Such stuff: A story-maker's inspiration by Michael Morpurgo
Ill. by Michael Foreman. Walker Books, 2016. ISBN 9781406364576
What a master storyteller Michael Morpurgo is! His body of work and
his reputation are both completely awe-inspiring. This unparalleled
weaver of dreams who was the UK Children's Laureate from 2003-2005,
with over 100 books to his credit (many translated into other
languages) and numerous awards, has provided those of us who are such
admirers of this work with an unprecedented insight into his
writing. This is truly a joint production. When Michael's brother
suggested that so many people always ask about how the stories come
to life it would be a good idea to write about it, Michael took up
the idea with enthusiasm. It was natural to involve his long-time
illustrator and collaborator, Michael Foreman, who has often
provided him with the germ of an idea for a story. And along with
his wife, Clare, he began the task of collating anecdotes, excerpts and
background information for the brilliant format of this book.
The story of each book begin with Michael's recount of the first
idea, sometimes a real life incident, a media story, an historical
fact or a yarn from someone met in a pub. He discusses how the
pieces of each story then come together, to be woven into one
narrative. At times, many such singular ideas all combined into the
one book. Then follows an excerpt from the book in question, these
selected by Clare and lastly, a few pages of information that
provide back story to the particular theme of each all fascinating
and interesting aspects of the relevant title.
As an indulgence I must share this from the chapter on 'I believe
in unicorns': We know the best parents and the best teachers do this, change
lives. So often forgotten are the best librarians, dedicated
people who go quietly about their business of trying to encourage
reading. For many children who are not read to at home, or who
have been frightened of books, or bored by them, at school, a good
library and good librarian can change the life of a child, by
judicious and sensitive recommendations, by arranging book groups,
by readings, by inviting authors in to talk to children.
Thank you Michael both for that positive affirmation of our
profession but also for the joy you bring to our lives with your
superb writing.
I highly recommend this to you for students who are interested in
the process of creative writing, for lovers of Michael's work and
for your own professional reading. This one stays firmly on my own
shelf!
Sue Warren
Mila and the missing lions by Celeste Hulme
Five Mile Press, 2016 ISBN 9781760066826
(Age: 5+) Lions. Animals. Circuses. Lion taming. A curiously old
fashioned conceit of a child wanting to grow up to be lion tamer
like her parents will reveal a work environment no longer seen by
children. She takes the necessary equipment from her parents'
storage chest and makes a mane for her dog, Ralph. But Ralph simply
wants to sleep. He is not interested in being Mila's lion so that
she can practise. So Mila goes to the cage where her parents keep
their lions and inadvertently lets them escape. So begins a game of
cat and mouse as Mila asks the other circus people if they have seen
anything unusual. She does not want anyone to know what she has
done. She walks around the circus until she finally gets to the tent
of the bearded lady, an act that the lions seem to like. And sure
enough there they are sitting down to afternoon tea with her. Mila
works out how to get the lions back in their cage and all is well.
A delightful tale of righting a mistake the child has made, and
working something out for herself, while showing a younger
generation what an old fashioned circus is like. The illustrations
move the story along, adding another level of humour to the story.
I love the double page of framed portraits of Mila's family, and the
things being juggled by the juggler, while readers will love
following the tail they see escaping onto the next page. And the
last page of the text adds another level of humour and anticipation
as Mila works out what she wants to do next.
Fran Knight
Valdur the Viking and the ghostly Goths by Craig Cormick
Ford Street Publishing, 2016. ISBN 9781925272420
(Age: 7+) Highly recommended. Ghost pirates, ghost Vikings and ghost
ships. Did you ever wonder what happens to all who are lost at sea?
This short, funny story has all of the answers. Valdur is a Viking
child who has been sailing the seas, with his father, for hundreds
of years. Valdur, his father and their crew are all ghosts. The
pirates who attack them are ghosts. The ships the Vikings attack are
ghosts. When Valdur's father and most of the crew are kidnapped by
the pirate captain, Germanicus Bottom, Valdur is determined to sail
after them and rescue everyone. What role will Ragna, Valdur's dog,
play? What is salted porridge? Is it the Viking Captain Germanicus
is really after? Valdur the Viking is a quirky, easy to read novel and is highly
recommended for boys aged 7+. It is a great step into first novels.
