Science writer for children, Chris Ferrie, has written a non-fiction picture book for children that gives a simple introduction and explanation of how we came to be here. This is not an easy concept for children and adults to grasp but this small brightly illustrated book will be a very handy visual resource in explaining or answering questions about the concept of how the universe began and the theory of evolution.
The book uses the words first and then on a number of double page spreads connecting two different concepts. These concepts begin with first the quark and then the particle and end with first the particle and then the quark. In between are the steps of how this process evolved. At the end of the book each of the concepts is explained in more detail which is definitely an added and necessary addition to help support the learning and understanding of this process for young children.
Themes Scientific Theories, Evolution, Beginning of life, Physics.
Kathryn Beilby
Eyes on flies by Bryan Lessard
Pan Macmillan, 2022. ISBN: 9781760986629. (Age:8+) Highly recommended.
When we think of flies, we think of annoying disease-spreading pests, especially in the Australian summer. Dr Bryan Lessard, aka Bry the Fly Guy, is an award-winning Australian entomologist and science communicator who has written an entertaining and visually stunning book… all about flies! The beautiful bright orange glossy cover, striking photographs, labelled images and diagrams and clearly presented facts, will change your opinion of these much-maligned insects. The double spread contents page shows the information presented in six parts with each part having several chapters beginning with Part One ‘Introducing the Amazing Fly’ and the final section, Part Six, called ‘Fly-ing into the Future’.
One of the most concerning facts for many humans presented early in the book is that without flies there would be no chocolate! The midge fly pollinates the cocoa plant that gives us chocolate. For those fruit lovers, hover flies are one species of fly that pollinates mangoes, blueberries, strawberries and avocadoes. The interesting facts in this book are endless. The blow fly has helped to solve crimes with the maggots providing vital clues for forensic entomologists. The Antarctic midge fly survives for nine moths being frozen solid.
This book is a truly revealing and wondrous read. So much to learn and to ponder over. The diagrams and photos are of a very high quality and complement the text perfectly. An important addition to home, school or public library. A great read.
Themes Flies, Humour, Facts, Scientists, Insects.
Kathryn Beilby
Wave Breaker by Anh Do
Allen & Unwin, 2022. ISBN: 9781761065613. (Age:9+) Recommended.
Skydragon: Wave Breaker written by Anh Do is the fifth book in this popular series for middle grade readers. Amber and her carer Irene, still searching for Firefighter who may be Amber’s brother Reggie, are returning to Sennam but have landed in Spring Bay and found that their flight has been cancelled. This is the perfect opportunity for them both to relax and enjoy the sunshine and a beach holiday. However, Amber is drawn into yet another dangerous mystery when she meets a young boy called Eden who is worried the resident dolphins are missing. Amber is on high alert as she feels something is not quite right in Spring Bay and her suspicions are confirmed when she finds thousands of dead insects on the beach. She and Irene investigate, and this leads to further risks and Amber has to call on her insect powers to help solve the mystery for the town. Running parallel to this story is Firefighter’s story. He is on the run but unselfishly saves some people from a fire and he is exposed on media channels. Amber also has been exposed and Agent Ferris gets wind of both. He is hot on their trail. But whom will he try to capture first? Book Six is coming soon.
Themes Insects, Beach, Sea Creatures, Conflict, Danger, Mystery, Evil.
Karen M. McManus, author of the very popular One of us is lying and other mysteries, continues to draw in her readers with her latest mystery thriller, scattering numerous red herrings throughout the book. These keep the reader glued to the page, eagerly trying to work out who murdered Mr Larkin, Brynn’s favourite teacher.
The story is told from the viewpoint of two engaging teens, Brynn and Tripp. Brynn is returning to Saint Ambrose School after an absence of four years. She has just been given an internship in a true crime show and is determined to discover who murdered Mr Larkin. Tripp was once her best friend and with his friends Charlotte and Shane discovered the body of the teacher. The killer was never identified, the police finally putting the murderer down to somebody passing through, but Brynn has always believed that there was something to be uncovered. However, she (and the reader), are amazed at the secrets that she uncovers as she investigates.
