The Kissing Booth 3. Penguin, 2021. ISBN: 9780593425657. (Age:Young adult, 15+) Recommended for lovers of teen romance, aged 15+.
This is the final book in a series, written 10 years after the author began her first book as a 15-year-old, writing the story and then uploading it to on online platform for readers to discover. Loved by her readers and discovered by publishers and eventually Television producers, her story writing has followed the friendship between lead character Elle and the Flynn brothers and has watched them grow and share summer holidays at the Flynn family’s beach house. In this book, Elle and Eli Flynn are about to move to College, Noah Flynn is back at home as Elle’s boyfriend, and the beach house looks like it might be sold. They are all facing changes in their lives, but the sale of the beach house gives them one last opportunity to farewell their childhood and perhaps even complete their ‘bucket list’ before they flee childhood and make their way into the adult world. Complicating this summer is choosing which college to attend, the friendship misunderstandings between Elle and Eli Flynn, and the relationship tensions this causes between Elle and Noah Flynn, and the added pressures of a new job, and keeping her father and brother happy… and coping with her father returning to the dating world. This is a USA teen drama set in idyllic circumstances with relationship twists as the spice to the story.
This is the kind of book that transfers well into Netflix format. It is teen romance with dating issues, friendship dynamic concerns, fun, and expressions of older teen love. The ebb and flow of these things over a summer where love, passion and arguments, selfishness and selflessness are woven together as the main characters work out their place in the world and the direction for their futures. It is schmaltzy, but unapologetic in exploring the difficulties of relationships in the lives of these teens from comfortable US backgrounds. I can see this being enjoyed by those who have discovered the Netflix interpretation of the Kissing Booth, but it is perhaps a little too good to be true in many respects – a romance with a soap opera feel. Will the star be love or friendship?
Themes Romance, Growing to adulthood, Friendship.
Carolyn Hull
Vampires never get old by Zoraida Cordova and Natalie C. Parker eds.
The range of well-known YA authors, including Rebecca Roanhorse, Tessa Gratton, Julie Murphy, Heidi Heilig and V.E. Schwab, and the ease of reading a short story drew me to this collection of eleven vampire stories. It is always fun to read through the contents page and pick an author that you are familiar with. The first story that I chose was The Boys From Blood River by Rebecca Roanhorse. Lukas is a young Native American who is bullied for his background and for being gay. He is also trying to cope alone with his dying mother. While working in the diner he hears a strange song about the Blood River Boys and things heat up from here. Another one that I liked because of its historical background was The Boy and the Bell by Heidi Heilig. A young gravedigger, seeking corpses to sell for medical research, hears a bell from a newly dug grave, and got some shocks when the coffin is opened. Perhaps the most original in the book was In Kind by Kayla Whaley, where a young disabled girl was supposedly killed by her father who claimed it was a mercy killing. When a vampire arrives, the father is in for a shock. A Guidebook for the Newly Sired Desi Vampire by Samira Ahmed was very humorous but also gave some very thought provoking moments about colonialism.
The editors, Zoraida Cordova and Natalie C. Parker, not only had a short story, Vampires Never Say Die, with Instagram influencers as the main characters, but at the end of each story, they wrote a short piece that put the story into context and asked the reader to consider how they would react to the situations the main characters faced.
With its diverse characters and eerie stories, this collection would be a good addition to a horror collection for Halloween.
Ann Cleeves is well known for her Vera and Shetland series and TV shows. Her Two Rivers series featuring Matthew Venn and set in Devon, is also slated for a TV series, which is sure to make this series a best seller. Following The Long Call, Cleeves brings another absorbing and well written mystery for fans to enjoy. Matthew Venn is called out to a murder – Dr Nigel Yeo has been stabbed through the neck with a piece of his daughter’s glass artwork, in her studio. Then another murder follows, with a similar murder weapon, and the team must do some meticulous detective work to get to the totally unexpected (for me) name of the murderer.
It is easy to relate to all the characters who are fully developed. Venn is becoming more comfortable in his skin and is trying to give his best to his marriage, although keeping work and home life apart is proving difficult as Jonathan is friendly with the murder victim’s daughter, and the second murder takes place at the community centre that he runs. Venn’s offsiders, DS Jen Rafferty and the ambitious DC Ross May appear again as do some other characters from the first book, and each bring skills and insights to the story.
