Reviews

Oi duck-billed platypus! by Kes Gray

Oi duck-billed platypus! by Kes Gray
Illus. by Jeff Field. Hodder Children's Books, 2019. ISBN: 9781444937336. pbk.
(Age: 4+) Highly recommended. Themes: Animals, Verse, Word play, Alliteration, Humour. Following on from the success of the zany fun filled humour of the "Oi" books (Oi Frog (2014) Oi Dog (2016), and Oi Cat (2017)) this paperback version follows a slightly different variation as the frog finds it difficult to find a rhyme for some of the animals that appear before him, waiting to be seated. What do you rhyme with a duck billed platypus or a hippopotamus, an ostrich or a meerkat. Frog, cat and dog are puzzled and platypus is not very patient, reminding the trio that he is waiting, as he points out the queue behind him of other animals also waiting for their rhyme before being seated.
Eventually the Frog asks for their first names and they find it much easier to use their first names rather than their second to find a rhyme that fits. So Dolly the duck-billed platypus sits on a brolly, Kate kookaburra sits on a gate and Lemony lobster sits on an anemone. Everyone is satisfied, the alliterative names of the animals used to make a nice rhyming seat until a kangaroo happens to come along, with the fearful name, Amelia Esmerelda Honeydew HigginbottomPinkleponk-Johnson. The resolution will have children trying vainly to find a rhyme and like frog, telling the kangaroo to sit where she likes.
Full of humour, reflected in the appealing illustrations, the tale will bring laughter from all readers, recognising the alliteration and how it teams with the animal's name, seeing the rhyme that frog comes up with, perhaps offering an alternative, all the while looking closely at the expressions on the faces to see what a quandary frog is in. In a class emphasis could be the word play, rhyme and alliteration, while discussion with younger readers about first and last names would be appropriate.
All readers will love looking out for the seat of each of the animals and delight in the end papers with Field's platypus panorama.
Fran Knight

Playing with collage by Jeannie Baker

Walker Books, 2019. ISBN: 9781406378665.
(Age: 6+) Highly recommended. Themes: Collage, Arts and crafts, Invention, Recycled materials. The front cover invites the readers to look more closely at the image, working out what it is made of and what it could be. For those who know Jeannie Baker's work, the background knowledge that she plays with collected items from nature will stand them in good stead as they scan the cover. But those who do not know her work, and there can be only be a handful, then this will be an eye popping read.
Aimed at a younger audience, but with enough information and instructional images to appeal to anyone with an interest in art, Playing with Collage is a joy to read.
Each chapter involves a double page of information with illustrative photographs, allowing the reader to see just how her work is done, as she gives the most basic of instructions that will make every reader believe that they can do it too, even someone new to the field.
After the introduction, three more double pages talk about Tools, Tips and Playing with Materials. After these the book is divided into four parts, each dealing with a different aspect of collecting materials. The first is Paper which encourages readers to collect all sorts of paper, then play around with it, making different shapes and images. This is followed by Out in Nature, where she shows the readers the sorts of things they can collect when out in the field. Again, On the beach shows a range of things that can be collected while beach walking, and the last section, In the Kitchen showcases the sorts of things that are right under our noses.
Baker goes on to discuss Translucency encouraging the reader, as always, to try it out for themselves, and the last section shows a variety of found materials and asks the reader to guess what materials she has used in her egg box collage.
And this then is the aim of this beautiful book. Readers will be so entranced that they will go out and try her techniques for themselves, marvelling at her work, seeing her work with fresh eyes.
Readers familiar with her work will be astounded at the range of materials she collects to use in her collages and look more closely at the books when they come across them. For others this book will initiate collection and storage then experimentation as they try out some of the techniques she espouses.
This is a beautiful read from every point of view: an instruction manual, an art book, a book espousing the art of collage, a peep into Baker's talents, an inducement to re-look at Baker's other books.
Fran Knight

Argh! There's a skeleton inside you! by Idan Ben-Barak and Julian Frost

Allen and Unwin, 2019. ISBN: 9781760631635.
(Ages 4-8) Highly recommended. Themes: Human Anatomy, Skeleton, Hands. This simple, interactive and very enjoyable picture book seeks to give young children a look inside their hands to discover what makes them work. The aliens Quog and Oort need to get to a party but their spaceship needs repairs. Neither of them has hands, which makes it more difficult to make their repairs. Through some clever interaction Quog grows what he needs to make the repairs and in the process the reader comes to understand how their skeleton, muscles and nerves work together to make their hands the useful things they can be.
The bright, simple but informative illustrations make this an extraordinary introduction to human anatomy for young children. The interactive parts of the story were particularly popular with the children who heard this book read aloud; putting their hands onto the page so that Quog could see inside made the book come alive for the young audience.
At the end of the entertaining story the authors give us more detail about what is inside our hand and how it works, just in case we would like to grow another hand. Very well thought out and informative for all who read it.
The duo that produced this book also gave us Do not lick this book, (it's full of germs) and this one will be just as popular with young readers. Great addition to every primary school library.
Gabrielle Anderson

