Stuff happens series. Puffin, 2014. ISBN 9780143308225.
(Ages: 8+) Recommended. Boys' stories, School and home, Humour.
Stories about boys, aimed at boys and containing real life stories
of their school and home life are rare. Even rarer are those that
have readily identifiable characters and situations, and engage,
amuse and inform. But here they are. Four stories in this brand new
series, Stuff happens, are aimed straight at these boys,
those who want a scenario they are familiar with, with kids their
own age in scraps and situations which are familiar, with outcomes
that really happen. Jack and his friends decide to play a tag game
during break on the oval. But this ends with a tackle which the
school has forbidden and Jack breaks his arm. His friend Fadi was
the first one to jump on him, and gets the blame. To avoid any
consequences, Jack and the others lie to the teacher about what they
were doing, and Fadi receives all the blame. But conscience is a
wonderful thing and eventually it gets the better of Jack.
This is a wonderfully realistic story of a group of friends playing
at school, and the consequences of lying.
Fran Knight
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Ill. by Robert Ingpen. Walker Books, 2014. ISBN 9781922244048.
(Ages: 8 to adult) Recommended. Classic. Responsibility, Family.
Pinocchio began its life as a serial published weekly in the
Giornale per i Bambini in 1881. The episodes were published together
as The Adventures of Pinocchio in 1883. This explains the
suspenseful ending and episodic nature of the chapters. It is this
story that is reprinted using the 1926 translation by Carol Chiesa.
The story is well known but perhaps many will be more familiar with
the Disney version, in which the character of Pinocchio is softened
and more sympathetic. Collodi's protagonist is far less likable.
From the very beginning, even as a lump of wood Pinocchio is
selfish, demanding and disobedient.
Collodi takes a moral stance stressing the importance of study, hard
work and respect for parents. Many try to give advice to Pinocchio;
Geppetto, the cricket and the azure haired fairy but Pinocchio is
persuaded to take the easy way with no responsibility and no hard
work.
Eventually through many mishaps and life threatening experiences
Pinocchio makes decisions that are unselfish and returns the love
and loyalty that has been shown him.
This lavishly illustrated hard cover edition will make a valuable
addition to any child's library. A school in which classic stories
are read and shared will also find it hard to keep this on the
library shelves. Robert Ingpen's illustrations are detailed and
richly coloured adding to the drama and excitement of this
children's classic.
Mark Knight
Masquerade by Kylie Fornasier
Penguin, 2014. ISBN 9780143571070.
This is a sad tale of a young woman who is left alone on the death
of her mother and who takes herself to Venice, in 1750, bearing a
letter for the man whom she believes is her uncle. The setting is
right at the beginning of Carnevale, a celebration of the riches of
Venice, with the rich attending balls and parties and the theatre
under cover of the gorgeous masks that are not only decorative, but
function also to conceal identities, allowing behavior that would
not be condoned in the normal world of the text.
Things appear to be fine for Orelia, a beautiful young woman, as she
is welcomed into the family of her cousins, without being sure of
the real connections to this influential family. Her strong-willed
cousins seem to have a great deal of freedom offered by the
mask-wearing that goes with the seven-month long celebration of
Carnevale, both courting and being courted by eligible young men and
some not so eligible. Much of the plot revolves around love
interests and the desires of the young men and women to win the
hearts of the one whom they feel is right for them. The intricate
web of deception and intrigue unravels as the story progresses and
we read of the mistakes of the servants and of the ruling families,
leading to near disasters.
The ending is unexpected - and it is as if none of the events or
plotting had occurred, as Carnevale begins to come to an end, and
all of the things that had been done under the masks come to
nothing. I felt both disappointed and unsatisfied, and really sad,
at the sudden ending. I was captivated and felt that I really wanted
to know what would happen to the young characters.
It is an interesting novel, in its complexity and its detail of the
gorgeous fabrics, decorations, clothing and residences, but the
underside, the poverty, malice, hurtful behavior and sense that
nothing would change for anyone but the rich, was deeply unsettling
to me. Yet I am sure that it is historically accurate and that I
would only be dreaming if I thought things would be good and happy
in the end.
Recommended as a good read - but with reservations for some editing
errors that were evident.
