Video: Human Kind series

What does honesty mean? What about persistence? Author Zanni Louise has written two books that explore these questions. They are the first in a series about values, called Human Kind. In this video, she talks about launching the books and how they can help start conversations with children about these topics.


Title:  Honesty / Persistence (Human Kind series)
Author: Zanni Louise
Illustrator: Missy Turner
Publisher: Five Mile, $19.99
Publication Date: April 2020
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781925970791 / 9781925970807
For ages: 3+
Type: Junior non-fiction




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Guest Post: Hannah Davison on Reading for Resilience

Review: Girls Don't Lay Bricks

Girls Don’t Lay Bricks is an inspiring personal story that displays a variety of winning mindsets. In particular, how nurturing a strong belief in one’s self, combined with the ability to think outside the square, can open up endless possibilities in life.

Casey Mackinlay was thirteen when the need for pocket money initiated her first business venture, a hair-cutting service at school. Later, she converted a school project into a money-making Year Ten Formal – within school guidelines, of course!

Casey has lived with a strong belief that when she set her mind to something, she could find a way to see it through. Recognising she was not academically minded like her siblings, her parents agreed to a TAFE course. There she took on a trade – bricklaying, and finished her High School year.

The building site she joined was all male. No favours were shown to her. Casey won the admiration of her workmates because of her grit and determination. With this skill, she travelled to Uganda to build classrooms for the children. This experience also opened up her world.

Still a teenager, she became pregnant and was forced to change her career in order to keep her baby. This created an income stream with a work ethic to be envied by every successful entrepreneur.

This is an uplifting autobiography, proving that regardless of age, opportunity can be found by those who dare to carve a path for themselves in life. It’s a book full of strength and hope, imagination and putting dreams into practice.

The tone of the book is very reflective and the layout designed to accommodate boxes of good advice on having direction and purpose in life. It is geared toward young people who fail to see all that’s available to them in a Universe that caters for everyone.

The narrative encourages, motivates and advises how to avoid pitfalls by making careful and substantiated decisions. At the end of each chapter, there is a frame of Reflectionspertaining to Life, Personal and Relationship issues. These are put forward from lessons learnt from Casey’s experiences, failures and successes, in a light, conversational way.

Title: Girls Don’t Lay Bricks

Author:Casey Mackinlay

Publisher: Quikmark Media, $19.395

Publication Date: January 2020

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 9780648541585

For ages: 13+

Type: Autobiography





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Giveaway: Sally Murphy's Worse Things

From the award-winning author of Pearl Verses the World and Toppling comes a story about connections, the ways they are made and what happens when they are lost or illusive. 

When you’re part of the team the sideline is a place of refuge of rest of reprieve. But when you’re out of the team the sideline changes. Suddenly it’s the loneliest place of them all. After a devastating football injury, Blake struggles to cope with life on the sideline. Jolene, a gifted but conflicted hockey player, wants nothing more than for her dad to come home. And soccer-loving refugee, Amed, wants to belong. On the surface, it seems they have nothing in common. Except sport. 

This touching new inspirational junior fiction story about the things that bind us all by Sally Murphy and illustrated by Sarah Davis, is up for grabs thanks to the kind people of Walker Books Australia. Here's how to enter!

In Worse Things, team sport is used as a key way the main characters find connection. In 25 words or less, what is your favourite sporting memory?

Email your answer along with your name and postal address to dimity. The response we like best will win a copy of each of Sue's new releases. Competition is open to anyone, worldwide, so long as they have an Australian postal address for delivery of the books. Please note, we cannot deliver to PO Boxes. Entries without a name and street address will be ineligible. Winners will be announced right here on our website on 8 June 2020.

Competition runs from 5.00 am 30 May 2020 to 5 pm 6 June 2020. Adults can enter for those aged 17 and under. This is a game of skill, not chance. The judge’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

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Junior Review: Slime

Review: The Bat Book

Charlotte Milner returns with another fantastic book. This time it is on the life of bats, the only mammal that can fly. It follows The Bee Book, an outstanding informational overview on the life of bees and their contribution to our lives.  

The Bat Book answers all the questions that children and many adults, would like to know about the bat.