The narrative flows along at a fast pace, as Brynn probes into the motives of all the people who could be involved. Her chapters concentrate on motives and opportunity. Tripp is a vital key to solving the mystery, and his narratives show his family background and what was happening at the time, giving an insight into his motivation while keeping the reader guessing.
McManus does not disappoint with Nothing more to tell. The pace is fast, the interlocking mysteries are well developed, and Brynn and Tripp are very likeable characters. Readers of her other mysteries will love this one, and fans of The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson, or A good girl's guide to murder by Holly Jackson will welcome another great mystery.
Themes Murder, True crime,Thriller.
Pat Pledger
Against all odds. Young Readers' Edition by Craig Challen and Richard Harris
When a Thai boys’ soccer team becomes trapped within a cave system by rising waters, the Thai rescue needs experienced cave divers to facilitate their rescue. Experienced Australian Cave divers, Craig Challen and Richard Harris, become part of the team that works against the odds and the elements to bring the boys out alive.This is their story. Craig Challen is a retired Veterinarian from Western Australia, Richard Harris is an Anaesthetist in a South Australian Hospital, and they both are well-respected and experienced members of the Cave-diving fraternity. It is their medical expertise that makes them so vital in this risky rescue as the boys must be protected from panic and drowning as they are extracted through narrow underwater channels and through difficult underground terrain. At every stage of the rescue they must also consider what might happen if even one of the boys dies during their rescue procedure.
Even knowing the result was a success, the chronicle of the rescue is exciting and adrenaline charged. The Australian lead participants in the rescue were just part of a team and their humility is evident in this account. But the pressure of taking a medical risk in anaesthetising the boys before taking them out of the cave system is also made very plain. I really loved this real-life adventure. Having just finished listening to the Adult/Mature audiobook version of this book, I read this Young Reader’s edition wondering what might have been omitted. I was delighted to discover that the Young Reader’s edition has lost none of the excitement and tension of the original book and none of the important detail. It retains the tension and implies the psychological strength of the rescued boys and their rescuers. I would be happy to recommend this memoir to readers aged 13 -18 who are impressed by the drama of cave exploration and are interested in a factual account of a significant rescue story.
Another in the Dinosaur Roar series is sure to please young children. This time the Ankylosaurus is featured. The embossed cover picture of Dinosaur Bash! will have instant appeal with its brown, raised scales, similar to that of a crocodile, and golden claws, while the rhyming story is good to read aloud.The Ankylosaurus is called Dinosaur Bash because he had a large club on his tail that he loves to swing around. This doesn't help him to make friends as he is always smashing it down and frightening other dinosaurs away. It is not until Dinosaur Roar tells him to take care that he learns how to make friends.
The illustrations are cute and will appeal to the pre-school audience. All the dinosaurs are coloured in vivid shades, set against a white background. Their cute faces are very appealing and readers will recognise some of the dinosaurs that feature in other books in the series like Dinosaur Whizz!
A double page spread of facts about the Ankylosaurus at the end of the book will give young children some fascinating facts about this dinosaur. This is a great series for everyone who is fascinated by the lives of dinosaurs.
Themes Dinosaurs, Ankylosaurus.
Pat Pledger
A semi-definitive list of worst nightmares by Krystal Sutherland
Penguin, 2022. ISBN: 9781761048777. (Age:Adolescent, Young adult) Recommended.
Not usually a fan of magical realism, I was thoroughly engaged by Sutherland’s portrayal of a team of four quirky friends and their seriously dysfunctional families. This is an outrageously over-the-top romp through teenage angst, family dynamics, love and other relationships, while also tackling the seriousness of mental illness, anxiety, suicide, compulsive behaviours and physical abuse and neglect. If this sounds over-whelming, the endearingly eccentric characters of 17 year old twins Esther and Eugene and their friends Jonah and Hephzibah keep the novel uplifting and light.
Esther has long been convinced that her family is cursed by Death, so she has compiled a semi-definitive list of 50 fears that she must avoid, but when her primary-school crush, Jonah, reappears, he forces her to tackle each fear head-on, in a series of wild adventures.
