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My Especially Weird Week with Tess

Sep17
My Especially Weird Week with Tess

My Especially Weird Week with Tess

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Especially Weird Week with Tess

Anna Woltz

Translated by David Colmer

David Dean 

Rock the Boat, 2023

176pp., pbk., RRP $A14.99

9780861542963

Sam is a deep thinker – his older brother, Jasper, calls hum ‘the professor’ – and since attending the funeral of a schoolfriend’s father recently, many of his thoughts have been centred around death, particularly its impact on those left behind.  And it is his questions about the loneliness of the last dinosaur that leads to a chance meeting with 12-year-old Tess who seems to be on his wavelength and turns a run-of-the-mill holiday on the Dutch island of Texel into a life-changing time for both of them.

Within minutes of the meeting he finds himself learning to waltz in a carpark, offering to bury an old man’s canary and then discovering that Tess, who has never known her father, has found out who he is and has hatched an audacious plan to bring him to the island so she can observe him and decide whether she will disclose her identity. Through the filter-free conversations that kids have when life is still about them and theirs and not impinged by what others might think, they share their thoughts and do things that help them work through Sam’s fear of the loneliness caused by death and Tess’s relationship with her father that is completely credible for any reader who is the same age or who knows how that age group thinks and works. The setting, the situation and the characters are authentic and I binge read it in one session!

 Made into an award-winning Dutch film titled My Extraordinary Summer with Tess ,translated into 13 languages and awarded  The Times Children’s Book of the Week in March 2023, this is a heart-warming story of friendship and compassion for independent readers, even a class read-aloud,  that will envelop the reader like a warm hug.  Loved it in the same way as I loved The Girl who brought Mischief.  

 

 

 

The Sideways Orbit of Evie Hart

Sep13
The Sideways Orbit of Evie Hart

The Sideways Orbit of Evie Hart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sideways Orbit of Evie Hart

Samera Kamaleddine

HarperCollins, 2023

288pp., pbk., RRP $A17.99

9781460762653

Evie Hart likes rules and routines. A lot. But as she embarks on her very last year of primary school, it feels like all the rules around her are being broken and the routines are definitely being upset, starting with mum not eating dinner with the family any more. 

Then she discovers her mum, a journalist, is the author of the horoscope page for the local newspaper, and because it has her photo, her friends and their families know too, and they don’t hold back letting Evie know they think her mum writes and tells lies.  To make things worse, she learns her beloved stepdad Lee is moving to Dubbo for at least a year, perhaps splitting the family in two forever! So when Evie’s class starts learning about the Earth’s place in the universe, it makes Evie think about her own place in the world and where she belongs. 

But the more Evie learns about the sky and the stars, guided both by her kind, compassionate and knowledgeable teacher Miss Owen and her mother’s insights, the more she learns that changes in the world can’t always be controlled. And maybe that’s not a bad thing as she starts to make sense of and map out her own life as a more confident person.

Even though the title is The Sideways Orbit… there are many parallels to the lives of the readers that this book will appeal to, and so it will resonate with them as they make that sometimes tricky transition from tween to teen and young adult. While so much of her life so far has focused on the here and now, as she becomes more independent, bigger questions raise their heads – questions whose answers seem bigger and more complex than the universe – and Evie, like her readers, has to learn to navigate these in the context and boundaries of their own lives. And that doesn’t even include puberty!  Straddling the reality of the day-today while contemplating the huge world of what-ifs and what-could-bes that is opening before her, including high school on the horizon, can be overwhelming but there is comfort in knowing that there is a path forward and a way through.  So even if you feel like you’re going sideways in an endless spin, there is hope…

Many who write for and work with very young children talk about helping them understand and navigate “big feelings”. This story helps those who are at a different transition navigate theirs. 

