Reviews

Headgames by Casey Lever

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Random House, 2010. ISBN 9781741663532.
(13+) When Steven sees a note handed to Avery, the girl he loves passionately, he strives to read it, spying out something about a game. Desperate to be involved with her in any way he can, he asks about the game, plunging himself and his closest friend, Samoan Tala, into a minefield of secrets, half truths and desperation.
Truth and dare seems innocuous enough on the surface, but Tala sees that this can be too revealing, too confronting, and may lead them in unexpected directions. He tries to stop Steven from joining the group, consisting of Avery, her current boyfriend from the wrong side of town, Connor, and his recalcitrant half sister, Jude, but joins himself to protect Steven. The first night of the game sees Avery humiliating Steven by speaking truthfully to the question of how she feels about him. The stage is set.
One night, while at Avery's house, Avery spikes Tala's drink and unused to alcohol, he quickly becomes drunk, saying too much, smashing furniture after falling, and then collapsing into a deep sleep. Connor leaves, devastated by Avery's revelation that she is only using him, and Steven, impulsively heads after him. He feels some sympathy with this surly, looming year 11 boy and so the two spend a while talking, learning things about the other that they did not know before.
Connor admits that he was using the game to find out how Avery really feels about him, and now that he knows, the game is over. But Steven wants more. He knows the power base has changed. Avery and Connor no longer control the game, so he and Tala talk everyone into going on. This is a mistake.
Tala is cornered into revealing that he thinks he is gay, and devastated by his own admission, runs out on the group. Connor, pressed again by Avery, reveals that he pushes drugs for his brother, under considerable duress. Steven tries to reason with him, encouraging him to see a way out, and later in a more open frankness with his father, reveals that Connor is behaving criminally. Late one night, Jude rings Steven, asking for help.
Casey Lever has written a very readable story of the relationships between different groups in a school. Each person in the group brings their own hang ups, secrets and problems from home, revealing little to their peers, but the game brings these out, forcing the group to have some say about their friends' behaviours. It is their friendship which encourages them to make changes in their lives. Steven speaks more openly to his father, Connor tries to stop his involvement with his brother, Tala attempts to work out his feelings, Jude makes an attempt to open up, tempering her churlish exterior and Avery reveals she is not what they all thought. The unexpected friendship between this group of five disparate people is enticing and will easily absorb younger secondary readers.
Fran Knight

The Emperor's kingdom: Penguins on ice by Dr Roger Kirkwood

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Black Dog Books, 2010. ISBN 9781742031262.
This book contains simple text, set out according to the months of the year, and describes the stages of the penguin's development. The clear and appealing photographs are presented as double page spreads with additional smaller photographs inserted on each. It would appear that January is an uneventful month in the life of the penguin as it is omitted totally in both the text and table of contents. Having three double pages devoted to them, however, June and July are obviously months of great change and importance. Perhaps this is one downfall of the book as it limits its use as a support in teaching young children about the calendar, leaving the sole focus on the fascinating birds. The accompanying DVD is brief with sound effects but no narration, yet could prove useful to young children as it does provide a menu to enable a small snippet to be viewed easily by students. Sadly, this book is too late for student use for the International Polar Year as it would have made a useful addition to the collection for younger students and emergent readers. The more in depth information in the fact file ensures greater usefulness with middle primary students as well.
Jo Schenkel, Pilgrim School

Yummy by Lucy Cousins

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Walker Books 2009. ISBN 9781406316216
Highly recommended. What a wonderful book filled with some of the most popular fairy stories: Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Enormous Turnip, Henny Penny, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Little Red Hen, The Three Little Pigs, and The Musicians of Bremen. Each story is told in sparse language but with the essential features of the tale left intact. The resulting 121 pages is a wonderful book which could be used when reading aloud to a group of children or for the individual to avidly examine.
I was thrilled to read through these familiar tales and to find that what had enthralled me as a child still remained in the story. The sound of the trip trap of the billy goats over the bridge is emphasised in bold print in the story and their clever manipulation of the troll is cleverly described. The third little pig, with a hugely smug look on his face, says, 'bye-bye wolf' as he falls into a pot of boiling water. None of these will scare the young reader or listener too much as Cousins' language and humorous drawing style is so child friendly.
The illustrations are typically Cousins' style: thick black strokes outlining the figures, filled in with vivid colours, with having vibrant greens, blues and yellow backgrounds. The expressions on the faces of Cousins characters are a riot and the humour will appeal to a young audience.
Winner of the Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books of 2009, this is a title not to be missed.
Pat Pledger