Sweet sorrow by David Nicholls

Hodder and Stoughton 2019. ISBN: 9781444715415.
(Age: 12+) Highly recommended. Sweet sorrow is a lament to the end of childhood and to first love. A bildungsroman, the novel follows Charlie Lewis on his quest to get to know the lovely Fran Fisher, amateur actor and Shakespeare aficionado. In an attempt to impress, or get her number, Charlie agrees to join a production of Romeo and Juliet that the Full Fathom Five Theatre Co-operative are organising over the Summer. Without his mates to join him in his scorn, Charlie finds himself intrigued with the players and the drama students.
While he scoffs at theatre sports, Charlie finds himself with friendships completely different to the friendly scuffles and drunken antics of those he's known before. Being part of the play allows Charlie not only to get close to Fran, but also to grow as a person independent of the politics of the boys and rebelling against his parents' expectations. But the pressure of looking out for his father and navigating the ditch between his parents and him and his sister is almost too much. When the walls Charlie built to keep himself and his dad safe start to crumble, everything quickly comes crashing down.
Told both in the present and retrospect, Sweet sorrow follows the summer Charlie threw off social expectations he'd come to respect in school, he starts to work to pull his life together after the stress of his father's erratic behaviour, bankruptcy, and divorce sends him down a dark and spiralling path of failure. I would highly recommend this novel to boys twelve and up who struggle to fit in and achieve at school as they might find some parallels with Charlie.
Kayla Gaskell

Hear the wolves by Victoria Scott

Scholastic, 2017. ISBN: 9781338043587.
(Age: 11+) Highly recommended. Themes: Alaska, Wolves, Survival, Bullying, Abuse. Sloan, partly deaf and still suffering the loss of her mother who left two years before, is left alone in her house by her father and older sister, when they trek to the neighbouring village for a meeting. Sloan finds several other people still in the village: Ms Wade who has injured herself and needs medical attention, Pilot and his abusive father, Nash, a young boy and their teacher, Mr Foster. Together they pack some supplies and head for the moored boat to go down river to the next town to get Mrs Wade to a doctor.
But the community has cleared the land, denuding the place of rabbits and hares the main source of food for the wolves, and Sloan's father, in building a fence has stopped the elk coming near the town. Wolves are now hungry, unable to keep themselves fed and so track the six people as they make their way towards the river. The trek should only take a day but is hampered by the injured woman and an alcoholic Nash trying to control the group, so the search for shelter becomes obvious as each night the cold and fear sets in.
This is a chilling read. A blizzard has blown in unexpectedly, the wolves are a constant threat in the background, the hatred between Pilot and his father is overwhelming and the ammunition is running out.
The book reminded me of many other stories set in the Alaskan wilderness, the Hatchet series of books (Paulsen) Call of the Wild (London) and The Great Death (Smelger), but in this one the wolves track and hunt their quarry, Ms Wade and Sloan all the while telling the reader of the behaviour of these animals, pushed to the brink by the destruction of their habitat.
Sloan has been afraid of being alone since her mother left and the extraordinary decision by her father to leave her to force her to survive is akin to a child being thrown into water to teach it to swim. But Nash's cruelty to his son is mind numbing. In this harsh landscape some people's humanity has deserted them and reading this book reminds us over again of the need for people to understand each other and work together to survive. And no where more so than in the Alaskan wilds.
Fran Knight