These adventures, involving geese, lobsters, moths, abandoned buildings, graveyards, small spaces and lightening, to name a few, are the backdrop to Esther and Jonah’s rekindled relationship, as well as the tender care that Esther displays towards Eugene as he succumbs to his own demons. They also enable Esther to reflect on the ambivalence that she feels towards her neglectful, gambling mother, and her father who has effectively deserted the family, consumed by his own fear.
Although the conclusion felt a little rushed and contrived, Sutherland has managed the extraordinary feat of delivering a series of rollicking escapades that seamlessly address a variety of mental health issues. In the final chapters, Esther practices a number of techniques to address her fears and anxiety, which Sutherland, in her Notes, says have been invaluable to her personally, and the book could be an effective springboard to discussions about the importance of speaking out about, and seeking help for, mental health issues.
A reluctant witch's guide to magic by Shivaun Plozza
Penguin, 2022. ISBN: 9781761043994. (Age:9-12)
Willa is working at a mill in the town of Bad Faith on the Isle of Dreary. She is on her own, since her parents were stolen by a Clouds-away curse which turned them into clouds. Willa believes it was her fault. Bad Faith lies between two covens of warring witches, Irontongue and Silverclaw. Many of their warring spells are landing on Bad Faith and resulting in mayhem for the town’s people. For example, it rains frogs, fisheyes, and snot. Supposedly Bad Faith citizens are not witches, nor do they want anything to do with witches and magic. However, amidst all the mayhem Willa is identified as a witch, although she doesn’t believe this herself. She must go and live in a castle with the royal family and be tutored in magic. Then she needs to decide on which coven to join or else she will explode! Suddenly people start losing their voices and monster Jumbles appear, which are hideous mixtures of various animals. Willa starts realizing that she is a witch but doesn’t fit the Silverclaw or Irontongue mold. Once it is proven that Willa isn’t responsible for some of these disasters, she tries to figure out who is the rogue witch wreaking all this havoc. She also has to learn how to tame her magic.
Readers need to hang on for a wild ride in this story. Shivaun Plozza has devised many creative devices, bizarre characters, and a frenetic plot. There is a theme of being true to yourself which was imparted to Willa by the healer and keeps Willa on track. “If a swan can’t quack like a duck, is it the swan’s fault?” Also, Willa has some trusted good and honest friends who support each other survive the out-of-control magic. It is certainly light and entertaining and no doubt will really appeal to confident middle year readers who love fantasy.
Another thrilling episode in the lives of Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac from twice winning CWA Gold dagger author Michael Robotham is sure to be a favourite with readers of dark mysteries. Cyrus is called to Nottingham to a crime scene, a man is dead and his daughter Maya, is missing. Then another woman is abducted. While this is happening Cyrus is dealing with his brother Elias who murdered their parents. Cyrus has been asked to look after Elias as he is released from a secure psychiatric hospital, and this raises many issues from the past. Evie is trying to behave in a normal way but her past comes back to haunt her.
This is a very exciting book with tense scenes, but it is the psychological aspects of the novel that stayed with me. It is told from the point of view of Cyrus and Evie in alternating chapters giving details about what is happening from two points of view. Cyrus and his struggles to forgive Elias for killing his parents and his fears for the mental well-being of Elias are a focus of the story and left me wondering how he could cope. Evie too has flashbacks to her horrible childhood and must hide her ability to tell whether someone is lying, in an attempt to appear normal.
Supporting characters, including Mitch, a man accused of murder, are well fleshed out and the mysteries surrounding the two missing women are gripping. Robotham always manages to keep the suspense alive, and the final denouement is terrifying but a satisfying conclusion in the last chapter takes the edge off the tension and will leave readers waiting for the next instalment in the lives of Cyrus and Evie.
Winner of the 2021 Banjo Prize for Fiction, The whispering is an Australian rural noir that grabs the reader’s attention right from the beginning. Its plot is original and there are many surprising twists and turns to keep any lover of the mystery genre glued to the page.
