Tatty Mouse Rock Star by Hilary Robinson and Mandy Stanley
Catch a Star, 2022. ISBN: 9781922326553. (Age:1-3) Recommended.
A solid hard paged book for toddlers, Tatty Mouse is one of a series about this ‘mend it make it’ mouse. An energetic recycler, Tatty Mouse always takes her tool kit along wherever she goes, alert for recycling things she finds discarded.
The cute mouse illustrations will appeal while lifting the flap on many pages will further engage the readers.
Inside the front cover the reader is introduced to Tatty with an array of equipment shown around her, including a set square, ruler, pencil, saw and glue. Tatty Mouse wants to play in her brother’s band and is making some maracas with rice and paint and sand. She looks in the cupboard and finds some tins and tubs, and after washing out all the crumbs sets about decorating the containers. Once decorated the containers are filled with the sand and rice to make a sound and on the last page the lifted flap shows Tatty using her new musical equipment as part of the band.
Young readers will love following Tatty’s journey from wanting to be in the band to collecting things to make an instrument to making it and then using it in the band. The model of how to make a simple musical instrument is shown for young and old to emulate. The bright energetic illustrations will engage the reader as they follow Tatty’s scheme from collecting rice to playing the maracas. Children will love recognising the musical instruments shown and follow the ‘did you find’ on the bottom of each page.
Look out for more in the series of books about Tatty Mouse by Hilary Robinson, a London based author of nearly seventy books for children, and is best known for Mixed Up Fairy Tales.
And the illustrator, Mandy Stanley is an award-winning illustrator, who works her studio at home in Beccles.
Naomi, a psychologist specialising in domestic abuse-related trauma repeatedly goes the extra mile for her clients but this results in her crossing professional boundaries, reliving her own childhood trauma and jeopardising her marriage.
When Naomi’s client Jacob decides that he has to escape his abusive wife, Naomi offers him the use of their holiday apartment without consulting her husband. A series of interactions seem to lead Jacob to believe that Naomi has romantic feelings for him, and when he goes missing Naomi begins telling a string of lies to both the police and her husband in an attempt to stay in the clear.
Naomi also offers refuge in her house to client Anna and her children and at the same time a series of unexplained events occur; locked doors are found unlocked, a patient’s file goes missing. A panicked Naomi begins to fear that her murderer father and/or bitterly estranged younger sister have tracked her down from New York to her new life in England, but maybe the threat is much closer to hand.
It transpires that at least one character is not really who they say they are, and Naomi begins to question the identity and relationships of the other characters, as her deceits and misgivings take their toll.
Jones has written a fast-paced thriller, with regular unexpected twists and turns. These keep the reader engaged, if only to find the outcome of the highly implausible behaviour and unethical professional behaviour of the cast of unlikeable characters.
Themes Domestic abuse, Thriller.
Margaret Crohn
Bobby's castle by Paul Beavis
Little Steps, 2022. ISBN: 9781922678492. (Age:4+) Highly recommended.
Bobby is set in his ways; he likes his familiar routine and then one day Salma arrives and changes everything. Salma wants to play, Bobby doesn’t. Bobby reluctantly starts to play hide and seek with Salma, at first it is easy but when he can't find her he all of a sudden realizes he does want to play.
This book has bold simple illustrations that support the story well.
This book can support conversations about change and accepting new things and building new friendships. Teacher's notes are available.
Ana Dakkar’s family are part of the fabric of the Harding-Pencraft Academy, an institution focused on training new generations of oceanographers and explorers, with additional defensive capabilities. Ana, as the youngest child in her family is still working out her place and purpose in this phenomenal school with its long history. She becomes a witness to a devastating attack on the school and then is thrust into the leadership of her fellow surviving classmates as they discover the long-lost vessel, the Nautilus, made famous in Jules Verne’s incredible tale of the 20000 Leagues under the sea. The rise to leadership comes with great responsibility and she must overcome her own insecurities and her own personal grief to work out what to do. The setting includes underwater action and creatures to love and fear. Ana also must rely on and encourage her classmates and friends as they reveal their talents in the technology and oceanography field. The growth in them all and the power of friendship over personal glory is revealed as the excitement and tension ramps up.
