This gorgeous rhyming picture book will be enjoyed by young and old. The magical text flows beautifully and the bright colourful illustrations are a treat for the eye.
The opening pages set the scene with the introductory verse.
High on a shelf, deep in a nook
adventure lies waiting within this old book.
Dust off the cover, open it wide…
ALPHABET MAGIC is hidden inside.
This is followed by an alphabet of magical words and appealing images that are truly delightful.
Abracadabra! Alakazoo!
Bubbily, bobbily, boffity, boo!
Clutch your cauldrons and crystal balls.
Dance with dragons down the halls.
With 2025’s CBCA Book Week theme “Book An Adventure” this is a welcome and timely publication that suits the theme perfectly and will provide a wonderful introduction to magical adventures for younger readers. Teacher's notes are available.
Fun to read and full of suggestions about your Book Week costume, Wild about Book Week is designed to enthuse and promote kids in their journey towards that special week which only comes around once a year. In this family, everyone is involved, each making suggestions as to what the children can wear for the Book Week parade, a favourite in all schools.
Rhyming stanzas are easy to emulate, and kids can predict the rhyming word, and cause ripples of laughter from the listeners. Each page offers a different view of a costume that is easy to make, encouraging the audience to make suggestions themselves, or to make additions to what is presented. Dad and Mum both help, Mum offering a rainbow unicorn, the child, a pirate ship. The girl suggests painting her oncie to be a dinosaur, while Dad designs a monster with one eye. Each of the costumes suggested are made from material found at home; cardboard, scraps of appear and material, paint and old clothes. The suggestions come thick and fast: a mermaid, a giant whale, an octopus, a fairy, and a bear. Nan offers her woolly coat so the girl can be a sheep. Dad suggests a robot made from several cardboard boxes, Grandpa offers a singing chicken, and Granny red shoes and a house. Suggestions keep up for the whole book, so the problem at the end of the day is how to reduce the suggestions to one good one. Lots of kids will have lots of ideas here, and join in the fun of making their own costume from what is handy. The whole family is involved and they all go the the Book Week parade in their favourite costume.
Lots of bright, breezy illustrations make up this happy book, full of text and images to help kids are up their minds.
Themes Book Week, Parades, Costumes, Family, Imagination.
Fran Knight
Grandmas in grand cars by Mick Elliott
Walker Books, 2025. ISBN: 9781760655068. (Age:3+)
Not so long ago it was common to find advertisements for cars that proclaimed "one little old lady driver" insinuating that the vehicle had been well-looked after, never exceeded the speed limit and only driven to church on Sunday.
But one glance at Grandmas in grand cars puts the lie to that as the real truth about grandmas in their cars has been revealed. Not for them the classic little putt-putt - these grandmothers drive an array of cars that would be the envy of Oscar Piastri or Broc Feeney!
Minimal text and vibrant illustrations bring out all the joy and fun that these grandmas have in their flash cars, but for all that, there is one special grandma and one special car.
Little ones will delight in sharing stories about their own grandmas' cars - but they will really appreciate the finale!
Themes Grandmothers, Cars.
Barbara Braxton
Sonny & Tess by Nova Weetman
University of Queensland Press, 2025. ISBN: 9780702268427. (Age:11-14) Highly recommended.
Sonny and Tess is a delightful teenage coming-of-age story filled with the early delight of first romance, the embarrassment and frisson of finding someone you like, and the changing relationships in the teen years. Sonny and Tess are also finding their place in their family, and not without some pain. Everything Nova Weetman writes is a delight, and this is another example of her ability to nuance issues related to teenage life. I loved all the characters and their gentle and tentative steps to finding themselves and their place, and their first love. This is possibly one of Nova Weetman’s lightest books and its gentleness and care in addressing teen cares and concerns is exemplary.
This story is told through the voices of each of the main characters. Their connection through the setting of the local fish and chip shop carries the aroma of cooked oil and the ordinary things of life. Both Tess and Sonny have family concerns - Tess is trying to be heard and to find independence from ‘caring’ for her younger twin brothers, while Sonny has ‘absent’ parents and must live with his uncle and aunt. Teens who read this book will see ‘ordinary’ kids and will recognise the minor dilemmas of growing up. This will be a book enjoyed by readers aged 11-14.
Themes Teen romance, Family, Coming-of-age drama, Friendship.