Elizabeth Bondar
Quincy Jordan by Jen Storer
Crystal Bay Girls bk 1. Puffin, 2014. ISBN 9780143307594.
(Age: 10+) Quincy Jordan is an ideal heroine for tweens in middle
school but YA readers will also get a kick out of her dramas.
Plucked out of her private girl's school in Sydney by her deserted
mother looking for a sea-change after her separation, 14 yr old
Quincy comes of age in Crystal Bay. The first half of the book deals
with her old life and friendships in Sydney, her father's infidelity
and her mother's subsequent depression.
Upon arrival in Crystal Bay, which is reminiscent of Byron Bay,
Quincy, is still reeling from family breakup. Both mother and
daughter rediscover themselves with the help of Quincy's estranged
aunt and cousins. Crystal Bay high is a co-ed school and adolescent
boys both shock and amuse our narrator and her readers:
'I am transfixed. I am studying them like a BBC nature expert: Only
in an Australian school ground do we find this rare and only
partially evolved species. Fera-simia. Feral ape.'
Quincy finds hitherto unrealised satisfaction in designing the
costumes for the school musical regardless of her long-held
assertion that she should follow her father's footsteps into medical
school and despite fainting at the sight of blood. Her outgoing
cousin Esme; and Harris, her first love interest who conveniently
returns her affections, generate new challenges and help Quincy
begin to define herself.
Jen Storer's endpapers, complete with a Quincy style guide and
glossary, sets the tone for an engaging young teenage series.
Readers were never told the back story between Quincy and her
nemesis, Satin and have yet to discover the outcome of the
unresolved rift with her father. But even if these questions are
never answered, the ripe lives of all the Crystal Bay Girls, have
barely been touched upon and are sure to provide many more thrills
and spills.
Deb Robins
Vanilla icecream by Bob Graham
Walker Books, 2014. ISBN 9781406350098.
(Age: 3-adult) Highly recommended. Picture book. Freedom. Sanctuary.
Journeys. India. Australia. Amnesty International. The simple act of
a sparrow pecking at crumbs on the table at a cafe, causes the dog
to leap, and an icecream to fall from a grandparent's hand onto the
child in her pusher. Edie has her first taste of icecream.
The sparrow has come from India, a place where food is not to be
wasted, and being a young bold bird, follows the food on a truck to
a ship, and within the cargo hold, the bird hitches a ride to
Australia.
The freedom of the sparrow in doing this contrasts vividly with
others around the world who do not get that choice, whose journeys
are curtailed.
The sparrow finds a new life in Australia, and can now be found at
the Botanic Cafe ready to peck at any crumbs that fall,
inadvertently setting in motion a series of events which culminates
in a simple new experience for Edie.
The bird's flight from India to Australia is beautifully presented,
the illustrations carefully planned to showcase each country and
contrast the lives led. In India, the sparrow is a truck-stop bird,
one that stays around the roadside samosa stall, waiting for any
opportunity. In Australia it eats the crumbs from the cafe tables.
Graham's perfect watercolour illustrations show the reader the
differences and similarities of both countries, children playing,
people serving food, the cafe and the samosa stall. India is
presented in detail, the man cooking the samosa in his stall, his
wife in the room next door making them, a chair and table outside
for customers, with palm trees standing silently behind, the iron
roof of the stall held down with bamboo, the scooter drawn vehicle
parked nearby, the paintings on the front of the trucks; each detail
reminds us of India. And in Australia, the black swans in the park,
the Botanic Cafe, grandparents looking after their grandchildren,
the Moreton bay fig tree, the eucalypts, show the readers aspects of
Australia.
Endorsed by Amnesty International, because 'we should all enjoy
life, freedom and safety', parents, readers and teachers all will be
encouraged to view the wider picture presented in this story.
Discussions around freedom, the right to choose, the right to be
safe can be evoked using this story, and many classrooms will use it
as the basis for cultural understandings as promoted in the
Australian Curriculum.
Fran Knight
Blueback by Tim Winton
Viking, 2014. ISBN 9780670078004.