Rick Riordan really knows how to write a compelling adventure and woven within this amazing story are snippets and insights of the classic detail of Jules Verne’s original story. Even though I have not read the original (apologies to lovers of Verne’s writing), this reimagining in a modern and technology-rich world has all the right ingredients to be loved and cherished by a new generation of readers. There are moments of humour mingled amongst the high tension and action, and many characters to love. I can envisage that this book will not stay long on our library shelves and will be avidly peer-recommended amongst young readers.
Fire Reads, 2022. ISBN: 9781728239132. (Age:15+) Highly recommended.
When 17 year-old cancer patient, Andre, is gifted a life-saving liver transplant, he also acquires the ability to time-travel, and sets in motion two love stories that span 50 years.
Andre finds himself travelling back to his neighbourhood in Boston, 1969 where he meets 18 year old Michael and the two form an instant attraction. Back home, in 2021, Andre is being tutored in time travel by his donor’s brother Blake and despite some initial antagonism, as Blake grieves the death of his brother, those two also begin a romantic relationship.
Dramatically, there comes a point where Andre’s life is again under threat and he must decide whether to stay with Michael, or return to Blake.
These three characters are flawed but extremely likeable, and the relationships that develop are both tender and tense, totally realistic and a delight to follow as they progress to their inevitable end.
This is the story of a gay black youth working out who he wants to be and realising that he can determine his future, both personal and career, to achieve this, rather than follow the path that well-meaning family have planned for him.
Writing from his own identity as a gay black man, Jackson uses the time travel element to make the reader aware of the conditions that gay men experienced in the late 1960s, and the reality of being black in contemporary America; as issues of safety, discrimination, identity and privilege arise in both.
Throughout the novel, Andre ponders the importance of scientific thinking and knowledge, and observes ways of dealing with death, grief and alcohol/drug use as the various characters work through these issues.
Essentially a YA romance, this is an enjoyable read with enough social commentary to flesh it out and make it a highly recommended read.
Themes Cancer, Time travel, Romance, LGBTQI, Own voices.
Shiori is the only princess of Kiata and is determined not to marry the son of a barbarian lord in the north. She has concealed the magic that runs in her veins until the day of her betrothal when she runs away from the ceremony. Her stepmother Raikama has dark magic and banishes Shiori, while turning her six brothers into cranes with crimson crowns on their heads. Raikama also puts a wooden bowl on Shiori’s head and warns her not to speak – any word that passes her lips means that one of her brothers will die.
Shiori is a feisty, determined girl and manages to find work, toiling in an inn in the north, while trying to find her brothers. Forced to get to know the boy that she did not want to marry, she uncovers a plot to unsettle the kingdom and must embrace her magic to save her family and the empire.
Lim has taken elements of the well-known fairy tale and given it a fascinating Asian background. The addition of Kiki, a talking paper crane, a 17-year-old dragon prince Seryu, magic dragon eggs and pearls enhance the story. Her vivid writing keeps the reader in suspense about the fate of the six brothers and the difficulties that Shiori has in remaining mute. She also overturns the trope of the wicked stepmother.
Readers who enjoy fairy tale retellings will be drawn to this fast-paced story with its well-developed characters and wonderful landscape. They may want to read others by Lim like Spin the dawn and Unravel the Dusk, while those who would like to read a western version of The six swans by Grimm, could try Daughter of the forest by Juliet Marillier.
Themes Fantasy, Fairy tale retelling, Romance.
Pat Pledger
Purple by Terri Rose Baynton
Little Steps, 2022. ISBN: 9781912678693. (Age:3+) Highly recommended.
Monster one likes red and monster two likes blue. Monster one only paints with red and monster two only paints with blue. But when a blob or red ends up in the pot of blue they mix the colors together and make purple. They find out that they both like purple.
The clear illustrations with bold colors make this book more engaging.
It can be hard to try new things but sometimes trying something new can lead to an exciting outcome. This book can support with conversations about change and trying new things. Teacher's notes are available.
The wonderful series, Tales from the bush mob is continued with this durable board book teaching smaller readers the numbers from one to ten using the Australian animals depicted in the series. Each double page has a brief text and number on the left hand side, while showing the animal concerned on the rest of the page in bright, enticing colours. Dingo welcomes readers on the opening page telling them to watch out for the animal, number and time of day as each page is turned. The first page shows a quoll, number one, a single quoll sleeps at dawn, while number two over the page, shows two magpies singing in the morn. Wombats, dingoes, bats, possums amongst others are illustrated across each of the pages, encouraging younger readers to count to the number depicted by finding the animals illustrated. They will enjoy searching and predicting the next number until the number ten is reached with ten willy wagtails getting ready for bed.
