Review: Vognox the Viking and the Island of Skeletons

Now here’s a different kind of junior fiction novel!

Vognox is a Viking, but he doesn’t like adventures and has no intention of going on one. 

Unfortunately for Vognox, his existence is controlled by the Awful Awfa, whose giant hand and pencil can draw him into the adventures he wants to avoid. 

When the Awful Awfa’s pencil gets taken by a dragon, he tells Vognox he won't be able to draw him at all if he doesn’t get it back, forcing Vognox on an adventure to retrieve it.

But the Awful Awfa is kind of awful. He doesn’t make it easy for Vognox along the way, putting holes in the long boat he draws for him and equipping him with some very interesting weapons and tools. 

Vognox the Viking and the Island of Skeletons is a fantastic metafiction junior novel that breaks the fourth wall in a very cool way. Vognox chats to the reader throughout the book and engages with the Awful Awfa who appears as the giant hand and pencil.

Packed with brilliant illustrations on every page and loads of giant ploops!, Yikes! and Phews!, the book is visually engaging from start to end, which is sure to lure in a junior reader looking for an easy book to read independently.

It’s also a brilliant book for reading aloud. With heaps of drama, dramatic tension and onomatopoeia, it keeps listeners glued to their seats.

If you’re looking for a new book for junior readers, I highly recommend you take a look at this one. It’s a little bit different, but delivered with new readers in mind. It's loads of fun and it's sparked several re-read requests in my house!

Title: Vognox the Viking and the Island of Skeletons

Author: Nick Falk

Illustrator: Tony Flowers

Publisher: Affirm Press, $9.99

Publication Date: 25 June 2019

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 9781925712889

For ages: 5 - 7

Type: Junior Fiction

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KBR's Top Young Adult Books of the Last 20 Years

KBR is celebrating 2020 with recommendations of our top titles from the last 20 years. There have been so many fabulous books published over this time, we could include many more than you see here. However, these are some of the KBR team's favourites (in no particular order). We hope you enjoy them, too.

You can also read our list of top picture book titles here.

Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz (read our reviews here)

Dragonkeeper series by Carole Wilkinson (read our review here)

Yellow by Megan Jacobson (read our review here)

Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley (read our review here)

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne (read our review here)

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (read our review here)

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

En Pointe by Chloe Bayliss (read our review here)

Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman

Lenny’s Book of Everything by Karen Foxlee (read our review here)

How it Feels to Float by Helena Fox (read our review here)

The Protected by Claire Zorn (read our review here)

Trash Andy Mulligan (read our review here)

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly (read our review here)

Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World by Malala Yousafzi with Patricia McCormick (read our review here)

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Review: Collage Workshops for Kids: Rip, Snip, Cut, and create with inspiration from The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art

KBR's Top Junior and Middle Fiction and Non-fiction of the Last 20 Years

KBR is celebrating 2020 with recommendations of our top titles from the last 20 years. There have been so many fabulous books published over this time, we could include many more than you see here. However, these are some of the KBR team's favourites (in no particular order). We hope you enjoy them, too. 

You can also read our list of top picture book titles here. 

So Feral! by JA Mawter

Once by Morris Gleitzman (read our review here)

Max Remy Super Spy series by Deborah Abela (read our review here)

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (read our review here)

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Young Dark Emu: A Truer History by Bruce Pascoe (read our review here)

Paper Planes by Allayne L Webster

Tintinnabula by Margo Lanagan (read our review here)

The Thing About Oliver by Deborah Kelly (read our review here)

The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon (read our review here)

The Stella Montgomery series by Judith Rossell (read our reviews here)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling

The Endsister by Penni Russon (read our review here) 

The Art of Racing in the Rain Gareth Stein

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Review: Grandpa's Noises

Review: Evie and Pog: Take Off & Puppy Playtime

Evie and Pog. Two very best friends. A girl and a dog.

Evie and Pog Take Off! introduces this zany series about six-year-old Evie and her two-year-old pug named Pog. They live together in a tree house – a silver ash that stands alongside Granny Gladys’ huge old house. How to enter is left to the individual. The exit is via a slide. An open plan design with labelled areas, invites us into their life together.

Evie is unique. Lovable, active, interesting and peculiar, she is a child that loves to play and explore. Although she trips constantly (there are always positive outcomes though) and uses her cymbals to get people’s attention, this reflects her outgoing nature. She never takes anything seriously. With her funny doggie habits, Evie leads the line of this varied cast of characters.

Pog is also unique; and refined. He loves drinking tea, reading the newspaper and eating vegetables. He cooks for himself and Evie.

Granny Gladys loves knitting, baking, books, and cake, as does Evie. But, where her granddaughter loves daisy-spot grass, Granny hates it. And, she is obsessed with cleaning, her dust buster, and Evie’s scissors.

Others appearing in this book are Noah and Mr Pooch who own the Puppy School, and Miss Footlights, Evie’s teacher.

This series can be read in any order. There are three stories in each. All promise surprise, fun, incredible and bizarre happenings.

