Woolshed Press, 2012. ISBN 9781742753768.
This remarkable collection of 10 short stories imagines the future
in each of the next ten decades. The central protagonists in each
story, teenage friends Tara and Sam, grapple with a wide variety of
scenarios. In most of the stories one or other of them is faced with
a moral dilemma or agonizing choice. In 2020, a plague has destroyed
most of civilization and finds the two deliberating on whether to
let possibly infected friends into their rural fortress. In 2030
when a Total Financial Collapse leaves a small primitive
agricultural community struggling to survive, Tara lies to rid the
group of a 'free-loader' but then discovers her action has horrific,
unexpected consequences.
Other scenarios include machines to test genetic compatibility in
2040, severe rationing in the face of an alien invasion and rampant
over-population in 2060, and a religious dictatorship in 2070; here,
Sam has to choose between his boss and Tara. In 2080 Seniors, dubbed
Silvers, have the numbers and the power and don't hesitate to use it
corruptly. A 'human' AI machine features in 2100, and in 2120 a
hospital sells clones and bodies in a 'spare parts' surgery racket.
Clearly these are all grim and confronting situations, written to
provoke thought and discussion, rather than create optimism about
our future. The 10 stories are not in chronological order which
would indicate they are to be dipped into rather than read
cumulatively. Well written, they draw on the themes of Orwell's 1984
and Animal Farm as well as themes of personal
responsibility, state power and control, corruption, loyalty and
betrayal, human compatibility, and the price of freedom and
survival. Unforgettable, they would be a valuable addition for any
Senior English or Ethics classroom discussion.
Kevyna Gardner
Billie B Brown: The Copycat Kid by Sally Rippin
Hardie Grant Egmont, 2012. ISBN 978 1742971414.
(Ages 6-9) What does the B in Billie B Brown stand for? This time
(it changes in each story) it stands for buddy, as Billie has been
asked by her teacher to be a buddy for Mika, a new student from
Japan.
At first Billie is very excited and proud to be Mika's new friend
but gradually as Mika copies Billie's clothing, artwork and is
better than her at soccer, Billie gets angry and the friendship
breaks down.
This book is a great choice for children who are becoming more
independent readers and would like to read small novels or 'chapter'
books. The font is large and the book only has 42 pages which are
interspersed by black and white drawings.
There are many books in this series and these stories have great
appeal for girls in years 1-4. Children might like to check out a
great website about the
books that also contains quizzes, colouring in and games.
Jane Moore
Anna dressed in blood by Kendare Blake
Tom Doherty Associates Books, 2011. ISBN 9780765328656.
(Age: 14+) Recommended. With a raft of awards (Cybils Award Nominee
for Fantasy and Science Fiction (Young Adult) (2011), YALSA 2012
Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers (2012), and YALSA 2012 Best
Fiction for Young Adults (2012)) Anna dressed in blood is an
ideal book to get teens reading. Cas Lowood kills the dead. He is a
ghost hunter like his father before him. When his father is cruelly
murdered, he inherits his strange athame, and goes around the
countryside with his mother, a white witch, looking for ghosts to
lay to rest. Arriving in a new town, searching for the ghost called
Anna dressed in blood, Cas finds a ghost, dripping blood, who spares
his life even though she has killed countless others.
I enjoyed reading this ghost story, which is written in the first
person in the voice of Cas. Cas is a wonderful narrator, who gives
the reader an in-depth insight into what he is feeling about the
ghost hunting that he has to do and the loneliness he experiences as
he and his mother move from town to town. He has no time to make
friends and to be a normal teenage boy. When he enrolls at Sir
Winston Churchill Collegiate and Vocational high school, he finds
that he can't shake either Carmel or Thomas, who are determine to
befriend him and help him in his quest. Both of his friends grow and
begin to value themselves by the end of the story.
There are many exciting and gruesome scenes, which will be enjoyed
by those who like some bloodthirsty action in their reading.
Suspense is built up throughout the book, culminating in a thrilling
ending that left me wanting more.
Cas's feelings for Anna are pivotal for making the story
interesting. As a reader I became fascinated by the relationship
between the two, which seems to be doomed. However there is another
book in the pipeline, so it will be interesting to see where this
talented author goes with the sequel.