Within its 22 entries, it shows us why bats are important to humans and details the large role they play in protecting the environment.

There are over 1300 species of bat found around the world. Of these there are the biggest, smallest, unusual, fastest, and singing bats. Bats are nocturnal and live in a colony, hibernating during cold months in cold climates as food is difficult to find. They only give birth to one baby a year and that’s why bat populations are declining.

There are two main groups: megabats and microbats. The first live in tropical and subtropical areas such as Africa, Asia and Australia. The microbats eat mostly insects. Some eat fruit, nectar and other small animals. Then there are those with the funniest faces!

How do they find food in the dark? Why do they hang upside down?

In the African savannah, is a 2000 year old baobab tree that flowers for one night only; once a year. Bats pollinate this tree.

Many people see bats as dangerous, destructive and disease carrying.  This book dispels a lot of these myths and misunderstandings. It informs us about how bats spread seeds, play an important ecological role and help in reafforestation.

There are tips on creating a bat-friendly garden with bat-friendly plants, how to avoid using chemicals, and other environment protective tips. Children can make a seed ball to throw in a green place to attract insects that bats eat.

The layout and design is identical to her previous publication with coloured images and text filling the whole page. It also has a Bat Index.

This amazing book will change any negative opinions about bats. It has so much information that I can’t think of a question it doesn’t cover.

Title: The Bat Book

Author/Illustrator: Charlotte Milner

Publisher: DK, $24.99

Publication Date: February 2020

Format: Hardcover

ISBN: 9780241410691

For ages: 6+

Type: Non Fiction

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Review: The Tell

Meet The Illustrator: Zafouko Yamamoto

Name:

Zafouko Yamamoto (real name Zafeiroula Simopoulou)

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.

That’s a tough one...I really have no idea, maybe a combination of these: Sweet, strange, melancholic, nostalgic can’t find the other six, sorry...

What items are an essential part of your creative space?

Colour pencils and paper of course!

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?

An old watercolour palette of mine

Name three artists whose work inspires you.

Ohhh there are so many! I don’t know where to begin...Gary Bunt, Akira Kusaka, Taryn Knight but there are so many others!

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

I find the Pre-Raphaelites period very mysterious and delicate.

Who or what inspired you to become an illustrator?

It came up very natural, I think that when I was a kid I was inspired by children’s books and the drawings inside them, specifically by an old version of Cinderella that I had read, illustrated by Errol Le Cain.

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

My working space, which is in my room, is usually a mess, papers, ideas, sketches and art materials everywhere! Even in the kitchen. I live in an apartment with no view and I often ‘envy’ those artists who live in cottages with a yard. However I try to keep it cosy and special because this working space is all I have actually!

What is your favourite part of the illustration process?

The research and the colouring part!

What advice would you give to an aspiring illustrator?

Believe in yourself, stay close to your truth.

Zafeiroula Simopoulou -also known as Zafouko Yamamoto in the world of illustration- is a Greek illustrator living and working in Thessaloniki, Greece.

She uses different kind of media such as watercolours, gouache, colour pencils and pastels along with layers in Photoshop.

She has collaborated with Alba Publishing House, Tota Books, Ellinoekdotiki Publishing House and more.
For more information, please visit Zafouko's website or follow her on facebook or instagram.

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Look What I'm Reading! Sandy Fussell

Sandy Fussell loves words, numbers and the internet. She lives on the NSW south coast with her family, a Scottish deerhound and four cats, one of which likes to eat manuscript pages. She has been awarded four CBCA notables, withPolar Boy shortlisted for a Younger Readers CBCA Book of the Year, 2009, the Sakura Medal in Japan, an International IBBY Award, and her picture book Sad the Dog, was praised in the New York Times.

Her books are published in Australia, the UK, the US and Asia. Sandy is often found in a school library wielding her Samurai Kids books or teaching a Minecraft-based writing workshop.

Which children’s book are you currently reading?

I have just finished reading Claire Saxby’s Haywire.

Can you tell us in two sentences what the book is about?

The book is historical fiction told from the perspective of two young boys – about 12 years old.  Tom is the son of a baker in Hay, NSW. His older brothers have left for war and he has to forgo the opportunity of an academic scholarship to help his father in the bakery.

