Ambelin Kwaymullina & Ezekiel Kwaymullina, Catching Teller Crow , Allen & Unwin, August 2018, 208 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760631628 Catching Teller Crow is as intriguing and multi-faceted as its title. Part ghost story, part psychological thriller, this gripping tale is told through the perspectives of two teenage Aboriginal protagonists – Beth Teller and Isobel Catching. Alternating between prose and verse, this title is unlike any other you will have read. For first time author duo, brother and sister Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina, Catching Teller Crow interweaves Aboriginal storytelling, Australia’s colonial history and modern murder mystery. Beth Teller exists between worlds. Having been…
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Paul Russell (text) and Aśka (illustrator), My Storee, EK Books (an imprint of Exisle Publishing), August 2018, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781925335774 “Just because you can’t spell doesn’t mean you can’t write!” is the message clearly displayed on the cover of this hardback picture book from EK Books. The second book for author Paul Russell, this story draws on his own experience with dyslexia. The text of the “storee” is told in mis-spelt yet phonetic words which can be deciphered easily. Part way through, dramatic red pen corrections intrude, showing the negative effect of past teacher criticism on…
Jacqui A’Court, Trumble and Ludwig’s Forest Adventure, Little Steps, May 2018, 71 pp., RRP $14.95 (pbk), ISBN 9781925545760 Ludwig and Trumble are twin Tasmanian devils. Troubled by their Granny Nell’s facial lumps (the Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease) they set off to find a cure. They find a Squorch seed to cure her, but in the end, Granny doesn’t eat it. Instead she plants the seed which grows into a tree, bearing seeds to cure others of the disease. This metaphor for hope ends the book on a positive note. In nine chapters and seventy-one pages, this is an illustrated…
Dianne Wolfer, The Dog with Seven Names, Penguin Random House Australia, July 2018. 236 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780143787457 The adventures of a loved animal through difficult times, threaded through the fortunes of a succession of human “owners” is a classic trope in literature. As far back as 1877, Black Beauty by Anna Sewell used the familiar plot to create sympathy for ill-treated animals. Her novel is narrated by a horse who passes through the hands of a series of owners, some cruel, some kind. Another famous book is Lassie Come-Home (by Eric Knight, 1940) where a rough collie…
Terry Deary, The Silver Hand, Bloomsbury, July 2018, 304 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781472961440 With the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day fast approaching, Terry Deary and Bloomsbury have released this novel, which covers the months leading up to the 11th of November, 1918, from the point of view of two young people – Aimee, a French girl, and Marius, a German boy. Marius is taken ill while the German Army is in Aimee’s village, and she and her mother nurse him back to health. While neither can speak the other’s language, they both know Latin and so use this to communicate. Once…
Anne Winckel, Winddance, Delta Partners Press, April 2018, 236 pp., RRP $24.99, ISBN 9780648276609 This is the first novel from Australian author Anne Winckel. It is set on South Australia’s Wedge Island during World War II. The novel was inspired by Winckel’s family, who lived on Wedge Island in the 1930s. The main protagonist of this story is sixteen-year-old Hannah Johnson, who lives on the Island with her aunt and uncle, who run a sheep farm, and members of the Australian Air Force, who are stationed on the island to man a top-secret radar station. One day Hannah finds Aircraftsman Paul Bolton…
Nicola Davies, (text) & Nicola Kinnear, (illus), Ariki and the Giant Shark, Walker Books, July 2018, 144 pp., RRP $12.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781406369793. This is the first in a new series from Nicola Davies. It is set a long time ago on a very small island in the Pacific Ocean. Ariki is a foundling, and orphan who washed up and was taken in by the island’s people, but she is still considered different, and outsider. She belongs to the sea, heart and soul, and feels more at home there than anywhere else. When a giant shark arrives at the island, the islanders feel…
Michael Gerard Bauer, The Things That Will Not Stand, Scholastic Australia, September 2018, 224 pp., RRP $18.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781742997582 Sebastian is waiting for his real-life grand movie moment. That moment at the end of a rom-com when it looks like the chance has gone, then behold – the sliding doors open and there SHE is. The PFH or the Perfect Female Human. Except, she isn’t. Life isn’t a rom-com and Sebastian isn’t the charming hero. He’s just a kid in Year 11 hanging out at a university open day with his best mate, Tolly. Instead, he meets Frida, who is…
Zana Fraillon (text) and Grahame Baker Smith (illustrator), Wisp: A Story of Hope, Hachette Australia, August 28 2018, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780734418043 “Idris lived in a small, small world. A world where fences grew from the dirt and where shadows ruled.” In a place of darkness and loneliness, a young boy discovers a wisp. Unnoticed by others, Idris gently holds it, but the wisp is not for him. It sends Idris running past rows and rows of tents until the wisp is with its rightful owner. Only then can the joyful memories it holds be set free. Idris…
Eddie Ayres and Ronak Taher (illustrator) Sonam and the Silence, Allen & Unwin, July 25 2018, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760293666 “Music is forbidden, but that’s when we need it most.” Sonam lives in Kabul. Now that she is seven, it is time for her to leave childish games behind and work with her brother in the markets. The markets are busy and full of noise. The cacophony of her world drives Sonam into the trees where she finds a walled garden of pomegranate and mulberry trees. Here she meets an old man who shares something forbidden in her country…