Recommended for reluctant readers and those who enjoy a well written
paranormal ghost story.
Pat Pledger
Olympic Spotlight Posters
Carel
Press. Australian version distributed in Australia by LinksPlus,
2012.
Set of 37 posters in pdf form A4 and A3 size with optional
Powerpoint presentation and jpeg images.
These posters are clearly presented with bright colours and eye
catching images. Easy to read font, titles are bold and draw
attention. The topics are very wide and varied, covering all aspects
of the Olympic Games experience. A useful set of posters to spark
interest and further exploration on the chosen topics . . . there is
just enough information to make them interesting, and still more to
discover.
The optional Powerpoint and jpeg files would be a handy addition to
displays and lessons. The Powerpoint presentation is in a widescreen
format, and I would use it as a digital display during the Olympics
on my IWB. It is in a format that you can customise to suit your
needs - for example I would add some background music and set an
automatic slide transition for display purpose. Many posters have
dates and I would envisage using the jpegs to create smaller cards
to do a timeline activity with students.
Overall a clearly designed set of interesting facts, available in
multiple formats for various uses.
Zana Thiele
The new friend by Sally Rippin
Hey Jack! (Series). Hardie Grant Egmont, 2012. ISBN 978 1742961 39 1
The worry monsters by Sally Rippin
Hey Jack! (Series). Hardie Grant Egmont, 2012. ISBN 978
174297140 7
(Ages: 6+) Warmly recommended. In The new friend, Jack
mooches around home trying to play by himself, but is finding it
hard going. His friend Billie is away, so he and his Dad go and play
soccer on the field nearby for a while. Returning home, Jack finds a
small friendly dog following him. He takes it home, his father
telling him that it will only be staying one night as they must find
its owner. They put down blankets for the dog in the laundry and
feed him, Jack finding a name for him which suits the little animal.
The next day they set out in their attempts to find the rightful
home of the little dog, and in doing so resolve the problem of the
little dog, Jack's loneliness and the problem of the shop owner down
the street.
The second, The worry monsters, concerns Jack forgetting his
spelling homework and worrying about what will happen at school when
the spelling test occurs. Again, a subtle story promoting positive
skills, good family communication and common sense, the story line
is easily recognisable by the readers, and its resolution one they
will also comprehend.
Neatly resolved stories, these will make a great read for younger
readers who have newly arrived at chapter books. They will be a good
addition to the library and being a series, a box of these will be
well used. They will also serve well as readers in the reader box in
the classroom, a far better proposition than many of the watered
down, uninteresting sets of readers promoted by publishers to busy
teachers. These little books are well written, have a neatly
resolved storyline, sound characters and a wonderful style and range
of vocabulary to further extend younger readers.
Fran Knight
Choker by Elizabeth Woods
Simon and Schuster, 2012. ISBN 9780857072863.
(Age: 13+) Recommended. 'Sixteen-year-old Cara Lange has been a
loner ever since she moved away from her best and only friend, Zoe,
years ago. Mostly she spends her time watching Ethan Gray from a
distance, wishing he would finally notice her, and avoiding the
popular girls who call her "Choker" after a humiliating incident in
the cafeteria. Then one day Cara comes home to find Zoe waiting for
her. Zoe's on the run from problems at home, and Cara agrees to help
her hide. With her best friend back, Cara's life changes overnight.
Zoe gives her a new look and new confidence, and next thing she
knows, she's getting invited to parties and flirting with Ethan.
However just as quickly as Cara's life came together, it starts to
unravel. A girl goes missing in her town, and everyone is a suspect,
including Ethan. Worse still, Zoe starts behaving strangely, and
Cara begins to wonder what exactly her friend does all day when
she's at school. You're supposed to trust your best friend no matter
what, but what if she turns into a total stranger?' Blurb.
Behind a flashy cover, this book contained far more excitement then
I expected it to have. Choker by Elizabeth Woods is a
teenage novel, which draws a perfect picture of a typical high
school, where Cara, a loner and also the main character, spends day
after day avoiding the popular girls and watching Ethan Gray from a
distance, wishing he would finally notice her. Frankly, the
storyline promised to be very unoriginal, yet something about this
book told me that things weren't exactly spot-on and unchanging in
Cara's life, especially after her best friend Zoe returned and an
unexpected death of Sydney Powers, her arch-enemy at school, had
occurred. Choker, which is a steady paced novel, never promised or even
given a slightest hint that it would take this shocking twist
somewhere in the middle and undertake something as epic as the end.