Deadline by Chris Crutcher

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Greenwillow, 2009. ISBN 9780060850913.
(Age 14+) Recommended. Imagine if, when you went to the doctor for a normal checkup, you were told that you had terminal cancer. That is what happens to 18 year old Ben Wolf, who knows that this will be his last year at school. He decides he won't tell anyone his secret and refuses treatment. He resolves to go after everything that he has dreamt about in the short time that he has left. That includes dating a beautiful girl, getting onto the football team and baiting his Civics teacher about his conservative viewpoint of history.
As well as facing a terminal illness, Ben has to come to grips with the effects his death will have on his mother, who is suffers from depression and often hides out in her room for days at a time. He is the one who usually helps her out. And he realises that he is not the only one to harbour a terrifying secret. When he gets to know Dallas Suzuki, the girl he has dreamt about, he discovers that she is concealing things too as is the lonely drunk, Rudy, whom he befriends. They trust him with what has happened in their lives and Ben is faced with the dilemma of whether he should let the people he loves know about his cancer.

Crutcher tackles some big themes in Deadline: death, mental illness, child abuse, trust, suicide and the manipulation of history, but they are woven into a engrossing story that is difficult to put down. Equally engrossing is Ben's try-out for the football team and the way he and his brother Cody work together to win. I was fascinated by Ben's arguments about racism and American History with Mr Lambeer his teacher.
Crutcher has struck just the right note with this story, which could have been a tearjerker, but instead is thought provoking with lots of humour interspersed to keep the reader going. It was one of the ALA Best Books for 2008 and certainly deserves this accolade.
Pat Pledger

The Seer of Shadows by Avi

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HarperCollins, 2009. ISBN 9780060000172.
(Age 9-12) Recommended. Horace Carpentine is a young boy who works as an apprentice to Enoch Middleditch, a society photographer. His father, who believes in science and rational thought and considers 'all superstition bunkum', has brought Horace up to be skeptical of the supernatural. However Horace's beliefs are challenged when the wealthy Mrs. Frederick Von Macht orders a photo of a portrait of her dead daughter, Eleanora, and strange things begin to happen. When Horace's employer decides to sell her more pictures by tricking her about a ghost image in the first photograph, the spirit escapes the photographs.
Through his friendship with Pegg, the servant girl, Horace learns the truth about what happened to Eleanora and finds to his dismay that the photos that he takes of the dead girl's portrait and grave in Green-Wood Cemetry take on a life of their own. Told in the narrative voice of Horace, Avi, a Newbery Award winner, brings together a fascinating background about photography and its processes and life in New York in the 1880's.
 I found this to be a compelling ghost story, with believable characters and a terrifying ghost bent on revenge. The ending is scary enough to thrill readers who enjoy a good horror story set in a believable world.
Well written, suspenseful and memorable, this story lingers in the mind. There is an interesting and informative Extras section at the back of the book which contains information about A day in the life of Avi the history of photography and Fun and spooky Green-Wood Cemetry facts which add to the reader's knowledge of the period.
Pat Pledger

