to the camp site. Robert doesn't listen however he is too busy daydreaming about his previous trips back in time to dinosaur territory.
While the boys are eating their vegemite sandwiches and playing around, Robert rubs his magic fossil and this takes them on another adventure. They travel back to the Late Cretaceous period, when thirty-five species of dinosaur roamed the badlands. Robert rescues a heavily armoured euoplocephalus trapped in vines. Of course it wouldn't be an adventure unless they were confronted with a fierce gorgosaurus looking for a tasty meal.
The story is embedded with factual information about the habitat and the dinosaurs' characteristics; Robert has a depth of knowledge to share. Additional information as a field guide is included at the end of the novel with a drawing of a euoplocephalus by Robert. Pronunciation keys help the reader tackle the different dinosaur names.
This is a fast-paced action adventure and is recommended for 6-9 year old readers. The Australia Zoo website has information about Robert Irwin and the other books in the series. Check Random House Australia's website for interviews with Robert Irwin, quizzes, videos and downloads as well.
Rhyllis Bignell