Monique Mulligan (text), Veronica Rooke (illus.), My Silly Mum, Serenity Press, 8 May 2016, 30pp., $22.95 (hbk), ISBN 9780994526557 Monique Mulligan is a new Australian children’s writer. She is a former journalist and editor and co-director of Serenity Press. My Silly Mum is her first picture book. Reading My Silly Mum, made me smile. It begins with a daughter complaining about her mother who does lots of embarrassing things. For example, she dances with the vacuum cleaner, sings weird songs, hides her phone in the fridge and says strange things. I related to the mother’s energy, felt the daughter’s uneasy reaction to…
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Nicola Yoon The Sun is Also a Star Corgi Books/Penguin Random House Australia, 31 Oct2016, 344pp., $19.99 (pbk) ISBN 9780552574242 Daniel, son of Korean born immigrant parents, is supposed to be preparing for an interview for Yale University when he saves Natasha’s life. Natasha is making a last ditch effort for her family to remain the United States of America. They are due to be deported that evening, as they have overstayed their tourist visa in the hope that Natasha’s father will accomplish his dream of becoming an actor. Daniel and Natasha’s background could not be more different, however they…
Danny Parker (text), Freya Blackwood (illus.), Molly & Mae, Little Hare Books, 1 Oct 2016, 32pp., $24.99 (hbk) ISBN 9781742975276 This could simply be a story of the train journey of two girls and their mother through the Australian countryside. It begins at a country train station where they play hide and seek, get stuck with bubblegum and do various other activities. Their playfulness continues when they are on the train until they have a disagreement and spend some time apart. It is a long journey when you miss your companion. They come to a bridge on their train journey…
Jon Klassen, We Found a Hat, Walker Books, 1 Oct 2016, 56pp., $24.99 (hbk) ISBN 9781406347517 The third (is it really the last?) book in the highly acclaimed hat series by Jon Klassen sees a hat, this time, in the desert. Two turtles have found one hat. Because they are such good friends, they decide if one cannot have the hat, then the other cannot have it either. As they settle to sleep after watching the sunset together, one dreams a hat dream while the other eyes off the real hat. The friendship is tested with this hat. There is no…
Monique Cain (text), Andrew Louis (illus.), Madi At Kinder (The Everyday Autism series), 3MT Media, 2016, 10pp., $12.95 (pbk), ISBN 9780994503701 Increasingly we hear of children on the Autism Spectrum so it is gratifying to find a series of books to help us engage and understand the world of the autistic child. All children love to play, move about freely and enjoy the outside world however, for the autistic child, these simple pleasures can be both positive and negative depending on their ability to communicate and their comfort level with those around them. In Madi At Kinder, author and mother of…
Marianne Musgrove, Frieda: a new Australian, Omnibus Books/Scholastic Australia, 1 Nov 2016, 289pp., $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 97817422991146 It is 1913. Twelve year old Frieda has recently arrived in Australia from Germany with her mother and father to start a new life full of promise and opportunity. They have left everything that is familiar to them thousands of kilometres away, including Frieda’s beloved grandmother. As Frieda starts to settle into the Australian way of life and make new friends, war is declared between Germany and Australia – as part of the British Commonwealth – and Frieda’s place in her new homeland…
Anh Do (text), Jules Faber (illus.), Mega Weird (WeirDo #7), Scholastic Australia, 7 Sept 2016, 160pp., $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760159092 This latest laugh-out-loud book by Anh Do involves us in the Street Garage Sale and Weir’s desire to make Mega-bucks. But life is never straight forward for Weir, or his family and friends. The Garage Sale disappointingly doesn’t make enough money to bring Grandma Do over to Australia from Vietnam. Weir’s best friend Bella, whose entire garage contents have been stolen, is also on a quest to make money – to buy her mother a new sewing machine. Together they decide…
Sophie Masson (ed), A Toy Christmas: a magical anthology of original stories, Christmas Press, 1 Nov 2016, 96pp., $24.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9780994234063 Christmas is in the air and toys (and books) are being bought to be placed under the tree. In this anthology, talented Australian writers who you already know well, come together to contribute to a collection of Christmas stories about toys. There’s so much to enjoy in A Toy Christmas: each story involves a toy or toys – whether it’s Santa having difficulty delivering them (What? No Christmas Toys for the Children?), or a young Jewish boy thinking he’s not…
Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, A Very Good Chance, Orion Children’s Books/Hachette Australia, 8 Nov 2016, 184pp., $16.99 (pbk) ISBN: 9781444014785 Set in Dublin, this middle-grade novel tells the story of Minty – a girl enduring her parent’s divorce – and Ned, a loner being brought up in a caravan by his grandmother. Ned is the new boy at school and, while he keeps to himself, Minty is intrigued and attracted. Setting is an important part of this book – particularly Nettlebog – the rural idyll where Ned lives with his Granny. Nettlebog is instantly alluring because most local parents have banned…
Reviewer Debra shares her favourite reads of 2016… Adult: What Alice Forgot – Liane Moriarty I jumped on the Liane Moriarty bandwagon late and have been playing ‘catch up’ ever since. Although first published in 2009, I read What Alice Forgot this year and it is my all- time-so-far-favourite. I love the warmth and humour of her writing and characters and the insightful examination of what happens to relationships over time. I’ve given it to all my friends! YA/Adult: Running Like China – Sophie Hardcastle A beautifully written and important memoir about one young woman’s experience with mental illness.…