Reviewer Katie shares her best books of 2016…
The Tailor’s Girl by Fiona McIntosh
This is a post war romance that quickly and seamlessly transports you to a chaotic time in history where people are desperately trying to return to normality after war ravaged Europe. I loved how the reader was granted an omniscient presence over the disastrous calamities that befell the main characters.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
We remember those stories that unsettle us, the ones that keep churning in the very back corner of our mind when we go on doing what we have always done. The stories that don’t quite fit a mold, don’t appease the reader’s desire for the good to prevail or even lend themselves to the notion of good and bad as an essential and definitive dichotomy. Gone Girl is one such story.
Forgetting Foster by Diane Touchell
This is an unforgettable story of a child confronting the frailty of a parent. Stories of family life with a touch of whimsy are lovingly interwoven between the harshness of Foster’s present and help him interpret the increasingly complex world around him. This book made me reflect on how children experience the world presented to them by the adults who surround them.
Tracy Lacy is Completely Coo-Coo Bananas!!! by Tania Lacy
I reviewed this book for Reading Time and fell in love with it! The cheeky illustrations and hilarious anecdotes had me laughing all the way through it. It’s a perfect holiday read for children on the cusp of the big move from primary school to high school as it documents, in the most relatable way, the anxieties this momentous change brings about.
The Beginning Woods by Malcolm McNeill
Make a list of everything you think you know about dragons… now tear it up because it’s all wrong! This book creates a world that turns everything on its head in the most clever of ways. Thousands of adults are vanishing all over the world and no one knows why. This mystery is inextricably linked to, Max a boy who seemingly appeared out of nowhere on a bookshelf one day! Quirky, mysterious, sad, cruel and funny are a few words I’d use to describe this must-read book.
A bit about reviewer Katie Mineeff…
Katie Mineeff is a mother of four, primary school teacher and author of young adult fiction. She has two wall-to-ceiling book shelves in her house to support her reading habit yet still manages to have overflow piles scattered around. She loves children’s literature in all its forms and especially enjoys reading aloud to her students and children. Reviewing for Reading Time has introduced her to new and exciting additions to children’s literature in Australia.