Illus. by Huy Voun Lee, Bloomsbury, 2011. ISBN 9781 408815458.
(Ages 5+) Picture book. When grandpa comes to stay permanently, he
invites Jasmine into his room, asking her to make a wish. He then
paints her wish, using his magic brush, sweeping it across the paper,
making the calligraphy letters to go along withe story they create.
Jasmine wants to fly to the moon, so one page shows their journey, with
the calligraphy on the page as well. Eventually they get to the
mountains, after going along a river, meeting some monkeys and finding
a flying horse, which leads them to the baby dragon.
Each day grandpa takes Jasmine on this journey, teaching her the
calligraphy and the story which goes with the letters, helping her
become proficient with the brush. When he leaves, she must wait for her
younger brother to be old enough for her to teach him. So the cycle of
life is shown in this gentle story of birth and rebirth, teaching the
next generation, and the underlying values of love and family.
Flat boldly coloured illustrations fill each page and at the end of the
book, the Chinese characters are given again with their meanings, along
with the story of calligraphy and some recipes for the food mentioned
in the text.
Fran Knight
Beauty queens by Libba Bray
Allen and Unwin, 2011. ISBN 9781742377070.
(Age 15+) Highly recommended for mature readers. When a plane carrying
teen beauty queens to their pageant destination, crashes on a densely
forested island, the survivors have to bring all their resources
together to stay alive. Keeping to their beauty regime while building
shelters and finding food can be quite a challenge but the girls manage
not only to survive but to find some beauty products as well!
An award winning author, Libba Bray uses satire at its best to point
out the difficulties that her young beauty queens face in their world.
It is a place where reality TV and corporate sponsorship
dominate. The ideal of beautiful faces and bodies is obsessively
pushed at girls, often by their mothers.
Bray chooses a group of girls, the leader Miss Texas, highly
intelligent Adina Greenberg who wants to bring the beauty pageant down,
and Shanti Singh, who can make papadum 'as my mother and grandmother
taught me,' standing out for me.There are many more to show the
different pressures that the girls are under, not least having pushy
parents who insist on their entering the beauty scene. The reader finds
out about them from their Miss Teen Dream Fun Facts page and then
follows their journey as they learn how to become self-sufficient and
able to rely on others on the island. There are great moments when the
girls flex their imaginations and beauty materials to cope, like using
stretch materials to gather water.
The introduction of a sub plot where soldiers for the Corporation are
attempting to take over a small country and are stationed on the island
provides plenty of action and suspense. The appearance of a ship
carrying a group of gorgeous young men, pirates from the Captains
Bodacious TV series, provides some lively love interest.
There are many laugh aloud moments as Bray satirises the Corporation
and Ladybird Hope, the beauty queen mentor for the girls. But the story
revolves around what happens to the girls when there is no beauty
pageant to win and they must discover who they really are. There are
important messages for girls about sexuality; obsession with body image
and friendship, all packed up in a funny, challenging book. It will be
sure to get them thinking about product advertising, big business, boy
bands and dictators.
Some sex scenes, violence and discussion of sexual orientation make it
a book for the older teen. The theme of female empowerment and girls
finding themselves, as well as a fabulous conclusion, make it a very
worth while read.
Pat Pledger
Jolly Jack by Susannah McFarlane and Lachlan Creagh
Little Mates series. Scholastic, 2011. ISBN 978174169 8343.
(Ages 5+) Recommended. What a treat to find a series of books which
does not pander to the younger reader. Here the author has used words
of more than two syllables, melding so well with the sentence that a
child will have some understanding of the meaning, and be able to
delight in repeating the word, rolling it around their tongues. The
alliterative device too, will delight and entreat, helping the readers
acclimatize themselves to new words, adding to their growing vocabulary.
Jolly Jack, a kangaroo, what else!, loves playing jokes on his friends,
and the story details some of the jokes played between the group. Every
possible 'j' word is used in this funny read aloud story, and I can
imagine teachers, parents and students having a laugh reading it
themselves or listening as it is read to them. An adult will make
wonderful sue of the alliterative words in the story, adding stress and
an invitations to predict what the next word might be.
The tenth in the series, Inquisitive Isabella by the same
author and
illustrator, has the same approach. The words all start with 'I' and
include such wonderful variety of words with 3 and 4 syllables, that
everyone will be involved and part of the story.
Fran Knight
Springman Brothers' Reality Repair by Joshua Wright
Jim Springman Book 2. Scholastic Australia, 2011. ISBN 9781741697858.