Max is a Polish refugee who escaped to England ahead of Hitler’s invasion. His parents sent him to live with his Uncle. They have been incorrectly transported to Australia for incarceration as German ‘aliens’. Max and Tom become friends when Tom delivers bread to the camp. Max escapes hoping to go home, and Rom helps him only to realise he has put Max in danger, alone in the Australian bush. I don’t want to spoil the ending but it is a positive, hopeful one.

How much did you enjoy/are enjoying this title?

From the first few pages this book hit me hard. The story begins with Tom’s two older brothers announcing at the dinner table they have joined up to fight in the war. Not in the home militia. They’re going overseas. There is a silence and Tom’s youngest sister, not even old enough for school, says, but people get killed in war. It took me back to one of my vivid childhood memories. Although I was a good student, my childhood was pre-internet and my parents were not readers. Until high school I never had access to a library. There I was seduced by science fiction and fantasy and ancient history. I had little knowledge of the world wars or Australia’s participation.

It was Year 8 History and the teacher was explaining conscription. I was stunned. Older people voted to send people who were too young to vote, to war to die. My innocence crashed. I had believed the world was fair, governments were just and Australia was a good place.

The story was something that immediately interested me. Max and Tom were genuine and believable. There’s lots of Australiana, lots of action and wonderful descriptive writing. Like this sentence which describes Hay as a flat-out town in a flat-out country at the intersection of two roads on the way to other places.

There was a bonus at the end when the ‘aliens’ were released and the camp was to be the home for Japanese prisoners of war. My first book in many years, Red Day, is based on a backdrop of the Cowra Prisoner of War Camp breakout. The final straw that tripped the breakout was the Camp decided to send the enlisted Japanese men to Hay and the Japanese officers considered it unacceptable and dishonourable to be separated from their men.

What made you choose this title? Was it a review, advertising, the cover, the blurb, the author/illustrator, or the subject/genre?

When I first started writing, I had an immediate connection with three other authors who were being published with Walker Book around the same time – Sally Murphy, Sue Whiting and Claire Saxby. In March/April we all had new books and a Messenger conversation brought us together. We decided what we could do to support each other with the restraints COVID-19 brought to book promotion. I had read Worse Things, Sally’s terrific verse novel with the wonderful unignorable cover.  Sue’s The Book of Chance and Claire’s Haywire were in my reading pile. I picked up Claire’s first because it just happened to be sitting on top. The Book of Chance is next.

What other titles are on your bedside table /To Read Pile?

These are the first ten – The Book of Chanceby Sue Whiting, The Threads of Magicby Alison Croggin and The Power of Positive Pranking by Nat Amoore.

How did you come by these titles: personal choice/request, publisher’s review copy, or other?

I am so lucky to have at least one wonderful children’s book delivered to my door every day. I’m the children’s book reviewer for the Sunday Telegraph Funday section which has a published readership of 836,000. Publishers are keen to have their books reviewed there even though the reviews are very short and I do my best to share the love around.

Do you have a favourite genre? If so, what is it, and why do you prefer it?

I read all genres, but my favourite is fantasy. I came to fantasy because the books were so thick and I’m a fast reader. With adult books, I either want something complicated to slow me down or something wildly imaginative that lasts a long time. I love that anything can happen in fantasy. Australia has so many wonderful adult, kids and YA fantasy authors. I’d like to recommend Alison Croggin, Margo Lanagan, Trudi Canavan, Karen Brooks, Garth Nix, Duncan Lay, Kate Forsyth, Jessica Townsend, Jay Kristoff and Amy Kaufmann (together and individually), Cate Whittle and Meg McKinlay. Many of these are so talented they write other genres too.

Do you read from printed books or some other medium? Please expand a little on the why of your choice.

I’m old-school. I like the weight of a book in my hand. I like the smell of the pages. And I like seeing the spines on my bookshelf. I’ve since discovered that for kids and YA readers that’s the norm too. I tried reading on my iPad but I work at a screen all day and reading wasn’t relaxing in front of yet another screen. I’m not a good sleeper. Screens keep you awake at night but a book helps you drift into dreams.

