Reviews

A forest by Marc Martin

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Penguin Viking, 2012. ISBN 9780 570 07645 1.
Picture book. Sustainability. A deft introduction to the ideas behind Sustainability, one of the focusses of the new Australian Curriculum, this picture book shows the destruction caused by man to a forest, and by implication, the whole world. The cycle of destruction is turned upon man for his stupidity leading to the forest's regeneration.
From the start, a few trees are cut down, man taking enough to live upon, but then he becomes greedy and begins to cut more and more, leading to the rise of tall cities, overwhelming the land once covered by the forests. As a result, the rains are heavier and denude the cities, causing them to be swept away, and eventually the forest returns.
Each page is a delight for small children to search out the different sort of trees rendered in water colour, pencil and ink. They will not help but be anxious when the trees are cut down, leading the way for buildings to be erected over the now barren land. Cities rise from the places where the forests once were, and turning the pages readers will be struck by the use of water colour to give a haunting impression of the denuding of the cities in grey, green and dreary rain clouds. The symmetry of the book is hypnotic, leading the reader to ponder a brighter future where forests again reign supreme.
This book would make a great introduction to the topic of sustainability in the classroom, and could be well compared with treats such as those produced by Jeannie Baker.
Fran Knight

Drive by by Jim Carrington

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Bloomsbury 2012. ISBN 978 1 4088 2278 4.
(Age: Teens) Recommended. Johnny and his friends are returning home from the park on a hot summer's day messing around and kicking a football which accidentally lands in the house of an old lady who punctures it before returning it.
Later the boys have their revenge when they shoot her with water pistols as they ride past her open car window. After they learn she has had a heart attack and she dies, Johnny feels extremely guilty as it was his idea. He wants to confess but his friends are not so sure. Things go rapidly downhill from there as Johnny finds it increasingly difficult to deal with the guilt. It is all complicated by his meeting up with a girl that he is attracted to, but who turns out to be the old lady's granddaughter.
Johnny is an essentially decent person, so the consequences of his prank weigh heavily on him. The author manages to convey this without preaching and the relationship between him and the granddaughter is convincingly done.Whilst giving a balanced view of the realities of the situation the author manages to resolve it satisfactorily and believably. This allows the story to end positively but does not diminish the issues involved.
Recommended for teenage readers who will identify with many of the issues raised such as taking responsibility for your actions.
David Rayner

Wired Up series by various authors

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A and C Black, London, 2012.
Kidnap by Chris Powling. ISBN 978 1 4081 4260 8.
Seconds out by Dan Tunstall. ISBN 978 1 4081 5270 6.
Petrify by Beth Chambers. ISBN 978 1 40821 5268 6.
(Ages 11+) Recommended. High interest, low literacy.
Kidnap by Chris Powling is a straight forward story of two rich kids being tutored with a third child, the son of the handyman at their mansion. When kidnappers take all three, including their teacher, Adam is disparaging of Leo, the third child, and watches him for hints that he is in league with the kidnappers. After the teacher is killed, the three are taken to the top of an apartment building, where they wait for the money to be delivered. A neat story of not judging people by their wealth is shown here as Adam learns to reappraise Leo.
In Seconds out, 15 year old Andy is in trouble again,using his fists to prove he is the hard man amongst the year 10s. When the principal tells him to go to the local boxing club, he is at first hesitant. After having the wind knocked out of him by a much weaker student at the club, he storms out but but talking to the boy at school shows him that not all take it so personally. A deft story about self image and keeping up appearances, this story shows us a lad at the crossroads, and taking steps not to follow in his father's footsteps.
Petrify too, will cause its readers to watch their backs as new boy, Josh tries to prove that he is not scared by the story of the witch in the community. The story revolves around it drinking blood, and when scary things happen, Josh and his friends need to be on their guard.
A companion series to Wired (A and C Black), and similar to Lightning Strikes (Barrington Stokes), this series will appeal to kids with lower literacy levels but wanting something more meaty than the usual stories written for them. They will be very handy to have available for readers, and a box set of them in the classroom will be useful.
Fran Knight

Mike the Knight: Meet Mike!