(Age 10+) Queen's Port has become imagination central. It's turned into
the Realm of Glory and Jim Springman's older sister Ingrid is stuck in
the middle of it. He has to help her, but to do that he has to go into
the dragon's lair to get her out. Then he needs to make her remember
she is really Ingrid Springman the author of Realm of Glory and
his
sister not the Bandit Queen Evavich a murderous villain and the leader
of the Bugbears in the Realm of Glory. But with people out to kill him,
monsters out to eat him, the local necromancer wanting him back in
school, his brother not wanting to help him and the anchor pills
starting to wear off it won't be as easy as it seems. As if they were
his only problems his friends Ruthie and Josie Cobbler just keep
dragging him deeper and deeper.
This book is hard to get in to: it took me half the book and a dragon
to get in to it. It's a good book with a good ending and I can honestly
say that I didn't realise it was the second in a series. The first book
in the series is Jim Springman and the Realm of Glory, but the
second
book has been written in a way that makes it seem like it isn't
actually a series.
Tahlia Kennewell (student)
Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
Pan Macmillan, 2010. ISBN: 9780330425780
(Age 14+) Highly recommended. Winner of the 2011 Prime Minister's
Award, the Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature 2011 and
short listed for the CBCA Older Reader's Award, Graffiti Moon
is a book
not to be missed and should be as widely promoted as possible in
libraries and as a class set or literature circle book in schools. A
group of teens get together at the end of their HSC. Lucy, a glass
blower, thinks that she is in love with Shadow, an unknown graffiti
artist. His artworks call to her and she really feels that they would
be soul mates. She decides to spend the night trying to find out who he
is, but becomes entangled with Ed and his mates. She had gone out on a
date with Ed in Year 10, but it ended in disaster when she broke his
nose. Meanwhile Dylan and Daisy are a couple, but Daisy is having
second thoughts after he egged her on the last day of school. In a
gripping 24-hour period the teens get to know each other and
themselves, all working out just what they want out of life.
I loved this book and read it virtually in one sitting. I was fortunate
to hear Cath Crowley talk about the research she did at night looking
at graffiti around Melbourne and talking to people. This insight added
to the enjoyment I experienced. It was easy to imagine Shadow painting
evocative scenes and his offsider writing the words to go with them.
You knew that he wasn't a vandal from the vivid descriptions and ached
for him to have a legitimate voice in the art world. Art lovers will
also appreciate the many references to artists and exhibitions that
Crowley makes.
I also loved the romance in this book. It was never soppy or
unrealistic. Crowley described vividly how these young people began to
come of age, recognising strengths and weaknesses in each other. The
teens spoke with an authentic voice and I could easily imagine each
one, facing dilemmas, covering up secrets and hurts and making good and
bad decisions.
Crowley tackles some big themes with a soft touch. Dysfunctional
families and the plight of kids who must cope without support, the
inability to read and what that means for a career are all examined in
a low key but very helpful way. While Ed has many problems he was
able to attract the attention of sympathetic adults who helped him on
his way.
A very satisfying and uplifting story, Graffiti Moon deserves
all the
accolades that it is getting.
Pat Pledger
Nog and the land of noses by Bruce Whatley
Scholastic, 2011. ISBN 978 1 74169 8091.
(Ages 6+) Picture book. Recommended. What an absolute delight to read
this fine book about difference. Whatley infuses his noses with amazing
qualities, readers will have a great time differentiating each nose and
the qualities each has as they read the book again and again. In a land
where everyone's nose has a purpose, or did something useful, Nog's did
not. His just is. There are fat noses and thin noses, noses that go up
and some that go down, and the delightful illustrations show the reader
exactly what each nose does. Nog is despondent, his does nothing. His
grandmother always said the Nog had a nose for trouble, but Nog could
not see the value in this, until one day, trouble comes to the
community and Nog smells it before anyone else. So a tale of sadness
becomes one where Nog finds that his nose, like everyone else's, has a
definite purpose.
Along the way, children will love the idioms used, nose for trouble,
catching a cold in the nose, picking nose or a running nose. The
illustrations show what the nose can do, but the words are ones the
class can laugh over as they see the difference between the words and
the illustrations or the accepted meaning of those words.
Fran Knight
Plague by Michael Grant
Gone series, Book 4. Egmont, 2011. ISBN 9781405256575.
