Jacqueline De Rose-Ahern (text), Sophie Norsa (illustrator), Charlie’s Adventures… in South Africa, Little Steps Publishing, July 2018, $24.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9781925545838 This book is the second of Charlie’s documented adventures. First he went to Hawaii and now he’s off to South Africa. When arriving at the airport, Charlie and his family are greeted by friends who entrust him with a treasure hunt, complete with a map. Throughout his journey Charlie experiences the magical sights and individual aspects which make South Africa; all while solving the clues to the treasure hunt along the way. The colourful pages of this book captures its…
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Steven Herrick has been a mainstay of Australian children’s and young adult literature for almost three decades, both in prose and verse novels. His latest offering, The Bogan Mondrian is typical of his style–evocative, lyrical and authentic. Here he talks about why he wrote this book. Thanks Steven, for sharing this with us. Fiction authors aren’t supposed to bother with statistics. We inhabit the world of character, emotion, myth and story, not sterile numbers and lists. We worship the image, the poetry of words, the craft of dialogue. And yet in the clanging echo chamber of social-media, one statistic keeps tolling…
Matt Cosgrove (text and illus), My Dad is a Robot, Scholastic, August 2018, 24 pp., $17.99 (hbk) ISBN 9781742993256 Kids will love reading this book with their dads – and Dad will love reading it aloud too. It’s fun and funny, playfully poking fun at dads, while also celebrating the many ways modern dads are involved in their children’s lives. The boy in the story compares his dad to a robot, finding all sorts of laugh-out-loud similarities most families will relate to – my family loves the part about the robot “running on leftovers” coupled with a picture of Dad…
Philip Bunting, How Did I Get Here? Koala Books, August 2018, 32 pp,. $24.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9781742769684 His web site says that author/illustrator Philip Bunting admires picture books that encourage the reader and child to ask questions, chat, laugh, be silly, be serious, think, and interact throughout the book reading. He has created just such a book with How Did I Get Here? This quirky take on the biography of you (abridged) follows the history of life, from before the Big Bang to the reader’s own arrival into the world. This is quite a big ask in just thirty-two pages!…
Adam Frost (text), Gemma Correll (illustrator), Splat the Fake Fact, Bloomsbury Publishing, May 2018, 160 pp., $14.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781408889503 In these days of “fake news” it’s more important than ever for children to develop critical thinking and analytical skills. Splat the Fake Fact helps with this in a fun, entertaining and sometimes slightly gross way. Graphic novel style line drawings present puzzles, quizzes, and load of humour on every page. The assortment of facts covers a broad range of topics. Art, history, animals, stunts, sports, geography, fairgrounds and world records are just some on offer. Each presents a number…
Caroline Magerl, Maya & Cat, Walker Books Australia, August 2018, 40 pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9781921977282 On a roof/as wet as a seal/as grey as a puddle/Cat was rumbling/a rumbly purr. From this delightful beginning, young Maya embarks on a quest to reunite Cat with its owners. Relying on perseverance and resourcefulness (which sets a great example for young readers), Maya eventually achieves the bitter-sweet reunion. The ending, which may surprise some readers, features a pleasing sense of circularity. This story about friendship and a child’s simple, unselfish desire to help another being unfolds beautifully. Its careful choice of words…
Kate Hendrick’s recent novel, The Finder, is a nuanced exploration of a family’s unresolved grief, and in particular, one member of that family grappling with isolation and guilt. In this piece, Kate shares her inspiration on her story with us. About a year ago I came across the concept of sonder. Featured in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, an online lexicon of invented words, sonder is ‘the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness’. As a writer whose stories always begin…
GREENWOOD, Mark (text) Andrew McLean (illus.) The happiness box: a wartime book of hope Walker Books, 2018 Unpaged $24.99 ISBN 9781925081381 Two of Australia’s best children’s book creators have collaborated on this picture book about one of our national treasures. The original ‘Happiness Box’ is a hand-drawn and typed book created in captivity in a prisoner-of-war camp in Singapore in 1942 as a Christmas present for children interned in Changi prison by the Japanese. It was written by Sergeant David Griffin, later Sir David Griffin, and illustrated by Captain Leslie Greener, both of whom survived the war. This current book…
At the annual Qld Branch Book Week dinner, Lisa Shanahan gave an inspiring and thoughtful insight into her reading journey, and the ways in which it has impacted on her own reading, her writing, and her life. She has generously agreed to share it here with everyone. Thank you Lisa. The CBCA Queensland Book Week Celebration Dinner On Finding Treasure It’s a wonderful privilege to be here tonight, to have this chance to chat about books, reading, writing and treasure. It’s an absolute joy also to have this opportunity to publicly acknowledge and thank the Children’s Book Council of…
George Ivanoff, Game World (Other Worlds #3), Random House Australia, 28 May 2018, 192pp., $14.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9780143786238 George Ivanoff, Dark World (Other Worlds #4), Random House Australia, 28 May 2018, 192pp., $14.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9780143786252 Find the key! Open the doorway! Enter the Other World! The latest in Ivanoff’s popular Other Worlds series, Game World and Dark World continue the search for the keys that will open up the portals to exciting and possibly dangerous worlds, just waiting to be discovered. For the uninitiated, the basic premise of the Other Worlds series is that there exist a vast number of…