Carolyn Hull
Ming and Maria explore the Universe by Jackie French
Acclaimed Australian author Jackie French needs no introduction. Readers know that they are in capable, responsible and experienced hands when they pick up a book by French. Somehow one feels that this writer is capable as there is no contrivance, no scrabbling for the right phrase- just a relaxed control of plot, language, setting and character. French is no novice. Testament to that is the sheer volume of her titles which range across all genres. Ming and Maria explore the universe is the last in The girls who changed the world series which is a return to her much loved historical fiction genre. As a teacher/librarian in a former life, I recommended French's books when students were studying a period of history and needed it to be brought alive. The girls who changed the world series aims to retrieve women who achieved much in the past and whose achievements went unrecognised.
In Ming and Maria explore the universe, Ming Qong is once again travelling through time to meet girls who have changed the world - in this case to Nantucket to meet Maria Reynolds, the first professional woman astronomer in America who published, taught and inspired in the field of astronomy. Herstory, the sister of History, has been overseeing/ conducting Ming's adventures throughout the series but in this last book, she promises to reveal to Ming something of her long-lost mother. The story is chiefly set in Nantucket. Ming has time-travelled there from Port Hedland via a contemporary boarding school in Perth Australia. Skilfully, French has Ming flung abruptly, half-drowned, straight out of the ocean on the date of January 27th,1836, to be rescued and absorbed into an early Quaker community on the island of Nantucket. Her rescuers believe her to have been stolen by pirates who ranged in those days across all oceans, including American and Australian shores -a semi-plausible conclusion. Ming meets Maria Reynolds, as a young girl at the age when she was teaching in the local school. While Ming is learning from Maria she is also engaged in searching for her real mother.
The storyline unfolds with plenty of action and interest in the capable hands of French. The reader can be assured that French has paid attention to the correctness of all necessary detail of place and time. Speech patterns, vocabulary, food, utensils, clothing, racial and religious attitudes etc. have all been scrupulously studied so that the reader is not perturbed or misguided by any random tiny aspect that may be jarringly misplaced in time. Readers should be grateful that French calls herself "pernickety" about historical accuracy.
Refreshingly, French does not join the current author trend of labouring didactically and heavy handedly on the missing "herstory" from "history". Rather, she introduces the idea of "ourstory". Themes including the whaling industry, racism, religious freedom and sexism are likewise dealt with in a matter-of-fact, "part of the story" kind of way.
At the end of the story, in the Author's notes, French writes that Ming and Maria explore the universe "... is entirely fiction, except where it isn't." She goes on to detail facts about Nantucket in 1836, about Maria Mitchell's life, her work and excerpts from her diary. She also includes Maria's favourite poem which was an adaptation of Psalm 19 of the King James Bible, recipes for Fluffy Bannock and Scallop Chowder and further information on what happened in Maria Mitchell's life beyond the time-frame of the novel.
The reader, whether they are a young historian, researcher, reader for pleasure or all of the above is in very good hands with Jackie French's Ming and Maria explore the universe. The girls who changed the world, as a series, conceived by the HarperCollins Team and Jackie French's publisher, (who asked French to write a series about girls who changed the world) is recommended reading for ages 10+.
Themes Women who have changed the world, Astronomy, Whaling industry, History, Herstory...Our story, religious persecution, racism.
Imagine if you preferred to be playing any sport in the world on a Saturday afternoon instead of having to stop indoors to practise your reading. Especially with a kid you have nothing in common with. Or, on the other hand, you enjoy reading but you've been assigned the task of helping someone with theirs, someone with whom you have nothing in common and who wants to be anywhere else instead.
And then, suddenly, one of the characters leaps from the pages of the book and you are dragged into it and a wild adventure..
That's the situation for Basil Beedon and Terry Clegg, who are neighbours but the street they live in is the only thing they have in common. But since Basil's dad and Terry's nan got talking and it transpires that Terry will be kicked off the football team if his schoolwork doesn't improve. Basil has been assigned to helping him with his reading. Every. Single. Saturday.
Because boys of that age who don't like reading prefer a bit of action and gore, Basil chooses some of the original versions of the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, but neither is prepared for what happens next...
Last time, they found themselves plunged into the fairytale world, where everyone was losing the plot. This time, words - well, chickens - are disappearing! Realising their fairytale friends are in danger of being sucked into oblivion by plot holes, the boys don't hesitate before diving back into the Grimm world to warn them. It's up to Basil and Terry to find out what's going on and how to stop the plot holes from destroying everything, including their way home.