Elizabeth Woods detailed every single sentence, motivating the
reader to go on with the book. Details of the characters were also
very accurate, forming a decent idea of what they were like.
This book is definitely worth reading, since the style of the
writing and a shocking ending leave you wondering about it for days.
People will either love or hate this book, depending on their
favourite genres. Overall I would say that good endings make good
books, and Choker is definitely one of those novels.
I recommend this book.
Nika Aroutiounian
Titanic unclassified : secrets of the Titanic revealed by Alex Stewart
A and C Black, 2012. ISBN 9781408160527.
Written for the 100 year anniversary of the Titanic sinking, this
book tells the story of the disaster using photographs, copies of
historical documents and pictures of artifacts to support the text.
The history of trans-Atlantic travel is outlined and the rivalry
between competing shipping lines explained to enable younger readers
to appreciate the enormity of the vessel and the magnificence of its
design.
Excellent diagrams illustrate the vessel's layout and facsimiles of
shipboard documents such as menus and telegrams lend a sense of
reality to readers who will be aware of the legendary event but
might be unable to identify with it through the mist of time.
Titanic's design and construction, with obvious reference to the
fabled 'watertight' compartments and inadequate life boats is
covered in some detail, as is her launch and sea trials. Stewart
also explains the vast gulf between the fabulously rich passengers
undertaking the passage for amusement and the cultivation of their
image amongst peers as opposed to the desperately poor migrants
seeking a more satisfactory life in the United States.
The series of events which culminated in the sinking are explained
and the sense of confusion, shock and chaos is conveyed in language
which is not overly technical or complex. Some content which has
been analysed and interpreted in different ways during the last
century is presented somewhat simplistically from one perspective,
however the account is generally reasonable and balanced.
The author has sourced some of his documentary and photographic
evidence from the British National Archives and the inclusion of the
word 'unclassified' both in the title and stamped over many
documentary facsimiles implies that this is previously withheld
information. This is not the case and whilst this book is very good
and will be a much valued and well used addition to library
collections, there is little to distinguish it from the many similar
publications which present the usual elements, using the same few
surviving photographs.
Rob Welsh
Bog frog hop by Kyle Mewburn
Ill. by Rebecca Cool. Little Hare, 2012. ISBN 978 921714 58 0.
Warmly recommended. Picture book. Rhyming story. The black outlined
illustrations frame each page as the words are read, either aloud to
a group or by oneself, drawing the eye into the picture of ten
pollywogs swimming about in the soggy bog. All around the soggy,
mossy bog is their home while they wait to become frogs. As each
pollywog grows its legs and jumps out onto the mossy log, so the
rhyme tells us that there are now nine pollywogs left. Each double
page spread tells us of the next pollywog to become a frog and leave
its compatriots, until the last page where there are no pollywogs
left. A scruffy dog watches the proceedings eager to be part of it.
The action sees the focus of each page move from the pond where the
pollywogs are living, to the mossy log where finally ten frogs
reside. The bold illustrations will entice the reader into counting
the number of pollywogs and frogs, searching for other creatures
that live in the bog, reading aloud some of the splendid words used
in the rhyme. The sounds of the bog are in bold print, splash, glip,
drip, drop, woof, croak and so on, each word redolent of sounds
heard and readers will love to sound them out and practice saying
them as the book is read. The old Middle English word, 'pollywog',
meaning tadpole, will amuse and delight readers, and make a neat
starting point to talk about language, or the environment, or
rhyming stories. Some classes may be lucky enough to have access to
tadpoles and frogs so giving the book an extra resonance.
Fran Knight
Losing it by Julia Lawrinson
Penguin Australia, 2012. ISBN: 9780143205654.
(Ages: 16+) After writing two historical YA novels (Bye, Beautiful,
2006 and The Push, 2008), Lawrinson has returned to a contemporary
setting, and a lighter tone. Although, in choosing to write about
four girls challenging each other to lost her virginity, Lawrinson
has not shied away from contentious subject matter.