The million pieces of Neena Gill by Emma Smith-Barton

Penguin, 2019. ISBN: 9780241363317.
(Ages: 15+) Recommended. Themes: Mental health, Contemporary. Emma Smith-Barton's debut novel draws on her own experience as a Pakistani child growing up in the UK.
Not only does Neena have to deal with the usual teenage search for identity but ten months of grief since the mysterious disappearance of her older brother Akash, whom she obviously adored. Her parent's grief exacerbates their cultural expectations of Neena and she begins to 'act out'. When they announce a new pregnancy, Neena really flips out.
Neena seeks solace in the company of Fi, her brother's ex-girlfriend - perhaps to feel close to him again or maybe to solve the mystery that is consuming her. She juggles the demands of school, work and home with her need to feel numb with Fi. A clandestine romance with gentle Josh, only adds to her pressures. Neena's confusion persists and she puts herself in danger visiting an older drug addict who may or may not know something about Akash's disappearance. Neena's childhood friend, Raheela, reaches out to her but is pushed away.
While we wonder what happened to Akash, the story is more about our increasingly unreliable protagonist and our concern for her mental state and destructive behaviour. Smith-Barton uses very mature themes and language to explore the consequences of not talking to someone about your feelings of loss and anxiety - feelings which potentially can spiral into psychosis.
We don't know who to believe in this story, perhaps not Neena. The fast pace and insightful writing teaches us far more about the complexity of grief and trauma than any hopes we harbour that Josh's love has the power to salve Neena's troubled mind. The million pieces of Neena Gill is riveting because it is a credible exploration of a family under pressure and fascinating because we wonder if the pressure came before or after the bad stuff? Emma Smith-Barton may have grown up between two cultures, but she is definitely a very astute observer of the inner life.
Deb Robins

Monkey time by Michael Hall

Greenwillow Books, 2019. ISBN: 9780062383020. 48pp., hbk.
Monkey is trying to catch time.
Up, down, and all around Monkey goes.
Can Monkey catch a minute
Can you?
From the creator of both Little i and Red, a crayon's story comes a new story that explores time, this time. Asleep in a tree with branches remarkably like a clock face, Monkey is taunted by Minute who challenges him to catch him as he races around the 'clock'. And when, despite Monkey's frantic effort, Minute beats him another Minute pops up with the same challenge.
'We are lightning fast, and you are a slowpoke, Monkey.'
Fifty-nine times, Monkey chases the minutes until . . .
Time is a very abstract concept for young children and while they constantly hear about 'Just a minute' and 'Wait a minute' and so on, it is hard for them to know just how long a minute is. For anyone, even an adult, who is watching the clock a minute can whiz by or it can drag like a gammy leg, so it's no wonder it's a tricky concept for a little one to grasp. However, by having fun with the book and challenging the child to see what can be accomplished in a minute using a one-minute egg-timer as a visual reference, it will start them on the journey towards understanding. The addition of the strategy for breaking an hour up into blocks and the counting endpapers enhance the power of the book, as do the descriptions of the rainforest creatures that appear in Monkey's story.
Barbara Braxton

The little mermaid by Geraldine McCaughrean

Illus. by Laura Barrett. Orchard, 2019. ISBN: 9781408357231.
(Age: 7+) Highly recommended. Themes: Fairy tales, Hans Christian Anderson, Mermaids, Cautionary tales. When a little mermaid gives up her tail, voice and her home in the sea because she loves a prince, it is to be hoped that she receives his love in return, after all she saved his life when he was drowning at sea. But no, she cannot tell him, she has given up her voice, and he marries the princess from the country next door. This Hans Christian Anderson tale always intrigued me, and even more so when it was modernised so that true love came out trumps in the end. I preferred the one where she went back to sea a wiser and happier mermaid, although Anderson's tale has a religious ending that surprised me when checking the original story for the review.
This wonderful retelling by McCaughrean comes from the original Anderson fairy tale and will be a pleasant surprise for all readers.
Mermaid Delphine falls for the prince, and despite warnings from her five golden haired sisters, takes the potion from the sea witch who, in exchange, swallows her voice like an oyster. Delphine stays with the prince in his palace, a companion who dances for him but must wash her feet each night to wash off the blood. But the prince does not know that she loves him and marries the princess from another land, and with that the witch's curse says that Delphine's heart must break and she return to the sea as sea foam.
Her sisters sell their hair to the sea witch in return for a knife with which Delphine must kill the prince in order for her to return home, the magic spell broken. But Delphine cannot do this and so jumps into the sea where a greater magic than that of the sea witch restores her to her family.
This beautiful retelling is accompanied by the most engaging of illustrations: against a sea of blue, black silhouettes appear, mermaids and sea creatures wind their way across the pages, the mermaids' hair spilling out behind their tailed bodies, the weeds, small fish and different blues contrasting with the world on land with women in their large ornate dresses, along with castles, horses and the prince.
This would be a wonderful read aloud as well as an engaging series of lessons in comparing fairy tales, or comparing this with the film or asking people to retell the story of The little mermaid before reading one of the versions. And of course there is the statue in Copenhagen to wonder at.
Fran Knight