So the whole day has passed showing readers what the animals do at a particular time of day, until at night, the birds are ready for bed. Meanwhile emus race across the pages all day long while koalas rest in the trees, kangaroos lunch at noon and dingoes howl at the morning sun. Each animal has a particular place to be at a set time, and readers will be encouraged o talk about what they do at that time of the day.
Milroy’s rich, vibrant illustrations depict the landscape against which these animals live, making her work most recognisable. Children will seek out the other stories in this excellent series, finding them simply by spotting the attractive illustrative technique Milroy employs.
Themes Counting, Time, Australian animals, Australian bush.
Fran Knight
You are loved board book by Liv Downing. Illus. by Mel Matthews
Albert Street Books, 2022. ISBN: 9781760878146. (Age:1-3)
A large board book suitable for parents to hold when reading to their small child, the words and pictures all underscore the fact that the child is loved. Rhyming stanzas contain opposite lines, one where the child is loved for doing what is asked, followed by a line which is the opposite but reprising the fact that they are loved. Loved when teeth are cleaned, and loved when they are not, loved when they win the race and loved when they don’t. The underlying theme for any child to pick up is that love is unconditional, love is given freely, love is always there.
Any child having this book read to them will feel comforted and comfortable in knowing that those about them love them. The book itself has a heart in the centre of each page, with overlapping pieces giving an almost kaleidoscope effect. This will draw in the reader wanting a closer look at the effect it gives, trying to understand heart that is shown. The resulting hole cut out in each page is part of the illustration for that page and will intrigue readers as they listen to the text paralleling what can be seen.
It is quite a heavy book so is more for adults to hold to read to the children or for the book to be flat on a table with eager faces poring over it. The large illustrations and cut out pages will be a draw card as well as the reassurance that every child is loved.
Will loves to whinge. He whinges about everything. Nothing it seems is to his liking. He complains about dirt and dessert, about showers and dinner. The fish is too fishy, the chips too old, the ice cream too cold. One night a magnificent hot-air balloon stops by and whisks him off to a kingdom where he is crowned king. This is Whingeville, the land of the Grumps and as king he must hear every complaint. He is given a crown, a gown and a throne and as he sits in all his majesty thinks he will like it here. But the complaints begin straight away. People don’t like sharing the air, the water is too wet, the dogs too pink, spaghetti too long and the sandwiches too square, the cats too fluffy, their pants too tight. Will is overwhelmed with the whinges until he has had enough and storms off, catching the hot-air balloon back home, a wiser and more chastened young boy. He has leant his lesson.
Children will love Will and his dream of being a king. Like him they will expect it to be perfect, until the people start their complaints just like he used to do. The comparison is obvious and children will laugh with glee at the turnaround as Will must put up with the host of whinges from the populace. And readers will see what a lesson he has learnt when being put in the position of having to listen to a long queue of complaints.
The audience will love the rhyming text getting ready to predict the rhyming word at the end of each sentence and adore the illustrations with a host of things to look at in the background. Kids will laugh out loud at this enticing read a loud book with illustrations to pore over.
The different look of the end papers will intrigue as information about the author and illustrator is included, along with an array of other books produced by this company. Larrikin House is a new publisher, promoting quirky, original and humorous books in partnership with long time education publisher, Learning Discovery.
Find out more here. Their range of books offers a refreshing alternative to the many issue books currently available, and the laugh out loud facet of their list is very welcome.
Themes Humour, Complaining, Responsibility.
Fran Knight
Wylah the Koorie warrior: Guardians by Jordan Gould and Richard Pritchard
Albert Street Books, 2022. ISBN: 9781761180033. (Age:12+) Highly recommended.
Wylah the Koorie warrior: Guardians is the first book in the series. The book is written by Peek Whurrong man Jordan Gould and New Zealand Samoan man Richard Pritchard (who also did the illustrations). The book with the young Wylah as the central character, is an exciting fantasy novel balanced with real snapshots of life in Australia 40,000 years ago. I was so excited to read this book and I wasn’t disappointed.
