Author: Admin

Jarvis, Tropical Terry, Walker Books Australia, 1 July 2018, 32pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781406376425 Terry is a small, plain fish living in Coral Reef City. The reef is full of dazzling tropical fish who want nothing to do with a dull-looking fish like Terry until, with the help of sticky seaweed and flashy odds and ends, he transforms his appearance to look like one of them. He leaves his two friends to join the shimmery and pretentious group. When Eddie the Eel tries to catch him for his dinner, Terry escapes by casting off his decorations using the tricks he…

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Nikki Slade Robinson, I Am An Artist, Starfish Bay Children’s Books, June 2018, 32pp, $24.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9781760361013 A happy, energetic young girl leaps across the pages blissfully enjoying nature and the freedom to use her creativity to bring new ideas and experiences into her life. This is a joyful picture book about the power of imagination. It reveals how any child can make art simply by using nature to create mountains, patterns, shapes and creatures of all kinds and descriptions – there is no limit to the magnificent works of art it is possible to create. The best thing…

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Ben Long (text) David Cornish (illus.), Jasper Juggles Jellyfish, Ford Street, Oct 2018, 32pp., $14.95 (pbk), ISBN 9781925736021 Jasper Octopus drags himself to school but finds it too much of a struggle to learn to count – he would rather use his multiple limbs to juggle instead. However, when he combines juggling jellyfish with counting he soon discovers that he has also inadvertently learned what he previously found too difficult. The clever rhyming text by Ben Long is great fun, but it also reveals the secret of learning as it tells the story of Jasper’s engagement with the process once…

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Kate Hendrick, The Finder, Text Publishing, 30 July 2018, 327pp., $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781925603811 Sixteen year old Lindsay is always looking, observing, taking in details that others miss. It is her acute powers of observation that lead her to discovering the whereabouts of a missing girl and she develops a reputation among her school friends as “The Finder.” Her fame leads to one of those friends introducing her to Elias, an adopted child who is searching for his birth mother. Together they embark on a journey to discover his lost family, but Lindsay carries her own loss, the disappearance of…

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Candy Gourlay (text),  Francesca Chessa (illus.), Is it a Mermaid?, Walker Books Australia, 1 June 2018, 32pp., $24.99 (hbk),  ISBN: 9781910959121 This is the story of Benji and Bel and what they spot on their beach one morning. What is most surprising and most lovely about this book is that a typical feminine mermaid never appears, despite its appearance in the title. Instead, a determined dugong insists on her mermaidness, even in the face of Benji’s stubborn resistance. Bel, on the other hand, delights in the dugong’s game – bouncing and swimming along, and eventually getting Benji to come along for…

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Adrian Beck (text), Adele K. Thomas (illus.), The Mix-Up (the Champion Charlies #1), Random House Australia, 28 May 2018, 176pp., $14.99 (pbk),  ISBN: 9780143791249 The Champion Charlies is set at Jindaberg Primary School where, because of the departure of a few families from the area, the girls’ and boys’ soccer teams have been disbanded! This causes much outrage and heartbreak amongst the remaining players, until Principal Swift comes up with a great idea! Instead of a girl’s team and a boys’ team – there’ll be a mixed team! The writing here is dynamic and lively – constantly moving and tumbling, full…

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Greg James and Chris Smith (text), Erica Salcedo (illus.), Kid Normal and the Rogue Heroes Bloomsbury Australia, 1 June 2018, $12.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781408884553 This book speaks action from the moment eyes are laid on the cover. With a distinct appearance of red tinged page edges, the inside is interspersed with clever drawings adding life to the characters, story and overall book personality. Kid Normal, a kid named Murph, is a normal kid who does things a typical kid wouldn’t be doing i.e. secretly being part of a Heroes alliance. He and his friends the Super Zeroes work together to…

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Katrina Roe (text), Helene Magisson (illus.), Lily’s Balloon, Wombat Books, 31 July 2018, 32pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9781925563399 A long held wish to visit the fair turns out to be not quite what Lily had expected, no matter how hard she tries, it just isn’t fun at all! Amid her disappointing experience and focusing on all the things she doesn’t like, she manages to search and find the good – although when she does, will she be able to hang on to the joy it brings her? We share in a wave of Lily’s emotions, from excitement, disappointment, happiness and…

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Sylvia Engdahl, Enchantress from the Stars, Bloomsbury, 1 June 2018, 368pp., $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781681196138 Originally written in 1970 and now reissued in 2018 as a paperback, I am one of the new readers bewildered by only just discovering Engdahl and her incredible capacity for stories of future worlds. Enchantress from the Stars has already gathered a beloved cult following and is now building a new fan base. As a fan of classic sci-fi, having read my way through the likes of Isaac Asimov and Ursula Le Guin, before moving into fantasy for many years, Enchantress from the Stars has…

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Wendy Mass & Rebecca Stead (text), Nicholas Gannon (illus.), Bob, Text Publishing, 30 April 2018, 208pp., $16.99 (pbk),  ISBN: 9781925603590  Bob was a charming delight of a book to read. The voices of both Livy and Bob were so strong in my head that I would love to hear it in audio book format or read aloud. Livy last visited her grandmother in Australia five years ago, when she was five, and she doesn’t remember much about it. She definitely doesn’t remember the strange little green creature in the chicken suit who has been waiting in the wardrobe all that time…

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