With themes of medical malpractice and suicide, atmospheric Devon countryside and interesting characters, this tense police procedural is sure to gain followers.
Themes Murder, Suicide, Detectives.
Pat Pledger
My first 100 weather words by Chris Ferrie. Illus. by Lindsay Dale-Scott
With Chris Ferrie’s background as a physicist, mathematician, and father of four children, the reader can expect a fascinating list of 100 words relating to weather. The very young can listen to the easier words like wind, rain, clouds and instruments and learn a slew of new words like natural disasters, climate zones and weathering. Ferrie obviously believes that it never too early to challenge the young with new vocabulary and both adults and children will have fun learning new words and concepts.
The illustrations by Lindsay Dale-Scott complement the words and expand on their meaning. They are bright and colourful. Each double page spread has 8 to 12 words, each illustrated. Often the pictures have cute little faces on them, and these will be appreciated by the very young.
Older children who are interested in science and the weather will be able to learn much from this well produced, sturdy little book. A little gem to have in the home or in a school library.
Themes Weather, Vocabulary.
Pat Pledger
A different sort of normal by Abigail Balfe
Penguin, 2021. ISBN: 9780241508794. (Age:9-13) Recommended for LGBTIQ collection.
This is the book for those who feel ‘out-of-place’ and who have been excluded or unheard. Abigail Balfe was diagnosed with Autism as an adult, and this book is her reflections and wisdom about being neuro diverse as well as her insights into her own childhood and teen years. She also identifies the difficulties of not being accepted or understood, and her own responses to the sometimes confusing world of ‘normality’. She also desires that autistic readers would feel comfortable with their identity however it is expressed, and that differences in the world would be accepted. For non-autistic readers her book is revealing of the struggles that young neuro-atypical children and young adults experience. Her discussion of gender and sexual diversity runs parallel to her autism insights.
Presented in a light style with her own amusing cartoon-esque style illustrations scattered throughout the text, this has a very youthful presentation. The book begins with a 5 page, poetic dedication for all those who feel different, and yet Balfe encourages them to celebrate their uniqueness. In her meandering style, explained as being an expression of her autism, she moves through her life and the manifestations of autism that she recognised in hindsight. She also explains the variations in autistic behaviours and the positives of being neuro-diverse. This is a book for 9- 12-year-old readers, but also for those who are curious about Autism.
A nostalgic one for COVID times, this is the recollected experiences of the lone traveller in Europe, serendipitously joining up with other travellers at various times and arranging to meet again in different places in different cities. Along the way they share stories to amuse each other. It is not by chance that the narrator happens to be carrying a copy of The Decameron. Some of the tales told by the luscious Nina could be from a book of that genre.
It is an interesting way to tie together a collection of short stories. The reader can enjoy the stories themselves and also the reactions of the listeners. At times the characters drawn together as the audience also provoke a humorous response, and more than once I could not help but chuckle.
Travelling companions could be regarded as a modern day version of The Decameron or The Canterbury Tales.
This is the highly enjoyable, believable story of twelve-year-old Bee as she matures both physically and mentally. On the home front Bee is coming to terms with Kath, her stepmother, who is doing her best to support Bee through puberty. This is in the absence of her unreliable real mother who left Australia to pursue life in an Indian Ashram. Bee is also starting high school, trying to make worthwhile friendships, and furthering her success in swimming. In trying to connect with her absent mother Bee pursues learning about Buddha. She repeatedly asks Buddha to help by delaying her period until after her swimming championships. Interspersed through the story are Buddha’s wise teachings which she considers and uses to guide her choices. Bee is quietly strong and wants to be true to herself despite mean girl bullying both at school and at the pool. Nor is she ready to turn her long-term friendship with Leon into a romantic one.
There are many things to like in this verse story such as the rhythm of the language with short sharp sentences, great dialogue, and humorous observations. I think readers will love Bee and appreciate the way Pip Harry captures the awful real things like hair growing in all the wrong places and embarrassing accidents with periods. Even in this day and age not many authors deal with these agonising dilemmas. The characters are well fleshed out and most of the males, like Leon and her father, are genuinely trying to help and understand women. With a background of extreme Australian bushfires and climate change Pip Harry considerately and appropriately, portrays Bee being positively proactive about these issues. Highly recommended for readers of 10 years and above.
