Giovanna and Tom Fletcher, Eve of Man, Penguin Australia, 28 May 2018, 416pp., $22.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9780718184131 All her life, Eve has been kept away from the opposite sex. Kept from the truth of her past. But at sixteen it’s time for Eve to face her destiny. Three potential males have been selected for her. The future of humanity is in her hands. She’s always accepted her fate. Until she met Bram. Now, Eve wants control of her life. She wants freedom. But how do you choose between love and the future of the human race? Eve of Man is a…
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Nicola Connelly (text), Annie White (illus.), Is It The Way You Giggle?, New Frontier, 1 April 2018, 32pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781925594102 Nicola Connelly’s previous book My Dad is a Bear was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Prize and as soon as you open the pages of her newest book, Is It The Way You Giggle? you will absolutely understand the reasons for her success. What a delightful book this is; a celebration of all the ways children express their differences. Some are sporty, others creative, some confident and then there are the quieter ones who love to investigate nature…
Jackson Pearce (text), Tuesday Mourning (illus.), Ellie, Engineer, Bloomsbury Australia, 1 March 2018, 212pp., $12.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781681199672 If anyone needs help, Ellie is the person to ask. She is resourceful, considerate and certainly has a can-do attitude to all things that come her way. That doesn’t mean her life is without the occasional problem – which causes some considerable anguish – but Ellie just does her best and has to trust others will understand. As well as being a great person, Ellie, Engineer is an inventor, designer and builder of some rather marvellous things. These inventions are sometimes in…
Anh Do (text), Jules Faber (illus.), Messy Weird! (WeirDo #10), Scholastic Australia, April 2018, 160pp., $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781742768045 In the latest in the series of WeirDo books, Weir is seeking a way to make some money. With the help of his friends, Bella and Henry, they decide to take on the project of cleaning up the Do family’s new home. It all sounds simple enough but there is quite a lot of equipment involved in the project; most of which the three keen cleaners have never even seen before, and certainly not used. While not everything works out as…
Adam Cece (text), Andrew Weldon (illus.), The Extremely Weird Thing That Happened at Huggabie Falls (The Huggabie Falls Trilogy #1), Text, 2 April 2018, 288pp., $14.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781925603484 Kipp Kindle, Tobias Treachery and Cymphany Chan live in Huggabie Falls — the weirdest town on Earth. It’s so weird that a witch for a teacher, vampire bats, vegetarian piranhas and a kid who only eats french fries, barely raises an eyebrow from inhabitants. But then something extremely weird happens, throwing the town into disarray, and Kipp, Tobias and Cymphany suddenly face changes they never expected, and only half thought they wanted. Australian author…
Gabrielle Lord, The Medusa Curse (48 Hours #2), Scholastic Australia, April 2018, 240pp., $14.99 (pbk) ISBN 9781743829765 This book looks as much like a book for adults as for children, with its bold, dark cover giving the series an edgy, older feel. Inside it’s well-designed for young readers with fun fingerprint graphics and a sprinkling of black and white illustrations showing evidence, such as fibres under a microscope, photos and text message conversations. This is the second book in the 48 Hours series, which is based on the premise: “the first 48 hours after a crime are vital for gathering…
Susanne Merritt (text), Liz Anelli (illus.), Grace & Katie, EK Books, Nov 2017, 32pp., $19.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9781925335545 Meet Grace and Katie, twin sisters who don’t necessarily see eye to eye on everything. Both love to draw, but Grace likes her pictures created from straight lines, squares and angles, while Katie fills hers with patterns, squiggles and swirls. Things come to a head when Grace decides to make a map of their home. She turns down Katie’s offer of help, wanting to keep her drawing neat and organised. Instead, Katie sets about making her own map. Both feel something is missing…
Emily Conolan, Break Your Chains (The Freedom Fighters #1), Allen & Unwin, 28 March 2018, 144pp., $16.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781760294915 Emily Conolan, Touch the Sun (The Freedom Fighters #2), Allen & Unwin, 28 March 2018, 144pp., $16.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781760294922 The Freedom Fighters series is, hopefully, going to start a lot of conversations. These books tell stories about young people, children from different times and places, coming to Australia under desperate circumstances. Emily Conolan tells these stories with intelligence, cleverness and sensitivity. I’m not normally a big fan of the Choose Your Own Adventure books, but it turns out that this…
Alexander Utkin, The King of Birds (Gamayun Tales), Walker Books Australia, 1 May 2018, 72pp., $27.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9781910620380 The King of Birds starts with a mouse finding a golden apple, and escalates into war between the animals and the birds before the story threads its way through the more familiar folktale elements of a merchant who finds and saves the great King of Birds and is rewarded for his aid. This book is a lavish graphic novel based on Russian folktales, and I found the rich artwork reminded me strongly of some of the illustrators and graphic artists I grew…
Marilyn Campbell (text), Joana Toteva (illus.), Chester the Unlikely Sheepdog: A Bush Verse Picture Book for Children, Spindrift Publishing, Nov 2017, 28pp., $20.00 (pbk), ISBN: 9780980749250 Chester the Unlikely Sheepdog, is the story of a lively little sheepdog who lives on Grumblebum Sheep Station alongside his farmer-owners and the other working dogs. Told in traditional Australian bush verse by award winning author Marilyn Campbell, the sixteen-verse narrative tells the timeless tale of courage through adversity in an unmistakably Australian voice. Life on Grumblebum Sheep Station is far from easy for the working dogs and as the name of the farm suggests…