Website: www.sandyfussell.com

Twitter: @sandyfussell

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Review: The Giant and the Sea

Oh, wow! A HUGE Wow. A powerful and breathtaking wow.

From the cover, you know The Giant and the Sea is going to grab at your heartstrings.

You can see the emotion radiating from the giant as she leans down to speak to the girl — a worried look on both their faces.

But I'm not sure I was prepared for just how powerful this picture book is...

There was once a giant who stood on the shore. She watched the water, because that is what she had promised to do.

But one day, the giant speaks to the girl who often visits the shore. She tells her the sea is rising and action must be taken. The girl tries to tell her people. Some believe her, but some are so in love with their machines, that they will not heed the giant’s warnings.

Sound familiar?

This is an amazing, deep and powerful book. I was glad and also shocked that my six year old understood what this book was trying to say with little prompts. She understood what the machines represented and she predicted what would happen based on the actions of the community in the story.

What I love about this book is that is does teach us something, but it does so in an engaging way — both through text and illustrations. The story is poetic and lyrical. It puts the little girl centre stage to be relatable for kids and it gives her power and influence to encourage children to stand up for what they believe in. It’s also written in a way that forces the reader to pause at all the right spots to encourage reflection of what is happening.

But… you’ll find humour, too. Sprinkled through the book is a spark of hope that I believe the story is trying to ignite.

The illustrations are moody and full of emotion. Blacks and greys correctly represent the sadness and danger woven through the story, but golds and yellows also swim through the pages, representing hope and the power to make a difference. The girl wears a gold shirt — the brightest gold throughout the book. Fitting, right?

This is an important book for right now. It helps children (and adults) to see the truth of the world around us. 

Trent Jamieson is a true talent in storytelling. Known for his speculative fiction short story novels, The Giant and the Sea is his first picture book. And boy do I hope he loved the experience of writing it because I desperately want him to deliver more.

Rovina Cai works across a range of genres and has created works for book covers, posters, novels and picture books. This book will have you jumping on her website within seconds to explore her art further, I guarantee.

Lovers of picture books that make you think and reflect will adore The Giant and the Sea. It sits on the shelf with books like Our Little Inventor, Pea Pod Lullaby and Girl on Wire.

Title: The Giant and the Sea
Author: Trent Jamieson
Illustrator: Rovina Cai
Publisher: Hachette, $24.99
Publication Date: 26 May 2020
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780734418876
For ages: 4+
Type: Picture Book, Illustrated Fiction

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Review: Respect

I knew I would love this book from the cover that images love and togetherness.

A red breasted bird hovers over the head of two girls embracing. It could be a mother or other older person and a child. The same bird is patterned on the dress of the taller one. 

Indigenous motifs are scattered over an ochre background which flow onto the back cover.

The book is about respect - for elders, family and ancestors, country, the land and sea,

culture and traditions, each other and ourselves. Also for stories passed on about everything that is above and below.

The striking red earth, the swirling velvet blue sea and sparkling night sky, create images of the past and future. Shimmering grasses and songs that are carried on a bird’s wing are portrayed in powerful images.

The stunning artwork by the gifted Lisa Kennedy, illustrator of Welcome to Country and Wilam, encapsulates all that is intended and necessary to complement the minimal and perfect text.

I loved this beautiful book that speaks of a word that is lost to many of us, but which is being reborn, through the lessons we are learning or relearning, from our first Australians. It’s an ideal teaching tool to be used to open windows and doors for children, towards an understanding of the Indigenous culture.

Title: Respect

Author: Aunty May Muir & Sue Lawson

Illustrator: Lisa Kennedy

Publisher: Magabala, $24.99

Publication Date: May 2020

Format: Hardcover

ISBN: 9781925936315

For ages: 3 - 6

Type: Children’s Picture Book

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12 Curly Questions with author Brenda Gurr

1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you.
I used to work casually as an actor and my agent once sent me to audition for the part of Diana in a stage production of Anne of Green Gables. I was thrilled! I spent three days teaching myself to speak with a Canadian accent. I got through a few rounds of auditions, to the point where I was asked to confirm that I would be happy to dye my hair black. But after all that, I was pipped at the post!