A series of unfortunate and clumsy events see Pog blamed and sent to Puppy School. But he is not one to sit, beg and speak. But Evie is. The results are unexpected and celebrated.

Pog is in the school play. He hoped to be an owl but ends up a fairy. Evie is the Butterfly Queen. Granny has knitted all the stunning costumes. Unexpected rain soaks everything. Mayhem and chaos is supported by sneezes, mix-ups, Noah as a rock, tangles of wool, loose ends and scissors’ snipping. The play is a success.

To raise money for the Puppy School, plans for a cupcake stall go ahead. But a mix-up in the cupcakes and Granny’s obsession with her dust buster cause pandemonium. Then Evie’s purse with the money goes missing. Who is the culprit?


In Evie and Pog Puppy Playtime, the tree house is freezing inside. Renovations are needed. Plans are drawn up. Noah is called upon to help. Jobs are allocated. Granny and Evie start knitting. (They are very fast knitters!)

Noah needs socks to wear but he wants to knit them. They end up as holes and loopy strings. Granny pulls out the scissors to tidy up his mess. It all turns into a game, with cymbals clashing, giggles, and floor rolls and they become tangled in a mesh of wool. Pog must snip to free them. Mishap and mayhem rules again!

A knit-a-thon begins. Can the group knit the necessary coverings and rugs to keep out the cold?

The word of the day for Evie’s class is ‘contraption’. Granny is invited to talk about her bike and the parts that make it a contraption.

It is hard convincing the children. Trips and flips interfere with the presentation. Miss Footlights suggests a recess.

Pog is making the tea. Granny’s cake wrapped in a towel is being put out. In an instant, a swooping magpie snatches it and heads to the top of a tree. The children draw on their word of the day, to create a contraption to recover the cake. Will their word work? What role can Granny’s balls of wool and scissors possibly have in this recovery?

Evie and Pog are playing with streamers in the park. Granny has a picnic basket and her knitting equipment. (She is never without it.)

Noah arrives with his two sausage dogs. Add them to a spinning roundabout, a knitted hammock, a hole in the sandpit, and finger knitting and imagine what you get! Granny’s dust buster and scissors are ever present. So is her boundless imagination. Things always fall into place after a good snip!

The hilarity and craziness of this fantastic series will appeal to a wide range of readers. Evie’s attitude to problem-solving inspires and encourages alternate thinking with her optimistic and never-give-up energy. These books represent the freedom, joy, and imagination found in play, and celebrates the difference in every child’s character.

The layout and design is eye-catching. Tania McCartney’s delightful and expressive illustrations add zing to the imaginative text, which is used creatively. Bold words appear in sentences, while others form patterns to emphasise the actions of the characters.

The audio book (below) is out April, and the third book in the series, Evie and Pog Party Perfect, will be available in May.



Title: Evie and Pog Take Off! Evie and Pog Puppy Playtime
Author/Illustrator: Tania McCartney
Publisher: Harper Collins (Angus & Robertson), $12.99
Publication Date: 20 January 2020
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781460757932 (Take Off!) 9781460757949 (Puppy Playtime)
For ages: 5 - 8
Type: Junior Fiction Younger








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12 Curly Questions with author Rosalyn Albert

1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you.
When I was 18 I travelled from Cardiff to Newquay for the big solar eclipse of 1999, on the back of an old moped which was decorated all over in flowers. It didn’t go above 40 miles per hour, so what would normally be a four-hour trip by car took 2.5 days. I was also wearing silver hot pants and fairy wings, so we got quite a few strange looks going along the dual carriageway.

2. What is your nickname? 
In high-school it was Big Bird because I was so tall. Luckily, I’ve lost that one! My best friend has called me Sweetpea for over 20 years. Her children even call me Aunty Sweetpea, and she introduces me to everyone as Sweetpea, to the point where a lot of her friends don’t know my actual name! To everyone else, I’m just Ros.

3. What is your greatest fear? 
 Being in a plane crash, which is ironic given that one of the Let’s Go! books is about having fun on an aeroplane! I’m quite a nervous flyer, which is very inconvenient because I fly a lot between the UK and Australia.

4. Describe your writing style in 10 words.
Sing-song rhythm and rhyme – true to my Welsh roots

5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer.
Happy, excited, tongue-in-cheek (does that count as one word?), amusing, fun.

6. What book character would you be, and why?
Sophie from The Tiger Who Came To Tea, because I love any excuse to visit a cafe, and it would be pretty cool to have a tiger come to your house.

7. If you could time travel, what year would you go to and why?
I’d go to Berlin on the night the wall fell in 1989. It would have been an incredible moment in history to witness. I lived in former East Berlin for five years in my 20s and met lots of people who’d lived through the GDR. I’ve always been fascinated by Berlin’s stories.

8. What would your 10-year-old self say to you now?
I can’t believe you don’t have a dog.

9. Who is your greatest influence?
From a writing perspective I love books by Rachael Bright. They are clever and light-hearted, but always have a great message. Her rhyme and rhythm is always spot-on too. From a life perspective, my mum has always been a huge influence (much to my husband’s despair).

