Fans of Penric and Desdemona (Penric’s travels) will be thrilled, as I was, to have another novella in the series. This time Penric is on the search for long lost treasure when he encounters Rozakajin in a country inn. Roz is an army deserter and bandit and believes that he has found the perfect victim especially when he spies him studying an ancient map and muttering about temple treasure. But Roz is in for a shock, the young, naïve man has many surprises up his sleeve. And the bloodthirsty bandit gang from whom Roz has stolen a string of mules is on his trail. Will Penric and Desdemona manage to stave off the bandit gang? And can they retrieve what they consider treasure in an abandoned cave?
Roz is astounded by the power that Penric demonstrates and the events that surround him. Readers will be engaged with the adventure and the tension as the bandits follow them. And they will relate to the struggles that Roz has – will he leave Penric to join the bandits again? Will he choose redemption over evil doing?
Bujold always packs a lot into her short novellas. There is humour, pathos, adventure and the struggle between good and evil. Pen and Desdemona are wonderful characters and I look forward to many more of their adventures. In the meantime I will turn to other favourites by this author, A civil contract and Flowers of Vashnoi.
Themes Fantasy, Demons, Redemption, Bandits.
Pat Pledger
Yanga mother by Cheryl Leavy. Illus. by Christopher Bassi
University of Queensland Press, 2024. ISBN: 9780702268311. (Age:3+) Highly recommended.
A story about a kangaroo and her joey sets the stage for much deeper understandings and discussions. Speaking of family, or nurturing, of mothers and the stolen generation, of culture and history the book opens with ‘Wandaguli Yanga. There is always Mother’, the Kooma words asking to be read out loud, the truth of the English words not lost on the reader.
From these stunning words, the book goes on ‘everywhere, everywhen, Mother is sun’; all the things that Mother is to her offspring are given words. Mother is everywhere, she is the cloud and the sky; the joey follows her everywhere. They do everything together. Even when she is a little way away, the joey knows she is there. And when she is far away, ‘there is always Mother’. The repeat of the opening line adds to its impact as the reader comes to understand that far away references the stolen generation, when Mothers and their children were separated by government forces. But this did nothing to cleave the love between them.
Artwork is from renowned Meriam and Yupungathi artist Christopher Bassi, his illustrations bring the kangaroo and her joey into sharp focus, their images are like portraits on each page, the focus of the words. The swathes of yellows recreate the desert area in which these animals live, the pages with grey/blue a softer image of togetherness and love between the two.
This wonderful picture book about the grey kangaroo and her joey is representative of the First Nations people and their being torn apart by colonisation and the deliberate separation of mothers and their children. A wonderful read aloud, a book to encourage discussion, a book to be read and reread, as it offers more to readers the more they ponder and discuss.
Look at the following clip to get help with the pronunciation of the Kooma words used in Yanga Mother.
Dr Jackie Huggins' review says: ‘A story of love, language and culture which speaks to the very essence of loss, colonisation, connection and resilience. This is not only an asset to preschool, kindergarten and older readers, but to all who open the first page of this exquisite book. Teacher's notes are available.
Plum is a very unhappy panda. She feels she is not good at anything. Her brother is good at climbing, so she tries too, but she falls back to the ground. Second brother loves to paint, so she tries too. But she gets herself covered in paint.
She snuggles sadly into her mother’s lap, and she is assured that she will find something she is good at.
One morning she wakes to lovely music just like the warmth of a stack of pancakes. She follows the music, and finds Old Panda playing the piano. He offers to teach her how to play. She is reticent, but he assures her that when her heart flips over like a pancake, she should try.
This is the hardest thing she has ever tried. Old Panda tells her to be gentle, as soft and light as a pancake. Week after week she tries, and finds that she is getting better and better.
Mama, Big Brother and Second Brother love her music, and invite everyone to hear her play. Plum tells them all that playing music makes her feel as happy as eating pancakes, perhaps even more.
Plum has pursued her dream, she has tried many things until finding the thing she loves. Her journey is likened all the time to her love of pancakes, keeping her aim close to the hearts of the readers. She initially follows the smell of a pancake, and at the end, she finds her niche, likening it to her love of pancakes. Her heart flips like a pancake, she must be gentle like a soft warm pancake, and in the end she is successful.