(Age: Yr 4+) 'Abel Jackson had lived by the sea here at Longboat Bay
ever since he could remember. His whole life was the sea and the
bush. Every day was special, his mother always told him this, but it
all became much more precious the day he first shook hands with old
Blueback.' But little did ten year-old Abel know that first meeting
with this huge, already old groper on his regular morning dive for
the abalone in the bay, would shape his entire life. Driven by a
desire to know what the groper knows and what it has seen, his
connections to the ocean become stronger as he gets older, if that
were possible, and the reader follows his life through to his
becoming a world-renowned marine biologist but ultimately being
inexorably drawn back to his roots.
The re-release of this classic by Tim Winton has many reviews and
resources online, and it is testament to the quality of the story
that it has endured since first being published in 1997 and is now
included in a collection
of stories 'too precious to leave behind'. While some teacher librarians are
finding that the retro covers of this collection 'are unappealing to
teens', this is a story worth introducing to a new generation of
readers regardless of its packaging. It has a depth to it that
enables it to be enjoyed at many levels and layers, from the
superficial read of the younger student to an in-depth study by more
mature readers able to investigate why the author has described it
as a 'contemporary fable'. There are formal teaching notes at the
publisher's website.
Winton's knowledge of and affinity with the ocean is well known and
his descriptions of diving and the beauty that lies beneath the
surface brought back so many memories of a long period of my life
spent under the ocean as a scuba diver. I was inspired to go below
by an ancient television series called Sea Hunt; I believe Blueback
has the power to inspire a new generation.
Barbara Braxton
Araminta Spook: Ghostsitters by Angie Sage
Bloomsbury, 2014. ISBN 9781408838648
(Age: 9+) Highly recommended. Araminta Spook- Ghostsitters
sees our main character, Araminta, about to celebrate her birthday
but her auntie has won a trip of a lifetime to Transylvania leaving
Araminta to celebrate alone. When she realises she can throw herself
a party and invite her ghost friends, she is happy again until her
Aunt suggests a babysitter! Not fun. Thankfully, it is cousin
Mathilda and her ghost friends. Maybe Araminta's birthday will be
fun after all. Araminta Spook - Ghostsitters is a fun story with a spooky
theme. With an Uncle Drac, living in a spook house with ghosts and a
family who likes bats, it is sure to appeal to all readers but
highly recommended for girls aged 9+. The text is easy to read and
full of fun comments. It is descriptive and moves quickly as the
young girls enjoy their time without adult supervision and a couple
of naughty ghosts.
Kylie Kempster
Beetle Bottoms and the eyes in the night by Madison Holroyd, Sarah Hill and Fiona Whyte
Visible Love Publishing. ISBN 9780987595928.
The mother-and-daughter team of three continue their mission to
encourage imaginative play combined with storytelling for young
children with this new Beetle Bottoms adventure. The Beetle
Bottoms are tiny wee creatures living in your very own background.
In this new adventure, Pip and Petal discover that Beetle Bottoms
are not all pink-skinned like their own tribe, discovering
brown-skinned HoneyKeeper Beetle Bottoms children, after a bee hive
relocates to their tree. Together with their new friends, they join
up with their Apple Keeper Beetle Bottoms friends and while they all
are a little surprised to discover differences between themselves;
they instantly all like each other. Some delicious feasting on honey
and apple juice and some fun playtime together exhausts the whole
group and they fall asleep curled up in one cuddly pile.
When the assorted Beetle Bottom parents wake up and discover empty
beds, there is consternation all around. The elders from the tribes
are all deeply suspicious of each other when they collide in their
search for their respective children but put aside long years of
differences to find the missing little people together. With great
relief at discovering the missing adventurers, the tribes come
together in a celebratory feast.
A gorgeous exploration of the truth that children judge each other
on their connection with each other and not appearances, as well as
a timely reminder to parents on the subject of 'inherited'
prejudices.
View the book
trailer.
Sign up on the Beetle
Bottom website for their newsletter and receive a free play
book for your own child.
Sue Warren
Calypso summer by Jared Thomas
Magabala Books, 2014. ISBN 9781922142122.
(Age: Upper Secondary students) Well recommended.
