Lorraine Marwood, Leave Taking, University of Queensland Press, July 2 2018, 136 pp., $14.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9780702260117 Toby’s younger sister has just died from cancer, and now his parents have decided to sell their dairy farm that has been in the family for generations, starting afresh on a new farm. In the lead up to their move Toby receives a map of the farm his father, as a young boy, had drawn. So, Toby devises a plan of ‘leave taking’ camping at different sites on the farm each night, and reliving memories shared with his younger sister. A major theme of…
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Owen Davey, Bonkers About Beetles, Flying Eye Books, August 2018, 40 pp., $27.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9781911171485 Bonkers about Beetles is a non-fiction text about, yes you guessed it, Beetles! The first thing I noticed about this book was its beautiful presentation. It is a hardcover with a lovely matte textured finish to the pages and warm earth-toned colours used throughout. Davey’s illustrations are wonderful in their graphic, geometric, larger than life representation of beetles. Even if you weren’t interested to read about the topic I think you could still appreciate the book for its artistic content. The textual content is comprehensive…
Barry Jonsberg, A Song Only I Can Hear, Allen & Unwin, June 27 2018, 288 pp., $16.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781760630836 When I first started reading this book, I thought Rob Fitzgerald sounded like a 18-year-old hipster, given the quick fast dialogue and the snappy humour in this book. But he is instead a 13-year-old kid who is desperately in love with Destry Camberwick, a classmate. So begins Rob’s determination to win her heart, and along the way finds himself receiving anonymous text challenging him to step out of his comfort zone: like entering a talent competition and getting himself on the…
Jane Caro, Just Flesh and Blood, University of Queensland Press, July 30 2018, 320 pp., $19.95 (pbk), ISBN: 9780702260018 This is the third in the Queen Elizabeth series by author Jane Caro and is written from Elizabeth’s point of view on her deathbed. Elizabeth looks to her past, to the choices she’s made with the people around her, men and women who she favoured and thought fondly of. This isn’t a book to review easily because as the third in the trilogy, there are times I felt that Elizabeth was a very remote character, and the book an interesting history text,…
Steve Heron (text), Tash Macfarlane (illustrator), Maximus, Novella Distribution, June 2018, 201 pp., $26,95 (pbk), ISBN: 9780648146612 Mitch is a Year Six student and everything sucks. He writes poems about how everything sucks, in fact. He is being bullied at school, and he’s no longer close to Ryan, a good friend. He sucks at footy in some ways, and while he is good at the game in other ways, it’s the sucky part that sticks with him. Stuff is happening with his parents – they are always fighting, and in particular his Dad seems to get angry at every little thing.…
Anne Helen Donnelly, Ori’s Clean-Up, Anne Helen Donnelly, June 19 2018, 32 pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9780646984131 Ori the Octopus shares a very important message to young children about the responsibility of humans and their impact upon the world. Anne Helen Donnelly’s book introduces the concepts of reducing, reusing and recycling through the story of Ori and his sea friends. While working as a team to try a new strategy, Ori and his friends have fun while suggesting ideas and singing new jingles to match. ‘Scoop, scoop, scoop the plastic bags, and use fabric bags.’ It is now more than ever…
Ananda Braxton-Smith (text), Lizzy Newcomb (illustrator), Backyard, Walker Books Australia, August 2018, 32 pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9781925381177 The moment I saw this book I wanted to read it. The cover illustration invited me to open the book and discover what was captured throughout the pages. Lizzy Newcomb’s illustrations continued to impress me and grab my attention, page after page as it represented and portrayed the Australian flora and fauna. I appreciate the message this story delivers as it encourages children, no matter where they’re from or what their back yard looks like, to connect with their world and look beyond…
Jacqueline De Rose-Ahern (text), Sophie Norsa (illustrator), Charlie’s Adventures… in South Africa, Little Steps Publishing, July 2018, $24.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9781925545838 This book is the second of Charlie’s documented adventures. First he went to Hawaii and now he’s off to South Africa. When arriving at the airport, Charlie and his family are greeted by friends who entrust him with a treasure hunt, complete with a map. Throughout his journey Charlie experiences the magical sights and individual aspects which make South Africa; all while solving the clues to the treasure hunt along the way. The colourful pages of this book captures its…
Steven Herrick has been a mainstay of Australian children’s and young adult literature for almost three decades, both in prose and verse novels. His latest offering, The Bogan Mondrian is typical of his style–evocative, lyrical and authentic. Here he talks about why he wrote this book. Thanks Steven, for sharing this with us. Fiction authors aren’t supposed to bother with statistics. We inhabit the world of character, emotion, myth and story, not sterile numbers and lists. We worship the image, the poetry of words, the craft of dialogue. And yet in the clanging echo chamber of social-media, one statistic keeps tolling…
Matt Cosgrove (text and illus), My Dad is a Robot, Scholastic, August 2018, 24 pp., $17.99 (hbk) ISBN 9781742993256 Kids will love reading this book with their dads – and Dad will love reading it aloud too. It’s fun and funny, playfully poking fun at dads, while also celebrating the many ways modern dads are involved in their children’s lives. The boy in the story compares his dad to a robot, finding all sorts of laugh-out-loud similarities most families will relate to – my family loves the part about the robot “running on leftovers” coupled with a picture of Dad…