The descriptive text is funny and boys will love the pirate and
Viking adventure. Who knew ghosts were sailing around out there?
Kylie Kempster
Wiggle and the whale: A book of funny friends by Roger Priddy
Ill. by Lindsey Sagar. Priddy Books, 2016. ISBN 9781783413522
(Ages: 2-5) Rhyming. Animals. Friendship. Collage. This simple book
in the Alphaprints series is explicit in its purpose, initially
asking 'What makes a perfect animal pair?', and then explaining that
even though friends can be different colours and sizes, all
friendships are special. Then follows shorts rhymes about each of
the pairs of animal friends: what makes them special and how they
are different. The animal pairs are fantastical (including a pink
baby bear and a hedgehog), but the drastic differences between them
make the message even clearer. While the lower end of the target age
may not fully appreciate the message of the story, they will enjoy
the simple rhyming text and the fantastic illustrations, which use
different objects (as well as many fingerprints) to create the
animals and the brightly coloured worlds around them. Photographs of
iced donuts create the bear and his lair, the hedgehog's body is a
pinecone, and the flamingo's neck is a pink feather boa. Children
will love identifying these objects and will enjoy the visual
textures they create on each page. The rhymes about each animal,
while not always masterful, are mostly pleasing when read aloud and
relate accurate information about animal behaviours and habitats.
Preschool and early childhood teachers will find this book useful to
get children thinking about how they are different to their friends
and to discuss diversity. It could also springboard art activities
involving collage and fingerprint printing.
Nicole Nelson
The tale of Kitty-in-Boots by Beatrix Potter
Ill. by Quentin Blake. Frederick Warne, 2016. ISBN 9780241247594
By day, Miss Catherine St Quintin appeared to be a very serious,
well-behaved black cat who answered to 'Kitty' whenever the kind old
lady who owned her called her. The old lady saw a 'Kitty' with all
the pleasant connotations that that name brings to mind but Miss
Catherine St Quintin led a double life.
Because by night, when she was supposedly locked in the wash-house,
Kitty was not curled up in her basket dreaming sweet dreams until
morning. She was not the purring, nuzzling, gentle cat her owner
believed her to be. Known to her more common cat friends as 'Q' and
'Squintums', she would leap out the laundry window to be replaced by
Winkiepeeps, another black cat who would wait inside until Kitty
came home just in case the old lady checked her, while she went
hunting dressed in her coat and boots and carrying an air rifle. A
female lookalike of Puss-in-Boots.
This particular night she collects her gun from her friend
Cheesebox, determined to join Slimmy Jimmy and John Stoat-Ferret as
they hunt for rabbits. However, she decides to hunt for mice
instead, but being a rather unreliable and careless shooter, that is
not very fruitful, only managing to shoot Mrs Tiggy-Winkle's
bundle of washing and some sticks and stones that weren't mice at
all. Sheep and crows seem a better target until they send her
scurrying behind a wall in fright and she gets a big surprise when
she fires at something coming out of a hole. Unexpectedly, she has
met up with Slimmy Jimmy and John Stoat-Ferret who take her gun off
her. But she refuses to hand over the pellets and so a rather
adventurous night involving the ferrets, Peter Rabbit, Mr Tod the
Fox and Mrs Tiggy-Winkles begins. Suffice to say, it's enough to put
Miss Catherine St Quintin off hunting for ever.
The story of this story is as interesting as the tale itself. Potter
completed the text in 1914 and created just one illustration but the
outbreak of World War I and other events meant she never completed
the rest. Thus the story went unpublished in her lifetime.
Undiscovered until Penguin Random House editor Jo Hanks found it in
the Potter archive at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2013 and
with Quentin Blake accepting the invitation to illustrate it, it has
just been published to coincide with what would have been Potter's
150th birthday.
Fans of her works will be thrilled to share just one more adventure
from this prolific creator and delight in the appearance of an
older, more portly Peter Rabbit who has lost none of his smarts and
wily ways as well as other favourite characters from her other
books.