Once again, the author has crafted a fractured fairytale that not only engages Basil and Terry, but also the independent reader who is just discovering the fantasy adventure genre, and still prefers to keep a fingerhold on what they know before immersing themselves in a completely unfamiliar world with unfamiliar characters, situations and magic. With its clever wordplay and humour, and narrated by Basil as the reluctant tutor so the reader feels an integral part of the adventure because they have access to Basil's thoughts, feelings, actions and responses, with appropriate promotion this is a series that may well capture both the quest for adventure and the fun of reading as it did for Terry.
Perhaps offer the first one to a reluctant reader to 'test-drive' to see if this new addition and any subsequent titles should be added to the collection. Maybe even set a challenge to discover the original titles that feature in the stories, provide access to them so they can read the originals rather than the more common sanitised versions for young children, and see where it goes, and what learning emerges that goes beyond the stories. Who were Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm and why did they write such grisly stories? After all, the CBCA Book Week theme is Book an Adventure...
In May, 1980 six Arabs from Iran stormed the Iranian Embassy in London and took 26 hostages; Iranians, journalists, secretaries, a policeman who was deployed at the embassy, and visitors. They were held for 6 days, the trained negotiators prevaricating, aiming to wear them down, trying to head to a resolution. But the forces involved were preparing for the worst. The London Police terrorist squad was called in, SAS readied for action, a dog squad, specialist listening devices used, roads blocked, people were cleared from the nearby apartment houses, the Ethiopian Embassy next door sequestered. Extraordinarily Royal Albert Hall af ew doors away was presenting Tchaikovsky’s fifth, cannon fire and all. The discussions about its possible cancellation must have been surreal. And Margaret Thatcher was the PM,her second in command, William Whitelaw, both hawkish in theirpolitics.
Ben Macintyre’s incredible research is laid out in a way that impels the reader to absorb every detail. He projects us into the minds of the terrorists and we have a close up of their reasons for doing this. We see that they have been recruited and groomed, their handler flying out the same day, sponsored by Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s dictator, their demands unattainable. They are there to die. But they do not know this. They believe they are bringing world attention to the plight of the minority population of Arabs in Iran.
We also see into the minds of the hostages. Policeman Lock is part of a contingent which guards embassies, the only police in Britain who wears a a gun, but once the siege has started, he is unable to use it against the firepower of machineguns and grenades. He goes to extraordinary lengths to stop the gunmen seeing it on his belt. One of the hostages understands some of the different languages and is able to translate. Meanwhile the police are drilling into the walls enabling them to hear what is going on.The Metropolitan Police are initially involved but as the day progresses the British Army is brought with their remarkable unit, SAS, now arming themselves ready for action. The bullish prime minster is ready to set the team loose. The scene is set for a bloody end.
A marvellous addition to the story of hostage taking around the world, this breathtaking account takes readers behind the scene and into the mindsof all involved. I listened to this via Audible, and found it impossible to put down, finding myself alternatively gasping, sometimes having tears in my eyes,and then laughing with Macintyre’s amazing writing. He points out the absurdities with a wry sense of humour, but never undermining everyone’s bravery and achievements. This siege changedt hings. SAS, usually a secretive branch of the army was exposed, on the spot TV coverage was used for the first time, cutting into the finalists of the World Snooker championship with the remarkable segue, we leave one Embassy (a cigarette company sponsoring the snooker finals) to an embassy in siege.
Talented Australian authors Helen Edwards and Kate Gordon have combined their incredible writing talents to share an extraordinary story about two young girls and a fantastical circus. Emme and Ivy are both weighed down by a terrible sense of loss and run away separately to escape their despair and feelings of hopelessness. Meeting quite by accident as they find themselves captured by an astonishing array of ‘actual, imagined and extinct creatures’, the two girls initially struggle to understand what has happened to them and where they actually are.
Ring mistress Seraphina harbors a heartbreaking secret and her bitterness and controlling personality leads the girls and the quirky, unique collection of creatures into the possibility of an unfortunate ending. With help from some of the partly vanishing creatures, Emme and Ivy share a complex journey to discover their chosen talents in order to save both themselves and the disappearing circus.
This story has many twists and turns within the main narrative and Emme and Ivy have alternate chapters in which to allow the reader to build an understanding of their background story. The text is rich in imagery and descriptive language with each character, real or unreal, having their own special role and story to tell.
The Disappearing Circus is an absorbing and entertaining read with friendship, belief in oneself and hope shining through.
Jemima, a beautiful yellow Labrador loves all the things other dogs love: playing with her toys, catching a ball, sleeping, getting cuddles, and eating, especially eating. But she also has another aspect to her life, she is a fully qualifies guide dog, trained to keep her handler safe. Jemima and her handler graduated together, Jemima wearing her harness, a sign for others that she is working. When working, Jemima can veer herhandler away from obstacles, find bus stops, find road crossings, and be aware that sometimes when her hander gets confused, Jemima is there to keep her safe. Jemima is her eyes. Sometimes Jemima gets confused, and then her handler can help to find their way. Each helps the other, they are a team.