10. What/who made you start writing? 
I loved to write as a child, but it’s really been since having my children that I’ve written as an adult. Discovering so many amazing picture books, and rediscovering ones I loved from my own childhood sparked something in me. It’s something I do for myself and I find it very relaxing and fulfilling.

11. What is your favourite word and why?
Onomatopoeia. Such a funny word, and it reminds me of messing around with my friends in high-school English lessons with an exasperated teacher standing at the blackboard.

12. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be? 
The Artificial Silk Girl by Irmgard Keun (translated from German) is a book I was introduced to at university, and has remained my favourite book ever since. It’s the only adult book I have read more than twice. I must have read it at least six times!

Rosalyn Albert is a British children’s author based in Sydney with her husband, Pete, and two young daughters, Sophie and Mila. She longs to have a dog but is talked out of it on a regular basis. When not writing, or doing mum chores, she can be found with her family enjoying Sydney’s beaches. Read our review of Rosalyn's first Let's Go! book here. For more information, see www.rosalynalbert.com.

 

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Review: Roo Knows Blue

Roo Knows Blue is a rhythmic, rhyming and lyrical story about a little kangaroo’s introduction to colours.

A sweet kangaroo known as Little Roo knows all about the colour blue, as seen in ‘The sky, the lake some flowers too’, but Little Roo has more to learn. The story flows gracefully and prompts readers to sing along as it follows Little Roo’s journey to learning different colours with help from a possum friend and the surrounding  environment.

I love that Little Roo doesn’t always guess the colour right but continues on a learning adventure with no sign of disheartenment; it makes the story as much about learning as colours by showing readers that failure is just the beginning of success.

Renée Treml’s illustrations create an adorable Australian setting and work magically with the text. As always, her animal characters beam with delight and positivity.

Renée Treml is an Australian author and illustrator, some of her other books include Sleep Tight, Platypup, The Great Garden Mystery and Sherlock Bones and the Natural History Mystery.

Title: Roo Knows Blue
Author/Illustrator: Renée Treml
Publisher: Penguin Books Australia, $19.99
Publication Date: 7 January 2020
Format: Hardback
ISBN:  9780143790327
For ages: 1+
Type: Picture Book




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Review: How Trains Work

Created in consultation with Anthony Coulls, Senior Curator of Rail Transport and Technology, National Railway Museum, UK, How Trains Work is exactly what the title says.

Amazing historical facts, interesting statistics and intricate illustrations will keep readers’ eyes searching each area of every page. 

Every time children (and adults) pick up this book they will discover something they missed the time before.

We get a total presentation on the who, what and how of rail transport beginning 400 years ago. Then, early carriages or wagons were horse-drawn and also pulled by people when narrow spaces were encountered in the mines, to bring coal to the surface. All this is depicted in detailed images.

Steam power, monorails, mass-transit trains, and suspension monorails from around the world are featured, along with streamlined trains created for speed which have reached 603kph.

Scenes of movement and progression fill the pages that fold out for an inside and out panoramic view of stations and their daily activity. Food courts, departure times, taxi ranks, bus pick-ups and all that you can imagine can be found in a train station.

Lift-the-flap sections allow a close look into the workings of cylinders, tracks, wheels, machinery, sleeping compartments and even toilets.

This is a book for train lovers and those interested in the history and evolution of trains around the world. It’s a volume of visual delight for children as they experience train travel and the whole package that comes with it. Vibrant coloured illustrations breathe life into the scenes as people and trains move from one page to the other.

It is large enough to spread on the floor, a table, or balance on two knees. This fantastic experience shows all moving parts, junctions, bridges and tunnels, freight trains, and Crazy Trains from around the world. I loved this book and I’ve shared it with a three year old twenty times. Examining it has become a daily ritual.

Title: How Trains Work
Author: Clive Gifford
Illustrator: James Gulliver Hancock
Publisher: Lonely Planet Kids , $24.99
Publication Date: October, 2019
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781788683272
For ages: 6 - 8
Type: Non Fiction

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KBR's Top Picture Books of the Last 20 Years

KBR is celebrating 2020 with recommendations of our top titles from the last 20 years. There have been so many fabulous books published over this time, we could include many more than you see here. However, these are some of the KBR team's favourites (in no particular order). We hope you enjoy them, too.

Horrible Harriet by Leigh Hobbs

Bear and Chook by Emma Quay and Lisa Shanahan

Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley (read our review here)

The Arrival by Shaun Tan (read our review here)

I’m a Dirty Dinosaur by Janeen Brian and Ann James (read our review here)

The Rain Train By Elena De Roo and Brian Lovelock (read our review here)

Rudie Nudie by Emma Quay

The Memory Tree by Britta Teckentrup

Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love (read our review here)

Woolvs in the Sitee by Margaret Wild and Anne Spudvilas

Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury (read our review here)

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

Home and Away by John Marsden and Matt Ottley

Stuck by Oliver Jeffers (read our review here)

Mirror by Jeannie Baker (read our review here)

Grandmother Fish, A Child’s First Book of Evolution by Jonathan Tweet and Karen Lewis