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Simon and Schuster. 2012. ISBN;978-0-85707-680-9.
No doubt spurred on by the phenomenally successful cartoon (shown in Australia on the ABC network), Simon and Schuster have released the book Mike the Knight; Meet Mike! For those not in the know, Mike is a gallant and chivalrous young knight in training, who lives in Glendragon. Whilst his father, the King, is away fighting the good fight, young Mike is the man of the castle, who aspires to 'be a knight, do it right'.
Along with his two favourite dragon companions, Sparkie and Squirt, and armed with his Big Book for Little Knights in Training, there is no problem to big or too small for Mike. Galloping from one adventure to another with his trusty steed, Galahad the Great, Mike is a helpful and determined young knight.
This is a bold and bright book, perfectly pitched to the preschool set. Anything which encourages young men (and women) to be helpful and brave and adventurous gets a big thumbs up from me. The text is friendly and approachable, and will be sure to appeal to fans of the show and their parents and caregivers alike. The illustrations are perfectly matched to the television program, which ensures that consistency which small children find so comforting. For a commercial spin off, the writing is good, and this is an enjoyable book to read aloud.
Freya Lucas

The Worst Princess by Anna Kemp and Sara Ogilvie

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Simon and Schuster, 2012. ISBN:9781847388759. Hardcover.
Highly recommended. Princess Sue is a feisty, Converse wearing, cluey princess. Sitting in her tower lamenting the slowness of her long awaited Prince, Sue is someone who knows the score. Once Prince Charming shows up, Sue is all set for her adventure to begin.
Riding off on the back of his horse, Sue is heard to cry 'Whoopee! At last I'm freed! Today I start my happy end'. You can imagine then, her disappointment when she finds out that her prince charming wants her to be little more than a decorative castle ornament, sitting up in a tall tower, wearing pretty dresses and leaving all the adventuring to the Prince.
As you can imagine, Sue is not satisfied with this turn of events, and she soon sets things right, achieving a non traditional happily ever after.
When I was a young girl, I was given a copy of The Paperbag Princess to review. This book is along a similar vein of wonderful and interesting 'self rescuing princesses', and it makes a refreshing change from the traditional variety of simpering and delicate waifs.
This is a great book for younger and older readers alike - in our house, it sparked off some fascinating discussions about gender stereotyping and the roles of male and female characters in traditional stories.
The illustrations are simply stunning, and they support the story so well. Vibrant and colourful, the pictures leap off the page and carry the reader beyond the story and into the world of Princess Sue.
A highly recommended addition to any school or personal library collection.
Freya Lucas

Waiting at the gate by Robyn Caughlan with Jason K Foster

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Magabala Books, 2012. ISBN 978 1 921248 52 8 .
(Ages: 14+) Autobiography. Aboriginal themes. When her sister sends her a photo of her Irish father, Robyn's hands creep towards the envelope, taking forever to open it to look at the man portrayed. Doing so fills her with dread as she remembers the years of being Dah - Dee's little girl, suffering sexual abuse until he died when she was 5. This opens this story of rising above the tragedies that marred her early life, as she struggled with early motherhood and marriage, abuse at the hands of her partner, running away, losing her children and then going back to him to be able to see her kids. All the while her adoptive parents are loyal and supportive, being a cushion whenever she needed it. It was lovely to read the sections where they were prominent, with their stability and love oozing from them and their home, always there ready to catch Robyn as she fell, giving her renewed courage.
Later Robyn begins to paint, being often the only pupil in her teacher's class. The story continues as Robyn develops her skills and becomes an internationally renowned artist, the first Indigenous artist to be feted in this way. Along the way her spirituality also develops and this forms part of her renewed vigor with her painting.
What saves this book from being yet another litany of horror and abuse in one woman's life is the loyalty of her adoptive family, followed by the love and support she receives from her friends and supporters, giving her the tenacity to succeed. While overlong, the story will be one that teens, particularly girls, will read and share, discussing pitfalls she meets and the alternatives to accepting a life of abuse and neglect, marvelling at her courage to overcome all that happens to her.
Fran Knight

