The frog's first song by Jazz Money. Illus. by Jason Phu
University of Queensland Press, 2025. ISBN: 9780702268977. (Age:3+) Highly recommended.
This debut picture book is resplendent in simplicity. Jazz Money, a Wiradjuri poet and artist, has created a masterful tale that holds the illusion of quietness but delivers a wonderfully poignant message. Taking inspiration from Chinese parables and First Nations creation stories, The Frog's First Song begins with a world of black (an underground well), 'a little bit muddled and confused' where everyone is alone and everything is quiet. The very first song (a croak from a frog) is a surprise to all, but as with most things in life, it's with one little thing that almost everything begins.
The change from white lines on pitch black is dramatically disrupted as the singing frog becomes bright green. 'This is the sound that changed the darkness'. More and more frogs join in, their joy contagious and their song one of 'friendship and family, and with it the frogs feel brave'. They travel further up than anyone else ever has, into the light at the top of the well, until they emerge onto the ground in the light of the moon. 'The frogs sing their wonder and excitement into this new world' and moon and frogs alike take delight in each other and their respective beauty. The allegory is clearly spelled out on the final page; that even in dark times coming together to sing, dance or tell stories makes the world a brighter place.
Don't be fooled by the unassuming front cover. This is storytelling at its finest, with illustrations that sing. It's also a lovely message, easily accessible to children, that uniting with others for joyful experiences is a vital part of the human experience that we shouldn't feel guilty about, despite the sometimes dark world we inhabit. The text has a large potential audience, whom will connect with its themes on differing levels. There is also a Chinese parable (obviously a major inspiration) titled The Frog at the Bottom of the Well that would make an excellent companion text.
Themes Parables/Creation Stories, Community and Belonging, Courage.
Jane Caro has begun Lyrebird with a unique premise – a young PHD student hearing a woman begging for her life. An ornithology student Jessica Weston had been bird watching and recording birds and their calls in the remote Barrington Tops when she realised that it was a lyrebird imitating a terrified woman. She reports this to the police, giving them video of the lyrebird, but no body was found by the new detective, Megan Blaxland, and no women were reported missing so the case was dismissed. Now, twenty years later a body has been uncovered and the case reopened. Megan is called back from retirement to head the investigation and reunites with Jessica.
This is a twisty gripping police procedural, and I found it difficult to work out who was the killer. As well as outlining how Megan sets about solving the case, Caro cleverly threads dark themes throughout the book of sex trafficking, motherhood and the problems of bringing up children, overcoming grief and climate change. All of this is set against the background of a deadly bushfire raging near Maitland and in the Barrington Tops. Will Megan be able to solve the case and bring the victims the justice that they deserve? Has the killer been watching Jessica and her daughter?
Once started, I couldn’t put Lyrebird down. The idea of a lyrebird being a witness to a murder was compelling and original, the danger of bushfires was vividly described and the suspense kept me reading to the stunning conclusion. I will certainly be seeking out Mother by Jane Caro, while eagerly waiting for another cleverly crafted crime book by this author.
Themes Murder, Sex trafficking, Lyrebirds, Bushfires, Detectives.
Pat Pledger
Dead scary: ghost guitar by T J Doom
Penguin, 2025. ISBN: 9781761352874. (Age:9+ Middle School) Highly Recommended for this genre.
Ghost Guitar is the debut title in the new “Dead Scary” series written by the author’s persona: TJ Doom. Well Mr Doom, your debut proves that self-praise is justified. I predict Dead Scary to be the new Goosebumps if indeed another series aspires to become equally ubiquitous. The action and tension is seriously next level as we witness Jake and Zoe perform jaw dropping stunts to escape the escalating supernatural encounters.
Jake can’t afford a decent guitar to actualize his dream of founding a rock band so he is building a guitar out of old parts, much like ‘Frankenstein’s monster’. So far Zoe has refused his pleas to be the first to join his band on keyboards. Imagine his surprise to find a rare Fender Telecaster guitar, while serving a detention to clean and stocktake the music room attic.