A strong storyline with feisty young indigenous characters buoys
this novel along. It's told with candid humour in modern, young
adolescents' language; often funny and insightful, with clever use
of local language. Calypso is a dreadlocked urban Nukunu who finds
work in a health food store. The owner is looking for a way to sell
natural remedies. This leads Calypso on a journey to the Southern
Flinders Ranges, thanks to his mother, to source local plants. On
the way he becomes fascinated with his heritage, especially his
family and their stories. He meets Clare, a Ngadjuri girl who loves
and is as knowledgeable about cricket as he is. Their pathway weaves
from family stories to a cousin and friend caught up in smoking and
selling ganja, to a run in with the police and a strengthening of
their relationship. The story 'explores the universal theme of the
multiple cultural influences bearing down on young people and the
need to draw from the best traditional and modern knowledge to
address social issues. It also reflects on the way Aboriginal people
aligned with people of the Caribbean through their cricketing
prowess and reggae music.' Media Release.
Sue Nosworthy
Emu by Claire Saxby
Ill. by Graham Byrner. Walker Books, 2014. ISBN 9781922179708.
(Age: 5-adult) Highly recommended. Picture book. Australian
animals. Emu. Nurturing. With an emu peering out at the reader on
the front cover, the desire to open the book is nothing short of
compelling. From page one with the beautiful digitally produced
images of the emus strutting across each page, the words and
illustrations meld to make a fine, thought provoking and informative
book.
Facts about the emu and their habits are given in short paragraphs,
in easy to understand text which will intrigue younger readers and
adults alike. The emu sits on his eggs, the female having done the
work of laying them and it is up to him to protect and care for them
when they hatch. The two texts usually sit on either side of each
double page spread, one describing the emu watching out for
predators, a goanna, a dingo, an eagle, while the other gives the
plain facts. The different font gives a clue as to which is story
and which information, although both texts are highly informative.
Readers will learn of the various animals, grasses and trees which
form the habitat of the emu. They will learn of the habits of the
animals in rearing their young, and the length of gestation, youth
and eventual separation of the young from the adult. In classrooms
and at home, this book will be a powerful nonfiction text to have
for younger readers to assimilate facts about an animal that has a
special place in Australia's culture.
The emu's habitat and the animals with which it shares its space are
presented, and the book has a brief but most useful index, with a
page of extra information about the emu, as well as information
about the author and illustrator who collaborated in 2013, to
produce Big red kangaroo, presented in the same formidable
way.
Fran Knight
Caro was here by Elizabeth Farrelly
Walker Books, 2014. ISBN 9781922244833.
(Age: 11+) Recommended. Journey. Islands. Truanting. Friendships.
When Caro wants an adventure she truants from school taking her much
younger brother along as well, but all sorts of other people join
her escapade, some she does not like or want. Twelve year old Caro
has just lost the Winter Captain election at school, it is the day
before the Easter break, her birthday, and she needs to do
something. But the winner of the election, Ellen, an American girl
newly arrived at school, and so full of herself that Caro cringes,
tags along despite being told by Caro that she is not wanted. But
Ellen smooches the rest of the group overturning Caro's decree.
Caro decides to go to Cockatoo Island in the harbour, but they miss
that ferry and get on the one for Goat Island instead. Followed by a
group of rowdy boys, they miss the return boat and are stuck on the
island over night.
The island has a grisly history as a jail. The stage is set.
An easy to read adventure story for upper primary readers, this
reveals animosity between groups of children who then have to work
together to survive a cold and dangerous night. Caro and her friends
are readily identifiable and will engage the reader instantly. The
intrigue of an escaped prisoner, the men on the island with their
drug lab and the boat with a hidden stash of cash, adds tension to
this well written story of a group needing each other more than they
think, and along the way reveals some of their fears and half hidden
truths about their lives, endearing them even more to the reader.
Fran Knight
Iris and Isaac by Catherine Rayner
Little Tiger Press, 2010 ISBN 9781848950924.
(Age: 4-6) Recommended. Picture book. Friendship. Another charming
story from Rayner, with her distinctive water colours across the
pages, is offered in this lovely story of two friends who fall out.