I love the illustrations, the number of pancakes on each page increasing as the story unfolds. Readers will love Plum’s pursuing her dream. She has obstacles to overcome, but keeps trying. The idea of the pancake is wonderful, and I am sure readers will want to try their hands at flipping them.
The Spooky Shipwreck is book six in the Mermaid School series, however this is the only one I have read and it was fabulous, definitely a series I would be looking at if my children were younger.
Marie Blue and her friends are going to CORAL, an activity centre with lots of fun things to do and they get to spend the weekend together playing with the water catapult, singing around the bubble fire and having midnight snacks. The only problem, Marnie is scared of the shipwreck that lies nearby as she has heard lots of ghostly, scary stories about it.
Although she is scared, Marnie heads off to camp with her friends hoping that there aren’t too many ghost stories or spooky happenings. This book helps children to see what happens when they face their fears and have a good friendship group. When Marnie is trapped in the 'haunted' shipwreck her friends help her to be brave and discover the secret of the shipwreck.
This is a great book and if this is any indication, a great series for young children. It would work as a read aloud, class novel or independent read. The book really looks at how some people can be nice normally but do mean things at times of stress or worry. It also shows that these people and their actions do not define you as a person but that good friends really help you when you need it and this is one of the reasons that I like the book. The author and illustrator have worked to create an easy chapter book with characters that will make the reader reflect on the people in their life and the magic of mermaids and undersea camp adventures. This is definitely a book worth having on your shelf and reading with all children.
Text Publishing, 2024. ISBN: 9781529066197. (Age:16+) Highly recommended.
This psychological thriller sees two women from very different backgrounds drawn together, each wanting something from the other, but each restrained by a barrier of distrust and suspicion. Fugitive, Sabine Kelly, as a 17 year-old, was implicated in the arson murder of nine people in the ‘Caravan murders’. Rachel Weidermann, a journalist, has a long running fascination with the case, hoping for the scoop that will get her a feature story. Twelve years after the event, the paths of the two women cross.
Sabine is from a family with a bad reputation, her mother a drug addict and dealer, her grandfather a violent abuser. Sabine and her little sister Aria have only known uncertain love, violence and neglect. Rachel is older, privileged and wealthy, but now adrift, dealing with retrenchment and divorce. Although the two women are very different, they are both determined individuals. It is the confrontation and connection between the two that is at the heart of a novel that is ostensibly a murder detective story, but turns out to be so much more than that.
The setting is the backwaters of the Murray River, with characters that your first instinct is to distrust. The men are invariably threatening, whether pub patrons or police officers. Sabine and Rachel have to rely on their wits to get where they want. The story is told from alternating perspectives, their paths sometimes just missing connecting up. For the reader it’s like watching from above, seeing how chance prevents the pieces coming together. The most reliable hero in all of this is Blue, Sabine’s faithful dog, whose intelligence sees him come to the rescue more than once.
To the river is a fascinating character-driven mystery and confirms Wakefield’s talent as a writer, firstly with award-winning YA novels, and now as an author of adult crime, following on from her first thriller After you were gone (2022). Readers will eagerly await her next book in this genre.