Bree, Zoe, Mala and Abby have been best friends, and the school's
resident Geek Girls since they won scholarships to the prestigious
local Anglican school. Now, starting Year 12, bonding over a bottle
of vodka, the girls take up a dare by Bree to try to lose their
virgin status before schoolies week.
The narrative is structured into four parts, with the girls each
chronicling her own story. We start with Zoe, move onto Abby, then
Mala, finishing with Bree. The girls all think they know each other
well, but secrets and layers and fears are revealed and the girls
emerge as individual, distinct and flawed. There are moments of
awkward fumblings in a Ford Yaris, and an embarrassing encounter
with a migrant grandma, which although are familiar and somewhat
predictable, are described with precision and clarity, and are
basically very, very funny. The sex scenes are not graphic, but nor
do they occur off-stage, so parents and educators need to be aware
of this fact.
Despite the seemingly heavy issue, Lawrinson handles it with a deft
and humorous touch, allowing her messages to come through with
warmth and affection as opposed to melodrama and angst. She neither
judges or condones the girls' behaviours or choices; instead she
asks readers to realise that everyone has baggage and there is no
one way, or right way to connect with another person intimately. The
ending is perhaps too neatly and quickly resolved, but
speaking for myself, I was satisfied to see the girls stronger and
more confident, and most of all, happy.
Trish Buckley
The Bridge by Jane Higgins
Text Publishing, 2012. ISBN 089 1 921758 33 1.
(Ages: 13+) Recommended. Dystopian. Nik and his fellow year 12
students are alert. ISIS representatives have entered the school
hall, ready to take away the best of the best for acceptance and
training for their elite guard. One by one, Nik's friends stand,
their name called, but at the end of the ceremony, Nik is still
there, seated. He and his friends are appalled, Nik is the top
student and no one can give him a credible reason for his omission.
Not being selected means he will be sent to the farms, or even
worse, made to join the army, fighting those who live on the other
side of the river, across the bridge, the Remnants, the Southsiders
And he knows that those who join the army do not live long.
A dystopian story of the divided city where the chasm between those
who have money and education and those on the southern reaches of
the city, has meant that both sides have deteriorated into
autocratic regimes, corrupt and self serving, spreading stories of
the other side to keep control, scaring people into submission. Nik
and Fy try to escape when their school is bombed, but in taking Fy's
younger brother, Sol, with them, must abandon everything and search
for him when he is kidnapped. The pair infiltrates the Southerners,
Nik being able to speak the language and so get close to one of the
commanders. Working with her, he sees a different side to the
stories he has been brought up with and a moral dilemma develops,
leading to his helping those he is with, the enemy.
There are comments about the divide between rich and poor, the haves
and have nots, the lust for power, the greed and self serving nature
of those in power. Many parallels to today's western society can be
drawn, making this a more interesting read than some dystopian
novels which are simply war novels set in a different space. The
story is compelling and the character of Nik, particularly, one that
held me intrigued, especially when the question of who his parents
were, combined with the question of just why he was rejected by the
ISIS in the fist place, is foreshadowed enticingly throughout the
novel, colouring much of what happens. And the many twists will keep
the reader guessing about what will happen to the end.
Fran Knight
The Loch Ness Monster: Fact or fiction? by Meredith Costain
Rigby, 2006. ISBN 9780731272280.
The Loch Ness Monster: Fact or fiction? has been written by Meredith
Costain, an experienced and prolific author of fiction and
non-fiction books for children. It is part of the series Making
Connections, and specifically belongs to the Comprehension Library
Grade 4. First published in this series in August 2006, it has
resurfaced now as an individual title. It is a slight paperback of
24 pages with a stapled spine.
The subject matter meets our seemingly universal fascination with
sightings and tales of the Loch Ness Monster. There is comprehensive
coverage of the Loch Ness Monster legend provided in a logical,
chronological order.
There is a clear, uncluttered layout with appropriate illustrations
- colour and black and white - with photographs, diagrams and maps.
The illustrations are labelled in a clear blue type. Chapter
headings are labelled in a very large, green type and sub-headings
are labelled in a large red type. There is also assistance with
pronunciation throughout the text eg 'plesiosaur [say:
pleese-e-o-sor]'.