Belonging by Jeannie Baker

Sometimes I Like to Curl Up in a Ball by Vicki Churchill and Charles Fuge (read our review here)

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems

At the End of Holyrood Lane by Dimity Powell and Nicky Johnston (read our review here)

Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett (read our review here)

Fox by Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks (read our review here)

Peggy by Anna Walker (read our review here)

The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires

That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown by Cressida Cowell and Neal Layton

The Day The Crayons Quit by Oliver Jeffers (read our review here)

The Duck and The Darklings by Glenda Miller and Stephen Michael King (read our review here)

The Lion and the Bird by Marianne Dubuc (read our review here)

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen (read our review here)

Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts (read our review here)

The Book of Trees by Piotr Socha and Wojciech Grajkowski

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Review: Lottie Luna And The Bloom Garden

Review: The Competition

The Competition is an enjoyable junior fiction novel about dancing, friendship and chasing dreams. The story focuses on a girl who is competing with the DanceStarz Squad at her very first national dance competition.

The author is American teenager, dancer and actor, Maddie Ziegler, who has been in the public eye since she was 8 years old, when she appeared in the television program Dance Moms, and has since appeared in music videos, movies and many other programs.

The narrative is told in first person by the protagonist, Harper, whose seems around twelve or thirteen years old. The themes of the book revolve around dancing and friendship, two significant interests for many tweens and teens.

Harper, who has recently moved from one part of the USA to another, returns to her old neighbourhood when her team qualifies for the national dance competition in New York City. Amidst all the excitement of seeing the amazing venue, meeting dancers from across the country, and performing to their very best, Harper also has to navigate some tricky friendship issues.

Harper's new friends, in her DanceStarz Squad, are confused and upset when Harper runs over and hugs one of their main competitors. But Harper is only happy to see her old best friend, Eliza, and spends a day travelling back to her old studio, only to discover that things have moved on since she left there.

Harper realises that she has not always been as good a friend as she could have been, and resolves the conflicts with both her old and new friends, on the backdrop of both teams and individual dancers all achieving different successes.

Other books in this series include The Audition and The Callback.

Title: The Competition
Author: Maddie Ziegler (with Julia De Villers)
Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books, $16.99
Publication Date: 21 October 2019
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781460753798
For ages: 8 - 12
Type: Junior Fiction




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Review: The Reptile Club

Rory wants to join a club at school, but none of the clubs he can choose from are really for him. 

He tries a few, but they just don’t fit his interests.

So Rory decides to create a new club.

The reptile club.

He makes signs and bakes cookies to tempt in new members, but none of his classmates seem interested, until… a snake, a crocodile and a gecko turn up, eager to join Rory’s reptile club. 

And once Rory’s classmates see who’s in his club, everyone wants to join.

The Reptile Club is a fun and joyful story about finding your place in the world. It’s filled with real facts about reptiles, masterfully woven into the narrative, and it explores life at school, friendships and fitting in.

This is a picture book that leaves you feeling deeply satisfied when you get to the end. There is no obvious lesson; there is no real agenda to the story. It’s just a lovely and entertaining tale about a young boy who gets to know the reptiles he loves when he starts a school club.

I am in complete awe of Elina Ellis’ illustrations. Detailed and engaging, they bring the characters to life and are filled with hidden treats and things for kids to spot. Honestly, I could stare at her illustrations for hours.

For the lovers of all things scaly, or for anyone looking for a fun and engaging picture book read, I highly recommend The Reptile Club. 

Title: The Reptile Club

Author: Maureen Fergus

Illustrator: Elina Ellis

Publisher: Affirm Press, $19.99

Publication Date: 31 December 2019

Format: Hard Cover

ISBN: 9781925972382

For ages: 3 - 6 

Type: Picture Book

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Review: The Grace Year

Review: The Problem with Problems

Problems are everywhere, and they come in all shapes and sizes. Each one is different, but they all love to make trouble.

In this delightful rhyming picture book by Rachel Rooney, a young protagonist likens problems to creatures and goes on to explain their tricky, sneaky behaviour.

They like to set traps. They’ll stand in your way.

They turn the sky cloudy and paint the grass grey. 

But our young protagonist also has some great advice for readers.

She explains how to deal with those pesky problems and maybe look at them from a different perspective. She has great ideas for how to get rid of them and not let them ruin your day.

This is a fun AND helpful picture book. The rhyme adds joyful pizzazz to a subject that impacts on everyone’s lives. 

It sends a great message to kids that problems do exist, but there are simple ways to deal with them and there is humour to be found in every situation. Zehra Hick’s illustrations are bright and funky, and they add to the fun and whimsy of the story. 

This is a great book for kids. It’s a fun story that can be read simply for the funnies, but it can also be used to chat to kids about dealing with things that are troubling them. 

Loads of fun and very engaging, this is a great book for your home or classroom library.

Title: The Problem with Problems
Author: Rachel Rooney
Illustrator: Zehra Hicks
Publisher: Affirm Press, $17.99
Publication Date: 31 December 2019
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781925972269
For ages: 3 - 6
Type: Picture Book

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Meet The Illustrator: Mel Armstrong

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.
Whimsical, textured, a bit quirky and a little too detailed.