Lily Halfmoon: The Magic Gems

Sep7
Lily Halfmoon: The Magic Gems

Lily Halfmoon: The Magic Gems

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lily Halfmoon: The Magic Gems

Xavier Bonet

A & U Children’s, 2023

80pp., graphic novel, RRP $A16.99

9781761180354

It’s Lily’s birthday and she has moved to a new village, a new house and now it’s time for her to start a new school. She has all the same trepidations about it as other children do but when she gets there she finds things are a bit different from her previous school because this one is especially for witches to learn their craft!  Lily had no idea she had magical powers but now a lot of things in her life start to make sense. 

And now, in The Royal Academy and Library of Magic Studies, Creatures,  Potions and Spells (aka The Library) she must learn magic, and find her animal guardian and gemstone, while keeping her new identity a secret -even her family can’t be told. With her friends Gigi and Mai  she is part of a group of witches who have to protect the people of Piedraville from evil, tricky when there is a dangerous creature on the loose. And she’s found a rare and unique gem that no witch has ever had before – what does it all mean?

There are so many stories in this vein for emerging independent readers to choose from, and this one appeals because it can be both a stepping stone to more complex reads like Harry Potter as well as to the graphic novel format because it combines the new-to-some format with elements of a traditional layout. There are the familiar panels and speech bubbles of the former, although the text is written in the usual way with capital letters, lower case and punctuation, as well as the conventions of the latter for introductions, instructions, maps and other diagrams.  

Those readers who are verging on independence often view “real readers” as those who can read thick books or graphic novels and that is the yardstick by which they measure their success, so this is the ideal bridge for them capturing their imaginations through a popular theme but putting it in a setting that they can relate to.  Genius. 

The Daring Tale of Gloria the Great

Sep4
The Daring Tale of Gloria the Great

The Daring Tale of Gloria the Great

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Daring Tale of Gloria the Great

Jacqueline Harvey

Kate Isobel Scott

Puffin, 2023

32pp., hbk., RRP $A19.99

9781761043284

This is a tale of a chicken who wasn’t chicken.  In fact, Gloria was the opposite…

She was brave, she was bold, never did what she was told…

She ran her own face, she got in your face,,,

Then, one night she disappeared without trace! Although the family searched high and low when Gloria did not take her place on the perch, and feared the worst when they saw a no-longer-trim hawk circling, the other chooks were quite glad she wasn’t there because they didn’t really like her.  However, after a week they started to miss her and began accusing each other of being the one to scare her away. Will Gloria ever grace the henhouse again, or was that hawk not-so-trim for a reason?

This is an hilarious story from the versatile Jacqueline Harvey (Kensy and Max, Willa and Woof, Alice-Miranda and Clementine Rose)made even more special by the glorious illustrations of Kate Isobel Scott, the second time the two have partnered to produce a picture book.  Young readers who also march to the beat of their own drum will resonate with Gloria as will those who can be intimidated by such leadership potential, while adults of a certain vintage will appreciate the reference to, perhaps inspiration for, Gloria  Gaynor’s immortal song, I Will Survive.

Because, thankfully, Gloria does survive and lives to rule another roost!!! 

Odelia and the Varmint

Sep3
Odelia and the Varmint

Odelia and the Varmint

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Odelia and the Varmint

Jenny Moore 

New Frontier, 2023

275pp., pbk., RRP $A16.99

9781922326713

When a pair of unruly fictional pirates escape out of her mother’s book into Victorian London, 11-year-old Odelia Hardluck-Smythe’s lonely life is turned upside down…

After the sudden death of her father leaves her family struggling financially and emotionally as the life of luxury and comfort that they knew disappears, things change dramatically in the Hardluck-Smythe’s household,  Trying to support her children, Odelia’s mother spends her time writing an adventure story for a publisher who has rejected all her work so far, while Odelia makes sure the family are able to survive on a daily diet of toast (the only thing she can cook).  But when the villain of her mother’s story, pirate Captain Blunderfuss, the ship’s cook and Dog, the oddly named ship’s cat, suddenly come to life and appear in their house, their lives take a remarkable turn.