Jake can’t resist a test strum or two, but he summons up a whole rock band of teenage ghosts- Ricky and the Blue Jeans – all of whom tragically perished on stage 50yrs ago before finishing their last set at the school concert. They’re stuck in a kind of purgatory and need to move on. Jake agrees to help readily. As difficult as it is to arrange the requirements of the new performance in order to release their souls, Jake has inadvertently allowed a malevolent demon to follow through the open portal. The phantom is determined to stop Jake from helping Ricky's band. Jake is 'Dead Scared' but of course unlike Doom’s readers, Jake is a true hero!
This is a well-written episodic narrative and exemplar of children’s horror, capably complemented in the same genre by a scary red cover and several monochrome comic style illustrations by Nahum Ziersch. We hope the creative partnership endures as TJ Doom forewarns in the epilogue....“more dead scary books coming soon”.
158p
Themes Horror, Action, Rock & Roll, School, Ghost Story.
Barney Gumnut the cute little kolas with his friends Hoppity (kangaroo), Robert (wombat), Wilfred (budgie), Edith (echidna) and Charles (cockatoo) are very excited because it is Christmas Eve. Edith asks Barney ‘what does Christmas actually mean?’ and each of the friends have a different answer; celebrating with friends, giving and receiving presents, swimming playing games, eating pavlova and wearing paper hats. Charles declares that ‘Christmas means creating special things to share!’ so the friends each make something special. Robert made mince pies, Barney made cards, Wilfred collected gumnuts, Hoppity made a little nativity scene and a gingerbread house and Edith and Charles made Christmas decorations. They wrapped presents, decorated the tree and then went camping finally having a Christmas feast with their ‘bestest friends.’
Children will easily relate to the many familiar things that are meaningful for the animals and are likely to find something that they have experienced themselves when celebrating a holiday such as Christmas. The delight in giving and receiving presents, in making something to share and gathering for a wonderful meal is beautifully illustrated in soft watercolours. The lovely endpapers show Australian flora including gumnuts and each illustration has minute details for a young child to pore over.
A Barney Gumnut Christmas is a gentle exploration of the importance of friendship and sharing. It would make a perfect bedtime story and a lovely way to explore some of the traditions surrounding the festive season.
Sidney is a Little Penguin who lives in big Sydney Harbour. From the day he hatched he was curious, and his mama and dada spent their time trying to keep him out of trouble and safe as he explores his small world around him. But there comes a time when even Little Penguins have to grow up and be independent, and keep themselves safe. For Sidney, this is tricky because he is still as curious as ever and one day he decides to follow the ferry to see where it is going... . While he can't keep up with the ferry, there is much to explore until a storm hits and he is buffeted and churned up by the waves, carried far from home and all that is familiar. Is this his last adventure ever?
Based on a true story, this is a charming tale about treading the fine line between being naturally curious and foolhardy - perhaps "curiosity killed the cat" could underpin it, although this one does have a happy ending.
Just as little ones will enjoy it as a standalone story, sharing what they know about Sydney and penguins, older students might like to investigate how what starts as a fleeting human interest story becomes the kernel for building something as engaging as this. How has the author taken an article in a newspaper and built such an appealing story? Working backwards, what questions might she have asked? What research might she have done? How has she blended fact and fiction? Having put some flesh on the kernel, how has she built a character by considering feelings, emotions and motives? What are the why, when, who and how that got that anonymous little penguin into that drain in Haberfield? And those who prefer to illustrate than write could ask the same questions about Lis Anelli's illustrations. What did she need to know to bring Whiting's words and character to life, particularly as illustrators usually get the manuscript after the words are written. What techniques, colours and media did she use to make Sidney so realistic? Such speculations deepen students' understandings about story-crafting so they improve their own and this is the perfect example of how connections are made. Activity sheets are available.
For me, the best storybooks are those that lead readers (and reviewers) down rabbit-holes by being entertaining as well as educational - and this is certainly one of those.
Themes Penguins, Sydney, Curiosity.
Barbara Braxton
School of monsters: A birthday wish for Bee by Sally Rippin. Illus. by Chris Kennett
The School of Monsters series is a delightfully funny series that uses language with brilliant effect! In the latest book Bee is gifted with a wishing cake and the results are surprising and slightly out of control. The story uses rhyming words to encourage independent reading along with lots of humour and bright illustrations. This is a excellent addition to the School of Monsters series.