The topic Seasons is an integral component of the Early Years Curriculum. It is looked at in Mathematics as well as having a place in the Hass Curriculum. Seasons in the City is a brightly illustrated book which explains each of the seasons in detail and then how a number of chosen cities from all over the world experience a particular season. For example, spring in Egypt’s capital city, Cairo, can be hot and dusty as the Khamaseen winds push sand from the Sahara Desert into the city. Summer in Stockholm can have days of up eighteen hours of sunlight. Autumn in Istanbul brings weather that can be warm and dry one day or chilly and wet the next day. Winter in St Petersburg, Russia, is very long and lasts from November to March. Each season is reflected in six very different cities on a double page spread with very appealing illustrations to investigate. As well as facts about each season in a particular city there is also more information about special events or interesting tourist places to visit.
This book is easy to read and will be of interest to young readers who have a fascination with weather and/or cities all over the world. Another welcome addition to a primary school or public library.
Many Australians will be familiar with Lisa Millar’s reports for the ABC programme Foreign Correspondent over many years but few will be aware of the personal cost reporters and crew pay to bring us those stories. Lisa’s recollections of a childhood growing up in a small Queensland rural town with her three much older siblings and younger sister are recounted with fondness. Her hardworking parents, indulgent and supportive brothers and sisters anchored her aspirations to be a journalist. What set them apart was the airfield her dad built on their property and the light aircraft her slightly eccentric grandmother bought for the family. It is ironic therefore that as an adult Lisa, whose assignments regularly required her to fly, developed a crippling fear of flying. Seeking help she signed up in 1999 for a Fear of Flying programme created by clinical psychologist Neil McLean, offered by Ansett Airlines, where she learned to control her anxiety, enabling her pursue the dream of becoming a foreign correspondent. Lisa pushed through trauma to complete her assignments including that caused by two near fatal car crashes.
She reflects on the secondary trauma experienced as a result of reporting on events such as the hanging in Singapore of drug courier Vietnamese Australian Van Nguyen and the shooting by a young man at Sandy Hook School in Connecticut of twenty grade one children and six teachers. ‘You spent the first twenty-four hours reporting the details while trying to block out the horror, knowing there was a job to do. Then the reality would sink in and it was harder to push aside.” pp. 179. Strength came from the support of colleagues and the particular camaraderie felt by ABC reporting teams.
This is a revealing personal account with a journalist’s ability to set the scene and convey the drama of the moment and what shines through is the drive to bring world stories to the Australian public. It also reminds us of how those stories, so promptly reported from other time zones often at personal risk, have a human face and a cost that is not to be taken lightly.
Anna is a high school student brought up by her adoptive mother Sophie, in Sydney, and her past is unknown. Sophie is Russian, she endeavours to teach Anna about the great Russian writers of her home country, but Anna is drawn more to art, photography in particular, and she becomes intrigued with magnifying images, and photographing changes with time. Somehow images recall lost memories. Gradually she tries to work out the past: the lives of her birth mother Julia, Friedrich the writer, and Sophie.
Many times in this book, one character will recall another, past lives are intermingled with present, and secrets eventually reveal the connections. There is a poem that Friedrich writes, with the question ‘How will you know me?’ It is a question the novel explores. The lives of Friedrich, Julia and Sophie are woven together during the years leading to the German invasion of the Soviet Union during the second World War, a time where people became separated and divided from one another.
The theme is picked up again in the second part of the book, as school student Robin and his childhood friend Iris, come to know Anna, now in her late thirties. There are complexities in their relationship as well. The past haunts the present, and patterns seem to continually repeat themselves. It’s like the art book that Robin peruses, discovering faces he knows in history’s faces. Anna comments, ‘Everything is a variation of some essential idea . . . the same forms get repeated in different dimensions and perspectives and scale.’ This is the central premise of the book; how the traumas of the past impact the present and old loves are embodied in present loves.
It’s an absorbing story, an intriguing twist of relationships, and one that would reward re-reading and reflection.
Themes Identity, Past lives, Memories, Relationships, German invasion of the Soviet Union, Eastern Front (WWII).