They go to the beach or the park, art gallery, shops, the footy and the library. On special occasions they fly to another city, but most days they are at the office, Jemima lying at her handler’s feet. Jemima explains that when they travel by train, people want to give her a pat or cuddle, and this distracts her for her main job, keeping her handler safe. And some people give her food, but as this is not the right food for her, it can cause stomach aches which means she must stay home when her handler goes to work, and so is not there to keep her safe. Even people talking to her when she is working, means she is not paying attention to what her handler is doing. Jemima tells her audience that she is very happy to have people admire her from afar, but to leave it at that, when she is working.
This delightful story told from Jemima’s point to view will be loved by all readers. In a gentle way we are told what a guide dog is for, how she operates keeping her handler safe. It tells us about distracting the dog, or patting it or giving it food and the problems associated with this intervention. Jemima tells us to notice when she has her harness on as this means she is working, a time not to feed, pat or cuddle. Children will learn how to treat the dog if they see one in their community.
The delightful illustrations are humorous and involving, as they show a happy Jemima with her training, keeping her handler safe. The pictures show what might happen when Jemima is distracted, and in a funny way, underline the importance of the dog being allowed to work for her handler.
A soothing book, written in rhyme about the tender, loving connection between children and their fathers. Each double page expresses times when a child will be experiencing an emotion and how they can rely on their dads to help them through whatever the world brings to them. A swing around when they’re happy, a snuggle when they feel sad, listening when they are scared or worried, a hug when they are grumpy or lonely. In Dad’s arms being the special place to feel safe and loved, especially at naptime. The colourful full-page illustrations use familiar animals in their natural habitats to show this special bond between children and their dads, featuring kangaroos, koalas, native mice, whales, monkeys, penguins, pandas, bears and pelicans. A satisfying book that reads aloud very well and will be enjoyed by children and teachers, especially around Father’s Day.
Themes Fathers, Animals.
Gabrielle Anderson
No trace by Michael Trant
Random House Australia, 2023. ISBN: 9781761046933. (Age:Adult - Senior secondary) Recommended.
After following Gabe Ahern in the thrilling Wild dogs by Michael Trant I was eager to find out what had happened to him, after the cliff-hanger ending in that novel. He is on the run after leaving many villains dead, hiding out on Goldmont Station in the Pilbara, the home of a pastoralist friend. When the station is opened to tourists, Gabe becomes increasingly paranoid, wondering if one of the newcomers is out to kill him, especially as the brother of one of the men he killed is out of prison. When a helicopter he is supposed to be on falls from the sky, communications drop out and a tourist is found dead, his fears could prove correct. And to make matters worse a flood has completely cut off the roads out of the property, leaving everyone isolated. Who can he trust? Who will be the next to die?
No trace is another tense, exciting novel with a terrific outback setting. The problems of isolation for a small community when floods occur and loss of internet and phones make getting help impossible are vividly described by Trant. A child falling down a well and the desperate attempts to rescue him kept me glued to the page. It was easy to relate to Gabe and his companions as they struggled with life in the bush, while haunted by the likelihood of having a murderer in their midst. Gabe needs to keep his wits about him as he investigates the murder.
This is a fast-paced thriller with engaging characters and some surprising twists and turns that make it difficult to put down. I look forward to more novel starring Gabe Ahern.
It may be 65 million years since a meteor apparently wiped out the land-dwelling dinosaurs and ended the Age of the Dinosaurs but stories with headlines like this, 'Fossilised footprints found at Queensland school' from just a month ago, still make national news and capture the imagination.
Because no matter our age, there is still a fascination with these creatures particularly when we realise that a lot of the early evidence of how life began on Earth is actually to be found in Australia such as the stromatolites which still exist in Hamelin Pool, Shark Bay, WA. Thus, this book, another of Myke Mollard's fascinating creations, is going to have wide appeal as it explores the range and diversity of Australian wildlife from prehistory through to the final days of our unique megafauna. Covering over 70 animals that lived in Australia at various times during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras including sea creatures to amphibians, dinosaurs, reptiles, birds and mammals and with meticulous attention to the environment and flora of each period portrayed in both exquisite, detailed illustrations and text suitable for independent readers who want more information than just a starter book, it introduces a succession of the huge animals that marched, flew and swam across our landscape, from the terrifying Daspletosaurus to the more sedentary Diprotodon.