What items are an essential part of your creative space?
Coffee, bubbly water, podcasts & music, indoor plants, the cat in my in-tray and the birds outside my studio, all of which, make my space inviting, inspiring and creative.

Do you have a favourite artistic medium? 

I’m predominately a digital artist and at the moment I’m loving my iPad along with the Procreate App. I also love Gouache and try to mix some in with my digital artwork whenever I can. 

Name three artists whose work inspires you.

I love Benji Davis’s use of textures and colour. Katherine Quinn’s unique charming work always makes me smile. I love the simplistic and engaging characters of the incredible Oliver Jeffers.

Which artistic period would you most like to visit and why?

Hmmm, great question! I think it would have to be the Expressionism Art Movement (1905 - 1925). I see art as a way of expressing our joy, our turmoil, our struggles and aspirations and this period really indicated to us now looking back how dark those times were. The distorted and exaggeration of the art added to the turmoil they were expressing. 

 
Who or what inspired you to become an illustrator?
Around 15 years ago, someone who was helping me through a tough time suggested I get into illustration, but I laughed and said, ‘are you kidding, I can’t draw!’. But to be honest, I’ve always loved drawing. As a kid, my school books were always covered in doodles. But I think my kids have inspired me the most. When my son was born and I stopped working as a software engineer I discovered surface pattern design when trying to find fabric. With a background in graphic design, I realised I could design the fabric myself. A career in surface pattern design grew and then developed into a Children’s book illustrator through my love of drawing characters.

Can you share a photo of your creative work space or part of the area where you work most often? Talk us through it.

I relocated from Australia to Wellington, New Zealand (where I grew up) a couple of years ago and so my studio is still very much a work in progress. I‘m very fortunate to live in a house that has an incredible view of Wellington harbour. There is also an abundance of New Zealand birds outside my window, thanks to Zealandia - a fully-fenced urban eco-sanctuary that has reintroduced many species that were previously absent from New Zealand. So there is an abundance of inspiration.

What is your favourite part of the illustration process?

I love watching a character grow from scribbles to detailed sketches to final artwork. When I first start a book I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the amount of work ahead of me, but once I start, it all comes together so nicely.

What advice would you give to an aspiring illustrator?

Draw every day, don’t compare yourself to others, and know that not everyone will love your art, but there will always be some that do. 

Mel is a full-time illustrator based in Wellington, New Zealand. She is well known for her stunning surface pattern designs. With a great love for books, and inspired by children, Mel has ventured into the children’s book world. She has published a number of baby board books and in August 2019 she published her first picture book ‘A Home for Luna’ with author Stef Gemmill (New Frontier Publishing). Her second picture book by author Robert Vescio, also with New Frontier Publishing, will be published in 2020.

For more information, please visit Mel's website or follow her on instagram, twitter and facebook .

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Review: Ghost Bird

It took me a while to review this book — to unpack the genius and unfurl the powerful tendrils of fiction, nonfiction, truth and history.

To say this is a powerful story actually feels like an understatement.

Maybe powerful is not the right word. 

Consuming. 

That's a better word to describe Ghost Bird.

It’s a book that completely fills your mind and attention.

Ghost bird is the tale of Stacey Thomson: a twin, a girl from an outback town, an aboriginal girl who wants nothing more than to leave her world behind and escape to pursue her dreams.

But when her twin sister Laney goes missing, and she starts to dream of Laney in a bad, dark place, Stacey must find the strength to face the stories of her people, challenge her family’s ways and find her sister before it’s too late.

Make no mistake, Stacey loves and respects her family more than anything. She obeys the rules and she accepts the directions of her elders. But if she’s going to save Laney, she’s going to have to go where her family has warned her never to go. She’ll have to cross lines that should never be crossed.

Ghost Bird is a story of deep love — the kind of love that exists even when you almost hate the other person. It’s about family, tradition, history and a sisterly bond that can never be broken.

This is also a book about history and about being Aboriginal in a small outback town. It’s about a family that's lived on their lands for generations and what happened to them when the white men came.

I believe this makes Ghost Bird a book every Australian teenager should read. Have you ever thought what it means to live in a town divided? Even now, even today when things have apparently changed, what does living in a town with so much history mean, and how would it affect you?

Ghost Bird is a brilliant and gripping read. Filled with mystery and suspense, it's masterful storytelling. If you love YA that’s real and raw, mysterious and deep, Ghost Bird is for you.

I also suspect this is a novel lots of people are going to be talking about for a long time, so I’d get in early so you can be part of the conversation.

Title: Ghost Bird
Author: Lisa Fuller
Publisher: UQP, $19.95
Publication Date: 1 November 2019
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978 0 7022 6023 0
For ages: 13+
Type: Young Adult Fiction

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Review: Running With The Horses

Review: Myths and Legends of the World

Bold reader: open your mystical map and get ready.

Welcome to the world of myths and legends.

Myths and Legends of the World is a wonderful and powerful book filled with stories of old from across the world. 