Wylah is set around Warrnambool in Victoria and features real megafauna and fantasy dragons along with infomation about a First Nations group. The book begins with Wylah's first day teaching the children cave painting. She is excited and nervous as she is not only teaching the young children art but also the other skills of her tribe. She is taking over from her beloved grandma, a Koorie Warrior, and while she is confident in her knowledge of art and ochre, she is not confident in her teaching skills or her ability to be a warrior and protector of the younger children. When she begins to lose the attention of the children she takes them outside the teaching cave to spend some time with her animals. She realised that she is missing one of the children and so she leaves the others with her grandma and heads back to find him. A rock fall traps Wylah in the cave with the boy as dragons steal her entire village and when she emerges, she discovers her grandma is injured and Wylah is given the responsibility to become a warrior and rescue her people with the help of her animal friends and the five Guardians, who she has to find and convince to help her.
Readers will enjoy this story as it is told in both the first and third person with a picture above each chapter number to help show when the reader is following Wylah and when the focus is on the rest of the tribe. I love all the little details in the book that support the reader with following the story, from footnotes, pronounciation support and a glossary. I found this book to be a slow read, not because it was boring or tedious but because the language and the information were not part of my usual reading experience and so I had to spend longer thinking and re-reading parts to really appreciate and feel like I was understanding the story and the information that was included. This does not detract from the story in any way, in fact I think it makes it better - we need more stories that have a focus on our First Nations people and their beliefs and cultural information. Wylah allows the reader to learn these things while reading an engaging and imaginative story. I can’t wait for the rest of the series as I know these will be very popular in libraries. Teacher's notes are available.
Themes Family, First Nations, Dragons, Megafauna, Culture.
Mhairi Alcorn
Say no to plastic by Ned and Shane Heaton. Illus. by Tamzin Barber
Little Steps, 2022. ISBN: 9781922358646. (Age:4-10) Highly recommended.
The overuse of plastic and the long-term environmental damage to sea life created by this usage is beautifully presented in this rhyming picture book with gorgeous illustrations. Young Australian Entrepreneur of the Year and environmentalist Ned Heaton along with his dad Shane, founders of The Turtle Tribe, have written an entertaining and clever story that will provide young readers with an easy-to-understand look at the damage plastic is causing in the marine environment.
The main character Roy, his Nan and Heidi the Peidy, share their concerns about the danger the sea creatures face from plastic at their local beach and take them all the way to New York to where the world nations meet. The message of the story is that leaders from all over the world are responsible for caring for our environment, but we also can all play a part in restricting our use of plastic. The book includes a Turtle Tribe logos search, as well as a double page asking the reader to find out how many ways there are to reduce plastic, with answers provided on the final page.
A visit to The Turtle Tribe website Bamboo Toothbrushes - The Turtle Tribe adds another important and impressive layer to the story and is well worth viewing for both children and adults.
Katrina Nannestad, author of award-winning books, We Are Wolves and Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief, continues with the theme of war in her latest release, Waiting for the Storks. This deeply moving and at times cruel and disturbing story, centres on eight-year-old much-loved and adored Polish girl, Zofia Ulinski.
Zofia, with her parents Joseph and Halina, and Aunt Barbara live in the city of Krakow, Poland which in 1941 has been overrun by German soldiers. Unfortunately, Zofia comes to the attention of German soldiers and is subsequently kidnapped and taken on a long and difficult journey with many other stolen Polish children. Their destination is Germany, and it is here that these young, traumatised children begin to understand why they have been taken away from their families and homeland when they realise they are all blonde haired and blue-eyed. What follows is the complete and utter indoctrination of the children into the ways of the Hitler and the Third Reich.
Once again, Zofia who is now known as Sophia Ullman, a good German girl, is singled out by Doctor Engels who oversees the continual assessment of the Polish children, and is taken to his home to be adopted by himself and his wife. Sophia is treated as a princess and has no memory of her past existence until meeting a young boy called Tomasz, a Polish slave on a neighbouring property, and her forgotten past becomes her present.