Included are Contents, Glossary and Index with bold type throughout
the text for Glossary entries. Inside the back cover of the book are
critical literacy activities, which consist of a Graphic organiser
and Questions. They could be used for a whole class, groups or
individual students.
This book could be described as a Primary reader with large type for
young readers. It is suitable for Primary students, for Middle
school students eg for research into History mysteries, and for
those in remedial literacy programs.
For those interested in the series Making Connections they will find
an explicit framework to teach comprehension skills. For classroom
use there are interactive big books, blackline master books,
teacher's resource books and CD-ROMs. In the Comprehension Library
Grade 4 there are 5 books by various authors including The Loch Ness
Monster: fact or fiction? Each text is written to address a specific
skill and for this book that is fact and opinion.
M. E. Strickland
The leopard boy by Julia Johnson
Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2012. ISBN 9781 84780 213 2
(Ages: 8+) Warmly recommended. Endangered animals. Khalid minds the
goats on the mountain bringing them back to the village at night.
When a kid is missing he searches the site for hours trying to find
it, concluding that it has been taken by a wild animal. His uncle
sets a trap for the animal, displeased that a kid is missing, but
also not wanting a possible sighting of a leopard to spoil his plans
to sell some land around the village for building material. When
Khalid meets an old man who lives alone in the mountains, he learns
a different attitude to the animals, and longs to see a leopard for
himself, spending many hours with the man and learning his skills.
One day they meet and spend several nights on the mountain and
finally get to see a leopard and its cub. Khalid is overjoyed at the
sight, but when he returns home, finds his uncle is about to sign an
agreement with the developers. He is beaten and locked away until
his mother helps him escape.
A neat resolution sees the villagers turning their hands to another
way of making money and at the same time, protecting the leopards
which live in their mountains. A wonderful story of endangered
animals and what the ordinary person can do to protect their
environment is shown through the endearing tale of Khalid for middle
primary students.
Fran Knight
Revived by Cat Patrick
Hardie Grant Egmont, 2012. ISBN 9781921690631.
Highly recommended. Daisy has died five times and each time been
brought back with a super drug called Revive. Daisy has to move
cities and change identity to avoid suspicion, each time she was
Revived. Her latest move, Daisy has some unexpected complications; a
new best friend and a hot crush. Daisy grows attached to her new
home. At her new home, Daisy uncovers secrets and the more she
learns, the more she wishes she didn't. When God starts showing up,
Daisy gets suspicious.
Cat Patrick begins the book in a really interesting way and
then and gets straight to it. I liked that they main character died
in the first two pages, you don't read that very much. All the
characters were easy to like. The descriptions of the characters
were really interesting and quite accurate; Cassie's description was
my favourite and was amusing. The tragedy that happened midway
through the book changed my perspective on the Revive serum.
The Australian book cover, to me, is from the first chapter, and is
a good interpretation of that scene.
Cecilia Richards (Student)
Meeting Stephen Axelsen by Fran Knight
By anyone's standards, Stephen Axelsen has had an amazing life as an
author-illustrator, beginning with a Social Science degree,
ostensibly to lead him into his father's business. But driving to
Perth from Sydney and sleeping under a dining room table for the
next three months while he wrote his first novel, The Oath of
Bad Brown Bill led him to win a commendation at the CBC
Children's Literature of the Year Awards in 1979. A career in
business set aside, he produced cartoon strips for the NSW Education
Department's The School Magazine for some 20 years, while
illustrating at least 40 books. He recently won the May Gibbs
Children's Literature Trust Fellowship which gave him a residency in
Adelaide to work on a new project.
Sitting in Mary Martin's Bookshop/Cafe on Norwood Parade one lovely
Adelaide autumn day was all that I wanted, with Stephen telling me
between salad and English Breakfast Tea, about his work. Authors I
know have had to struggle to make ends meet. Their daily task of
writing is often shelved to do stints at schools or festivals or
even picking oranges, or at the every least, relying on a partner's
income for daily sustenance, and illustrators are even more
constrained, Stephen tells me, his last book taking 1100 hours of
drawing to see it finished.
His current project The Nelly Gang for Walker Books
Australia concerns the antics of a girl during the Gold Rush in
Victoria. First appearing as a comic strip in The School
Magazine, Stephen expanded the idea to make a graphic novel.