Africa, Europe, Asia, Oceania, the Americas and the Arctic — there are myth stories included from them all. 

Like the story of the creation of the world from Africa, the legend of Maui and the tale of the rainbow serpent from Oceania, the story of Ganesh from Asia and the story of Niekija and the northern lights from the Arctic.

A lot of research has gone into this book to gather these stories and retell them. Of course, there are multiple variations of all these legends from different regions, but Alli Brydon has done a fantastic job in retelling the core elements of each.

Each legend is also accompanied by brilliant illustrations by Julia Iredale. Stunning colours engage the eye, and Iredale’s print-like style is awe-inspiring. 

This is a beautiful book for curious minds. It’s a lovely introduction to legend stories from across the globe and is sure to get the kids googling to find out more. 

A beautiful addition to your non-fiction library.

Title: Myths and Legends of the World
Author: Alli Brydon
Illustrator: Julia Iredale
Publisher: Lonely Planet Kids, $29.99
Publication Date: 8 November 2019
Format: Hard Cover
ISBN: 9781788683074
For ages: 9 -12
Type: Non Fiction

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12 Curly Questions with author Petra James

1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you.
I broke my right arm twice when I was a kid. Once, playing netball and, twice, nearly winning a sack race. I’d never nearly won a sack race before so excitement made me extra wobbly.

2. What is your nickname?
PJ.

3. What is your greatest fear?
Letting fear slow me down. But then I remember Elizabeth Gilbert says fear is the most boring thing about us because it says only one thing: STOP!

4. Describe your writing style in 10 words.
I hope it is funny, fresh and engaging, with heart.

5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer.
Thoughtful, wordy, quirky, musical, dramatic.

6. What book character would you be, and why?
The Cat from The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss. As well as admiring the chaos Cat causes on that rainy day, I was also impressed by his ability to juggle a cup and a cake on top of his hat, a fish in a bowl on the tip of an umbrella, two books, some milk in a dish … And I’d love to have friends called Thing One and Thing Two.

7. If you could time travel, what year would you go to and why?
1922, when Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun, the boy pharaoh, in the Valley of the Kings.

8. What would your 10-year-old self say to you now?
You haven’t changed much.

9. Who is your greatest influence?
Kath, my sister. For her incredible passion and joy.

10. What/who made you start writing?
Watching Maddy, my niece, when she was four, exploring the backyard in the dark with a torch. Twenty Tangled Elephants – my first (and last) story in rhyme emerged.

11. What is your favourite word and why?
Nephology – the study of clouds. I love watching clouds, and I stumbled across this word in the dictionary serendipitously (another favourite word).

12. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Bleak House by Charles Dickens. It’s page-turning, full of fog and intrigue, and loud with character and plot.

Petra James is the author of several middle-grade novels, such as the Arkie Sparkle series and Hapless Hero Henrie. Originally from a small town in New Zealand, she spent three years in the United Kingdom before moving to Australia, where she has worked in publishing ever since. Unlike the Ungrateful Girls in her latest book, The Most Ungrateful Girl in the World, she is very polite and well mannered. See www.penguin.com.au for more information.

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Winner: Kate DiCamillo Signed Prize Pack

Review: Wolf Girl 1: Into the Wild; Wolf Girl 2: The Great Escape

An attack on Gwen’s town forces the family to pack what they can and set out in their car to escape the disaster. All the people of her town find themselves in the same situation. When a bomb falls, every one runs. Gwen finds herself separated from her family and alone in the forest of an unknown area. She is saved from drowning in a raging river by four dogs, who also are alone and homeless now. One of them is a wolf pup.

Although she finds her way back to the town, no one is there. Initially, whatever food she finds in the abandoned cars lined up on the main road, is used to keep herself and the dogs from starving. The family car becomes their shelter until she realises she must begin her search if she is to find her family.

She begins the greatest adventure of her life.

Knowing nothing about self- preservation, Gwen must draw on all her resources to stay alive. And there are the dogs that saved her. They depend on her for their survival.

Their food supply doesn’t last long. She is forced to hunt for food. She learns how to use the sling she found in their car as a tool and a weapon. They eat lizards and snakes that the dogs catch and which soon become their staple diet.

Gwen is now the pack leader. When she saves an eaglet abandoned in an eyrie. It too, becomes part of the gang and an additional protector.

In Wolf Girl2 - The Great Escape, Gwen, her pack and Eagle, have grown and changed. It has been four years since the disaster. Gwen is strong, courageous and resourceful; having survived every challenge and obstacle that life has put in her path. Together with the dogs, they are a powerful force.

The first human they see after all this time, is not the help Gwen believes him to be. She is kidnapped and driven to a hidden place. Her thoughts all the way, are with the dogs and Eagle. How will they find her? They can’t outrun the truck travelling at high speed. She tears out strands of her hair for the dogs to trace her scent. Eagle follows up high. The dogs are determined to find their leader. 

At this stage in the story, we see what the dogs are thinking. Their thoughts are presented in bold text.

