Matt Cosgrove, Macca’s Christmas Crackers, Scholastic Australia, October 2018, 24 pp., $17.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781742998824 Christmas is on its way and Macca the alpaca can’t wait. The decorations are up and Macca imagines the wonderful gifts he will buy for his friends. But there’s a problem – the piggy bank is empty. What can Macca do to surprise his friends on Christmas day? This cheerful book captures the air of excitement and anticipation in the lead up to Christmas and explores the concept that the spirit of giving is less about the gift and more about the spirit in which…
Author: Admin
Samantha Wheeler, Everything I’ve Never Said, University of Queensland Press, October 2018, 224 pp., (pbk), RRP $16.95, ISBN 9780702260278 This book does what literary icon Atticus Finch advocates in To Kill a Mockingbird. Finch proclaims you can never really understand another person “until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Author Samantha Wheeler is to be congratulated for authentically achieving this in spades with her character Ava. Ava has Rett syndrome which means she can’t talk, nod her head or even point at a communication card. But she…
Zoe Norton Lodge (text) and Georgia Norton Lodge (illustrator), Elizabella Meets her Match, Walker Books Australia, October 2018, 208 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760650544 Elizabella meets her Match follows the time honoured tradition in children’s books of a heroine who is a very naughty little girl (I think we can hold Enid Blyton responsible for this!) However, Elizabella is also loyal, kind and never malicious. She has a close group of friends who she relies on to support her and her sometimes crazy pranks. When a new girl, Minnie, joins her class, she suddenly finds herself being out-pranked, and…
Meredith Costain (text) and Danielle McDonald (illustrator), Super Science Stars (Olivia’s Secret Scribbles #4), Scholastic Australia, October 2018, 96 pp., RRP $9.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760277093 Super Science Stars is the 4th book in the Olivia’s Secret Scribbles series. I haven’t read the previous books, and I don’t think it matters at all. Olivia is a typical little girl in Year 2 who squabbles with her older sister, has a best friend named Matilda that she shares everything with, and is super excited about the upcoming school Science Fair. Will she and her friends win first prize for the best experiment…
Rhys Darby, The Top Secret Undercover Notes of Buttons McGinty, Scholastic Australia, October 2018, 192 pp., RRP $15.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781775434979 The Top Secret Undercover Notes of Buttons McGinty is silly, ridiculous and nonsensical…and I think kids are going to find it irresistible. In a similar style to the books by David Walliams, and co-written by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton, it is presented using multiple typefaces and illustrated with numerous maps, lists, and drawings, as if written by the hand of our 12 year old hero and narrator. Buttons McGinty loves Morse Code, has parents who go on adventures…
David Almond, The Colour of the Sun, Hachette Children’s Group, January 2019, 240 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781444941135 Young Davie wakes up to a perfect summer’s day and decides to go for a long roam around his hometown in Tyneside, taking his sketching materials with him. He meets his mate Gosh who has discovered a body! This is Jimmy Killen, the arch enemy of Zorro Craig who is immediately suspected of the crime. The families of both boys have long been at odds and now they gather for a fight. Davie gets away and continues his wanderings. He encounters…
Megan Bowen (text), Jelena Jordanovic-Lewis (illustrator), Mummy’s Tummy Smile, Little Steps Publishing, October 2018, pp., $24.95 (hbk) ISBN 9781925545883 This is a book for mothers who gave birth via cesarean section and want to share their birth story with their child. The author wrote it after her own unplanned cesarean section to explain her scar to her inquisitive toddler. The story puts a positive spin on the scar left behind after a cesarean section, depicting it as the smiling mouth of the mother’s stomach. The hero of the book is Mummy’s tummy, at first keeping baby safe and helping it…
Jacqueline Harvey (text), Disappearing Act (Kensy and Max #2), Random House Australia, 3 September 2018, pp.368, $14.99 (pbk) ISBN 9780143780632 Twins Kensy and Max, 11, are secret agents in training. In book one, the twins’ parents went missing and the pair discovered their parents were actually spies in hiding. Now they know their parents are alive, but they don’t know if they’re safe or how to find them. And they don’t know who they can trust. So they focus on their secret agent training, learning how to navigate, break secret codes, evade capture and – best of all – use…
Morris Gleitzman, Help Around the House, Penguin Books Australia, September 2018, 208 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780143793236 Ludo is a kind kid, determined to be help others, so it’s ironic that he’s thwarted by the very organisation established to do the same – the Australian Government. When his dad is elected to Federal Parliament and his family moves to Canberra, Ludo is excited about helping his dad help others. But things don’t go as planned. Ludo’s dad is pulled astray by cynical hacks more concerned with keeping their jobs – and all their perks – past the next election.…
Nette Hilton (text) and Lucinda Gifford (illustrator), The First Adventures of Princess Peony, Walker Books, November 2018, 64 pp., RRP $19.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760650445 This first book in the Peony series, by award winning author, Nette Hilton and illustrator, Lucinda Gifford, is an illustrated mini novel about an imagined adventure of a feisty, strong willed little girl, named Peony. The front cover sets the tone of playful silliness with a sub-title that proclaims – “ adventures of Princess Peony – In which she could meet a bear. But doesn’t. But she still could.” Whilst the text refers to Peony’s imaginings,…