Callum Haffenden returns to Granite Creek Far North Queensland when he hears that a local Lachie Briggs has gone missing in the rainforest. He joins in the search, uncovering long buried secrets. Two girls went missing lost seventeen years apart, the body of 2-year-old Amelia never found, and Callum, once an award-winning investigative journalist is determined to uncover the past.
The landscape that Lando describes is dark and foreboding. The rainforest drips with rain and thick vegetation that clutch at anyone who moves away from the paths. There is a strange whisper from the forest that lures people to the treacherous boulders and the threat of a cyclone makes everything worse. Children chant rhymes and wear bracelets with little bells attached to them to drown out the eerie whispers, and Callum is reminded of the belief that many townspeople have that The whispering wild will take your child if you dare to look away ...
Callum has experienced the danger of the boulders for himself, having a leg caught in a crevice and now wears a prosthetic, making it even more difficult for him to face the peril of the rainforest. Lando strews red herrings across the path of the reader in this complex multilayered story, moving from one suspect to another with the culmination of some surprising revelations at the book’s stunning conclusion.
Readers who have enjoyed books by Jane Harper and Christian White or Wake by Shelley Burr and The wrong woman by J.P. Pomare are likely to enjoy The whispering.
Reid prides himself on two key attributes as a detective, his very forgettable face, and his dogged persistence, not giving up until he has all the answers. However, in him, author Pomare has created a fallible detective hero, who makes mistakes, and who does get recognised when he returns to his hometown to investigate an insurance claim, despite his supposedly forgettable face. And despite his years of experience as a private detective and ex-police officer, he gets himself into a fair bit of trouble.
The insurance claim is the result of a car accident; the passenger Oli, a professor, dead, and his wife Eshana, the driver, in a coma in hospital. The sizeable remuneration offered to Reid overcomes his reluctance to return to a place he just wanted to forget, a place holding more than one secret from his past.
The story is told in two voices, the investigation by Reid in the present, and the voice of Eshana recounting past events in her marriage leading up to the fatal crash. For Reid the mystery is complicated by the earlier disappearance of two local girls; only he seems to think there is any connection.
The threads of the story work well together. Pomare knows how to end each chapter with a question or a discovery that keeps the reader engaged, and gradually the two viewpoints combine to to build up a picture of what might have happened. But as with any well written mystery, it is a plot that will keep you guessing, and it is not until the end that the final pieces come together.
This is a winner for readers who enjoy detective stories with interesting characters and an intriguing storyline.
Simon & Schuster, 2022. ISBN: 9781761107559. (Age:Adult)
Gay Uncle Patrick, aka the Guncle or GUP, has been asked to look after his niece and nephew, Maisie and Grant, after the sad death of their mother (GUP’s best friend from his College days). His brother, the father of Maisie and Grant, has wisely (or possibly unwisely) decided that Patrick is the best option to care for his children while he seeks rehab for an addiction. Patrick is an out-of-work actor whose career on a much-loved series made him famous a number of years ago; he even won a Golden Globe award. His own grief in the loss of his partner after a car accident has left him hollow and he lives an isolated life in Palm Springs – a gay man, with a quirky view of life and an unconventional perspective on many things. The arrival of the children throws a left-field twist to his life. They are grieving (but so is he), and GUP must protect them and support them, but he does it with Oscar Wilde truisms and Gay Uncle Patrick rules that are eccentric, yet filled with an amazing tender wisdom. His almost accidental success at being ‘in loco parentis’ leads Maisie and Grant through the difficulties of grief.
This is a charming story filled with compassion and LGBTIQ flavour, with insights into the life of a caftan-wearing TV star battling his own personal griefs. The eccentric humour of the gay man totally out of his depth as a ‘replacement’ parent is charming and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. All the decisions he makes in caring for the winsome Maisie and lisping Grant would never be recommended by parenting or grief experts, but the children receive his care and wisdom at just the right time. Ultimately, the children and Patrick are given time to rediscover a healthy way to grieve and remember. Along the route of this story there are numerous examples of portmanteau wordplay – beyond brunch, there is lupper; his LGBTIQ neighbours are in a throuple; and alongside Patrick’s quotations from numerous films or plays there is a theatrical treatment of language that is entertaining. This book is an adult book with heart, but not really recommended for a school library.