Barbara Braxton
Not the same sky by Evelyn Conlon
On cover: a story of Irish famine girls
brought to Australia. Wakefield Press, 2016. ISBN
9781743052426
(Age: 12+) Recommended. Migration, Irish Famine, Indentured labour,
Ship life. This book follows a group of four girls amongst a group
of Irish orphans, made destitute by the Irish Famine, who came to
Australia on The Thomas Arbuthnot, in 1849. They were under
the care of Surgeon Superintendent Charles Strutt whose diaries
about his voyage are now kept at La Trobe University in Melbourne.
In part, these diaries form the basis of the story around these
girls' lives. On board ship, Strutt made sure the girls were kept
busy with quite a rigorous regime. Rosters were organised for wash
days, singing and dancing, sewing and lessons organised so that the
girls would have a knowledge of English, more useful than the Gaelic
they spoke. They were organised into messes of eight girls each
responsible for their own utensils with each having a planned menu,
ensuring the girls had a reasonable diet aboard ship. Matrons
appointed to look after the girls made sure the deck where the girls
lived were scrubbed and kept clean, minimising disease.
Strutt thought about all the problems he was likely to encounter,
and set out plans to circumvent these. He made sure the girls, all
from different backgrounds, got on well, and were kept away from the
crew, and that he and the captain were on cordial relations.
On their arrival in Sydney they were housed in the Barracks, and
then allotted families where they would work as servants, some in
rural towns, as well as Sydney. Strutt stayed and supervised the
girls and their appointments, actually traveling to Yass with one of
the groups. He did keep in touch with some and through his visits we
hear of what happened to some of these girls, as they found husbands
and had children. One of the girls whose lives we follow in this
recreation takes on a life on the stage.
Historical fiction makes fascinating reading, as we see into the
lives of the girls, based on diaries and historical research. The
prologue introduces Joy Kennedy a monumental mason in Ireland who is
contacted to build a memorial to these women and her story gives a
modern day moral perspective on what happened to them. Life on board
the ship was for me the most interesting part of the tale, and
Strutt's care and attention to the daily routine of the girls
admirable.
For readers interested in a small part of Australia's immigration
history then this is a most interesting read.
Fran Knight
Tommy Bell Bushranger Boy: Shoot-out at the Rock by Jane Smith
Big Sky Publishing, 2016. ISBN 9781925275940
(Age: 8+) Highly recommended. Tommy Bell has been in trouble at
school and has been sent to his grandad's farm for the summer. Tommy
sees it as a punishment but grandma and grandad don't even talk
about the troubles. They just make sure Tommy is busy and give him a
horse to work with. Tommy is ecstatic. Horses are his favourite
thing. It is the discovery of an old hat that makes life even more
interesting as Tommy's grandad believes it is an old bushranger's
hat. Tommy now has a connection with the bushranger topic he didn't
find very interesting at school. Tommy finds himself back in 1836
and face to face with the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt. How is
this happening? Is it the hat? Is Tommy imagining everything? Tommy Bell Bushranger Boy: Shoot-out at the Rock is a short
novel at 63 pages and would make a great read aloud class novel as
it links well with the Year 5 History Curriculum. At the end of the
book, readers will find historical information on the bushranger,
Captain Thunderbolt, and there is also a question and answer
section. It is an imaginary interview with the bushranger. Children
could create their own version after listening to the story and
doing their own research. This novel is great for readers who are
venturing into the world of novels and who also enjoy a little
adventure. The text is easy to read but still describes events in an
exciting manner. It is highly recommended for readers aged 8+.
Kylie Kempster
My feelings ill. by Sarah Jennings
Bloomsbury, 2016. ISBN 9781408869048
(Ages: 4-6) Board book, emotions. This is about how to cope with and
talk about emotions. It requires children to have a grasp on
labelling and recognising their emotions already as it does little
to identify what they are or what they look like. Rather than
telling the reader what it looks like to be worried or scared, shy
or happy, it gives practical suggestions for dealing with the
feeling ('When you feel scared . . . Run away fast. Say 'I'm
scared!''; 'When you feel happy . . . Whistle and sing!, Say
hello').