Titan Books, 2023. ISBN: 9781803367392. (Age:Adult - Young adult)
In White London seven years ago Kosika is surviving by stealing things; coins, or metal, or even sugar cubes. She works with best friend Lark, a little older than her, who has come into his magic, not wind or water but fire. Kosika at not quite seven, has no power yet and may not, as magic has become scarce, so her mother sees her as a burden. When she tries to sell Kosika to a stranger she runs for her life into the Silver Wood where she finds a dead man and places a sugar cube into his outstretched hand. The story shifts to Red London and the shop where Tesali, the apprentice in Master Haskin’s shop is working under the banner 'Once broken, soon repaired'. Young Tess is able to see the threads of magic and repair them, working in the shop with only her little spell-animated owl skeleton, Varis for company. It is Tess’s shop as Master Haskin is a convenient fiction. When an agent for The Hand, a secret organisation intent of usurping the throne, stumbles into her shop with a magical box for her to fix, her life is thrown into chaos. This is the fourth in the Shades of Magic series, carrying forward the interrelationship between the four Londons, red, white, grey and black, stacked together like books through which magic flows manifesting itself in elements like fire, wind and water which can be manipulated into spells. When the flow between worlds was interrupted by closing the doors between them an imbalance was created. I have not read any of the other books but found the world building rich and inventive. The frequent shifts in worlds and timelines fill in a lot of the backstory that I think I would have found tedious had I read the rest. There are a lot of characters to keep track of but the narrative control is tight and the reader can let a lot of the detail wash over them. I think I want to sail on a boat to a magical ice island and see a pale woman in a silver coat conjure a full-size ice ship in the air only to be crushed by an ice sea beast in front of my eyes, that is what good fantasy creates and this does it well.It is good to see a real gender balance in the character roles and a valuing of independence and a healthy self-interest alongside the importance of friendship, loyalty and trust. There is a bit of sexual tension but nothing too torrid and plenty of action and, as the title suggests, the struggle for Power. While I wouldn’t go back and read the earlier books I do look forward to reading the next.
Themes Fantasy, Magic, Relationships, Power.
Sue Speck
The other side of the clouds by Matt Samuel. Illus. by Tamlyn Teow
The child in this story is distraught. Something has happened in his life to overturn his equanimity and make him hold on to his sorrow. His parents try to bring him out of his despair, writing notes for him under his door. He sees the endless sea and sends letters to the person who has gone. He shivers despite the golden, sunshiny day, and listens to the unrelenting pulse of the sea. Nothing improves his loneliness and despair.
But in between the rain drops, he hears music, and it makes him smile. Even at school, he hunkers down inside himself. He searches again for the melody he heard before, but cannot find it. He makes a lot of noise: crashes, booms, howls and blusters, but all to no avail.
He decides to take charge of the clamour around him, and in the quiet he begins to hear the melody again. He races after the rainclouds and raindrops, making them all go away, taking his sadness with them.
Ethereal illustrations support this image filled story as a young boy journeys thorough his grief, to come out the other side with a better understanding of where his grief came from. The clouds fill each page, and underneath the swelling sea does nothing to assuage his grief. I like the image of the boy climbing stairs, as if trying to find a reason for his despair and climbing up to a point where it is diminished.
I suggest this be read before presenting it to a class as it may stir feelings of sadness amongst the group.
Two German backpackers go missing in the hot, dry outback on their way to a job. They were last seen in the hotel in the village of Caloodie, where DS Lucas Walker is looking after his dying grandmother. Walker is tasked with unofficially looking into the case by the Federal Police. The local police believe that the backpackers have just moved on from the outback to the coast and that they will be in touch. Barbara a detective from Berlin, is certain something has happened to her sister as she was very regular with contacting her family. She travels to Caloodie to see what she can find. Walker and Barbara then bring their unique skills to an investigation that brings to light drugs trade and a serial killer. Will they be able to find the backpackers in time to save them?
Wolf’s descriptions of the outback bring it vividly to life. The heat, the dust, the danger of cars breaking down in isolated spots, the necessity to carry water and provisions and means of communication are all laid out as the young backpackers set off on a lonely road in an old car. Barbara, coming from the cold of Berlin, finds the heat overwhelming, but is still determined to find her sister and she is persistent in her researching of missing people who have disappeared in outback Queensland. The lives of the townspeople of Caloodie and the outlying areas and the effect of drought on them also provides a background to the story as does the machinations of drug dealers.
Fans of police procedurals and Australian noir will find Outback very difficult to put down. Wolf maintains the suspense as Lucas and Barbara follow different clues and I completed the book in a couple of sittings, so gripping was the tension around the missing backpackers. At the conclusion there are some threads left to complete, which are likely to appear in the second in the DS Walker series, Paradise, which I look forward to reading.
Willa and Woof: Camp Chaos is the seventh book in the delightful Willa and Woof series by best-selling children's author Jacqueline Harvey. Willa Jane Tait (as she introduces herself) is the delightful little central character (a year four student) and Woof is her albino Irish wolfhound. Each book in the series is about a different adventure involving Willa and Woof. In Willa and Wolf: Camp Chaos the adventure is set on a school camp.