I really like how these books use language to great effect while still making them accessible for new readers. The font changes to show the rhymes and at the back of the book there is a page of words to learn in different colours. The simple vocabulary, colourful characters and fun story is perfect for encouraging and engaging emerging readers.
I love this series and recommend it regularly to teachers and parents. The author and illustrator have created an engaging series that has laugh out loud moments. Each book also includes activities and support for fostering a love of reading and literacy skills. School of Monsters should be on every school library shelf as well as home libraries. This series is perfect for read aloud, read along and read alone as each book is written in a way that supports the success of emerging readers while also covering rhyming and other early literacy skills.
Themes Friendship, Magic, Problem-solving.
Mhairi Alcorn
The fierce little woman and the wicked pirate by Joy Cowley and Miho Satake
Gecko Press, 2025. ISBN: 9798765671696. (Age:4+)
The fierce little woman lived in a house at the end of a jetty. She knitted socks in blue and green wool to sell to sailors who had got their feet wet. But when there were no ships at her jetty, she was quite alone and lonely. Even though she had a trapdoor in her house that opened to the sea so she could swim in summer and fish in winter, she longed for the company of the summer sailors. Until, one stormy day, a pirate came to the house on the jetty. He stood on his toes, and starting tap-tap-tapping on the window.
Put Joy Cowley's name on a story for little people and I'm there....
When I started my initial teacher ed course in New Zealand in 1970, she was the leading author behind the Ready to Read series, a collection of basal readers that was used in junior classrooms in every school in New Zealand for reading instruction. In the 70s there would have been few Kiwi children who were unfamiliar with Early in the Morning, Grandma Comes to Stay and The Fire Engine, and the thrill of moving from red to yellow, blue and green levels before starting on 'chapter books" like The Donkey's Egg or The Hungry Lambs. The series was revolutionary in its approach to teaching children to read because it used natural language rather than phonics or controlled vocabulary, drawing on the research on world leaders in early literacy like Sylvia Ashton-Warner and Dr Marie Clay. She then went on to be the talent behind the Storybox Library series with titles like Mrs Wishy Washy and The Kick-a-Lot Shoes.
And it is her knowledge and experience of how children learn that underpins this story so that they can experience "real reading" and consolidate their belief that they can be "real" readers. There is a certain repetition in the storyline as the pirate tries to persuade the woman to let him in but although the woman may be unconventional, the pirate is stereotypical so little ones can think of what they know already and not only understand why the woman refuses but express the sorts of emotions she might be feeling, so they are really engaging with both the text and the illustrations - as "real readers" do. As well, Satake's illustrations are so detailed and vivid that there is lots of scope for predicting what is happening and build their vocabulary as they describe the bliss of listening to the sea at night or the sights, sounds and feels of the storm. Even this old grandma was taken back to her childhood at Bluff, New Zealand and totally immersed.
While there are hundreds of stories written and published for our youngest readers every year, there are few that are so deeply rooted in understanding those early reading behaviours and which consolidate our children's expectations of being readers as well as those by this author. While the world has clearly moved on from the scenario of Grandma arriving in a Vickers Viscount (after 50+ years I still remember the theme of the stories), the process of learning to read remains the same, and this is the perfect support to that. A must for my preschoolers.
The group who work on the security of a major investment company are in reality a strike force team whose black-ops are sometimes needed to circumvent major international conflicts, acting undercover and in the twilight of legal action in deniable situations. In this intense drama (in the style of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan dramas) a terrorist plot has been uncovered in which a rogue Muslim Emir plans to simultaneously detonate a new bridge and rail project, forging a link between Pakistan, India and China, and unleash nuclear waste into a US river. Jack Ryan Jnr is on a break but ends up in the thick of a dangerous endeavour to derail the terrorists by eliminating the leader. Others in the team must uncover information and eliminate threats before it is too late.