Eon by Alison Goodman

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HarperCollins, 2009. ISBN 9780732290115.
(Ages 13+) Fantasy. First published in 2008 with the title, The Two Pearls of Wisdom, Eon will be snapped up by fans of fantasy sagas as they delve into the life of Eona, as she trains to be a Dragoneye, the most powerful of lords within this ancient Chinese kingdom, able to control wind and water. Women are forbidden to train for this high station, but she has kept her sexuality hidden for most of her life, and to become the next Dragoneye is her avowed aim.
While training she is unwittingly involved in a life and death struggle for the throne of this kingdom, and is asked to be the representative of the current emperor, to fight against his enemies to the death. Her supporters, some of whom know her secret, go to great lengths to find information about her combatants, just as her combatants delve into her abilities and styles of fighting.
This is a page turner, a breathless account of survival against overwhelming odds, made all the more pertinent because she is also hiding her sex. Shortlisted for many awards, and winning the prestigious Aurelius Award in 2009, Eon is the first in what I hope is a trilogy.
Fran Knight

Going home by Margaret Wild

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Walker books, 2009. ISBN 9781921529047.
Picture book, ages 3-6. Walker Books is republishing a few of the best of classic Australian picture books. Several by Margaret Wild, and Peter Pavey have come across my desk, with several others worth a mention. Going Home is a lovely read for very early readers or for reading aloud. I can imagine a child who is worried about being away from home getting a great deal of satisfaction from this story of a boy in hospital, being comforted by the animals in the posters around him. As in Where the Wild Things are, the boy in this story is taken out of himself as he travels the lands with the animals at night. When he comes to leave the hospital and go home with his parents he tells the children left behind his secret. Full of life and colour, Going Home will be part of a teacher's bookshelf of books about animals as well as the themes of comfort and home, imagination and family. First published in 1993, it has a relevance which transcends time.
The illustrations by Wayne Harris carry the story further, by giving a gorgeous background to the places Hugo goes with the animals. At the end of the book are three pieces of writing, one by Albert Allun saying what a pleasure it is to see this book republished, another by Margaret Wild telling us the reasons behind writing the story and the third by Wayne Harris, giving his thoughts when first reading the story, and so underlining the reasons the illustration are so redolent of a child in hospital. All three extend the story further for the reader and give extra oomph to the lucky teacher or parent reading it aloud.
Fran Knight

The slightly skewed life of Toby Chrysler by Paul Collins

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Celepene Press, 2009. ISBN 9780975074244.
(Age 9-12) 'Slightly skewed life' is somewhat of an understatement for Toby Chrysler, aka Milo, who lurches from improbable crisis to improbable crisis in a non stop whirlwind of events. From supposedly murdering his vastly obese neighbour  to hiding a friend in his cellar in order to flush out their parents who have run off together, Milo takes it all fairly imperturbably in his stride, even though he is out on bail for most of the story. But, hey, why let reality get in the way of a good story? This yarn is wittily told and keeps up a cracking pace, so it's easy to just go with it. Milo is fond of a good proverb, care of his best friend and adviser, Fluke, but has a delightful way of misquoting them so they are even more apt, eg, 'When at first you don't succeed, cry, cry again.'(p52). The correct proverbs are listed at the back so this makes the book a good one for parents to read aloud and share with their middle to upper primary school child. Milo and friends have plenty of courage and resourcefulness in their quest to find the two missing parents and it all hurtles towards an even more surprising ending. Some ends are not neatly tied up but it doesn't seem to matter in this fun read.
Kevyna Gardner.

King Lear adapted and ill.by Gareth Hinds

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Candlewick Press, 2007. ISBN 9780763643447.
(Age 14+) Recommended. King Lear is one of Shakespeare's most profound and challenging plays. Students who have been guided through the plot and stirring themes by a teacher remember the experience for life. While recorded performances are available, opportunities to see a live performance are rare.
Gareth Hinds believes that 'the graphic-novel is a perfect bridge between the printed word and theatrical performance.' Following his successes with The Merchant of Venice and Beowulf, he has applied his artistic skills and understanding of literature to King Lear. The story is illustrated with drawings which emphasise the humanity of the characters and the pathos of their predicaments. The conventions of drama, such as its division into acts and scenes, have been dispensed with so that the result is more like a novel than a play.
The choice of dialogue makes no concessions to a reader who finds Shakespeare's language daunting. From the opening line to the final curtain, the only words in the speech bubbles are those of the playwright. Sound effects, such as 'Whock', are a little incongruous but do not detract from the dramatic effect.
In the comprehensive Notes, the author explains the reason for some of his omissions from the original work and his thoughts about the play. His insights are worth reading for their own sake.
Gareth Hinds' King Lear is unlikely to satisfy readers familiar with the play or provide an entree into Shakespeare's work for younger students. It may, however, help to make a complex work more accessible and comprehensible to young adults.
Elizabeth Bor

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! by Loretta Barnard et al.