Willa and Woof: Camp Chaos is perfect for year four teachers and children and would be particularly beneficial if read as a whole-class story just before the class goes away on camp. Year Four is often the first time that children go on camp and reading a story about the organisation of school camps, some of the activities, the fun and some of the things that can go wrong can offset some of the pre-camp nerves that many children experience.
With first person access to Willa, our chatty little narrator, the reader has a direct line to Willa's thoughts and observations. Sometimes she is spot on in her assumptions and views and sometimes she is hilariously wrong but she is always acutely observant. Willa is a plucky, smart and engaging central character. She is a very good friend to Tae who is mysteriously worried about camp and also a very good friend to elderly Frank who lives in a nursing home close to Willa's house. Harvey depicts intergenerational relationships beautifully. Willa is surrounded by secure and warm relationships with family, friends, her teacher and of course Woof. Harvey teaches Willa and Tae survival skills that become useful on camp and the children have the opportunity to display resilience and capability when faced with frightening situations.
The illustrations by Sydney based artist A. Yi are very appealing. A.Yi also teamed with Jacqueline Harvey on the Alice Miranda series. Sometimes one feels that authors and illustrators just belong together. Like Quentin Blake's illustrations define Roald Dahl's characters, A. Yi's sketches bring Jacqueline Harvey's characters to delightful life. Yi's illustrations of Woof with all his doggy exuberant emotions of happiness, worry, eagerness, concern and pride are an absolute delight.
Willa is like another Milly Molly Mandy but she is a little Aussie school girl. For all those fans of Jacqueline Harvey's Alice-Miranda, Clementine-Rose and Kensy and Max, the Willa and Woof series is just as captivating and Willa and Woof: Camp Chaos is a delightful addition. Recommended for all home and school libraries.
Themes School camps, Friends, Survival skills, Resilience.
Bea’s bad day is another in this series about feelings. The others in The big bright feelings book series are shown on the inside back cover and include Tilda tries again, and Milo’s monster. In this book about feelings, Bea is shown as an ordinary young girl doing things with her family, until something upsets her and she gives in to her temper.
Her birthday is in two days’ time. She is very excited. Her grandparents and cousins are all visiting to cut the cake and share her birthday with her. The day before her birthday she ventures outside and finds snow is falling. A few snowflakes hit her face, but then it keeps on snowing. The snow is so deep that the postman cannot call in to deliver her cards and presents.
On the day of her birthday she is more than disappointed when none of the expected visitors can come. Her sad feelings emanate from her. As her temper takes over shards fill the air around her. Mum tries to placate her and gives her a present. One of the grandparents rings her to wish her well, but her disappointment does not lessen and the shards are still around her.
Her brother Archie takes her outside and together they play and toboggan in the snow. Returning home she finds decorations in the house for her birthday and dad walks in with her birthday cake. Unfortunately he trips and the cake lands upside down on the table. Everyone holds their breath wondering what Bea will do. She gets a spoon and eats some of the cake, so does Archie, and then her parents because even though it does not look like it usually does, it is still delicious and they all laugh together as they spoon the cake into their mouths.
This charming story of one girl’s temper will have repercussions with the readers as they learn through the story that losing one’s temper does not change what has happened. Bea loses her temper over something which is unavoidable and her presents and brother show her that one disappointment can lead on to doing something else instead. And doing it all together with a laugh helps as well.
What a dad is called in other countries may be a different word, but they are all the same. They may be short or tall, fat or thin, but they are still dads and in this book, children will see that no matter the name, these people are loving, supportive and kind.
In this charming heartfelt letter to all fathers, Ashleigh and Marina give kids a vocabulary rich text to puzzle over, learn and recite, while looking closely at the intriguing illustrations which give an insight into the world of the fathers on the page. From Baba to Papi, Da and Nan, these new words beg to be spoken aloud, put in a sentence, delving into the land where this word means the same as ours - dad. Perhaps some in the group or class can add others in other language, adding more words to learn and countries to visit on the map or in an atlas. This book introduces excited young readers aged 3+ to a range of new vocabulary and people. Adela, a Slovak girl takes her puppy to the vet, with the help of her Otec. And Ikemba travelling with his Nna, the Igbo word for father.