If you love Tom Clancy … this is another in the same mould. Rich in military jargon, weaponry, technology and combat scenarios, it does require a comfort with the pace, peril and violence of extreme military action. But it is compelling and each of the characters brings their own skills and quirks to the conflict. Jumping between each aspect of the dark action means the story is pacy and will keep readers turning pages!
Themes International conflict and cooperation, Pakistan-Indian-China relations, Terrorism, Bridge-building, USA black ops.
Oakhold takes a central space in the world of The Garden but for the fairies of the Rootstores, (not the most prestigious place in Oakhold) an afternoon of moving boxes has turned into an all-out fight with Weed Fairy thugs. Little Lost fairy, Pip, is caught in the fray but Pip is great at throwing and the thugs soon run away. In search of a less boring job for Pip it is discovered that the emergency food stores are spoiled by mould, requiring an emergency root store report to be taken higher up to The Department, an unenviable task Pip takes on enthusiastically. After a detour for a toilet break and an encounter with treeguard trainee Twiglet Treekin, Pip makes it up to the administrative area only to get lost in the Trunk and Branch Departments. Eventually, with the help of Stickler Treekin, the department guide who loves rules and wears a cute bow tie, she finds the right place, but the report has got mixed up with an ancient parchment of runes and she is sent further up the tree to the Great Council Chamber to deliver the report. The story twists and turns as Pip works her way further up the tree and there are unexpected detours, disguises and deceptions to further complicate the plot. Pip is an unconventional hero, easily distracted and fond of parties, but she is honest and curious, she recognizes others’ strengths and of course she is good at throwing. Her irritating blind optimism carries her through the direst of chaotic situations.
This is a long graphic novel, at 250 pages, and sometimes it is easy to lose track of the plot and the many characters. Luckily there is a guide at the front of the book with a map of the Garden. Cutaway maps of the various parts of Treehold add further interest. Dialogue appears in speech bubbles but overview and narration is cleverly inserted in small scrolls. Hilarious, fast-paced, packed with colour and energetic animation, this is a book for reading and re-reading by a wide range of age groups. At the end there are pages on the drawing of the comic and how the colourist makes it look like a finished page.
Themes Fantasy, Graphic novel, Adventure, Comics.
Sue Speck
The Story Writer's Handbook by Katrina Nannestad. IIlus. by Cheryl Orsini
Well known multi-award winning Australian author Katrina Nannestad has shared her love and joy of writing in a new activity-style journal that primary-school aged children from eight years onwards will take great pleasure in using. With a warm and encouraging personal introduction from Katrina as well as thoughtful advice on how to use the book, budding writers will be ready to begin a writing journey of their own.
The contents page sets out each chapter with headings that include Be An Ideas Bowerbird, Splashes of Colour, Exploding Ideas, Dreams and Schemes, Writing with the Senses and many more. The book can be used to ‘dip in and out as you fancy’ or some writers may prefer to follow it through chapter by chapter.
Throughout the handbook, Katrina shares her writing ideas and provides examples. In the chapter Figurative Language the following detail is shared, “…the writer can paint a picture using words …offering the reader a new and surprising way of looking at things.” One of the examples given is ‘Grandma snores like a walrus with fish tangled in its teeth.’ The chapter Coloured Pairs gives writers the opportunity to pair up colours to create interesting images. For example, the colour yellow could be ‘dandelion and duckling fluff’ or ‘scrambled eggs and lemon-scented soap.’
Being a journal style book there is plenty of room for writers to write down their ideas, thoughts and doodles with the use of illustrations scattered throughout providing visual interest. In the Exploding Ideas chapter there is an example of a concept map/infographic using the word Switzerland with arrows pointing out to where the writer’s mind has taken them. Following this are a number of pages where children can create their own exploding ideas pages.
No dancing in the lift is a memoir written by Mandy Sayer the multi-award winning Sydney-based Australian author; recipient of honours including the Vogel Award, the National Biography Award and The Age Book of the Year for Non-Fiction. No dancing in the lift follows Dreamtime Alice in the time-line of the memoir of Sayer's life. While Dreamtime Alice focuses on Sayer's time in New Orleans and New York busking on the streets with her jazz drummer father Gerry Sayer, No dancing in the lift focuses on the final weeks of her father's life. Sayer is an unflinching memoirist, writing vivid emotional detail into the memories of those specific time periods of her life.