The meaning of the title Waiting for the Storks is referred to throughout the story and connects Zofia to her family story and home. Even through the worst possible traumas, Zofia was able to maintain a positive outlook by constantly playing a family word game where there is only one choice between two quite outrageous questions. At the end of the book the author shares with readers the inspiration behind the story, The Lebensborn Program, where Hitler’s plan was to grow a strong, pure German population.
A truly inspiring and heart-wrenching story that will have a place in the hearts and minds of its readers. A wonderful read. Teacher's notes are available.
Themes World War Two, Nazism, Stolen Children, Poland, Germany, Family, Friendship, Trauma, Resilience.
Adrienne Young, author of the young adult books, Fable, Namesake, and The last legacy, has written an engrossing mystery for adults and older teens which was very difficult to put down. August Salt is returning with his mother’s ashes to Saiorse Island, a place that he and his mother had fled many years before when he had been accused of the murder of a young woman, Lily. Emery Blackwood had loved August and had planned to run away with him after their graduation, leaving the island and its superstitions far behind but the death of her best friend Lily put an end to all her dreams. Now August is back, and old mysteries and rivalries haunt the rural community.
The story is told by Emery and August in alternating voices, bringing the past events to life as they describe what happened on the island before that fateful night when the apple orchard caught alight, and Lily’s body was found amongst the trees. August is not welcomed home and gradually the reader is given clues to what really happened to Lily and just what the islanders are covering up.
Saiorse Island is described vividly, and it is easy to imagine the fishing village, the lighthouse and rocks and the rows of apples in the orchard. The community is tight knit and relies on tourists who come to pick the apples from the orchard. The tourists are disliked but they are essential to the well-being of the islanders, as is the apple orchard, once owned by August’s grandfather.
Witchcraft plays a subtle part in the life of the island where old habits and superstitions are part of the fabric of life. Emery comes from a long line of women who have the power of reading tea leaves and casting spells and she and Lily had read spells in Emery’s grandmother’s spell book.
Young expertly brings together the island folklore and the relationship between August and Emery in an exciting mystery that will appeal to readers who enjoy well crafted tales with a touch of the supernatural.
Themes Mystery, Romance, Thriller, Fantasy.
Pat Pledger
The raven's song by Zana Fraillon and Bren MacDibble
Allen & Unwin, 2022. ISBN: 9781761065798. (Age:10+) Highly recommended.
The Raven's song is a complex and richly rewarding read. It is the remarkable result of the collaboration of two Australian authors at the height of their powers. The highly unusual idea of a joint effort to produce a novel by two brilliant Middle school writers could only come out of unprecedented times such as the period of Covid lockdowns. This novel speaks of worldwide virus contagion stemming from the ruined environment, of extraordinary attempts to save children and save Earth.
Bren MacDibble is a well-known eco-lit writer whose work often depicts a futuristic dystopian world. Her novels How to bee (2017), The dog runner (2019) and Across the risen sea (2020) have won multiple awards. Zana Fraillon’s award-winning The bone sparrow and The lost soul atlas also interrogate hefty topics of today.
The Raven’s Song invites close reading because of subtleties, nuances - breadcrumbs that are knitted in and through a plot that entangles three periods of history together. The alternating chapters dip in and out of the existences of the main protagonists who somehow are linked over time to the same location. The characters are fully rounded. Twelve -year-old Phoenix’s parts are narrated in third person and are set in our near future - around the late 2020s. Shelby’s parts are narrated in first person and her life is set one hundred years further into the future. The third strand of the story (powerfully linked) is set in the distant past - the pre-Christian era perhaps where villagers believed that sacrifice of a young girl (by drowning her in the bog) would bring rain.
The Raven’s Song has the bog as its central location. The bog is the recipient of lives and the preserver of life and memories and continuity. It is the shroud that hides and reveals. Artefacts and symbolism play an important role in the mystique of this book. The powerful and constant presence and visitations of ravens signifies something portentous? But what? Are they really the souls of the dead?
In The Raven’s Song we have the spooky, speculative freezing of pandemic infected children in the hope that they may be resurrected in the future. McDibble and Fraillon convey an urgent and powerful sense of big brother and of the wholesale failure of industrialization of our world.
Beautifully written and not for the faint hearted, The Raven’s Song is a powerful warning about the destruction of the environment in our current times. In an echo of D.H. Lawrence, MacDibble and Fraillon immerse the reader fully into atmospheric and sensory nature. Teacher's notes are available.
