Author: Admin

Tanya McCartney, Australia Illustrated (2nd ed), Exisle Publishing, October 2018, 96 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN9781925335880 I am so glad this book has found me. I feel terrible for my kids during the multicultural week at kinder. I feel like I have little to offer them in the way of culture. My kids are from Anglo stock; they are white, blonde, English (only) speaking kids from the Melbourne suburbs, who went to a very ethnically diverse kinder. So when kids came along to kinder in beautifully adorned traditional costume, speaking two or more languages and eating delicious, exotic cuisine, a…

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Sally Rippin & Adrian Beck (eds.) and James Foley (illustrator), Total Quack Up!, Penguin Random House Australia, October 15 2018, 288 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780143794905 With the talent of Sally Rippin and Adrian Beck as editors, plus names like Jacqueline Harvey, Paul Jennings and R.A. Spratt as contributing authors, Total Quack Up! is sure to capture the attention of avid young readers. It contains 10 humorous short stories by some of the best-known names in the children’s book industry in Australia, plus one story by an 11 yr old competition winner, that holds its own among the professional…

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Anh Do (text) and Jeremy Ley (illustrator), Flying Ninja! (Ninja Kid #2), Scholastic Australia, October 2018, 192 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781742999579 Nelson, AKA ‘Ninja Kid’ is back in Flying Ninja! the sequel to the new Ninja Kid series from Anh Do. Also back are his sidekick/cousin, Kenny, who provides a lot of the comic relief in the story and the evil, Dad-look-alike, Dr Andrew Kane. I haven’t had the privilege of reading the first installment of this new series, so my 8 year old filled me in as I started to read. However he didn’t really need to.…

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Alison Lloyd (text) and Terry Denton (illustrator), The Upside-Down History of Down Under, Penguin Books, October 2018, 304 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780143788669 The history of Australia, from Gondwana until Federation in 1901, is often stranger than fiction. The Upside-down History of Down Under, written by Alison Lloyd and illustrated by Terry Denton is a wonderful introduction to our diverse, unpredictable and very, very, very old country. The book is similar in size to a novel, rather than the traditional larger format of most children’s non-fiction, however what it lacks in size it makes up with rich content, presenting…

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Laura Bunting (text) and Philip Bunting (illustrator), Another Book about Bears, Omnibus Books, November 2018, 32 pp., RRP $27.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781742991931 Cast your mind back to your favourite childhood stories, and chances are, a bear starred in at least one of them. That bear had to jump up and do whatever the book says – whether that was having its porridge stolen and its bed broken by a naughty golden locked girl, trying to find its way back to deepest darkest Peru from Paddington train station or searching for honey in the Hundred Acre Wood – whenever you opened…

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Heath Mackenzie, Butt Out!, Scholastic Australia, November 2018, 24 pp., RRP $17.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781742997902 I guarantee that this book will make every child between the ages of 3 and 8 giggle their pants off! I road tested Butt Out on my 7-year-old nephew, and he grinned from ear to ear through the entire book. Best known for his work illustrating DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOK by Andy Lee, Heath McKenzie has created a vibrant antidote for those down in the dumps days. Butt Out follows the story of Baboon, a monkey with an attitude, who decides on page one…

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Adam, Frost, The Awesome Book of Space, Bloomsbury Publishing, September 2018, 112 pp., RRP $12.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781408896501 How long does it take to deliver a pizza to the International Space Station?  How many pairs of pants will you need to live a year in outer space?  What happens if you fall into a black hole? Basically, any question you (or any inquisitive kid you know) can think of is covered in this highly entertaining, clever and educational book.  From the physics of gravity (and zero gravity) to the composition of the stars and planets, from radiation to relativity, from ancient beliefs to future possibilities, this book…

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Paul, Tobin, How to Tame a Human Tornado, Bloomsbury Publishing, October 2018, 272pp., RRP $12.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781408881811 This is the third book in the Genius Factor series. Delphine and Nate are back and busy restoring order and fighting the Red Death Tea Society. It is Friday the 13th, and boy genius Nate’s latest deliberate act of stupidity has caused even bigger problems than he had anticipated. There are far too many zebras and toads for comfort, not to mention Chester the human tornado, who cannot stop moving. In this latest installment, Nate discovers the benefits of having more than a…

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Karen Foxlee, Lenny’s Book of Everything, Allen & Unwin, October 2018, 352 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760528706 Lenny, small and sharp, has a younger brother Davey who won’t stop growing – at seven, he is as tall as a man. Raised by their mother, they have a roof over their heads but not much else. The bright spot every week is the arrival of the latest issue of Burrell’s Build-It-At-Home Encyclopaedia. Through the encyclopaedia, Lenny and Davey experience the wonders of the world – beetles, birds, quasars, quartz – and dream about a life of freedom and adventure. But…

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Stephen Davies (text), Luke Pearson (creator), and Seaerra Miller, (illustrator) Hilda and the hidden people, Flying Eye Books, October 2018, 176 pp., RRP $19.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781912497973 Here is the novelization by Stephen Davies of Luke Pearson’s graphic novels. Included in this book are storylines from the graphic novels Hilda and the troll and Hilda and the midnight giant. The graphic novels have also been adapted into a Netflix series. Hilda and her mum live alone in the mountainous wilderness – her mother is an architect and can work from home. Hilda loves their house and its surrounds, until she…

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