Slow down Boris by Andrew Joyner

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Penguin Group: Australia , 2012. ISBN: 9780143306702.
Highly recommended as an early chapter book for emerging and independent readers. Boris embarks on a new adventure as he joins his class on a trip to Hogg City where they visit the museum, enjoy lunch in the park and finish with a session at the Road Safety School.
The Boris stories are easily accessible chapter books with short sentences setting the scene and clear speech bubbles showing the characters speaking. As with the previous Boris adventures you expect that something exciting will happen to Boris, and it does, ensuring that young readers will enthusiastically read on.
The colourful illustrations enhance the story by clearly showing a variety of expressions and characters as his classmates wait whilst Boris extricates himself from a set of shark jaws, a fountain. I particularly enjoyed the illustrations as Boris, on the smallest bike, rides around the bike circuit.
Boris of course saves the day and all ends happily as the bus returns the class to Hogg Bay School.
Slow down Boris is an entertaining read which will delight young readers and adults alike.
Sue Keane

No return : Captain Scott's race to the pole by Peter Gouldthorpe

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Lothian, 2012. ISBN 9780734412799. pbk.
(Ages: 9+) Warmly recommended. Non Fiction. History. The story of Captain Scott and his journey through the Antarctic to be the first to reach the South Pole makes fascinating reading as beset by all sorts of problems, the small group perished, making their names synonymous with heroism and courage in exploration. Gouldthorpe has written an excellent overview of the man himself, lured to this part of the world by previous explorations and then wanting to be the first to reach the South Pole, on hearing of a Norwegian expedition setting out as well in 1909.
The voyage from England to Melbourne, then the treacherous voyage across the Southern Ocean to Cape Evans in Force 10 gales, made them even more determined. They arrived with three motor sleds, one of which sank into the ice almost immediately, while one of the 59 men was almost lost to a pod of killer whales when he inadvertantly hopped across ice flows coming to a dead end. The men built a hut and stored their provision to wait out the Antarctic winter before attempting the walk to the pole in spring. The awful tale of the trip follows, with the main group dying trying to return after finding that the Norwegian team had arrived before them.
Two detailed maps are included and the illustrations give a bitingly cold feel to the story, as we see the men and their horses and huskies with all their equipment, trudge off. This is an amazing story told with sufficient detail and superb illustrations to make it available to a wide audience.
Fran Knight

Ruby Moonlight by Ali Cobby Eckermann

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Magabala Books, 2012. ISBN 9781921248511.
Highly recommended, especially for Secondary students. This verse novel succinctly and poignantly tells the story of sixteen year old lubra, Ruby, who alone survives the massacre of her family by whites in South Australia's mid-north. She has an illegal liaison with a reclusive thirty year old Irish trapper, Jack, and they find solace in each other. Suspense grips each page as their relationship is threatened not only by an old aboriginal warrior who wants Ruby but also by the white racist society out to destroy 'diseased' aboriginals. Ruby has the spirit guardian, Kuman, to protect her, but can he save her and Jack from a lynching party?
This tightly written novel has a haunting title to each page-long poem. Its phrases and images linger in the mind,
'earthen thighs hide a sacred spring', ' life is doomed to drought' and 'the soft staccato symphony of raindrops'. A white man is a 'smoking ash ghost.'
Lyrical, accessible and memorable, this page turner captures Australian history, black and white relationships, aboriginal spirituality and the beauty and power of the natural world.
Kevyna Gardner