The graphic format gives Stephen an ideal opportunity to research
the times, something he relishes as he strives to get the background
of the story drawn as accurately as possible. And being a lover of
bushrangers and paddle steamers he is able to delve into several of
his passions at the same time. Begun in 2008, this will be published
in 2013.
He has seen publishing houses come and go since his first book was
polished in 1975. Names like Rigby, Lothian, Collins, Nelson, Pan,
McVitty and many more are now amalgamated with other companies or
have simply vanished. One publisher which held copies of his earlier
book about Vikings, accidentally pulped all the copies, so your copy
is sure to make a small fortune on the secondhand market sometime
soon.
In the recent past he has written and illustrated a series beginning
with A Very Messy Inspection, many titles for Puffin's Aussie
Nibbles as well as Lothian's Gigglers, and the Allen
and Unwin series, It's True, in fact pick up many books for
middle primary which are resplendent with funny, quirky
illustrations, and you may find Stephen named as the illustrator.
His clear, large line drawings are instantly recognisable, offering
an unfussy, lucid adjunct to the words in the book.
Always fascinated by other illustrators' work, we talked about Craig
Smith, Shaun Tan, May Gibbs, Dorothy Wall, Vivienne Goodman amongst
others, which easily led us to talk about his preferred method of
drawing, a graphic tablet with the Wacon program for digital
drawing. Stephen sketches out his illustrations, transferring them
to the graphic tablet before filling in the colour and detail. He
demonstrated this at his evening presentation for the May Gibbs
Children's Literature Trust gathering at Burnside library recently,
and he was surprised at the level of interest it created. None of us
had seen this before and the children in particular were keen for
some hands on experience.
Self effacing (see his drawing of himself on his website), Stephen found
during his university years, that drawing suited him and spent many
hours sketching his friends, using the illustrations of Dorothy
Wall, Ronald Searle and Arthur Rackham as his models. From there
opportunities beckoned and we are the richer for it.
I loved The Mostly True Story of Matthew and Trim a Notable
book in the CBC awards in 2006 and was surprised to find it out of
print, as my copy has mysteriously found a better home. But books do
not seem to hang around a long time anymore, and this can be a
problem for an author illustrator who relies on his books to live.
When researching Stephen's books prior to meeting him I was amazed
that my local public library had to retrieve his books from storage.
Stephen was most sanguine about the way publishing is headed and saw
this as a sign of the times.
For more information see his website
which offers a fascinating insight into the work he does other than
the books we see on the shelves.
Fran Knight (April, 2012)
Dead, actually by Kaz Delaney
Allen and Unwin, 2012. ISBN 978
(Ages: 12+) Recommended. Humour. When Willow leaves work one night,
she happens upon a car accident, in which JoJo, the top A-lister at
school, is killed. Shortly after she begins to receives overtures of
friendship from JoJo's friends and ex boyfriends, so knows something
is very wrong. She baulks at going to the funeral but is finally
convinced when JoJo's ghost appears in her room, telling her that
she must find out who murdered her. Willow is gobsmacked, she was
definitely not one of that crowd, and despised JoJo and her friends
for their vanity and superficial lifestyle, but she does not want
JoJo's belligerent ghost living in her bedroom for any longer than
is absolutely necessary.
There follows a truly funny modern ghost story, morphing into a
crime thriller with a light touch of romance. Willow and her friend,
Macey, who she tells about the ghost, in case she is truly going out
of her mind, and Macey's brother, Seth, who admits being blackmailed
by JoJo, lend a hand. The trio works the crowd at the appalling wake
after the funeral, complete with the JoJo's friends dressed as black
angels; gathering information, watching for clues, listening to
gossip.
At the same time, Willow is trying to protect her parents from a
sleaze who is attempting to take their money, while the love of her
life, Seth, suggests they pretend to be boyfriend and girlfriend to
winkle out information from JoJo's friends.
All told with the tongue firmly in a cheek, this very funny story is
set against a sleazy wealthy community in coastal Queensland,
amongst a group of girls we often see portrayed in teen movies.
Their idiosyncratic behaviour is neatly portrayed, their empty
lifestyle nicely judged while the integrity and strength of the
three sleuths makes a stunning point of comparison. JoJo redeems
herself at the last minute, providing a neat resolution to the whole
funny story.
Fran Knight