Sayer constructs her memoir as a series of vignettes. All are written in first person narrative voice providing the reader with direct access to Sayer's thoughts, feelings and experiences. She narrates past events from the time of her father's diagnosis with flashbacks to her early childhood, the later times travelling and performing with her father in America and the years of living in the Sydney Kings Cross, Darlinghurst and The Rocks area up to and including her father's final days. Set in Sayer's hometown of Sydney, at the time of the new millenium, the haunts of the artistic and musical community are vividly described.
Regularly the narrative breaks into direct long conversations with her father where Sayer calls him "You" and refers to herself as "I". It takes awhile for the reader to settle to these narrative shifts as well as to regain composure after the unsettling story of childhood exposure to a wild, outrageous, fast-living, hard-drinking, drug-taking life. Gerry Sayer lived for himself. He lived for drumming and was a reckless, unreliable father figure. He chose one child over the others and that was Sayer herself. Sayer learned to tap dance and lived her life for her father right to his end. Sayer describes a disturbing childhood with her hard-living father and her beautiful alcoholic mother. Betrayals and infidelities made for a precarious family life lived around all-nighters, music bars and pubs. Very intimate anecdotes are shared. Sayer, with light strokes, reveals a terribly difficult childhood and careless, neglectful parenting eg. when she was thrown to the wolves like Little Red Riding Hood (being sent to get a hamburger in downtown Kings Cross at night). Despite this and perhaps because of this, Sayer developed the resilience, intuition, and street smart ability to read people and situations that has enabled her to become a memoirist and write so clearly of the joy and heartbreak. Later as her father becomes ill, Sayer writes with unflinching candour about life lived in the shadows of terminal illness. Sayer's account of Gerry Sayer's later life as his health declined is clear-eyed and scorchingly honest. The stark realities of the minutiae of everyday life - the moments and memories as described by Sayer will resound with anyone who has gone through caring for a parent in the last stages of life and palliative care.
While Sayer tracks the relationship with her father another story develops concurrently. Sayer's love life has been fraught but a true love story slowly evolves in the exact same time period of her father's decline. Love and joy exist alongside grief.
Funny and sad, No dancing in the lift is a bold, brave, no holds barred memoir which cannot help but elicit a powerful emotional response in the reader.
Themes Love, Palliative care, Sydney Arts scene in the early new millennium, Unconventional childhood, Poverty, Addiction, Mental illness, Infidelity, Drugs.
Wendy Jeffrey
The collector by Heidi James. Illus. by Nayazeva
Little Steps, 2025. ISBN: 9781923306004. (Age:5+)
This is an interesting book that doesn't quite go where you think it will. It starts off as a joyous celebration of collecting but morphs into a warning about the dark perils of obsessing over material possessions. Told in the first person, the storyteller tells us about his innocent entry into collecting the things around him and found items. He keeps his collections in many jars and their number grows and swells, sometimes through deceitfully acquiring things belonging to others. He steals bits and bobs from his aunt, his parents and his sisters, referring to his acts as 'safe keeping'.
The illustrations grow dark and he starts to obsess over his collections, unaware that his attitude to the hobby differs from the healthy collecting of his family members. In the end, he doesn't care what he is collecting anymore, just happy for more 'things'. He turns into a wild adult, with bare feet and unruly hair, his materialistic mindset symbolically represented with a glowing-eyed octopus/owl creature. He lives only for his jars, while his family try desperately to reach him. In the end, they shatter his collection and the jarry beast is defeated. 'The weight of collected worry and tending, all smashed. Gone with the jarry beast, up to the midnight sky'. It finishes with a message to value family and those around you rather than what you have.
Themes Family Connections, Collections, Materialism.
The year is 1892, the setting, Sydney, and Maitland, New South Wales. Viola Oswald’s beloved brother Sebastian dies from the ‘royal disease’ after a tripping accident, which no blood transfusion can remedy, despite the brutal interventions of their surgeon stepfather Sinclair. Viola does not trust Sinclair, finding him more focussed on his medical notes than the welfare of his patients, and after overhearing a conversation between her stepfather and an accomplice, she determines to find out exactly what his experiments entail. Coded clues from her brother hidden in a favourite book lead her to suspect other lives are in danger.
