Oakley Graham (text), Nina Caniac (illus.), Shiver Me Timbers, Big Sky Publishing, 1 Sept 2016, 32pp., $14.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781925520002 Pirate stories will always have their young fans, and this simple, colourfully illustrated text is no different. With rhyming text featuring the best of pirate vocabulary, along with a three line ‘chorus’ on each double page spread, young aspiring pirates will love reading along, particularly joining in with the regular ‘Yo Ho Ho’. Featuring mermaids, pirate maps, a giant octopus and a sad end in Davy Jones’ Locker for Captain Black, this pirate story hits all the right targets, but reveals…
Author: Admin
Wai Chim, Freedom Swimmer, Allen & Unwin, Sept 2016, 272pp., $16.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781760113414 Freedom Swimmer is the story of a friendship between city boy and exemplary Communist Party youth, Li, and the village pariah, Ming. Ming’s father was shot for attempting to swim to Hong Kong and he lost the rest of his family in the famine of the Three Years of Natural Disasters and Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward. Life has become an unquestioning routine of hard work in the fields, short food rations, and little else, until a group of city boys, former Red Guards, are brought to…
Matt Phelan, Snow White: a graphic novel, Walker Books Australia, 1 Sept 2016, 216pp., $27.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9780763672331 This was a charming interpretation of Snow White set in the Great Depression era. The format is deceptively naïve, but there is a depth behind the simplicity that drew me in, and a charm in the artwork that had me return for a second and third reading. Samantha White, known to her parents as Snow, is sent away by her new stepmother, the Queen of the Follies. After the suspicious death of her beloved father, Snow finds herself on the run in a…
Mardi McConnochie, Escape to the Moon Islands (Quest of the Sunfish #1), Allen & Unwin, Sept 2016, 352pp., $14.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781760290917 Four children (and their clever, talking bird) on a boat face adventures, pirates, daring escapes, and bad guys who are looking for their missing scientist father. Anyone who loved Enid Blyton’s or Arthur Ransome’s adventures, as I did, is going to feel right at home with Escape to the Moon Islands. The language has much of the charm of those classic stories, but the nostalgia is cut with a grittier, tougher, and more contemporary sensibility. What really gives Escape to…
Terry Deary, Shakespeare Tales: Twelfth Night, Bloomsbury/Allen & Unwin, August 2016, 64pp., $12.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781472917836 Terry Deary, Shakespeare Tales: Romeo and Juliet, Bloomsbury/Allen & Unwin, August 2016, 64pp., $12.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781472917867 Terry Deary, best known for his Horrible Histories series, delivers Shakespeare to the young reader in a clever and appealing way by interweaving the Bard’s tales with parallel stories. I was impressed by the thought and care the author put into presenting these plays in a format which makes them likely to appeal to even the most reluctant of readers. In the first performance, ever, of Romeo and…
Margrete Lamond (text) Ingrid Kallick (illus.), Two Trolls From Norway, Christmas Press, 1 August 2106, unpaged, $19.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780994234056 Clearly trolls can’t be trusted; they are ugly in appearance and in deeds as we discover in these engrossing tales from Norway. Margret Lamond skilfully retells the two magical tales in this charming picture book displaying her talent as a storyteller. The tales have a conversational tone which helps to capture the oral tradition from which they originated. The illustrations by Ingrid Kallick convey the unusual quality of these stories and have a distinctly Scandinavian appearance in the decorative patterns and…
Isabel Sanchez Vegara (text), Mariadiamantes (illus.), Amelia Earhart (Little People, Big Dreams), Frances Lincoln, 1 Sept 2016, 32pp., $19.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781847808851 The inspirational story of Amelia Earhart, the most famous female pilot of the twentieth century, is told in this appealing picture book. It begins with the dream of a little girl wanting to fly like a bird and follows her adventures as the first woman to fly to an altitude of 14 000 feet. She becomes a legendary aviator in her own lifetime, attempting an around the world trip from which she never returns. She breaks world records,…
Lauren Wolk, Wolf Hollow, Corgi/Random House Australia, 15 August 2016, 294pp., $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780552574297 When Betty Glengarry arrives at a small school in rural Pennsylvania in 1943, she already has a reputation as a troubled girl. She soon aligns herself with school bully, Andy Woodberry, and starts a campaign of intimidation against 12 year old Annabelle McBride, the narrator of the story. Annabelle, however, has an ally in Toby, a physically and emotionally damaged World War One veteran who lives alone in the woods and who warns Betty to stop harassing Annabelle. Betty’s antics only escalate and, when…
Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children (film tie-in), Quirk Books/Penguin Australia, 15 August 2016, 382pp., $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781594749025 Sixteen year old Jacob’s grandfather has always told stories of monsters coming to get him. When he dies after being attacked by a strange creature it starts a chain of events that leads Jacob to a mysterious island off the coast of Wales. Here he encounters the Peculiars, children with exceptional powers who hide inside a time loop to protect them from the soulless Hollows and frightening Wights. Jacob discovers his own power too and must decide if he…
Irina Goundortseva, The Mozzie with a Sharp Snozzie, Big Sky Publishing, 1 August 2016, 32pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781925275773 A mosquito admires some butterflies and works up the courage to ask to join their group, but is rejected as being ugly and boring. Feeling dejected, the mosquito uses a flower to disguise itself and is then accepted by the haughty butterflies. Danger arises when the butterflies are captured by a collector, but the mosquito saves the day by biting the human’s hand and the group manage to escape. Ultimately, the mosquito decides to forsake the company of the butterflies, and…