Lisa Shanahan, The Grand Genius Summer of Henry Hoobler, Allen & Unwin, 25 Jan 2017, 216 pp., $14.95 (pbk), ISBN: 9781760293017 To say that Henry Hoobler is a worrier may well be the understatement of the century. He stresses about EVERYTHING! Things that you and I have never even imagined might pose a threat to daily life are major stumbling blocks for Henry. As he and his family leave home and head off for their camping holiday, Henry is so concerned that he can barely cope. And his biggest worry? The expectation that he will learn to ride and love…
Author: Admin
Eric Lindstrom, A Tragic Kind of Wonderful, HarperCollins, Feb 2017, 352 pp., $19.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9780008183011 Wow! Emotional, insightful, educational, tragic, wonderful, heavy, passionate…. There are not enough descriptors in the English language to perfectly capture the brilliance that is this book. As much of an anomaly as the title suggests, this is the story of Mel Hannigan; a 16 year old, messy teenager. The trouble is, her kind of messy is bigger than most and she doesn’t want anyone to know. Even the people in the know don’t know the half of it! The complicated web Mel has woven…
Kathi Appelt and Alison McGhee, Maybe a Fox, Walker Books, March 2017, 272 pp., $16.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781406372892 Maybe A Fox is a story about siblings, both human and animal. Sisters Jules and Sylvie have already endured the tragic loss of their mother, so when Sylvie suddenly goes missing, Jules deals with her grief by withdrawing further into her obsession of collecting and sorting rocks, a motif used throughout the book to symbolise control and order. In a parallel sibling storyline, Jules’ closest friend, Sam, is facing a different type of grief after his older brother returns from military service…
Vegara, Isabel Sanchez (text); Munro, Elisa (illus). (translated by Emma Martinez), Marie Curie (Little People, Big Dreams), Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 22 Feb 2017, 32 pp., $19.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9781847809612 This beautifully presented book, with its soft, double-paged illustrations, gives a brief outline of the life of Marie Curie. The main text, spread over 26 pages, is about 400 words and so the reader gets only an essence of Marie’s story. It tells of her early interest in science, having to move to Paris to attend university, meeting Pierre, discovering radium and polonium (and its use during war to help soldiers),…
John Heffernan, Hotaka (Through my Eyes – Natural Disaster Zones), Allen & Unwin, 22 Feb 2017, 218 pp., $16.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781760113766 On March 11, 2011, Hotaka and his school friends were cheering on the hero at a puppet show when an earthquake struck. In well-rehearsed fashion, the children filed out and followed their teachers to a safer area. Although the quake still rolled the ground around them, they knew what to do – and what could happen next. Just over half an hour later, a tsunami struck Hotaka’s home town and swept most of it away. In the chaos…
Scott Bergstrom, The Cruelty, Walker Books, 9 Feb 2017, 448 pp., $18.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781406372922 Gwendolyn Bloom doesn’t fit into school, even though it’s one full of kids of diplomats just like her father. There’s so much she already knows, having lived in various places around the world, including five languages. More than that, though, Gwendolyn lives with the tragic shadow of her mother’s death, the details of which she has only just learned. When her stepfather goes missing, she knows that it won’t be only a case of someone going AWOL, but a kidnapping with the worst of intentions.…
Robin Klein, Came Back to Show You I Could Fly, Text Publishing, 27 Feb 2017, 256 pp., $12.95 (pbk), ISBN: 9781925498318 When timid eleven-year-old Seymour jumps a fence to escape a group of intimidating boys he meets Angie, a twenty-year-old woman with a girl’s face and bizarre fashion ideas. An unlikely friendship ensues. Seymour is on school holidays and because his mother and father can’t work out their custody and relationship issues he has been dumped with an elderly friend who is stern and critical. With weeks of stifling boredom ahead of him he heads out to the shops and…
Aleesah Darlison, Running from the Tiger, Empowering Resources, March 2017, 150 pp., $15.00 (pbk), ISBN: 9780994501066 Running from the Tiger is an intriguing read from the start. It’s written in a way that captures the relationship between abuser and victim at its most raw. This is both confronting and thought provoking. The first appearance of the tiger is swift, real and sickening. Eleven-year-old Ebony, who is frequently the victim of her father’s alcoholic induced anger describes the abuse succinctly and matter-of-factly, making it seem normal, or at least Ebony’s normal. Ebony retreats to her private place when she is beaten,…
J.C Burke, The Things We Promise, Allen & Unwin, March 2017, 384 pp., $19.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781760290405 When I receive a book to review from the CBCA I write notes as I read to remind me of what I am thinking and feeling as I go along. However, while I had my paper and pen by my side it remained completely blank until I turned the last page and closed this book for the last time. This story is real, so real that I was deeply absorbed in the characters, the era, the world of Gemma. Gemma begins as a…
Sara Lovestam, (English translation by Laura Wideburg), Wonderful Feels Like This, Allen & Unwin, 29 March 2017, 306pp., $29.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781760292065 Translated from Swedish, Wonderful Feels Like This is a ‘slice of life’ young adult read. The protagonist, Steffi, is a teenage girl, feeling stuck and lonely in her small town in Sweden, where she feels she doesn’t fit in. Her life at school, being bullied and viciously teased, is made bearable by her growing friendship with Alvar, a 90 year old jazz musician, with whom she shares her love of music, and her desire to escape through music…