(Age 14+) The fourth instalment of the thrilling Gone series, Plague
brings a new element to the FAYZ where it has been eight months since
all the adults disappeared. The Darkness has managed to take over its
Nemesis and a killer plague is spreading over the land. Lana can't cure
this and the metallic bugs that grow inside flesh, eating their way
out, are also proving almost impossible to kill. Water is running very
short at Perdido Beach and Sam, with his trusty cohort of Dekka and
Jack, set out to a big lake a distance away in the hope of finding a
better place for the little colony to live. These are desperate time
and terrible decisions must be made to save those children left in the
frightening colony. Plague takes this series well into the horror genre. The back
cover
warns that the book 'contains scenes of cruelty and some violence', and
the descriptions of the flesh eating bugs are truly horrific as are
some of the murder scenes and the evil Drake continues to ferociously
and gleefully wield his whip arm. And the scenes of children coughing
up their lungs and splattering walls and bystanders are ones I want to
forget! This is not for the faint-hearted - the fast paced action
driven story reels from one dire situation to another, with scenes that
would make a terrific movie. There is some character development. Sam takes a central role once
again in this book, realising that he does have to use his leadership
skills to keep those he loves alive and Jack proves that he can be a
hero as well as a computer nerd. The introduction of Toto, a kid whose
powers allow him to tell whether someone is telling the truth, allows
for some slight humour in the dialogue and also proves to be a trial
for Caine. The dual Drake and Brianna continue to horrify and the
Darkness/gaiaphage starts to gain a bit for meaning for the reader.
Astrid, too, can no longer be the bystander while others make awful
decisions and she is faced with the reality of what Little Pete is
doing to the colony. Diana is faced with an awful predicament as a
result of her relationship with Caine, who has decided visions of
grandeur.
Usually three books in a series is more than enough for me, unless a
new main character is introduced in each book as Alyxandra Harvey does
in her Blood Feud series, but I know that I will have to read
the final
two books. In fact, I can't even imagine how Grant will get his
characters out of the FAYZ and back to reality, if in fact he does!
Pat Pledger
The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens
Doubleday, 2011. ISBN 9780857530196.
Highly recommended. Katherine looks after her little brother and sister
after a promise she gave to her mum when Kate was four when the
children were taken from their beds in the darkest hour of the night.
Ten years later Kate and her younger siblings have lived in a string of
orphanages, and all this time Kate kept her promise and watches over
her brother and sister. In a strange twist of fate the children
are sent to a new orphanage where they are the only orphans in the
building and it becomes difficult for Kate to keep her promise. While
investigating their new home, the children stumble onto a book in a
hidden room. This book unlocks the secrets of what happened to them and
who they really are.
This book was stunning. I couldn't put it down. It kept me guessing at
what was next. I felt very sympathetic towards Kate. She acts twice the
age that she really is. Extremely magical and beautifully crafted, a
must have on my book list.
Cecilia Richards (student)
Changing yesterday by Sean McMullen
Ford St Publishing, 2011. ISBN 9781921665370.
(Age 14+) Recommended. The sequel to Before the storm, Changing
yesterday is an exciting continuation of the events in 1901, after
the
group led by Battle Commander Liore, saved Parliament House from a
bomb. The book starts with a scene at Albury railway station where the
Prince is coming to visit and the wicked Lionhearts plan to assassinate
him. However Liore with her futuristic weapon, knows that with the help
of her friends, she can foil their ugly plot and save the world from a
century long war. Meanwhile Daniel is devastated as his girlfriend,
Muriel, has run off to Paris with Fox and Barry the Bag is determined
to steal Liore's gun and sell it to the King.
Much of the action takes place on a luxury liner as Daniel has been
packed off to London to get over his heartbreak and Barry the Bag
carrying Liore's weapon, manages to get a first class ticket on the
same luxury passenger ship. This is a fascinating setting and I learnt
much about the transport of early 20th century, the huge steam engines
and the engineers and stokers who kept them going. The descriptions of
life on a luxury liner, the cabins, meals and entertainment were
reminiscent of scenes on the Titanic and were equally as fascinating.
Daniel comes of age in this story. Even though he is heart broken about
Muriel's desertion, he manages to have a good time with the girls on
board the ship. A feisty new character, Madeline, who wants to be a
detective, is introduced and her story could give rise to a lot of
classroom discussion about the role of women in the early 20th century.
Much of Liore's background is revealed and as the story progresses she
seems to become more human like, even though she is very angry about
Barry's theft of her gun. McMullen has used some clever ideas to help
Liore figure out how to break a time loop and stop the Century War.
I loved the fact that McMullen has very successfully combined steampunk
with Australian history in an action packed story. I believe that this
series is one that should
be on every library shelf. Read a guest blog by Sean with background to
his research here.