2. What is your nickname?
Close family call me Brenz.

3. What is your greatest fear?
Being eaten by a crocodile.

4. Describe your writing style in 10 words.
I aim to be thoughtful, relevant, exciting, fun, childish, adventurous, witty, courageous, heartfelt and wondrous.

5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer.
Imaginative, finicky, persistent, contemplative and passionate.

6. What book character would you be, and why?
I think the answer to this changes from minute to minute! In this moment, I would choose Christine from The Phantom of the Opera. I would love to skulk about beneath the Palais Garnier, have a fabulous singing talent and simply experience all the drama and passion of the story.

7. If you could time travel, what year would you go to and why?
I would head to 1515 to see the second marriage of my direct ancestor, Princess Mary Tudor, the sister of King Henry VIII. She married Charles Brandon, a man she loved, without the king’s consent. He was furious and Brandon was lucky to escape execution. I would love to meet Mary – she must have been a strong and interesting woman!

8. What would your 10-year-old self say to you now?
You’re an author? How cool! Took you long enough, though!

9. Who is your greatest influence?
I’m not sure I have one greatest influence as a writer. I do remember reading a biography of the Bronte sisters and being stunned at how they could write so beautifully despite such difficult and restricted circumstances. I think about this whenever I struggle to get words on a page and it inspires me to keep going.

10. What/who made you start writing?
As a shy child and one who couldn’t easily speak off the cuff (I still can’t!), I needed to write to marshal my thoughts and express all the imaginings whirling around in my head.

11. What is your favourite word and why?
Magic. It has such a mysterious sound. And we should always look out for and expect moments of magic in our lives.

12. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?  
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Soulful, dark and elegantly written. I feel like I never stop learning something new about writing no matter how many times I read it.

Brenda grew up in Western Australia and spent her early childhood on a dairy farm. After finishing school, she headed off to university and wound up with an English degree, majoring in the obscure field of Language and Culture and minoring in Theatre Arts. She went on to study education and became a speech and drama teacher and part-time storytelling fairy. She has worked as a professional actor and has been seen on TV in the roles of a nurse, a marine biologist, a mother being attacked by a dingo and a train passenger watching a man chasing a chicken. Don’t ask. She has also worked as an in-house writer and editor for an educational publisher. She now works as a freelance writer and editor from her home in beautiful country Victoria, where she lives with her family and two attention-seeking Burmese cats named Bingley and Bess. For more information, see www.brendagurr.com.

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Review: The Schoolmaster's Daughter

January 1901 heralds a time of change for the nation and an equally great one for the schoolmaster’s daughter, Hannah Gilbert. She dreams of a life of learning at University. Not as servant to a man that will govern her life.

The ship bringing the family to a new post at Port Harris, is stranded on a sandbank. They are rescued by Jamie, a Pacific Islander. This will lead Hannah into a forbidden friendship when two similar minds are bound together.

Mama - Mrs Gilbert, is a woman of considerable family fortune. Something her husband can’t touch. The scar on her face has done nothing to lessen her confidence, independent nature, and the separate and compassionate way she views the world and people. She is respectable, respected, accepting and refuses to discriminate.

She is determined to see Hannah realise her dreams. And  later, intends to extend the same opportunities for development to her young son, Angus.

Mr Gilbert is the new schoolmaster at Port Harris. He is a singular character; highly intelligent, presentable, well-mannered and loving. These virtues don’t influence his dislike of his wife’s opinions and decisions.

His expectations were that she uses her family’s money and influence to secure him a respectable position in a private school. She has refused and refuses to do so. His persistence in this, added to his cruel reference to her scars and his magnanimous sacrifice in marrying her, awakens Mama to the truth of her situation.

Mr Harris is the rich and powerful owner of the area’s sugar plantations serviced by slave labour. The whip still governs, and brutality punishes any disobedience. He is not what he outwardly projects. His smooth and well-mannered exterior harbours a dark side and even darker secrets and activities. These come to light in twists of fate.

The actions, thoughts and emotions of this outstanding cast of characters – major and minor, whose paths cross, are sturdy building blocks in this fantastic read, set in a deeply moving and tragic era of Australia’s history.