Heads up Year 5 teachers! Here's a fresh approach for ACARA History curriculum students learning about the settlement and colonisation of Australia. Julia Lawrinson has set her latest book Mel and Shell in WA.This is refreshing in itself because the majority of young readers' fiction currently available that could be matched to the History curriculum, is set in NSW and Vic. Mel and Shell follows Lawrinson's Maddie in the Middle which was a popular 2020 CBCA Notable book.
When reading Mel and Shell, contemporary students have to travel to two different time periods. The book is structured as a series of letters from Shell to Mary which span the first half of 1979. With 1979 being the sesquicentenary of WA, Shell's class project was to write letters as pretend penpals to one of the original settlers who had arrived in Perth 150 years previously, in 1829. Shell was allotted Mary Ann Swift who sailed on HMS Sulphur captained by Robert Dance.
These letters turn out to be a release valve for Shell who is negotiating the usual shifting friendships and other issues faced by tweens. Interspersed between the unfolding drama of 1979 tweenage issues shared with her long dead predecessor Mary (who becomes something like an agony aunt) Shell shares details of life in the 1970s. She tells Mary of washing machines, electronic games (dated indeed by today's standards) and especially of LP records and her favourite band ABBA.
The letters are naturally in the first person and thus the reader has access to the inner thoughts of Shell. She is an energetic and sensitive girl, wracked by friendship allegiances, loyalty and behaviour choices. The drama in her life - the words and behaviours of people in class, her teachers and parents, which she can only perceive and negotiate as a year 5 girl, culminate in a dramatic way on school camp where the two worlds, past and present, briefly collide. The resultant shifts in perception make this a coming-of-age story and indeed a "...conversation-starter for parents." Reading Time
In it's structure, this is quite a clever book. Julia Lawrinson understands the patter and concerns of tweenage girls. This is a book for girls. Those who enjoyed Maddie in the Middle will likewise enjoy Mel and Shell. Teacher's notes are available.
Themes Friendship, The 70's, WA sesquicentenary, Commemoration, Colonisation.
Elmer the colourful patchwork elephant returns in another exquisitely illustrated story. This time Elmer has been asked to babysit two little elephants. Their mother is returning late so Elmer must put them to sleep. Mum advises Elmer to read them a story as that will do it. Elmer decides that taking a tiring walk would do it just as well and off he goes, meeting many other animals who are babysitting as well. They all recommend that the baby elephants will go to sleep if told a story, each recommending one. Mum suggests the one about the flying carpet; Lion suggests the story about the magic biscuit, while crocodile thinks the one about the monster who lost his shadow would do the trick. Monkey thinks the one about the echo is good and the young rabbit thinks the one about the invisible teddy bear would do. By this time Elmer is tired and is sure the walk will put the children to sleep but when he gets home, they want a story. He starts with 'Once upon a time … there were two brave elephants …’ and all were asleep before he finishes.
What fun for children to make up their own stories to tell the baby animals, providing teachers and caregivers the perfect opportunity to get children’s imaginations working, telling, or writing their own bedtime stories. The illustrations are so bright and colourful, the faces on the animals so happy and cute, and the surroundings on the walk so appealing, that Elmer and the bedtime story is sure to become a family favourite.
Readers new to the many books about Elmer (Elmer and the bedtime story is the 29th in the series), will want to read more about this multi-coloured elephant, and could try Elmer the elephant, Elmer’s birthday, celebrating 30 years of Elmer, and Elmer and the race.
Themes Elephants, Bedtime, Storytelling.
Pat Pledger
Seal child by Robert Vescio and Anna Pignataro
New Frontier, 2021. ISBN: 9781922326294. (Age:3+) Highly recommended.
A child loses her bearings when a storm hits her village. She cannot find anyone else and all she knows has disappeared. Going to the beach to find a boat, she spots a baby seal, a pup, and takes it with her as she guides the boat out into the sea. The two form a companionship which keeps them both alive as they are tossed about on the waves, searching for home. They huddle together for warmth during the cold nights, perilously watch the storm as it passes by, see frightening monsters rising from the deep, and fish when the water is calm. Eventually mother seal comes nearby and the pup is happily reunited. The seal guides the child to an island where she is also reunited with her family.
This lovely story of loss and longing will touch those who read of the young girl’s plight, separated from her family, alone in a hostile world, wondering what will become of her, a seal pup her only companion.