Young children often have difficulty dealing with emotions, even
positive ones, so this is a fantastic way to give them practical
outlets. The pictures clearly illustrate the suggestions, giving
children visual as well as verbal cues. This is a great book for
parents to read through in its entirety, but also to pull out during
emotional times to help young children find a way to deal with a
specific emotion. It is appropriately short, and the bright
illustrations and tab cutouts will keep young children engaged.
Nicole Nelson
On the river by Roland Harvey
Allen and Unwin, 2016. ISBN 9781760112455
(Age: 8-80) Highly recommended. Roland Harvey's books celebrate the
Australian landscape and lifestyle from the Top End, to the city and
the bush. In his new picture book On the River the unique
watercolour and ink illustrations combine with his simple text,
poems, letters and informative descriptions to showcase the many
facets of the Murray-Darling Basin.
Roland the adventurer sets out with his pelican companion and
navigates the river system from high in the Snowy Mountains down to
the Murray Mouth. Each double page spread is visually engaging, with
so many things to investigate those small humourous scenes - that
display Harvey's unique insight into everyday life. He shows his
love for sports, recreation, fishing and family fun drawn from
childhood trips and family holidays along the river. There is
something for the whole family to spot, from lost bathers, extreme
ironing, the dangers of shooting the rapids, water-skiing etiquette,
quizzical animals - the migrating Bogong moth's backpack, to trout
fishing tips and riverboat carnivals.
From the detailed maps of the Murray-Darling Basin in the endpapers,
Harvey engages his audience with the many facets of river life;
historically from the aboriginal connections to place, the
exploration, settlement, the timeline of transportation and the
farming, fruit, cotton to the current issues of water entitlement
and usage. The geographical features are painted in natural tones,
using bird's eye views, cutaways and panoramas to show the different
environments, with the array of flora and fauna and the recreational
uses of this Murray-Darling Basin.
This is an excellent resource for Humanities teachers, in Years 3, 5
and 7 there is a focus on the Murray River for History and
Geography. Roland Harvey's letter from Murray to Darling succinctly
sums up the steps needed to improve river health and increase the
water flow.
Teacher notes and downloadable activities are available.
Rhyllis Bignell
The swap by Jan Ormerod
Ill. by Andrew Joyner. Little Hare, 2016. ISBN 9781760128760
(Age: 3+) Highly recommended. Board book. Sibling rivalry, Humour,
Family, Picture book. Despite Mama Crocodile's best efforts at
increasing daughter Caroline's interest in her new baby brother, she
fails at each fence post. Giving a long sentence of similes which
expound his virtues, Caroline can only respond that he smells. Mum
alludes to his lovely scaly skin and sharp claws, but Caroline can
only see how much room he takes up on her mother's lap. She decides
that she should swap him, and goes to the baby shop where she is
able to exchange the baby for something new. Each time she does
this, the differences between her baby brother and the animal she
choses, stand out. Taking a panda, she is embarrassed when he begins
to eat the cane furniture at the cafe, and the elephant she takes
hops into the town fountain breaking it. Each time she realises that
perhaps her baby brother is not as bad as she thinks, and so learns
a lesson that will be obvious to all readers. Illustrated with
wonderfully lively drawings of the array of animals that live in the
town will delight the readers who will see far more each time they
venture inside. I love the main street with its different shops and
shop windows with flats on top displaying a variety of styles, I was
intrigued with the details within the shops the girl entered and
loved the picture of Mama Crocodile and her two offspring on the
last page, displaying all the love and affection that exists between
the three, and no child will miss the humour of how Caroline learns
to love her brother while Mama is shopping. The production of the
book with its strong library binding makes it a pleasure to hold and
open. A wholly entertaining experience, made all the more poignant
by Jan Ormerod's death earlier this year.
This is a board book version of the paperback published in 2013.
Fran Knight
The loneliness of distant beings by Kate Ling
Hodder and Stoughton, 2016. ISBN 9781510200166
(Age: 14+) Highly recommended. Multi-generational space exploration
leaves no room for love. With a eugenical system in place to provide
mission security, the people of Ventura live a life of structure and
control. They are carriers for the next generation and the
generation after, who may discover a life-supporting planet.