The endpapers set the scene.... The endpapers set the scene....
Maps, timelines, and comparison charts all add to the visual and learning experience, making this one an ideal addition to the 567.9 collection because it delves deeper, going beyond description and explains how the Australian continent has changed over the millennia and the impact of the change on the landscape and its inhabitants. Definitely one for those whose interest was piqued by that remarkable stone at Biloela High School!
Mini the elephant has the best memory in the whole animal kingdom. She remembers the good stuff, the bad stuff and everything in between. And because Mini remembers everything, she also remembers mistakes. Usually other people's mistakes. So when her best friend Milo the rabbit accidently loses Mr Cuddles, Mini has to learn how to forgive and forget.
The tag on this book is "Big Skills for Mini People" and it is a series written for our youngest readers to not only help them manage their emotions but help them navigate their way through relationships as they venture into the world of friendships beyond family and have to learn about competitiveness, managing inner voices, learning to listen, and communicating effectively. (Others include The Teeny-Tiny Voice, Big Flappy Ears, Elephants Can't Jump, and The Last Plum. Learning to negotiate, compromise and consider others as they emerge from that egocentric world of toddlerhood can be tricky and so books like these, read with sensitive adults who can ask questions like "What could Mini have done instead of ...?" can help develop skills and strategies that will provide well for the future.
While using animals as the main characters to portray human behaviour, particularly that of young children, is a common trope in these sorts of stories, doing so enables a lot of humour and unexpectedness to be injected into the story so it doesn't become didactic and overbearing, putting something that is common for target audiences to have experienced at arm's length so they don't feel as though they are being admonished but can put themselves in the place of both characters and start to understand feelings. Did Milo mean to make Mr Cuddles vanish? How did he feel when it happened, and how did he feel when Mini got cranky? But why did Mini get so cranky? Teachers' notes for both teachers and parents can help guide the discussions further.
One for the mindfulness collection that will help young people learning about the issues associated with assuming things.
Barbara Braxton
Goodnight glow worms by Aura Parker
Penguin Random House Australia, 2025. ISBN: 9781761354915. (Age:2-6) Highly recommended.
Reminiscent of the rollicking fun of Parker's Meerkat Christmas this entertaining, colourful book has been republished in board book format for even younger readers to enjoy at bedtime. Four coloured glow worms have trouble settling down to sleep, the pictures perfectly capturing the mayhem of over excited children bouncing around, wide awake. The rhyming text playfully incorporating all the bedtime routines employed by parents everywhere, counting to three, the kisses goodnight, teddy bear cuddles, a toy to sleep with and the blankie, Parker has it all covered for this age group. Concepts such as colours and numbers are cleverly included and contribute to a soothing and sleep-inducing read as sleepy children listen to predict the next rhyming word. The watercolour and pencil illustrations fill the small pages, creating a visual feast of details for young eyes to explore after reading.
Themes Fireflies, Bedtime.
Gabrielle Anderson
Wild child by Annabel Tempest
Bright Light, 2025. ISBN: 9781761213298. (Age:3+)
This wild child wakes up wild, jumping and squeaking, roaring and stamping and talking just wildly. She chuckles and prances, dances and tiptoes, all with lots of noise and wildness. She can pounce and sneak, and cause lots of hullabaloo, she is chaotic and tremendous, and fiercely fabulous. Lots of wonderful words are used to describe this girl’s behaviour: she is a magical stew of descriptive words, words which kids will love to read for themselves, rolling the word around until they can say it well. I can imagine adults reading the story to a group of kids and all saying some of the words together, learning the new words and confidently saying them as they read.
Wildness cannot last forever, and we see the wild child calming down, realising that her behaviour can be contained as she begins to speak in a quiet voice, being very still, and actively smiling and being kind.
The illustrations are fabulous, drawing the little girl and her family with an eye to the unusual. We see the girl displaying all her wild behaviour with a red outline behind her each time acting out the wildness. Each red shadow is in the form of an animal, so we see her eating her breakfast like a monkey, dressing like a peacock, stomping like and elephant and so on. Each animal has qualities paralleled by the child. And kids will love emulating that animal’s behaviour, as the book is read to them. Almost at the end of the book is a wonderful illustration of the wild child in her bath, all of her animals lined up on the rim, and the red outlines on the wall. The wildness is turned upside down as it becomes wild to be tidy and wild to be careful and loving. The concept of being wild means something quite different now. Children will enjoy the different meanings for the word wild, and think about when they have been noisily wild, and at other times wild in being calm and loving.