Children will recognise that there are many such children alone in our world and talk about the children they see on the TV news and when charity ads are shown. The readers will be able to discuss why children are so separated from their families, and form opinions about what is needed to make sure children are safe.
Empathy and compassion will be show by the readers as they take in the child’s loneliness, tossed on the sea of life.
Pagnataro’s beautiful illustrations reveal a sea at once frightening, with waves seeming to crash around them, the deeper blues hiding a host of monsters and the unknown, while the calmer days are overlaid with colour and stillness and warmth.
The contrast between the different stages on the ocean will not be lost on the readers and they will search each page for hints of lurking dangers and clear skies ahead. Teacher's notes are available.
The Nazis knew my name by Magda Hellinger & May Lee
Simon & Schuster, 2021. ISBN: 9781760859299. (Age:15 - Adult) Recommended.
Magda Hellinger was a Slovakian kindergarten teacher when, in 1942, she was deported into the hands of the Nazis and forced into the horror of existence in Auschwitz. Her natural leadership skills and language abilities were recognised by the Germans, and she was regularly co-opted into the role of prisoner leader – a role that enabled her to be ‘known’ by the Nazis, but also put her in a position that could sometimes help others, but always at the risk of her own life. Her life was never easy, and her survival was a miracle, but the story of the years lost in Auschwitz and the many lives lost is so awful that it should not be forgotten. This is the story of one Jewish life; her influence, and her story, is powerful and compelling.
This is a biography written using the accounts of Magda herself, but it is her daughter’s research following her death and David Brewster’s writing skills that have drawn the threads together giving an insight into the awfulness of the Holocaust experience for those who suffered its horrors. Resilience does not always explain why some survived and others didn’t, but Magda’s story reveals that sometimes it was the power of a single voice or relationship that could make a difference.
Themes World War II, Jewish holocaust, Survival, Auschwitz, Concentration camps, Biography.
Carolyn Hull
Enola Holmes and the black barouche by Nancy Springer
Allen & Unwin, 2021. ISBN: 9781761065255. (Age:12-17) Highly recommended.
American author Nancy Springer is back with Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche, adding to the growing popular Enola Holmes series of books that now span a decade of publication. These books have been adapted to the screen and Enola Holmes can now be viewed on Netflix.
The central character Enola (Alone spelt backwards) is the feisty and independent teen sister of the famous super-sleuth Sherlock Holmes. Her speciality is missing persons investigations. Enola lives alone in rooms rented in the Professional Women's Club in London. She works in concert with her brother at times but keeps ahead of him most of the time. Springer evokes through language, costume and setting the atmosphere and society of the Victorian era of London. The social and personal expectations of women of the times is not a handicap to Enola. Rather she uses fashion as performativ e- very much a part of her presentation and game. She conforms beautifully outwardly and can, like a chameleon, manage any social situation. Her life is one of strength and action.The language is beautiful upper crust English at its best and most fun and the wit of the conversations is quick and dry. The story is told in first person through Enola herself.
In Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche, Enola is presented with the problem of the missing twin sister of Miss Letitia Glover. Letitia's sister, Lady Felicity (Flossie) was married to the handsome and arrogant Earl of Dunhench and, like his previous wife, has suddenly died of a "sudden and virulent disease" and also, like his previous wife, been rapidly cremated. This is all very suspicious. The death certificate was not signed by their friend Dr Watson at all but seems to be a forgery of his signature. Enola, along with Letitia and her old friend the young Viscount Tewkesbury, Marquess of Basilwether conspire to find out the truth. Dangerous, exuberant sleuth work begins. Hilarious things happen involving amongst other things the misbehaviour of crazy hired hacks and fantastic disguises. Much time is spent sleuthing in dark gardens, crumbling country mansions, asylums for the insane and country inns of doubtful reputation and driving in horse-drawn conveyances of many styles accompanied by coachmen or alone. Enola flits from the drawing rooms of the Victorian landed gentry to the lowest country inns and Victorian madhouses where wealthy men could lock their wives away with the flimsiest of excuses.
Enola is a young, capable and smart girl of her time. She never falters and never gives up as she supports her friends. Tension remains high throughout the story as our intrepid heroine unravels a sinister crime.
A great read. Addictive for lovers of crime fiction.
Themes Detectives - Sherlock and Enola Holmes, London, Missing persons investigations, Victorian England.