But rather than freaking out, even though Captain Blunderfuss and Cook are rude, dangerous and obsessed with marzipan fruits, the family adjust to having these unexpected guests, and Odelia sees an opportunity to join the pirates in a search for the treasure she believes her father hid in the family home prior to his death. During their search, Odelia learns that varmints, villains and heroes may not always be as easily identified as they first appear. Who is trustworthy? And while Odelia thinks pirates mean treasure and treasure means buried chest of precious jewels and riches, she discovers that it can have other meanings too.  

Despite their somewhat gloomy circumstances, the drama of both the setting and the situation are offset by Captain Blunderfuss continually mispronouncing and misusing the language, which Odelia has to translate to make sense, such as when he promotes her to ship’s basin (bosun) and his regular cry of ‘Ankles away!’ (anchors) offering some light relief as well as the opportunity to explore various terms and phrases.  Written for independent readers who like a swashbuckling adventure and mystery, it takes them to Victorian England, a time many will still be unfamiliar with, offering insight into a life where industrialisation in just emerging, far away from the one of instant communication and gratification that they are more likely to know. 

As well as exploring a world so different to their own, the endpapers and the teachers’ notes could both take the reader into the world of steampunk, or even into historical fiction generally, opening up a world of new reading adventures.

Dog Squad: The Newshound

Aug21
Dog Squad: The News Hound

Dog Squad: The Newshound

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dog Squad: The Newshound

Clare Vulliamy

HarperCollins, 2023

128pp., pbk., RRP $A15.99

 9780008565336

Eva has always wanted to be a journalist, and, together with her friends Simone and Ash, the she produces  the Newshound newspaper for her school readers.  While they’ve written a few stories, there hasn’t been anything really significant, so when she finds a stray dog outside her home, Eva thinks she might just have found her first case.

The dog follows her home but living in a block of flats where pets are banned is problematic and although her mum says it can stay overnight, secretly Eva has other ideas.  The dog, which she determines is a whippet, is so thin she calls it Wafer and even though tracing its owner might offer The Newshound its biggest story yet, Eva soon realises that she might not want to get to the bottom of the mystery after all – because won’t that just mean she just has to give Wafer back?

Even with its English setting, this is a story that is going to resonate with a broad audience of young newly-independent readers because if they are not budding writers like Eva and her friends wanting to get to the bottom of these sorts of stories, then they are animal lovers whose hearts reach out to stray, mistreated creatures that so clearly need a home.  They may even be non binary  like Ash and enjoy seeing themselves in a story affirming their identity. As well as being an engaging read, it also provides food for thought as it raises issues about the treatment of animals by humans, from breeding in puppy farms for profit to their disposal when they are no longer wanted, perhaps even inspiring some to delve deeper.

And just to top it off, it is the start of a new series, with The Race scheduled for early 2024, so readers have something to look forward to. While they wait, they might like to meet Dotty Detective, a series in a similar vein of young girls solving mysteries. 

 

Olive of Groves (series)

Aug20
Olive of Groves

Olive of Groves

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Olive of Groves (series)

Olive of Groves

9780733342615

The Great Slurp of Time

9780733342646

The Right Royal Romp

9780733342622

Katrina Nannestad

Lucia Masciullo

ABC Books, 2023

288pp., pbk., RRP $A17.99

Mrs Groves’ Boarding School for Naughty Boys, Talking Animals and Circus Performers is NOT the place for an ordinary girl like Olive but because her grandparents just wanted her to be able to mix with other people it is where she has ended up by mistake. And because going to boarding school has been her dream, Olive decides to stay even though she has to tell a lie that she is an acrobat to be able to satisfy the entry requirements because she is neither a naughty boy, a talking animal or an actual circus  performer. Apart from not being an acrobat, as those who are are keen to show her, she has to contend with a principal who is terrified of ordinary girls like her and whose leadership and management skills are non-existent as she seems to be perpetually flustered and flummoxed; a supercilious, egotistical pig who is a bully and determined to make her life unbearable, a goose that faints at the slightest thing, and sharing a strange turret room with three talking rats.  Thank goodness she has some allies.