Jackie French’s ability to construct a powerful narrative draws us into the era of Federation and change – in Laws and people that altered the  thinking and beliefs of a nation.

Title: The Schoolmaster’s Daughter

Author: Jackie French

Publisher: Harper Collins, $17.99

Publication Date: 18 May 2020

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 9781460757710

For ages: 12+

Type: Historical Fiction

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Winner: Gregory Goose Is On The Loose! Prize Pack

Review: Whitney and Britney: Chicken Divas

Guest Post: Scott Cranfield on His Children's Book Authoring Journey

Review: Parenting Made Simple

In Parenting Made Simple, Dr Sarah Hughes offers up straightforward, practical strategies for common childhood challenges. It is a book full of valuable tools and skills needed for all ages and stages of childhood growth and development. 

A wealth of knowledge is to be found in this handbook that delivers effective techniques for raising well-adjusted children.

The key areas focused on are: challenging behaviour, emotions and tantrums, confidence, social skills and friendships, anxiety and parenting well through divorce.

Correct communication, negotiation, mindfulness practice and how to simplify things when addressing challenging issues are important factors addressed.

Behaviour management plans and consistency between parents plus any care giver towards the same child, are defined.

Comprehensive, detailed helpful strategies fill the pages. The summary at the end of each chapter under the heading The Important Bits, allows the reader to get a clear brief overview of what has been presented. Several pages of Endnotes are included.

Chapters also include Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD).

What I have referred to are the bare bones of the meaty source that is contained in this instructive and invaluable book for parents.

Dr Hughes imparts her knowledge in simple language with step-by-step advances on each of the six categories. She looks at both sides of problems to be solved – the parents’ emotions and the attitude of the child, in a compassionate and positive way which encourages perseverance and repetition.

Dr Hughes holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and a PhD in child and adolescent child disorders.

Title: Parenting Made Simple

Author:Dr Sarah Hughes

Publisher: Exisle, $29.99

Publication Date: 7 April 2020

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 9781925820324

For ages: Adults

Type: Non Fiction

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National Simultaneous Storytime 2020 with Whitney and Britney: Chicken Divas

National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA).

Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country. Everyone can join NSS, it doesn't matter whether you are at home, a school, a public library or even a university library!

This year NSS takes place on Wednesday 27 May 2020 at 11.00 am.

Be part of the fun by sharing Whitney and Britney: Chicken Divas, written and illustrated by Lucinda Gifford. 

Whitney and Britney are two gorgeous chooks who live alongside Dora von Dooze. But Dora is perplexed - why do her dear chickens seem to sleep all day long? Dora decides to snoop. She follows the chooks out at night to the local jazz club where she discovers, to her amazement, that they are Whitney and Britney: Chicken Divas!

Outrageous fun, abundant glitter, told in jaunty rhyme that simply bedazzles; this picture book is entertainment plus! 

Now in its 20th successful year, it is a colourful, vibrant, fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children's book that explores age-appropriate themes, and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Foundation to Year 6.

By facilitating NSS the aim is to:

• promote the value of reading and literacy
• promote the value and fun of books
• promote an Australian writer and publisher
• promote storytime activities in public libraries and communities around the country
• and provide opportunities to involve parents, grandparents, the media and others to participate in and enjoy the occasion.

NSS receives positive media coverage, generates a great deal of community interest and is held annually as part of Library and Information Week. 2019 was our biggest and most successful NSS to date with over 1,138,000 participants at over 11,550 locations, including participants from New Zealand, Thailand, UK, Canada, Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong. 

Several notable personalities will be reading this book on Wednesday 27 May at 11.00 am including Denise Scott on Playschool. For more information about how to be involved, where to register and what is going on, please visit the ALIA Simultaneous Storytime website.

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Video Review: Women in Art: 50 Fearless Creatives Who Inspired the World

Our innovative KBR team are always looking for ways to enliven your reading experiences. If you love our daily dose of uplifting, thoughtful  and insightful reviews buckle into your beanbags because we have something exciting and new for you! 