When Iris makes a snow bed it is too small for both of them. They
both wriggled and shoved to make more room, but it became too flat
for them both, so they walked off in different directions in a polar
bear huff. Each then saw things that they normally would have shared
with the other, and so each became more despondent until suddenly
they saw each other, the best thing of all to see.
The bears are outlined in black and their white coats given in a
variety of different soft colours to stand out against the mainly
white background. Swathes of colour give a beautiful impression of
the northern lights and a deep ice cave, while the land over which
they walk changes from the cold and unfriendly white to a more
inviting blue as they draw closer together. In a classroom, a
teacher or adult will be able to use this book in teaching about
friendship and getting things back on an even keel after a falling
out.
Fran Knight
Hokey pokey by Ed Allen
Scholastic, 2014. ISBN 9781742836454.
'Aussie edition' Hokey pokey brings a collection of Aussie
animals together to sing the traditional song 'The hokey pokey'. Get
your child up and dancing with the actions and singing along with
the lyrics. Have them investigate the different images, full of
bright colours and Australian animals doing their own actions. There
is so much going on in this book that your child won't know where to
start and an accompanying CD sung by child entertainer, Colin
Buchanan, is an added bonus. Highly recommended for all young
readers. It would also be great in the classroom where teachers
could use it as a 'brain break' as younger children learn the names
of body parts and learn to follow actions.
Kylie Kempster
Hero 41: Eye of the Gargoyle by Sam Penant
Orchard Books, 2014. ISBN 9781408328286.
(Age: 10-14) Recommended. When Dax Daley cut his tongue on an
envelope and sent it off, he didn't realise how much his life would
soon change. By licking the envelope he had submitted his DNA to the
government and thus exposed himself to possessing the very rare
Lomas Gene.
The combination of Dax having the Lomas Gene and also having parents
who are quite happy to see the back of him for a while (along with a
little financial compensation) means that Dax soon finds himself on
the way to his new school, Scragmoor Prime. Scragmoor Prime is not
the average suburban school for the average suburban kid.
Only 40 kids from around the country have been found to possess the
Lomas Gene. That is until Dax turns up late one night. His
unexpected arrival falls during the welcome dinner where 40 students
are already feasting and excitedly wondering why they have been
invited to this exclusive school. Thus we now have the 41st student
and possible hero 41.
The adventure that ensues sees Dax make friends and enemies with his
new peers. We meet the eccentric teachers and staff of Scragmoor
Prime. Learn about the colourful past of the school buildings which
happened to be a very nasty prison. Dax and his friends battle a
Gargoyle hell bent on turning Dax into stone and have a lot of fun
discovering the powers that the Lomas Gene can bring out in a
person. Hero 41: Eye of the Gargoyle is the first in the Dax Daley
Series. It is a fun ride for younger readers from 10 - 14 with a few
descriptions of past events that would prevent me reading it to
readers any younger. The next book in the series, Hero 41 - The
People in the Wall is already eagerly anticipated by a group
of year 5 students that I have read Eye of the Gargoyle to.
Steve Whitehead
Ava Anne Appleton: Catching a wave by Wendy Harmer
Ill. by Andrea Edmonds. Scholastic Australia: 2014. ISBN
9781743622353.
(Ages: 7-9) Recommended. Wendy Harmer continues the alphabetically
aware Ava Anne Appleton series about the family who has
packed up and left the security of their suburban home to travel
around Australia in a mobile home.
The Mobile home has a problem with the kitchen water pump so the
family are forced to pull into the caravan park at Crescent Cove
until the pump is repaired. Crescent Cove is most inviting with its
beach, surf and well resourced caravan park.
Ava is reluctant to learn to surf even though local Cody is willing
to teach her. Having a ride on the back of his surfboard however
opens up a whole new world below the waves. When she comes face to
face a baby seal with a plastic bag wrapped around its back flipper,
Ava joins forces with Cody to rid Crescent Cove of plastic bags and
clean up the beach. Saving the seal and discovering a love of body
boarding add to the story.
Supported by the engaging drawings of Andrea Edmonds, the
descriptive text in larger font is suitable for readers embarking on
chapter books and looking for a bit of realistic adventure. That
Wendy Harmer has introduced the reader to one of the environmental
issues facing marine wildlife can only be a positive.
Sue Keane