Pole to pole: One man, 20 million steps by Pat Farmer

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Allen and Unwin, 2012. ISBN 9781742377841.
Pole to pole is Pat Farmer's diary of his 21,000 km run from the North Pole to the South Pole, which he successfully completed between April 5, 2011 and February 19, 2012. Before this adventure he was already a highly experienced ultra marathon runner - an extreme athlete who had been running all his life - and he was looking for the next challenge.
Pat Farmer was a Federal politician for almost a decade, but tired of endless meetings talking about ways to improve the world. He wanted to make a practical difference. At the time of this extraordinary undertaking he is 49 years old and the devoted single father of Brooke and Dillon since the death of his wife in 1998. He is buoyed by running with his children on some sectors of the journey and he communicates well his heart-warming relationship with them.
Pat details the complex team effort required to stage such a run including the preparation, the lengthy training in extreme conditions and the promotion required for fund-raising. One integral goal of his run was to raise money for the Red Cross' clean water and disaster relief campaigns.
There are many joys and charming descriptions of the multitude of people met along the way in North and South America. There is also a lot of pain. Each day he fights his way through pain and one of the hardest tasks each day is getting out of his sleeping bag!
This is a paperback book of 313 pages with many colour and black and white photos accompanied by Pat's quirky comments. There is a Contents page, which divides the run into 6 stages. There is no Index, which is fine, because the book needs to be read as an adventure rather than as an information book.
This book has been written for an adult audience, but it is suitable for Biography/Autobiography studies in Years 11-12. The diary format and information boxes eg Pat's blister fixer, How to tell a classy hotel, and Nazca Lines, make the book easy to tackle and thus suitable for a young adult audience.
M. E. Strickland

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

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Orion, 2012. ISBN 9781409116325.
Like Romeo and Juliet, Eleanor and Park are from two different worlds, even though they are both sixteen and go to the same school on the same bus in a mid- western USA city in the 80s.  Indeed, when the overweight, eccentrically-dressed, red haired and socially inept Eleanor is forced to occupy the vacant seat next to Park it's hate at first sight. But she shyly reads his comics sideways, and they gradually realize that not only do they share many musical and literary tastes, in a school where sport rules, but also they are deeply drawn to each other.
Meeting with Park away from the bus is problematic for Eleanor as her step-father rules their home by fear and she would never be allowed a boy-friend. She protects her four younger siblings in their impoverished home with its lack of privacy. Park is Korean with a father who had macho hopes for his 'different' son. These two misfits can't stop themselves falling into an intense, powerful and overwhelming first love. But secrets are hard to keep, and once stepfather, Richie, hears of her relationship, Eleanor's life is in danger and she and Park must take a huge risk.
Rainbow Rowell captures in minute detail that transforming all-powerful young love which flourishes despite the odds.
Kevyna Gardner

Sophia the Flame Sister by Amber Castle

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Spell Sisters, book 1. Simon and Schuster, 2012. ISBN: 9780857072474.
Sophia the Flame Sister is the first of the Spell Sister series. The prologue introduces the readers to Niveve, the Lady of the Lake and Morgana Le Fay and sets the scene for the events which follow. Sounding familiar? Yes . . . all the elements of a young Arthur's story with a twist.
The main character Gwen is a feisty Guinevere who would prefer to be out with the boys, one of whom is Arthur, than learn to curtsey and be a lady. Her adventures begin when, with her cousin Flora, she ventures deep in to the magical forest arriving at the Lake. Here she is charged with saving Avalon by rescuing the Spell Sisters who have been captured and hidden in various parts of the kingdom by the ambitious Morgana.
With touches of magic and bravery this is a story young girls will enjoy. Gwen and Flora are engaging characters and Morgana bad enough that she leaves the reader wondering what the next adventure will bring. This is helped by a sneak peek chapter for the next book at the end to whet the reader's appetite.
This series will appeal to the girls who have read the Rainbow Fairies and are looking for a different sort of magic. The parallels with the stories of a young Arthur may be missed on this age group, but as an adult it is nice to think that maybe Guinevere had an adventurous childhood.
Sue Keane