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A great BIG book of Aussie legends, icons and animals. Ill. by Gregory Rogers. Random House Australia, 2009.
(Age 10+) A bindup edition combines several books into one volume. Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! contains three previously published titles - 30 Australian legends and icons, 30 amazing Australian animals and 30 Australian sports legends. The result is a feast of information about everything from Phar Lap and ghost bats to Australian Rules Football.
Each topic is presented in a short article accompanied by black and white pen and wash illustrations. The short sentences are written in an easy, conversational style. Sub-headings make the information more accessible and additional information is provided in 'breakout boxes'. Although there are no references or websites listed for the 'Legends icons' section, readers can investigate the recommended websites related to animals and sport.
Three books within the same cover do not automatically make a single work, especially in this case as the original title pages and tables of contents have been retained. The publisher has partially overcome the problem by adding an index to the entire volume. However, a combined table of contents might have helped readers to locate the beginning of each of the original titles.
The size of this paperback 3-in-one combo makes browsing a challenge as the pages do not stay open of their own accord. A determined reader will manage by holding the book open with both hands.
Students who learn how to navigate their way around Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! will find information to intrigue them and a useful starting point for research activities.
Elizabeth Bor

About a girl by Joanne Horniman

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Allen and Unwin, 2010. ISBN 9781742371443.
(Age 15-18) Highly recommended. Since she was six years old, Anna has known she prefers girls. But it is not until she is living on her own and working in a bookshop far north of her hometown Canberra that she falls for Flynn. Not just smitten, as she has been before, but in this guitar-playing barista she finds true love. Of course, first love is never going to be simple, particularly when there's the whole conundrum of same sex pairing.
Told in three sections, the first chapters deal directly with the physical and emotionally complex details of forming a relationship. How Anna and Flynn reconcile their divergent trajectories is the stuff of the concluding section. And though the middle part of the book seems a jerk out of the present, it is the tracing of Anna's immediate past - of her close friendship with Michael, her attempt to succeed at tertiary studies, and her handling of her parents' separation - that provides a useful breather from the intensity of the opening, and adds a depth to understanding of the first-person protagonist that resounds till the end.
Prize-winning author Horniman is adept a reaching into the heart of feelings and pushing on through past those uncomfortable places into an awareness of greater understanding. Definite a 15+ rating but highly recommended.
Kate Deller-Evans

Through the magic mirror by Anthony Browne

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Walker Books, 2009.
(All ages) Highly recommended. In Through the magic mirror, Browne's first picture book, published in 1976, nine years after studying graphic design at Leeds, the wonderful Toby goes through his magic mirror one evening while his parents are watching television, mum in rollers and dad smoking, and finds another world. But this world is almost the reverse of what he has at home. Here, the mirror reflects the back of his head, the lamp has a flower instead of a light bulb, the rainbow ends in the building, the sky is full of choristers and the mice chase the cat. Surreal images abound in this beautifully illustrated spare text of a boy lost in a dream world, at least until he returns home for tea.
I loved looking for the deference to the surreal painters, Dali, Magritte and others. Magritte's famous picture of a man looking in a mirror at the back of his head is used several times through the book, while the cover has the reverse image, evocative of the picture of Rene Magritte himself, by fellow artist, Lothar Wolleh. The choristers floating in space is suggestive of Magritte's Golconda (1953), while the pictures of the train is reminiscent of Magritte's Time transfixed. Sometimes there are nods to Dali's work, the flower coming out of the pavement, the tree on top of a building and so on, but the inspiration of Magritte's work stands out.
Readers will thoroughly enjoy this book, still in print after its initial publication in 1976, the first work of this important creator of picture books, now the Children's Laureate of the United Kingdom. Kids, teachers and parents will love looking at the symbolism, looking for the inspiration from art they know, and searching for art books to look at representations of the imagery found here while laughing out loud at some of the funny pictures. For followers of Browne's work, traces can be seen of his future work, the gorilla, Toby's clothing, and the image of the quiet boy or chimp in the landscape.
Fran Knight