The rhyming stanzas introduce all readers to the scope of different words and families across the globe.
Enhanced by detailed illustrations, the image on each page depicts a dad in his environment, doing something with his child. Warm and encompassing, the bright, breezy images show families at their best, doing things together, even if huddled together under a blanket watching a movie, or playing soccer with a lot of other children and their fathers. At the end of the book is a glossary for each of the fathers. Ready for Father’s Day in September, the book is a useful tool for all year round as children learn of countries outside their own.
This is an awful dark descent into the mire of the magical world where the grasp for power and authority have created fractures in families and between friends and in the magical realms of the mostly black (but some white) community members in New Orleans. Focusing mostly on twins, Cristina and Clem, who tell the story of their own personal struggles with magic, with grief and relationships, and with the history of their magical family’s decline from its once lofty position in the magical arena. Sadly, the drama is awash with lots of awful behaviour and choices, and secrets abound, and magic is dark and disturbing.
This is a book I would not recommend to anyone. I was horrified as an adult by the magical darkness, there was nothing uplifting about the magic (Harry Potter is a nursery rhyme in comparison) - even the practice of necromancy was exploited as a plot twist. Sexual connection between the young gay main character and his new love interest was described with far too intimate detail; there was violence, a suggestion of voodoo and disturbing tension throughout the book. Friendship was fraught for most characters, and almost no magical characters could maintain a healthy relationship. Although the political and family drama created literary and plot tension, the pursuit of justice seemed inherently to lead to more violence in a horrific magical demonstration that as readers we are expected to feel satisfied with. I was not impressed. This is not a book I can recommend - I would not put it on any shelf where a teenager could accidentally become a consumer.
Themes Fantasy, Black magic, LGBTIQ, Murder, Power, Politics, Family drama, Horror.
Roswell Johnson saves the world! is a book, by a celebrity author, that is a fun and worthwhile read for Middle school readers, especially if they are fans of Star Wars, space and science. And if readers are not fans of the space/science genre, then Roswell Johnson saves the world! could just spark that interest.
The author of Roswell Johnson saves the world!, Chris Colfer, is a #New York Times bestselling author and Golden Globe-winning actor. Colfer's best-selling series of children's fantasy books, The land of stories, celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. Roswell Johnson saves the world!, described as Guardians of the Galaxy meets The land of stories, is the first book of a much anticipated new series. It is well structured; a circular story, with Roswell (the central character) leaving and then returning to the family farm after a step-by-step intergalactic quest is completed. Each chapter is preceded by full-page black and white interiors.
Colfer has a funny, whip-smart and warm authorial style. Time and time again, laugh out loud situations and conversations occur. Roswell Johnson is a great central character who the reader cannot help but want to cheer on. He is an 11 year-old orphan, living with his grandparents on the Johnson family chicken farm in Cherokee Springs county, Oklahoma. He is named after Roswell, New Mexico where one of the most famous sightings of a UFO occurred. Roswell is obsessed with all things UFO and the book introduces him presenting at the ubiquitous school Science Fair. Despite his obvious intelligence (or perhaps because of it) he is a lonely oddity - a nerd - but a delightfully smart and switched on one. After he fails to win the prize for the best exhibit, he tells his grandmother...'It doesn't matter how hard I work on something! People don't like me, they don't like my ideas, or they don't like the colour of my skin...I give up.' His grandmother tells him...'Life isn't always fair or easy...but life has also blessed you with a brilliant mind...' Colfer shares much wisdom for the young reader through the trials that await the young characters in the book.
At the end of chapter one there is a cliffhanger. The disappointed, shattered Roswell imagines himself climbing into a spaceship and leaving Earth, his classmates and '...although it was impossible for him to know it then...in just a few hours that's exactly what would happen...' Roswell is accidentally abducted by aliens and ends up leading a team of disparate other-wordly beings in an action-packed race to save the world from evil and disgusting reptoids. Each of the team represents different planets and constellations (some real and some imaginary) and each offers different skills that make them successful as a team. A mysterious UFO saves them from certain death at times and questions start to arise around Roswell's special status and this puzzling craft.