Boris on show by Andrew Joyner

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Puffin Books, 2012. ISBN 9780143306696
(Age: Early reader) Warmly recommended. Humour. Into the Hogg's Bay Show, Boris enters a whole host of things, a large pumpkin, some lemons, a piece of his artwork, a photograph, and some eggs, even his cat, Lion. But best of all, he spends time making a carrot cake. He collects the carrots from the garden from under the nose of Frank the sheep, who loves eating them.
Boris and his family go to the show, confident that Boris will win a prize, but when the children are high up in the ferris wheel, they see Frank lurking outside the cake judging tent. All will be lost if Frank gets inside, so the children act. Boris saves the day however, and although he does not win a prize, his photo is in the paper as the hero of the show.
Another in the charming series of stories about Boris the pig, is presented in this tale of submitting entries for the local show, and then saving the day with some quick thinking. The subtlety of the selfless act by Boris will not be lost on the readers, as they ponder his win. The lively story with its cheerful illustrations will be sought out by early readers, eager for a new chapter book, and with the recipe for carrot cake at the end no one will be able to resist trying it out. at home or in the classroom.
Fran Knight

The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje

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Jonathan Cape, 2011. ISBN 9780224093620.
Recommended for Senior students. Aged eleven the boy Michael is sent to England from Sri Lanka on the liner the Oronsay to reunite with his mother. As an adult the narrator, now a novelist, (Ondaatje claims that the book is fictional although it uses the 'colour and locations' of autobiography) looks back on the voyage that became in more ways than one a rite of passage. Also travelling on the boat are a diverse range of characters, youngish women in search of husbands, failed musicians, entertainers, thieves, children going to England for school, rich old men looking for health and a manacled prisoner.
Michael is allocated a dining table so far from the Captain's that it is nicknamed the 'Cat's table' by fellow diners, who include a mysterious tailor, Miss Lasqueti, with Foreign Office connections and two other boys, Cassius and Ramadhin. Cassius, Michael and Ramadhin make the ship theirs; they invade the lifeboats, lurk on deck late at night when the prisoner is exercised and are used by a thief to break into cabins. Although Ramadhin is constrained by asthma Michael and Cassius are indomitable. In one terrifying incident they chain themselves to the deck during a turbulent storm, and have to weather the Captain's rage as a result.
The adult Michael realizes that the voyage took him from his safe and idyllic childhood in Sri Lanka to the more turbulent years of adult life. The author takes the reader forward in time to Ramadhin's mysterious death, to Michael's marriage to his sister and to the success of Cassius as a painter. We are then returned to the voyage and the disastrous escape of the prisoner, which has been contrived by the entertainers and in which the tailor and Miss Lasqueti are implicit. The three children see death and understand culpability, then land and go back to school. As an adult Michael remembers and tries to make sense of the experience. The Jamesian theme of innocence and experience is strongly established, the novel being at its best in the descriptions of the boys' lives and observations on the liner. The adult experiences are less convincing, and the prisoner's story is melodramatic. However, the novel would make an interesting comparison with texts dealing with the themes of growing up and adolescence.
Jenny Hamilton

Golden Stranger by Karen Wood

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Allen and Unwin, 2012. ISBN 9781742378589.
(Age: 14+) Horse enthusiast, Shara Wilson, is looking forward to term break from boarding school when she will return home to Coachwood River. She enjoys watching the local rodeo but is angry when she learns that there will be a wild horse race at the event. She is even more upset when she learns that the aptly named Conneman brothers, who are responsible for staging the race, have a history of cruelty and neglect to their animals.
Shara and her friends decide to disrupt the event but their behaviour gets them offside with family. After breaking a promise not to cause any more trouble, Mr Wilson takes the drastic step of taking away Shara's beloved horses Rocko and Goldie, a beautiful colt that has escaped from the Connemans. To make matters worse, Corey, the boy that she has a crush on, has ended up with a severe head injury trying to keep her out of trouble.
Shara can't believe that she is being punished for trying to protect horses from brutal treatment while the perpetrators are able to carry on unscathed. She and her friends are challenged to come up with a more constructive way of protesting, something that will get the community on their side.
Golden Stranger is the fifth book in the Diamond Spirit series which feature Shara and her friends. It is a good dramatic read with a dash of romance and lots of horse talk for the lovers of all things equine.
Tina Cain