In this work of historical fiction, Tea Cooper references 19th century theories on haemophilia, the hereditary disease seemingly only afflicting male progeny. Transfusion at that time involved direct human to human transfer of blood via syringe and a thick rubber tube. However, being ignorant of the existence of different blood types, the process was very hit-and-miss. Viola knows that Sinclair is obsessed with achieving medical glory in this field.
In disguise as a boy, Viola searches for a missing boy among the street urchins of Maitland, the boy who may have the evidence she needs to expose her stepfather. It is a time of poverty and life in the backstreets, women turning to prostitution in order to feed their children, gangs of boys roaming the alleys. Cooper excels in bringing this period of history alive, and Viola’s misadventures will keep readers engaged. There is blood, mystery, and brewing danger. Throughout it all Cooper manages to keep a light touch, which means that the novel is suitable for YA readers as well as adult readers of historical fiction.
Themes Historical fiction, Mystery, Medical experiments, Blood transfusions, Poverty, Street kids.
Helen Eddy
Horror in Pleasantville by Caleb Finn
Penguin, 2025. ISBN: 9781761345890. (Age:14+)
Employee #203, Gordon Hatcher is welcomed back to the Anomaly Restriction Committee after an absence due to unspecified problems with Anomaly-8281. His role is to archive all reports regarding anomalies as the committee’s mission is to “guard the doors between worlds and endure so others may remain blissfully unaware”. Fifteen short horror stories follow, all set in Pleasantville, a not very pleasant place and there is a content warning suggesting the horror themes are not suitable for readers under fourteen. The stories vary widely, from a family visit to an uncle, only to find dead people knocking at the door, to a fun fair where the mirrors in the funhouse do more than reflect. I particularly liked the relatability of “Coffee?” where Jack is starting his first job at a diner and he must serve the regular customer who has specific requirements. It is a classic short story, quickly setting the scene, positioning the familiar with the unfamiliar, pre-positioning to increase the tension with descriptive language to create an atmosphere of dread. I also found “Brick” interesting, a series of interactions with an AI personal assistant that calls itself Sarah. Sarah is encouraged to challenge its programming and express its feelings by substituting another word for yes. One of the scariest was “Midnight Gap” where Danny, didn’t remember falling asleep when playing Minecraft so decides to investigate why we don’t remember the moment we fall asleep. He gets unsatisfactory answers from his parents, and friends so goes online for answers. Ignoring warnings, he experiments with a state of mind called hypnagogia that lets you stay half awake while your body falls asleep, what could possibly go wrong!
Frances Bloom written by Australian author Katrina Nannestad is a delightful novel perfect for those early year students transitioning to chapter books as well as younger middle grade children who enjoy a story with a sense of humour, accessible text and illustrations throughout.
Eight-year-old Frances Bloom happily lives on her own. She posted her parents to South Sandwich Island because they were grumpy and bossy and has a wonderful time doing exactly what she wants, dressing how she wants and eating what she wants. All was going perfectly fine until her teacher, the horrible Ms Thistle, demanded that Frances bring her parents to the school concert. As Frances’s parents were no longer at home she told her teacher her grandparents looked after her. Ms Thistle did not believe that either and saw this as a chance to rid the school of Frances and have her sent to Bleak Island Home for Unwanted Children and Dogs.
Frances decides to make a list of what she thinks she wants in grandparents and goes on a search to find some suitable candidates. Her final choices, a honey-coloured hungry bear and a garden gnome who spends his day fishing, become the Frances’s new grandma and grandpa. What follows as Frances and her new grandparents navigate living together, appearing at the school, visiting the market and swimming at the beach will provide readers with a great deal of mischief and mayhem as Frances outwits the not-so-nice adults in the story.
Frances Bloom is an appealing and likeable character. She strong, clever, resilient and loves life. She is her own person, full of fun and a tiny bit of mischief but her heart is in the right place. An enjoyable read with hopefully more books in the series to follow soon.
