Dianne Wolfer (text), Heather Potter (illus.), Nanna’s Button Tin, Walker Books Australia, 1 June 2017, 32pp., $24.99 (hbk) ISBN 9781922077677 This is a really lovely story, celebrating the special relationship between children and their grandparents, as well as showing how handy – and how meaningful – it can be to save and reuse things. Nanna’s Button Tin sees a young girl, 6, rummaging through her Nanna’s button tin for a replacement eye for her teddy bear. As they scrutinise each button together, Nanna shares the stories behind them – the yellow buttons from the girl’s jacket when she first came…
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Raymond Huber (text), Brian Lovelock (illus.) Gecko (Nature Storybooks), Walker Books Australia, Oct 2017, 32pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781925126556 First, a disclaimer – this review has been written from the publisher’s page proofs, not from the final book. Raymond Huber is an accomplished New Zealand writer of fiction and information books whose books have been shortlisted for several awards both in his home country and the US. Gecko is another collaboration with illustrator Brian Lovelock after the success of their Flight of the Honey Bee. The text of Gecko follows an individual lizard as it sheds its skin, captures a cockroach to…
Scot Gardner, Sparrow, Allen & Unwin, August 2017, 224pp., $19.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781760294472 When a survival trip off the coast of the Kimberley goes wrong, sixteen year-old Sparrow must swim to shore. There are sharks and crocs around him, but the monsters he fears most live in the dark spaces in his mind… The latest book from award-winning author Scot Gardner, Sparrow is a true page turner that holds the reader’s attention and doesn’t let it go until the very last page. Gardner has crafted an arresting tale full of surprising narrative twists. The story switches between two time periods –…
Heidi McKinnon, I Just Ate My Friend, Allen & Unwin, August 2017, 32pp., $24.99 (hbk) ISBN: 9781760294342 This is one of those delightfully dark picture books in the vein of Jon Klasson. At the beginning of the story, a monster confesses: ‘I just ate my friend’. He then asks lots of other monsters if they’ll be his friend. By the end of the story he finally finds someone who agrees to be his friend – but not for long! Author-illustrator Heidi McKinnon uses a night-sky background in each spread with the large whites of character’s eyes given prominence. The different…
Susan Hood (text), Jay Fleck (illus.), Double Take!: a new look at opposites, Walker Books Australia, 1 June 2017, 32pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9781406377293 This is a concept book about opposites, with a difference. In addition to learning about opposites, children 3+ will discover that things are not always as they seem. It sometimes depends on your perspective. The start of the book features the three main characters – a boy, a cute black cat and a big, blue elephant – in simple comparisons, such as asleep and awake, and in and out. From there, however, things get more complicated: Who…
Nicole Madigan (text), Joe M Ruiz (illus.), Darcy and the Dinosaurs, BlOOturtle, May 2017, 28pp., $19.95 (hbk), ISBN: 9780995410633 What child has not wished at some point in their life to go back in time to see the dinosaurs? This picture book by Nicole Madigan and Joe M. Ruiz is just the ticket for kids in their “dinosaur” phase. Darcy is having trouble sleeping when he gets up to sneak a biscuit from the kitchen and hears a noise outside. On investigation, Darcy finds a time machine in the veggie patch. Soon he is whizzing back to the time of the…
Elizabeth Fensham, My Dog Gets a Job, University of Queensland Press, 29 May 2017, 160pp., $14.95 (pbk), ISBN: 9780702259593 The narrator of this story is Eric; a 9-and-a-lot (almost 10) year-old boy. Eric is having trouble with his large, boisterous dog, Ugly, who is always getting into mischief. When Eric’s Dad threatens to tie Ugly up in the back yard, Eric seeks to find Ugly a job that will keep him occupied and out of trouble. With help from his classmates, Eric puts Ugly to work in a series of jobs, including dog trainer (a dog that trains other dogs), duck…
Frances and Lindsay Haji-Ali (text), David Hardy (illus.) On the Way to Nana’s, Magabala Books, June 2017, 34pp., $17.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781925360301 This is a counting book, in fact a counting-down book, beginning at fifteen and marking a journey from Broome in Western Australia through Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Creek, Kununurra and Katherine to Darwin. Each number is posted as a typical Kimberley sight: brolgas, road trains, boab trees, gorge falls, weary travellers, and wild brumbies. The rhymes will make it a book to read aloud, and join in with as it’s read, to small children. Magabala books are to be…
Ella Mulvey (text), Karen Briggs (illus.) The Rabbit-Hole Golf Course, Allen & Unwin, July 2017, 32pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9781925266290 This is a desert book. The full page colour illustrations with large print text, tell of an excursion by children from a desert community, going out for bush tucker, or maybe looking for rabbits. After all there are so many holes out there in the desert, there must golf courses full of rabbits. Over a day and a night out in the bush we learn about the honey ants, the maku (witchety grubs), and watch the children camp out while…
Patrick Ness, Release, Walker Books Australia, 4 May 2017, 287pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9781406331172 Twice winner of the Carnegie medal, script writer for the film version of his children’s best seller, A Monster Calls, and author of both Young Adult and adult fiction, Patrick Ness has already a formidable reputation and strong body of work. He has said that this is his most personal book. The novel follows Adam Thorn, seventeen years old, through a single day in his life—a day marked by changes that require him to ‘release’ all sorts of feelings, secrets, grudges, doubts, fears and reservations. Adam…