Charlotte Lance, This Girl, That Girl, Allen & Unwin, June 2016, 32pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760291709 This picture book is a celebration of differences. Two unnamed girls are the main characters, both very different to each other in what and how they do things. Not only are the girls different to each other, their fathers are also different, with each father very much like the other girl. This is not expressed in the sparse, well-worked verbal text but in the clean, bright and airy illustrations. This girl is neat and tidy, dressed in checkered trousers and white t-shirt, while that girl…
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Alyson Noel, Unrivaled (Beautiful Idols #1), HarperCollins Australia, 11 May 2016, 420pp., $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780062496744 Madison Brooks is an eighteen-year-old starlet. Rich and successful, the reader discovers early that she is also mysterious. The past she has created for her adoring fans is not what it seems. Nor is the relationship between her and her boyfriend, young TV star Ryan Hawthorne. Nightclub owner Ira Redman has devised a competition for young hopefuls to become a promoter. They earn points through ‘gets’, the number of visits paid by the youngest, hottest and most famous guests. The ultimate prize is money,…
Nina LaCour and David Levithan, You Know Me Well, Text Publishing, 13 June 2016, 256 pp., $19.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781925355529 Mark and Kate have been sitting next to each other in calculus all junior year, and have never really spoken. When they meet unexpectedly in a gay bar at the beginning of Pride Week, Kate does something impulsive, she asks Mark to be her friend. Mark is also out of his comfort zone, is just starting to realise maybe his best friend doesn’t want to transition to boyfriend, so his ‘YES’ response is just as surprising. It is, as they…
Susannah Chambers (text), Mark Jackson (illus), The Snow Wombat, Allen & Unwin, June 2016, 32pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9781760113810 Told in irresistable rhyming verse, this beautiful picture book about a wombat’s journey across a rugged Australian alpine landscape begs to be read aloud. The flowing, rhythmic language features simple repetition and delightful prose that will delight children. ‘Snow on the stockman’s hut. Snow on the crows. Snow on the woollybutt. Snow on my…NOSE!’ Children will enjoy following the Snow Wombat as he explores the snowy landscape, from the stockman’s hut, over the mountain peak, down the river bank and into his…
Lesley Gibbes (text), Stephen Michael King (illus), Fizz and the Police Dog Tryouts (Fizz #1), Allen & Unwin, June 2016, 80pp., $12.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781760112851 This appealing chapter book for newly independent readers is funny, touching and wildly entertaining. Fizz and the Police Dog Tryouts is the first in a series of four books starring Fizz, an adorable, fluffy white Bolognese pup who dreams of being a Police Dog. Fizz comes from a proud family of show dogs, lapdogs and companion dogs, but has no interest in being a pampered pooch. He wants to work for a living, despite his toy-dog…
Angelica Banks, Blueberry Pancakes Forever, Allen & Unwin, June 2016, 336pp., $16.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781760110451 Blueberry Pancakes Forever is a sweeping fantasy filled with magical worlds, eccentric characters and ripping adventures is anchored by plucky young heroine Tuesday McGillycuddy. Young fantasy fans will be swept up in this tale that imagines the worlds created in the minds of writers exist in a kind of parallel universe, and that writers can travel into these worlds and meet the characters of their own creation. The action begins in the world of ‘story’, where an endless winter has reduced the landscape to a hostile…
Janeen Brian, Yong: the journey of an unworthy son, Walker Books Australia, August 2016, 256pp., $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781925126297 What could be worse than living a lie? This is the burden thirteen year old Yong must carry as he lives the life of a dutiful son when his heart wishes to defy his father. He is tormented by this realisation and hopes his ancestors cannot see his honour is a farce. Yong’s Father and other villagers have borrowed a great deal of money from a moneylender for their passage from the poverty of China to the promised wealth of the…
Nicki Greenberg, My Dog Dash, Allen & Unwin, May 2016, 32pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9781760110673 Dash isn’t a very well behaved pet— he doesn’t behave at puppy school, he chews books and wrecks the garden, he’s not very good at playing fetch and he takes absolutely ages to go for a walk. He dribbles, leaves puddles and makes a mess which makes mum mad. What a naughty puppy! Dash’s owner, and we the reader, believe Dash is a dog, but after exploring their world, we discover that Dash isn’t a dog at all but a misunderstood snail! Nicki Greenberg’s extensive background…
Sally Morgan (text), Jess Racklyeft (illus), The Midnight Possum, Omnibus Books/Scholastic Australia, April 2016, 24pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781742991047 I read Sally Morgan’s wonderful book My Place many years ago and it left a lasting impression, so I was very excited to review her picture book The Midnight Possum. It tells the story of a possum who helps reunite a mother possum with one of her twin babies through a dangerous mission that involves falling down a chimney into a house. Sally Morgan has crafted a book that is a delight to read aloud with phrases such as “… down a bumpy…
Cassandra Webb (text), Amanda Francey (illus), Take Ted Instead, New Frontier/Scholastic Australia, April 2016, 32pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 97819525059533 Anyone who has had to put a reluctant toddler to bed will smile at this book’s storyline. Mum is trying to put ‘sleepy head’ to bed, but he resists and offers multiple alternatives instead from his cat to his goldfish to his elderly neighbour (whose names all rhyme with sleepy head). The rhyming and repetition of the text make it a fun book to read aloud, while mum’s reverse psychology at the end to get ‘sleepy head’ to bed will surely resonate…