In addition to our regular video posts by creators sharing their book trailers and behind-the-scenes news, we now have a dedicated Virtual Wonders page featuring the best of our KBR team's on line antics. Links to their colourful YouTube channels, beautiful Instagram accounts and more are all at your fingertips. Plus we are now sharing virtual reviews so that you can literally soak up the wonder and glory of some of our best loved kids' books almost in real life! Regular contributor, Yvonne Mes, is the first to virtually review especially for you. Have a look...

Title: Women in Art: 50 Fearless Creatives Who Inspired the World

Author/ Illustrator: Rachel Ignotofsky 

Publisher: Ten Speed Press 

Publication Date: 2019 

Format: Hardback 

ISBN: 9780399580437 

For ages: 12+ 

Type: Non Fiction

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Review: The Solar System

For children and older readers who are interested in learning about the Planets, The Solar System is part of a brilliant collection of books in the Build it Yourself series. 

Educational and highly informative, it is not a journey through Space alone, but an exercise in the language that accompanies the Planets and their activity.

Made up of seven chapters, each one is introduced by two children commenting on the subject within comic strip blocks.

This immediately removes any formality that might be connected to the subject. Impressive layouts complement the detailed content.

Chapters are identically designed. The Words to Know strip lists the words and definitions pertinent to that chapter and offers activities to design and test. Did You Know snippets arrive in circles, and historical fact boxes are scattered throughout the book to stimulate children’s minds and add knowledge and vocabulary, making what they have learnt more memorable.

Opening with a Solar System Map and followed by a Timeline beginning from the Big Bang, and an Introduction to Our Solar System, the following chapters are visually, as well as mentally stimulating.

Chapters include The Big Bang and the Birth of Stars, Meet the Planets, Beyond Planets and Stars, From Ancient Astronomy to Telescopes, Sending Spacecraft to Space, and Future Space Exploration.

Other Space Science titles available are, explore Comets and Asteroids, Planetary Science, The Science of Science Fiction and Astronomy. Primary Resources are available.

Title: The Solar System

Author: Delano Lopez

Illustrator: Jason Slater

Publisher: Nomad Press, $32.99

Publication Date: October 2019

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 9781619307971

For ages: 8+

Type: Non Fiction

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Review: Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks

Meet The Illustrator: Darya Beklemesheva

Name: Darya Beklemesheva

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less. 

I suppose I have an eclectic style. Perhaps you can call it "decorative realism."

What items are an essential part of your creative space? 

Since I create my illustrations manually, I need several things for my work: paints (watercolour, acrylic, gouache), various brushes and rollers to create textures; paper, scissors and glue.

Do you have a favourite artistic medium? 

I'm working in a collage technique. I've tried many different techniques (watercolours, different types of printing techniques, lino cut), but my favourite technique is still collage.

Name three artists whose work inspires you.At the moment, the artists I am inspired with are Victoria Semykina, Phoebe Wahl, Olga Ezova-Denisova.

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

I believe that we were very lucky to live in an era of great freedom in art in general and in illustration in particular. We have an opportunity to choose from a very large number of styles, techniques and directions that are close to us. Therefore, it is our time that is of the greatest value to me.

Who or what inspired you to become an illustrator? 

My love of book illustration originated from childhood. My family always appreciated good children's books with quality illustrations. When I was little, in Russia there was a fairly strong illustrative school. Such masters as Charushin, Konashevich, Diodorov undoubtedly influenced the choice of my profession.

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

What is your favourite part of the illustration process? 

I think that I love the whole process of working on an illustration from inventing to scanning and final processing in Photoshop. But the most wonderful moment is, of course, when the illustration is completed and you understand that it worked out as planned.

What advice would you give to an aspiring illustrator?

For beginners, I would advise you to believe in your strengths, constantly learning and development, set new goals for yourself (since there is no limit to perfection) and go after your dream.

Darya began to draw from early childhood. She drew the first book when she was 8 years old. Darya graduated from art college and university at the faculty of graphics in book graphics discipline and still continues to study in various courses and intensives. She works with various publishers in Russia and abroad.

For more information, please visit Darya's website or follow her on instagram.

from Kids' Book Review https://ift.tt/2AMRaSq