As part the third generation of a seven hundred year round trip, the
children of Ventura are responsible with continuing to produce
optimal offspring for the completion of the mission. On her
graduation, Seren's worst dream is realised when she learns that her
life partner will be Ezra, Captain Kat's more arrogant son. Seren's
discomfort and reluctance for the partnership is attributed to
hereditary mental illness, and so she finds herself with even less
decision-making power than ever before. As the son of Captain Kat,
Ezra, and his future bride, must share in her limelight - any wrong
doing open for public scrutiny. As if things couldn't be worse for
Seren and her precarious mental state, she meets Domenigo, one of
the fish-boys in production. Just a year age gap, the two are drawn
to one another and things quickly heat up. Facing a future of
persecution on discovery, Seren knows she must make the right
decision. She must marry her life partner. But can she after she has
experienced the pure love of Domenigo?
Having thoroughly enjoyed this novel, I would highly recommend it
for teenagers fourteen and up. While primarily a sci-fi romance, the
novel's focus is on Seren's feeling of powerlessness in the face of
societal expectations, and the disadvantages of eugenic systems.
Kayla Gaskell, 20
Animalium by Katie Scott and Jenny Broom
Five Mile Press, 2016. ISBN 9781760404307
(Age: 8+) Museums, Evolution. A museum to visit any time you like is
presented in this comfortably hand sized compendium of plants and
animals from around the world.
First published in Britain by Big Picture Press, the books that I
have read (Historium, Botanicum and Animalium)
are part of a series of non fiction books, entreating young readers
to look more closely at the plants and animals presented. Their
website tells us 'Big Picture Press is a new list of highly
illustrated books launched in September 2013, publishing as an
imprint of the Templar Company Limited (UK and Australia) and
Candlewick Press (US and Canada). We believe that books should be
visually intelligent, surprising, and accessible to readers of all
ages, abilities, and nationalities.'
And they have certainly striven to achieve that aim. Historium
(2015) is a highly illustrated and fascinating offering of
historical objects found in the British Museum. Animalium is another in the same milieu, offering incredibly
detailed illustrations of plants and animals across the world. The
large version of this book was chosen as the Sunday Times Children's
Book of the Year in 2014. Opening any page offers a plate of
illustrations on one side with information and a guide to the
illustrations on the verso.
Most pages are animals of the European, Asian and African continents
with a few showing animals our students would know, although the
galah may elicit a few laughs.
Presented in evolutionary order, the first pages deal with Porifera
or sponges, which developed some 540 million years ago, followed by
the Cephalopods and Fish leading up to the Primates and Hooved
Animals. Each page offers highly sophisticated illustrations by
Katie Scott, reminiscent of woodblock prints used in such books in
the past. On the other page, details are given about these animals
and plants, and interspersed with these pages are those detailing
habitats like Woodland, Mangroves and Rainforest. I can imagine some
children encouraged to dip in and out of this book, and see it more
of a library tome to be used by a class. A fascinating read.
Fran Knight
Breaking the boundaries edited by Yvonne Allen and Joy Noble
Wakefield Press, 2016. ISBN 9781743054185
(Age: 12+) Highly recommended. Non-fiction. If you browse the
contents of this collection of personal stories by activists
standing up for what they believe in, you are sure to find at least
one that will draw you in. For me it was 'An Indigenous prime
minister in our lifetime' by Andrew Penfold. It is so inspiring,
particularly at the time of the Don Dale detention horrors, to read
of the real successes that the Australian Indigenous Education
Foundation is having in empowering Aboriginal children to strive for
a brighter future. This is the kind of program that should be fully
supported and expanded throughout the country.
After reading that story, I went on to select others that I
recognised, such as Julian Burnside's 'The reluctant activist', and
Debra McCulloch's 'The business of sex work', then moved onto
unfamiliar writers, and ended up picking up the book from time to
time to read another story, until I'd read them all. There is a wide
variety of issues that have inspired the activists in this book,
issues of environment, human rights, gender, health and disease,
disabilities, euthanasia; there is sure to be something that will
draw the attention of everyone.
There are two stories by primary school students. Maddison Day
writes about educating fellow school students in Aboriginal culture
and history, and Mackenzie Francis-Brown went from holding Biggest
Morning Teas for the Cancer Council to running a healthy eating
campaign. Both provide inspirational examples for other school
students to follow, a stimulus for them to find their own interests
and develop a meaningful project.