Mischievous and witty, Beedle the Bard's stories are a deeply satisfying read in the tradition of all great fables and fairytales. Kindnesses are rewarded and selfishness shown to be the ruin of many a wizard. Burping cauldrons, hairy hearts and cackling stumps are met along the way. Each tale is brought vividly to life with Riddell's trademark wry humour and elegance. (Publisher)
Verdict: The tales of Beedle the Bard really help to flesh out Harry Potter's story, especially the last few books.
The illustrations are really good. They are masterly drawn. I feel that those people who enjoyed the Harry Potter books would really like this book.
Tommy K. (Age 11)
Themes Magic, Wizards, Sorcery.
The rising tide by Ann Cleeves
Pan Macmillan, 2022. ISBN: 9781509889624. (Age:15+) Highly recommended.
The rising tide, the 10th book featuring the wonderful D.I. Vera Stanhope, is a stunning thriller that left me breathless. It is set on Holy Island, Lindisfarne, the birthplace of British Christianity, where a group of friends meet every five years, celebrating the time when a young teacher took them on a school trip. Five years after the first trip, the beautiful Isobel, one of their members, was drowned in tidal water over the causeway and now Rick, a well-known TV personality, has been found hanged in his room. Vera is called in and begins to uncover secrets from the past.
The landscape of Holy Island makes this a stand-out novel. The island is isolated and windswept, and the tidal causeway can be very dangerous. Vera has no qualms driving through water in her jeep, and I found myself holding my breath in case she was swept away. Pilgrim House, where the school reunion is held, was once a home for nuns and visiting the nearby chapel is a requisite for staying in the house.
Vera is indomitable, mistaken for a cleaner at one time, but determined and clever. She is very persistent and follows her instincts believing that the death of Rick relates to the past and the death of the young woman on the causeway. All the members of the group are vividly described, making it difficult to work out who is the murderer. Is it one of the group or someone living on the mainland who knew them in the past?
Cleeves touches on the theme of sexual harassment and assault and the power men wield over young women in their employment as well as divorce and cot death, all adding depth and background to the story.
Readers familiar with the TV series will have no trouble reading this as a stand-alone, while those like me who have loved the books will be thrilled to have another mystery to devour.
Themes Mystery, Crime, Suspense,Thriller, Murder.
Pat Pledger
Take me with you when you go by David Levithan and Jennifer Niven
An epistolary novel told in the dual perspectives of Ezra and his sister Bea, Take Me With You When You Go chronicles the aftermath of Bea’s sudden disappearance from their family home and small town, including the discovery of family secrets and hard truths neither sibling was prepared for.
Bea leaves with no trace other than an email address hidden where only Ezra would find it, abandoning her brother to face the wrath of their neglectful mother and abusive stepfather. As Ezra learns to navigate the loose ends that Bea has left in her wake, he discovers what it means to be truly vulnerable with those that love you, that love should always be unconditional, and that sometimes it’s up to us to face our own battles - however ugly they may be. Meanwhile, Bea learns that abandoning everything that she has ever known looks very different than she imagined, and that hope can come from the strangest of places.
With twists and turns scattered throughout the novel, Levithan and Niven depict a captivating and heart wrenching chapter of Bea and Ezra’s lives. The dual perspectives juxtapose each other, with each new challenge providing extreme but important messages to the reader, culminating in the mutual understanding that you are worthy of love and acceptance regardless of the hardships that you’ve faced and the ways that you have coped with them. Your story truly is yours to write. At its heart, this is a story of found family and of unshakeable sibling love in the face of adversity. Recommended for readers aged 15 years and older due to the vivid descriptions of abusive family dynamics, and extreme acting out behaviours.
Themes Coming of Age, Sibling Relationships, LGBTQIA+, Romance, Abuse (Family Violence), Family Secrets, Missing Persons.
