Hilary Rogers and Joshie Lefers (text), & Pete Petrovic (illustrator) Punky Pineapple (The Frooties #3), Scholastic Australia, February 2019, 128 pp., RRP $12.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781742765983 It’s a whole bunch of crazy in the fruit bowl! When Missy Starfruit goes missing, Punky Pineapple is on the case! But is he a good detective or just good on pizza? This third installment in the quirky series from creative duo Hilary Rogers and Joshie Lefers is brimming with crazy fruit-flavoured fun. In each wacky tale the fruits come to life when we’re not looking and dream of their ultimate goal in life:…
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Meredith Costain (text), and Danielle McDonald (illustrations), The Big Chicken Mystery (Olivia’s Secret Scribbles #5), Scholastic Australia, February 2019, 96 pp., RRP $9.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781743817636. This is a delightful book, just right for newly-minted readers in so many ways. The story is relatable and engagingly told, the pages look so inviting, and there’s just the right amount of words and pictures. The story centres around the school’s chickens that the children had watched incubate, hatch into chicks and then grow. Many Aussie kids will relate to having seen this themselves at school or kindergarten. The chickens have been living in the school coop, but need to find…
Chrissie Perry (text) and Pete Petrovic, (illustrator.) Oops, I’ve done it again (Blabbermouth #1), Scholastic Australia, February 2019, 160 pp., RRP $12.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760660956 Blabbermouth is a super-fun read, deliberately pitched at girls aged 7 plus. Its focus is the titular character Amelie who is navigating Year 5 and her friendship group which contains one frenemy, Paris. Engaging illustrations and different font styles are reminiscent of popular series such as Anh Doh’s WeirDo and Jeff Kinney’s Wimpy Kid and the style will make the book accessible to emerging readers. Amelie is a self-confessed blabbermouth, always getting into trouble for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. After one ‘blab’ too many, she hatches a secret plan to become the school newspaper’s agony aunt. This, she figures,…
RM Romero (text), Tomislav Tomic (illustrations), The Dollmaker of Krakow, Walker Books Australia, December 2018, 288 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk) ISBN 9781406379822 The Dollmaker of Krakow skilfully weaves magic and make-believe with the reality of war, drawing in young readers to show them the power of courage and true friendship. It starts off with a fairytale feel, akin to The Nutcracker, about a doll whose Land of the Dolls is invaded and overrun by the Rat King. She flees and ends up in the human world, brought to life in a newly-carved body by a Dollmaker in Krakow, Poland during…
Book of the Year: Older Readers Entries in this category may be fiction, drama or poetry and should be appropriate in style and content for readers in their secondary years of schooling. Ages 13-18 years. Note: These books are for the mature readers in this category and some deal with particularly challenging themes including violence and suicide. Parental guidance is recommended. Author Title ISBN Publisher Atkins, Clare Between Us 9781760640217 Black Inc. Books Betts, A.J. Hive 9781760556433 Pan Macmillan Australia Epstein, Sarah Small Spaces 9781921977381 Walker Books Australia Foxlee, Karen Lenny’s Book of Everything 9781760529444 Allen & Unwin Gardner, Scot Changing Gear 9781760631468…
Jeff Kinney, The Meltdown (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #13) , Puffin Books, October 2018, 217 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780143309352 In the thirteenth of his Diary of a Wimpy Kid series Kinney’s hapless protagonist, teenager Greg Heffley, must survive ‘the meltdown.’ Hand written with drawings of his musings, we follow both the big and small of Greg’s day. Opening with the issue of global warming and melting of the polar ice-caps, Kinney soon gently redirects the readers focus to more local issues; like dealing with annoying parents, navigating friendships and how to survive at school. But the ultimate…
David Astle (text), and Paul Tippett (illustrator), 101 Weird Words (and 3 fakes) from Ambidextrous to Zugzwang, Allen and Unwin, November 2018, 144 pp., RRP $9.99 (pbk), ISBN 978176063366 Maybe you’ve heard of the humblebrag, the sly show off, or the narcissist who falls in love with his own reflection or maybe, if you are a circus performer, you may even have done the Risley, named after the American acrobat who developed the stunt in 1840. But what is certain is these words and many weirder ones exist in the English language. In his latest dictionary of weird words, well…
Cosentino and Jack Heath (text) and James Hart (illustrator), The Silver Thief (The Mysterious World of Cosentino #4), Scholastic Australia, February 2019, 192 pp., RRP $ 12.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781742999326 This is the fourth book in the Mysterious World of Cosentino, written with Jack Heath and illustrated by James Hart. Cosentino is all set to launch his new magic theatre in Coppertown but when a mysterious figure informs him that the King of Diamonds is using slaves to mine silver and is keeping it out of Coppertown, he decides to investigate. With the help of Princess Priscilla and Ace, he…
Alexandra Penfold (text) and Suzanne Kaufman (illustrator), All Are Welcome, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, January 2019, RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781526604071 “Pencils sharpened in their case / Bells are ringing, let’s make haste. / School’s beginning, dreams to chase. / All are welcome here.” It seems ironic that this picture book from Seattle comes to us at a time when the USA is less than welcoming to the variety of adults and children drawn on these pages. Black, brown, yellow or pink, turbaned, hijabed, curly haired or straight, children happily sit beside each other. There are no disputes in art or…
Mitchell Starc (text) and Philip Bunting (illustrator), Day/Night Decider (Mighty Mitch #5!), Scholastic Australia, February 2019, 144 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781742769172 Mitch plays for the Wombats Under 10s cricket team and Coach/Dad has some exciting news: the Wombats will be playing the final against the Dingoes in a day/night match under lights… with a pink ball! Of course, this means that hilarity ensues in typical Wombats’ style. After a disastrous photo shoot, Coach gets serious and asks the players to each set a goal for the last game of the season. They play a warm-up game and train…