The middler by Kirsty Applebaum

Nosy Crow books, 2019. ISBN: 9781788003452.
(Age: 12-14) Recommended. Themes: Dystopian fiction, Future society, Friendship, Loyalty, Siblings, Betrayal. Maggie is looking for a way to make herself noticed. She is a middle child, not a heroic eldest, who will help to fight in the silent war to help her society. When you turn 14 you go to camp and then to fight, it is a tradition that no-one questions. But Maggie is not an eldest and laments the fact that she is often forgotten even by her own family, so finding and catching a Wanderer seems the best and most noble thing she can manage to change that. Maggie and all the other townsfolk are indoctrinated during their schooling to believe that the boundary of the town is there to keep them safe from the outside world and the wanderers - dirty, deceitful, dangerous people that don't have a town to call home. So why does the one that Maggie has met seem so nice and friendly? Una and her father are certainly dirty but are they dangerous? She has connected with them and she feels compelled to help. Una's father is badly injured, her mother is dead, so Maggie gets the medicine they need and gives them food. She tells herself that she will turn them in but when this happens facts are revealed that make her question everything she has ever been told about her society.
Maggie narrates the story, telling us about her family in such detail that we get to know them well: her eldest brother Jed, about to leave for Camp; her youngest brother Trig, who is special and needs extra care; her hard-working mother and father; a family living in the 20th century but at a time when the war has meant life is a struggle and they don't always have the things they need to live an easy life.
This book allows us to see that everyone has a different point of view and putting yourself in another's shoes often reveals the truth about life instead of the beliefs and prejudices that surround us. The story could link with discussions about refugees and how their lives are affected by the way society views their situation and life choices.
Gabrielle Anderson

The place on Dalhousie by Melina Marchetta

Noodle bear by Mark Gravas

Walker Books, 2019. ISBN: 9781760651022.
(Age: 4+) Recommended. Themes: Bears, Noodles, Food, Seasons, Friendship. One the first day of spring, Fox holds a party and invites all the other animals. But Bear does not come. Fox goes to his cave to see if he is alright and finds him snoring loudly, his cave littered with empty noodle bowls and packets. He has spent the whole winter bingeing on Noodle Knockout, a weird TV show, and eating noodles. He has eaten all the noodles he could find and now waking wants more. He searches but cannot find any and the other animals offer him their food. Each is rejected as being too crunchy or too flowery or too splintery. He cannot find anything to eat so decides to go to the city and become a contestant on the show where he can eat all the noodles he could wish for.
The digital illustrations will provoke laughter from the readers as they see the bear in his messy cave, watching TV incessantly, and rejecting the food from the other animals. Readers will recognise themselves in the bear, and empathise with his longing for noodles.
Of course, once in the city he is invited to be a contestant and wins easily, becoming a TV star with his own TV show. As good as this is, he begins to remember his friends in the forest and the good things they did together, and decides to return home. Once there he has enough noodles for everyone, and they find that they are just to their liking.
Fran Knight

The wolf wilder by Katherine Rundell

Bloomsbury, 2015. ISBN: 9781408872352.
(Age: 9-13) Highly recommended. Themes: Wolves, Russia, Nineteenth century, Animals, Survival. A totally engrossing adventure story about Feo and her wolves, seeking to survive in the harsh Russian winter while being pursued by those who see wolves as a threat, something to be hunted down and killed.
While a wolf wilder, someone who helps wolves survive in the wild after years of living with humans, may be a fiction, there are many people around the world helping partially domesticated animals return to the wild. Rescue parks exist to return animals to the wild, their natural place rather than be dependent upon humans.
In Russia, the wolf is seen as a sign of strength and power and pups are stolen shortly after birth to be sold for large profits to the idle rich, in whose grand houses the wolves are trained to beg and sit, fed inappropriate food, discarded when they grow too big or become aggressive.
Feo and her mother take these abandoned wolves and show them how to survive in the cold snow covered wilds 1000 miles from St Petersburg, but into their area comes General Rakov, a man obsessed with ridding the woods of these wolves and their benefactors. Feo befriends one of the garrison, a boy her age entranced when he sees a pup born, Ilya, slipping away from his work to help Feo raise the pup.
But one breathless night he comes to warn the women: a cow has been killed and the general is on the rampage, death in his heart.
After seeing her mother bound and taken away by the soldiers, Feo flees, determined to find her and free her.
So she, Ilya, the three wolves and new pup set out on the journey to St Petersburg. They have the most extraordinary of adventures, meeting others, slipping past the soldiers, helping villages with their own survival as the soldiers move against anyone who helps Feo. Staying with others gives her the opportunity to educate them and the readers about wolves, their habits, habitat and lifestyles, and I can assure all readers that they too will come away from this book with a wolf sighting added to their to do list.
Rundell writes with incredible sympathy, engaging the reader in a story so real, you feel the need to brush the snow from your eyelashes, duck beneath the overhanging fir tree boughs and nestle your face in the warm fur of the new pup.
It is the last days of Tsarist Russia, and glimpses of that failed system of government can be seen throughout this amazing story. Teacher's notes are available.
Fran Knight