The stories are all very short and easy to read. It is such a
marvellous collection - it is so uplifting to read what individuals
by perseverance and hard work have managed to achieve. I recommend
it to anyone feeling a bit depressed by current world events; it is
a great reminder that there are many good and dedicated people
working for the betterment of others, and who are continuing in that
life work.
Helen Eddy
Dreaming the enemy by David Metzenthen
Allen and Unwin, 2016. ISBN 9781760112257
(Age: 17+) Recommended. Good books are not always read for
entertainment. This book is nuanced and brilliantly crafted, but it
takes the reader into uncomfortable places and leaves you staggering
and in pain as you experience the aftermath of the Vietnam War. This
was not an enjoyable journey for the central character and survivor
Johnny Shoebridge, who struggles with PTSD. His tenuous grip on the
world is fraught with the painful dreams of conflict and the
memories of the shared experience with his war buddies. He carries
with him the ghosts of the traumatic experience and they claw at his
stability, leaving him reeling and wounded. Metzenthen has allowed
us also to experience the storyline from the perspective of the
North Vietnamese soldier, as Johnny weaves the story of his enemy
into his own nightmarish existence. The power of this dual
perspective of the Vietnam War and its impacts on the human
survivors - the 'feathers in the wind' tossed to the elements, is
visceral in opening up the tragedy of the Vietnam War for the
veterans who cannot escape the emotional storm that they carry with
them. Metzenthen has subtly and gently revealed the staggering
difficulty of returning to normality, particularly when strangers
(including World War II veterans) were quick to judge and malign the
returned servicemen without understanding their journey.
The writer's craft here is worthy of a recommendation. Metzenthen
has skilfully woven time twists and the different perspectives from
both sides of the conflict, as well as the psychological and
emotional torture of the PTSD sufferer as he attempts to find
'normal'. The empathy that he induces in the reader is powerful, but
it does require maturity in order to deal with the horrors of war
and the torment of the young man who carries the dreams and hopes of
his fallen buddies with him, as well as his own changed view of
self. I found this book emotionally difficult to read - it gave me
opportunity for understanding, but the pain of the central
character, and the immersion into war was devastating and extremely
distressing. Do not place this into the hands of a young reader
without assessing their ability to deal with the hard issues of war.
And although this gives perspective for ex-Servicemen's experience
across the years, it is also an insight into mental health issues.
(Note: some readers will also be confronted by the uncensored
language choices of the Aussie soldier in the midst of
life-threatening circumstances.)
Carolyn Hull
Smart about sharks by Owen Davey
Flying Eye Books, 2016. ISBN 9781909263918
(Age: 5+) Highly recommended. Sharks. Non fiction. A finely detailed
and fascinating look at sharks around the world is offered in this
enthralling hard cover book. Like the diver on the front cover we
are invited to dive down and look at what lurks in the waters
beneath. And no one will be disappointed. I can imagine readers,
particularly boys, poring over the information, the detailed
illustrations and comparisons to educate and then trick each other
with their vastly enhanced knowledge.
Sharks are fish and there are over five hundred different species of
shark. And many of these are detailed on the pages before us. Each
double page with its punning title, offers a different field of
information, along with a host of interesting diagrams. One that
fascinated me is entitled, 'Congratulations, it's a shark',
concerning the offspring of these creatures. The shark has three
methods of birth, I read, one is live birth, the second is eggs and
the third is eggs inside the mother which hatch, the baby shark
eating the rest of the yolk and sometimes its siblings to survive.
Wow! readers, like me, will be entranced. Another page, entiscale,
shows the various sharks drawn in relation to each other. The whale
shark stretches across the whole page, while others are so small
only their name gives their position away. And another, 'A bite
to eat', of course shows us the teeth sharks are known for.
Their rows of teeth can be replaced and one shark may get through
thirty thousand teeth in its lifetime. Each page has a host of
information and facts, and will keep the readers entertained for a
long time. The illustrations beg to be perused with close attention
and will not disappoint the most urbane of readers.
The book is rounded off with an index which points readers to pages
with specific sharks, using both their common and scientific names.
I loved this so much that I will now seek out Davey's other book, Mad
about monkeys.
Fran Knight