Pat Pledger
Sean McMullen, guest blogger
Today we have the pleasure of a guest blog from Sean McMullen, one of a very
few Australian SF authors to
be short-listed for a Hugo and author of Changing yesterday,
the sequel
to the popular Before the storm. Claudia Christian (Star of
Babylon 5
television series) says about Changing yesterday: 'I LOVED this
book! Great characters plus
sizzling action equals a 'Terminator on the Titanic' epic story!'
From Sean: Changing
Yesterday takes
place in 1901, and this setting poses a few problems for both the
plotting and
characters. Unless you look overseas there were no wars going on, and
while the
federation of the Australian colonies into one nation was big news at
the time,
it's not easy to make an adventure out of that. I got around the
adventure
problem by making up an alternate history. I had
Australia's
first parliament being bombed. The roof of the Exhibition Buildings
falls in,
killing most of Australia's
political leaders and some British royals. Germany is accused, and this
starts
a world war that lasts over a century. When the British begin
experimenting
with weapons that could end the world, the cadets Liore and Fox decide
to
travel back through time prevent the war from ever starting. In the
previous
book, Before the Storm, they recruit
four Melbourne
teenagers, Daniel, Emily, Barry and Muriel. They succeed in preventing
the
bombing, and they discover that Germany
was not involved. British terrorists, the Lionhearts, were responsible.
The
Lionhearts think that the founding of Australia
is a sign of the British Empire breaking up,
and they want a war to unify it. Changing
Yesterday is an
extended chase between ships, all the way from Melbourne
to Europe. Daniel is being sent to an English
boarding school, but his ratty little friend Barry ends up on the same
ship.
Barry says he is on a secret mission, but Daniel soon discovers that
Barry has
stolen Liore's weapon from the future. He wants to sell it to the king,
but the
Lionhearts have also learned about the weapon and want to use it to
start their
war. Because Barry has no manners to speak of but is traveling first
class, he
causes some seriously embarrassing incidents. Because Daniel is the
only
teenage boy in first class, he gets a lot of attention from the dozen
or so
girls who are aboard. This leads to a lot more embarrassing incidents,
but it
also meant that I had to know a lot about day-to-day life on a long
voyage in
1901.
A lot of the
research for Changing Yesterday was
done in the usual places, the Internet and libraries, but I also used
another
great source of information: movies. This is not as silly as it sounds.
Titanic was an obvious choice, because
most of Changing Yesterday is set on
passenger liners and the Titanic sailed only eleven years later. Titanic
was also heavily researched,
this can be seen in the 'making of' additional features that came with
the DVD.
Miss Potter was also quite valuable,
because it showed a lot of the restrictions on young people around this
period
- particularly where courtship and class distinction is concerned. The
Illusionist showed all this from yet
another angle.
When you look
at a movie you see more than just the story, however. You get a view of
the
values, manners, morals, fashions and restrictions of the past setting
that has
been written to be accessible for a modern audience. This is important.
If you
write in the exact style of a 1901 author, your work is going to look a
bit
strange and dated to your readers. Well produced movies can give you a
lot of
clues about how to keep today's readers interested.
The internet
was good for filling in some details quickly. For example, some of the
action
took place in Adelaide,
so I needed 1901 photos of the central railway station, the CBD, and
the docks.
All of this was on the internet, but I was surprised to also find
photographs
of Colombo and Port Said in 1901. Some details needed
library research, however, there was no way around it. Digging out
information
on shipboard life took a lot of time, but it was worth it. I discovered
that
the stewards arranged loads of entertainment like concerts, banquets,
dances
and deck games. Some passengers arranged their own entertainment,
however, and
quite a lot of flirting and romance went on.
Overall I
probably did more research for Changing
Yesterday than was needed, but I knew that a lot of teachers were
using Before the Storm to get their students
interested in Australian Federation. This meant that Changing
Yesterday
was liable to end up in school libraries too,
and that was a good incentive to get everything right. Changing
Yesterday was released by Ford Street Publishing on 1 July 2011.
Golden Bat by Sandy Fussell
Samurai Kids Book 6. Walker, 2011. ISBN: 978 1 921529474.
Highly recommended for ages 10 and up. Journeying across the Island of
Cheju, Sensei and the Little Cockroaches are accosted by a group of
pirates who set them a task which is to be fulfilled within eight days.
The nephew of the pirate captain has been kidnapped and the Teacher and
the Samurai Kids are to rescue and return him to his uncle. As a
guarantee that Sensei and the Kids will return, the pirates demand to
keep Mikko until Yuri is safely delivered to the captain. En route,
they meet with a variety of characters, some of whom come to their
assistance when they are most needed, especially when Sensei is
injured. Will they return with Yuri in time?