Themes of the destruction and pollution of Earth, the greed and war-mongering of humans as a species and questions about whether life as we know it is doomed sit behind Roswell Johnson saves the world! Compared to extra-terrestrial life forms, humans have only achieved a second grade rating; they are not nearly as sophisticated as more evolved and civilised E.T.s. Colfer's story though places agency in the hands of young people and the message is to use intelligence, band together with good allies, brave everything and work it out.
Roswell Johnson saves the world! is a rollicking story, with engaging characters, important messages and much imparted wisdom. In the Author's Note, Colfer encourages readers to research further the strange and true events that are described in the story. Roswell Johnson saves the world!, besides being an exciting read, is a book which will spark interest in many branches of Science.
Themes U.F.O.s, Extra- terrestrial beings, Space, Middle school science.
Wendy Jeffrey
I'll be waiting for you by Mariko Turk
Allen & Unwin, 2024. ISBN: 9781760526603. (Age:16+)
The opening scene of this book takes place in a ‘haunted’ hotel around a ouija board, where teen friends Natalie and Imogen are trying to contact the dead. The Harlow Hotel where they are staying is renowned for spiritualists and mediums and particularly for the presence of the long-dead Agnes Thripp. The teen girls are fascinated by the story and yet the possibilities of speaking to those who have died seems far from primary in their busy lives away from their holiday destination. Sadly, Natalie must face incredible grief and her own doubts and beliefs about the possibility of encountering and hearing from those who have passed away. A return to the Harlow Hotel raises all sorts of metaphorical and real possibilities, and being thrust into a new friendship with the ‘new boy’ from school also gives her new ways of seeing the world without her old friend, Imogen.
This is a dramatic tale set within the haze of grief and psychological distress. With the idea of the possibility of ghosts and communication with the dead to be challenged or believed, this story has a dark and unsettling feel. Natalie is a devotee of horror movies, so there is an almost movie-like tension to the story too. The chance to regain psychological health after grief is explored, and romance wafts through an otherwise uncomfortable journey through haunted experiences. I was uncomfortable with the spiritualism and ghost story threads throughout the story, but the positivity of counselling help and debunking some of the myths of the mediums restored some reason and sense within the story. I am not sure that I would put this book into the hands of many young people, it has some hard and harrowing aspects. There are some positive aspects re ‘believing in yourself’ themes and a gentle teen romance, that are not uncommon in YA literature, that almost redeem what could be a depressing story.
Penguin, 2024. ISBN: 9780241702598. (Age:18+) Recommended for mature readers only.
This is a darkly uncomfortable teen romantic thriller, trespassing into the world of dysfunctional relationships and abuse. It feels more like a deep-dive into darkness and sad lies and psychological distress, but at the same time there are small moments when the warmth of family and friendship breaks through. There was also an X-rated journey into ‘almost’ teen-pornography as the author took the readers into hormone-fueled teen encounters that were perhaps too detailed. Certainly not comfortable being a fly-on-the-wall reader in these intimate moments, and perhaps not necessary either. The central character has to deal with an enormous cloud of guilt after a road accident that kills a friend, upends her life and connections to everyone around her. Can she recover from the worst day of her life? And will the diary notes from ‘beyond the grave’ provide comfort or fracture memories? Where can she turn now?
Told through the voices of Ella, Sawyer, and the diary entries of Hayley, the story of trust, mistrust, lies and doubt and the fear of a journey into an abusive relationship are all mingled together into a thriller few would see coming. The darkness of abuse is a hard theme to read for entertainment and so this is a book that must come with a cautionary comment. It is not for the vulnerable. The overly detailed physical and implied sensual/sexual relationship is also perhaps too intense for a light read and certainly not for young teens. The author cleverly obfuscates the perpetrator of abuse by hiding their identity with a single letter reference. Almost every male in the story seems a potential threat. Consequently, this reviewer is reluctant to whole-heartedly endorse the commendation of a compelling story that seems to be a ‘made-for-screen’ thriller. It is cleverly written, but a challenge to promote to teen readers.
18+ Readers only?
Themes Romance-Thriller, Abuse, Coercive control, Teen relationships, Friendship, Guilt, Generational dysfunction, Teen pregnancy.