The flowers of Vashnoi by Lois McMaster Bujold

Subterranean, 2019. ISBN 9781596068926. 96pg.
(Age: 15+) Highly recommended. Themes: Science fiction. Lovers of Bujold's Hugo Award winning Miles Vorkosigan series will rejoice to discover a short stand-alone novel starring Ekaterin, Miles' clever wife who is determined to help Vashnoi exclusion zone that was been devastated by radiation when the Centagandans attacked the planet. With the help of scientist Enrique Borgos, she has attempted to use bioengineered insects to regenerate a region but when checking on the experiment finds that some have been stolen. Further investigation from the air uncovers the fact that there are four individuals living in the area. It is up to her to help them leave Vashnoi for medical treatment.
Ekaterin is clever and empathetic and readers will enjoy getting to know her character and her abilities in this short work. She emerges a formidable woman who is equally as compassionate and intelligent as her husband and is very good at problem solving. The unique science behind the bioengineered insects is also fascinating.
Fans who want to know more about the planet Barrayar and Miles' wife will not be disappointed and readers new to Bujold's work will discover a satisfying short stand-alone read that will have them searching for the Miles Vorkosigan series.
Pat Pledger

Every child a song by Nicola Davies

Illus. by Marc Martin. Wren and Rook, 2019. ISBN: 9781526361417.
(Age: 5+) Recommended. Themes: Universal rights of the child, Human rights. A unique and moving picture book combines a tender story with information about the rights that children are entitled to under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It begins with the birth of a child: 'When you were born, a song began...' and goes on to show that the child needs to be 'nourished, cherished, celebrated.' Using a song as metaphor, the reader sees the child soaring and exploring and meeting other children 'unique and special', but the short lyrical text also shows what it is like to be exploited, imprisoned or part of war and needing refuge. It exhorts everyone to raise their 'voices for the right of every song to sing out loud, bold and unafraid'. In conclusion Davies has chosen some of the rights of the child to emphasise.
Marc Martin's watercolour illustrations complement the text and give the reader extra information to help understand the needs of the child. Dark colours show the tribulations of child labour and boat people, while bright colours portray the happiness of children when their rights are maintained.
This would be a wonderful book to use to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (30 November) and could be used at any time when discussing human rights and the needs of children everywhere. It is a book that would help children to show compassion and kindness and to stand up for human rights.
Pat Pledger

Inland by Tea Obreht

Hachette, 2019. ISBN: 9780297867074.
(Age: 16+) Highly recommended. Themes: Historical fiction, Survival, Drought, Cameleers, Ghosts, Trust, Relationships. Set in the harsh drought ridden country of 1890's southwest America, Obrecht's Inland tells two stories that gradually draw closer together, both set in harsh inhospitable environments, with people struggling to make an existence, dealing with loneliness and ghosts of people dead.
Outlaw, Lurie, described as a 'hirsute Levantine' on the wanted posters, travels for a while with a band of cameleers attached to a US military expedition into the desert but pursuit by the relentless Marshal Berger sees him once again finding his own way, but this time with a strange companion for whom he feels a growing attachment.
The other story is one day in the life of homesteader Nora. With her husband gone to find water, and her two adult sons disappearing early in the morning, she is left with her anxious child Toby, a wheelchair-bound mother-in-law, and young helpmate, Josie, who communicates with the spirit world. With only the last dregs of water to contend with the scorching heat, Nora has to stand guard against hostile outsiders, and now, a phantom wild beast that has put fear into Josie and Toby.
Both Lurie and Nora are tough individuals each dealing with ghosts of the past. For Lurie it is past companions he continues to see and who infect him with their needs; for Nora it is the ghost of her daughter, dead from heat stroke many years ago. Both have to contend with loneliness, hardship, and distrust of others. Their stories are a journey of self-enlightenment and exploration of the human need for trust and companionship. The reader is drawn into the two stories, wondering how they will eventually come together. The twist at the end makes for an unforgettable ending.
It is a panoramic novel, each chapter written with a different voice, the language rich and poetic, evoking another time and place. It has many of the elements of the American western but is highly original in weaving in the little known history of the U.S. Camel Cavalry Corp, and the mix of Middle Eastern migrants, Mexicans, and Indians. It is a good reminder that America, like Australia, has always been a multicultural mix of people.
Helen Eddy