From the outset, the story captures the attention of the reader and
makes one wish to read without ceasing! Each character is described in
such a way as to provide knowledge of them and their strengths and
weaknesses. There is a certain amount of humour included as we are able
to observe Niya and his relationships with Sensei and also with Kyoko
and Iseul, the healer. Without being moralistic, Fussell manages to add
rules by which everyone should abide by in order to create a better
world. The resolutions to the problems faced by the protagonists are
creative and show integrity, responsibility and social conscience. This
would be a great series for use in upper primary literature circles as
well as reading for pure enjoyment.
Jo Schenkel
Sweet treats by Carolyn Beth Weil
Scholastic, 2011. ISBN 978 1 741698978.
(Ages 8+) Recommended. Non fiction. Kids will drool over this well
presented and enticing cook book, and want to borrow it to try some of
the recipes out at home. With full colour and lots of smiling happy
faces, the book entices the reader to read about why the kids are so
happy. And they will find out quickly, as recipe after recipe appears.
Each recipe is set out clearly with illustrations as a guide to both
what to do and what the end product should look like. Each recipe
starts with a list of ingredients, and a list of tools. The
instructions which follow are given clearly in a step by step guide,
numbered to follow the instructions, and each with more information,
making it doubly clear what needs to be done.
So we have recipes for such treats as sweet lemon cupcakes, easy cheesy
pie and ice cream sandwich, all easy to make, with uncomplicated
ingredients and straightforward instructions. In a series called,
Junior Chef, this should make mouth watering borrowing for
students
following the huge number of food shows on television.
Fran Knight
Button boy by Rebecca Young and Sue deGennaro
Scholastic, 2011. ISBN 978 1741697971.
Picture book. Banjo loved collecting buttons, but in so doing missed
out on making friends at school and at home, so intent was he on
searching for buttons. He collected so many that his mother sewed them
onto his jumper. Each morning as he walked along the street, he found
people with a button missing on their coat or cardigan or jumper, and
so gave up some of his buttons for them to use. This happened so often,
that soon he was without any buttons for himself. Stepping out into the
street he wondered what he would collect now and soon discovered that
he was collecting friends, the best thing of all.
Cute illustrations paralleling the story will delight students as they
read this book. The text follows some of the illustrations taking the
eye across the page in an unusual way, and the repetition of what he
does each day will lead readers to predict what is coming and join in.
Fran Knight
I love my baby brother by Anna Walker
Scholastic, 2011. ISBN 9781741698930.
(Preschool). Ollie has a new baby brother. His mother is busy and
he has nothing to do so he shows the baby a bumblebee toy and how to
blow a raspberry. But best of all is hiding under the sheet and waiting
for Mum to tickle their feet!
A very simple story with few words on each page, I love my baby brother
brings to life the games that a young child can play with a baby. When
the baby is very young he can blow raspberries, when he is old enough
to sit up in a high chair he can follow a game of trains. He can have
lots of fun using his imagination.
The illustration are simple and evocative. All the family look like
toys with stripes and Ollie could be either a boy or girl. Every child
will recognise the toys that are scattered around and the very messy
baby eating in his high chair.
I am sending this to my granddaughter who has a new baby brother. I
think it will give her lots of ideas about playing with a younger
sibling, and the joy that can bring.
Pat Pledger
Falling Apart by Jacqueline Wilson
Text, 2011. ISBN 9781921656958.
(Age: 13+) Highly recommended. Tina's life is falling apart. Home is
awful, school is just as bad, and, more than anything, how can she go
on without Simon? She decides to commit suicide by overdosing on
medication, and she succeeds, to a point. Her drug-induced state brings
back vivid memories of how she first met Simon and how she fell in love
with him, only to have her heart broken. This is the story of Falling
Apart.
Honestly, it's hard to believe this book ever went out of print. It is
heartbreakingly honest, sad and funny at turns, and in my eyes, far
better and more realistic than any other romance novel I've ever read
(Yes, it's better than Twilight). It's very hard not to like and
sympathise for the main character, Tina, because the author is so
honest and true with Tina's emotions. All the characters are actually
very well planned out. The dialogue is also excellent for all the
characters.
One thing I have to mention is the form of the book. It's different to
many other books because it is in present tense, but in third person.
Sometimes this wouldn't work, but here it does, and to good effect.
This is a sad, moving story about a young girl who has gone through
much grief in her life and decides to commit suicide. Although not one
for the younger readers, it is worth a read for anyone else.
I highly recommend this book.
Rebecca Adams