Reaching their destination, Gwen sees countless children labouring at breaking stones. Refusing to tell her captors anything, and after trying to escape, she is imprisoned and deprived of food. At this point, the story takes on a specific shape and meaning. Its direction becomes clearer, where till now, it was a series of events leading up to something shadowy.

The dogs by now have picked up her scent. The strangest and most thrilling events take place. With the help of Tiny, the smallest dog, Gwen manages to escape, taking with her the boy Rupert, put in an adjoining cell for giving her bread.

The guards, although on full alert, are no match for the dogs and Eagle.

Gwen discovers that adults are being held in another compound. To return and free the other children is her main priority as she flees. Also, she must track down the whereabouts of the adults that have been driven away in trucks.

Title: Wolf Girl: Book 1- Into the Wild, Wolf Girl: Book 2 - The Great Escape
Author: Anh Do
Illustrator: Jeremy Ley
Publisher: Allen & Unwin, $ 14.99
Publication Date: July & December 2019
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781760525095, 9781760876357
For ages: 8 - 14
Type: Middle Grade Fiction



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Review: Our Planet: The One Place We All Call Home

Our Planet: The One Place We All Call Home is a gorgeous book about our world.

It's the official book to accompany a documentary series, and starts with a foreword by Sir David Attenborough, who describes it as containing 'tales of travel, detective stories, domestic dramas and much else.'

Our Planet is a large, foolscap format hardcover book, which allows it to do as much justice as possible to the artwork, which is a combination of photographs and illustrations.

The photographs, in particular, are stunning, from the beautiful polar bear striding out on the ice, to the green turtle swimming above a coral reef.

Our Planet is divided into seven habitats: frozen worlds, jungles, coastal seas, deserts and grasslands, high seas, fresh eater, and forests.

Following a world map over a double-page spread, each of the habitats and some of their important creatures and features are explained.

The jungle habitat includes information about zombie ants. Yes, they are a real thing. Zombie ants are found in the Amazon and after being drawn to a plant and biting it, die and become consumed by the plant before it attracts another ant.

The forest habitat describes some of the special trees that live in them, such as the redwoods in North America and the baobab tres that hold many litres of water. There's also the special tropical forest in Madagascar, home to animals found nowhere else in the world.

Each habitat also has a special page explaining how they are under threat, and ways we can help protect them.

At the back of Our Planet, you'll find further information about the urgency of looking after our planet, behind the scenes photos from the filming of the documentary series, and a glossary and index.

Our Planet is a book that can mesmerise you with the wonder of our natural world and deserves a place in homes everywhere.

As Sir David Attenborough concluded in his foreword: '[Y]ou will be among the next characters who can, if they wish, tell the most extraordinary story of all -- how human beings in the twenty-first century came to their senses and started to protect Planet Earth and all the other wonderful forms of life with which we share it.'

Title: Our Planet: The One Place We All Call Home
Author: Matt Whyman
Illustrator: Richard Jones
Publisher: Harper Collins, $ 29.99
Publication Date: December 2019
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780008180317
For ages: 6+
Type: Junior non-fiction




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Review: Are You Watching?

Review: Windcatcher (Migration of the Short-tailed Shearwater)

Every April, thousands of short-tailed shearwaters, lift off from their colony on Griffiths Island, Victoria, to begin a 30 000 kilometre migration from Australia to the Arctic Circle. A month later, the young chicks also leave the colony and begin the same migration, facing many dangers to reach the Arctic Circle in June or July. By August, birds leave the northern feeding grounds and head for home, arriving back to the colony in September, where eggs are laid and the cycle continues.

In Windcatcher (Migration of the Short-tailed Shearwater), by author, Diane Jackson Hill, and illustrator, Craig Smith, we follow the journey of Hope, a shearwater chick given the banding label 888. While the narrative aspect of the story is fictional, the description of the events occurring during the annual migration of these birds is based on factual colonies and experiences. An outline of facts about short-tailed shearwaters is also presented in the final pages of the book, including information on their appearance, breeding, migration pattern, dangers and their protected status. Comprehensive Teachers' Notes are also available from the publisher.

The story begins with Hope's mother, returning from the north to locate her burrow in the colony. There she lays an egg, from which Hope later emerges. As Hope grows, she becomes stronger until one day she catches the wind and begins her migration, along with all the other fledglings. Through the story, we see some of the challenges faced by these birds every year, including hunger, storms and the harmful consumption of micro-plastics (masquerading as food) in the sea.

When Hope and the other fledglings are accidentally ensnared in fishermen's nets, while resting in a calm bay north of the Equator, their desperate attempts to free themselves are assisted by the fishermen, who identify the banded shearwaters and report their location to authorities.

By providing a perspective through Hope's eyes, the author and illustrator have created a story with emotion and tension where we care about Hope and the other fledgling chicks, as the wind lifts them and their instincts draw them onward.

From a tiny island in the Southern Ocean, a light house beams, and Hope flies home.

Title: Windcatcher (Migration of the Short-tailed Shearwater)
Author: Diane Jackson Hill
Illustrator: Craig Smith
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing, $24.99
Publication Date: 17 October 2019
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781486309870
For ages: 5 - 12
Type: Picture book




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Review: The Besties Show and Smell

The Besties are back!