Surf ache by Gerry Bobsien

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Walker Books, 2009.
(Age:12-15. Secondary) Recommended. Ella is a ballet dancer and has ambitions to dance professionally. However her world is turned upside down when her family moves from Melbourne to Newcastle and she is faced with sea and surf. Left behind are her boyfriend, Jamie and best friend Kate. On arriving at her new school she is teamed with another Kate for a school project and soon learns the most popular pastime of kids in Newcastle is surfing, something Kate loves to do. Ella tries to busy herself with her dancing however after she gets a job at the beach kiosk, she is soon drawn by the lure of the surf. Her initial attempts to master the waves are disastrous but with the help from some friends she begins to develop and soon discovers she has a talent. When first Melbourne Kate and then Jamie come to visit Ella realises how much her life has moved on and her priorities have changed. As she becomes more obsessed with surfing she also learns of her mother's links to the sport.
Ella is a strong character and we learn a lot through the challenges she faces trying to combine a love of dance with a growing love of surfing. Eventually one over comes the other but Ella's journey makes a great read.
Tracy Glover

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

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Scholastic, 2010 ISBN 9781407109367.
(Ages 12+) (Highly recommended). After the breathless read of The Hunger Games, where climate change has reduced the USA to 12 districts hanging on between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains, and to avoid wars, 2 tributes are chosen each year form each district to fight to the death in an arena where their every move is televised to the whole country, I couldn't believe that a sequel would grab me so much. But it has.
It is a year later, Karniss and her fighting partner, Peeta, have been called to the Capitol to hear that another games will be held this year, involving all the winners from the past 20 years, pitched against each other. No matter that some are elderly, or nearly blind, or have lost limbs, fight they must. Katniss had used all of her wits and fighting skills to keep herself and Peeta alive last time, but this time it is different, there is no way that she will be able to hoodwink the powers or the audience into saving the pair of them.
The love angle presented last time has almost run its course, and now, she and Peeta have had to join forces with several others to survive the appalling arena, full of shocks and death. Just surviving is bad enough, but all the while, at the back of her mind, she is thinking of how to kill the others, and then how to save Peeta. The tension is thrilling and exhilarating, the moral questions abound, as does the realisation all the way through the story that this band of young people are killing others to stay alive. But outside the arena, changes are occurring; the mockingjay brooch that Katniss wears has become a symbol for revolt. The third volume in this trilogy, can't come soon enough.
Fran Knight

Stuck! by Charlotte Calder and Mark Jackson

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Walker Books, 2009. ISBN 9781921150463.
Picture book, Ages 4-6. A charming story of a kite getting stuck in a tree will have kids laughing out loud as they watch and enjoy the antics of the family and friends trying different methods of getting the kite down. Sticks, a boomerang, a rock, a cricket bat amongst other things are thrown up at the kite, but all fail to dislodge the toy. By the time everyone has tried their luck, the tree is full of the things thrown. In the end the cat races up the tree following a bird, and dislodges all the things so that everything falls back down. But of course, now the cat is stuck.
A warm picture book, with delightful illustrations, this book will find a place in school libraries and classrooms as it shows children trying things out for themselves, solving a problem they have. The clever illustrations which use graphite and water colour, show different perspectives, which could be discussed with the students. Sometime the picture is of a view looking up at the tree, sometimes the view is from the tree to the ground, giving quite a different view of the children.
Fran Knight