Following The Besties to the Rescue, The Besties Show and Smell is a hilarious junior fiction novel about show and tell, outsmarting cranky teachers and armpit farts.

In this adventure, Ruby and Oliver are at school, and it’s Ruby’s turn for show and tell. 

She’s keen to sing a song and she’s looking forward to what classmate Zac will do, but when the relief teacher cancels show and tell, Ruby has to take things into her own hands (even if Oliver isn’t exactly happy about it).

Will Ruby get to perform her show and tell song? Or will the cranky relief teacher ruin the day?

This is a fantastic junior series for young readers starting to read independently. 

With simple language, large text, short chapters and loads of black and white illustrations on every page, it really is a fantastic book for readers starting out. 

The books in the series are independent of each other, so you don’t need to have read the first one to follow this one. It’s fun and oh so funny — very relatable for kids. 

At the back of every book is a treasure trove of extras. This time round you’ll find how-to advice on making fart noises with your armpits (so funny!), another hilarious comic by Oliver, songs by Ruby and more jokes.

It can be quite a challenge to find books for emerging readers that are made with their reading skills in mind and are also entertaining, but this is a series that really ticks all the boxes. 

Highly recommended for junior readers. 

And don’t forget to look out for the next two instalments in the series coming soon: The Besties Make a Splash and The Besties Party On.

Title: The Besties Show and Smell

Author: Felice Arena

Illustrator: Tom Jellett

Publisher: Penguin, $9.99

Publication Date: 7 January 2020

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 9781760890988

For ages: 6 - 10

Type: Junior Fiction

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Guest Post: 5 Great Books for 10 Year Olds

Review: Thank You, Omu!

Review: The Year We Fell From Space

Review: Seek And Find Cities: A Globetrotting Adventure

Review: Waiting for Wolf

Waiting for Wolf is a visually stunning, heart touching story of friendship, loss and acceptance.

Two friends, Fox and Wolf spend a glorious day together filled with play, swimming, talking and laughter. That night in an open but metaphoric conversation, Wolf tells Fox he’ll be gone soon and asks her to remember this day forever, Fox agrees but doesn’t fully understand Wolf’s words; until the next night after a day of searching for her missing friend.

Through emotion, words and pictures that flow and entwine together beautifully merging metaphor and reality, Fox’s painful grief is felt. As the deep, dark and starry night sky ends, Fox recalls Wolf’s wise words, she stands tall again; a sense of revolution, a bright day and beautiful ending prevails.

This story touched my heart and took me to times I’d felt grief. The illustrations of wildlife and natural environment are striking, with gorgeous colours and textures.

A beautiful story for all, to be interpreted as deeply as the reader chooses, with a comforting perspective on death and grief, which could help children and even adults who are dealing with it.

Sandra Dieckmann’s other books include Leaf and The Dog that ate the World.

Title: Waiting for Wolf
Author/Illustrator: Sandra Dieckmann
Publisher: Hachette, $15.99
Publication Date: 14 January 2019
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781444946598
For ages: 3+
Type: Picture Book




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Review: Roly Poly

12 Curly Questions with author/illustrator Sally Rippin

1. What's your hidden talent?
Hiding grated zucchini in muffins.

2. Who is your favourite literary villain and why?
Templeton the rat in Charlotte’s Web, because he’s so cantankerous it’s funny and he ends up reluctantly saving the day.

3. You're hosting a literary dinner party, which five authors would you invite? (alive or dead)
Judy Blume, SE Hinton, Roald Dahl, Maurice Sendak and EB White – because these authors all had a profound impact on me as a reader and a writer growing up, and I would like to have the chance to thank them.

4. Which literary invention do you wish was real?
The Magic Faraway Tree.

5. What are five words that describe your writing process?
Exultant, despairing, hopeful, exhausting, grateful.

6. Which are the five words you would like to be remembered by as a writer?
Empathetic, curious, dedicated, passionate, kind.

7. Picture your favourite writing space. What are five objects you would find there?
Teapot, notebook, window looking out over trees, fireplace, dog.

8. Grab the nearest book, open it to page 22 and look for the second word in the first sentence. Now, write a line that starts with that word. (Please include the name of the book!)
Are there dogs out there who are good at typing? (Three Women by Lisa Taddeo, page 23 as page 22 is blank.)

9. If you could ask one author one question, what would the question be and who would you ask? 
 Maurice Sendak: writing or drawing?

10. Which would you rather do: 'Never write another story or never read another book'?
Never read another book. If I stopped writing, I would become very unpleasant to be around!

Sally Rippin was born in Darwin and grew up in South-East Asia. As a young adult she studied traditional Chinese painting for three years in Shanghai and Hangzhou, which inspired her first novel Chenxi and the Foreigner. Sally is the author of many books for children, including the popular Billie B Brown and Hey Jack! series, and the highly acclaimed children's novel Angel Creek. Currently, she lives in Melbourne with her partner and three sons, and writes and illustrates full time. For more information, see www.sallyrippin.com.

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