Originally published in 2015 and shortlisted for the 2016 Indie Book Awards, this is a whimsical series for younger readers who can lose themselves in the nonsense of such a scenario and just enjoy Olive’s adventures for what they are.  There is tension and drama as the series progresses – it is one best read in order – but this is offset by the crazy characters, the situations they find themselves in and the clever dialogue. Even the title is a clever play on words. As all three have been republished and released at the same time, this is a series for those who like to binge-read without having to wait for the next episode. 

The Girl Who Brought Mischief

Aug15
The Girl Who Brought Mischief

The Girl Who Brought Mischief

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Girl Who Brought Mischief

Katrina Nannestad

ABC Books, 2023

224pp., pbk., RRP $A16.99

9780733342899

After her mother dies, Inge Marie is sent to live with a grandmother she has never met, and who certainly doesn’t seem to want the responsibility of an unknown child, particularly one with her hair half-eaten off by a goat. It is a huge adjustment for each of them as Inge Marie is used to a carefree childhood with servants and freedom in the bustling city of Copenhagen and now finds herself in a tiny cottage on a remote island of Denmark where there are farm animals to care for, domestic chores to be done and a bed to be shared with a grandmother who snores.  And things get much worse when she has to go to the local school… 

Inge is very aware that what might be normal for her bright, optimistic self could be construed by her grandmother as bad manners or even bad behaviour and so she becomes very grateful and remorseful as she navigates a series of incidents like knocking Henry the turkey out cold that are just the hijinks of childhood It’s hard to forge a path between an imagination boosted by the stories of Hans Christian Andersen, the city life taken so abruptly from her and living with someone who has only known the traditional life of a small village community.  Grandmother slaps her once or twice – she has never been hit before – but it is all part of the process of accepting their unimaginable loss and managing their grief.  And gradually things start to change, not just for Inge and her grandmother but, indeed for the whole village.

This book was previously published in 2013 and was the Winner of the 2014 NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Children’s Literature as well as being a CBCA Notable Book for Younger Readers in 2014 and it has stood the test of time.  Told by Inge, it is both heart-warming and heart-breaking in places but throughout there is a realisation that both are trying to come to terms with their new situation and you have the feeling that things will work out for the best.  Despite being set in 1911, when girls were supposed to be quiet and genteel while boys could be rowdy and rambunctious, young readers will see themselves in the outspoken Inge and delight in her approach to life while being compassionate for her loss.   

As well as being deserving of the awards that it has won and the praise it has been given, this story has stood the test of time and a new audience will delight in it.  

 

Why Worry Wally?

Aug14
Why Worry Wally?

Why Worry Wally?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why Worry Wally?

Rick Foster

Jackie Case

Rick Foster, 2019

32pp., hbk., RRP $A24.95

9780646810966

As soon as Wally wakes up in the morning, his mind starts working overtime about all the things that might go wrong that day from eating too much breakfast to monkeys falling from the trees.  He is a perpetual worrier,  getting so anxious and uptight about what might happen that he is unable to enjoy what does.

Children’s anxiety is a growing mental health issue and is in fact, becoming such an issue that it is at last getting the recognition it requires. So much so, that, since its inception in 1991, the phone counselling service Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800) has responded to 8. 5oo ooo contacts from kids who just need someone to listen.  And while there have been a number of picture books written and shared to help children manage their anxiety, this one offers suggestions such as eating healthy food and having fun as well as encouraging positive self-talk as a pathway forward.  As well, the author has developed an incursion to complement a school’s well-being program aimed at those up to Year 4 that helps children understand that everyone feels worries and concerns at some time and there are strategies they can learn to help them manage them, even when they become overwhelming, particularly being   able to start a conversation with a trusted adult. 

With its soft-palette graphics and rhyming text, Wally’s predicament may well resonate with a number of students but the positive and inspiring message that offers acknowledgement of the issues rather than their dismissal, and encourages them to look for help rather than feeling they have to go it alone, they are also offered hope.  While there was a strong focus on kids’ well0being after their isolation during the lockdowns of the pandemic, as life returns to normal, we cannot let this concern diminish.  So any stories and programs that shine a spotlight on the problem that might help just one kid make a positive difference to their lives or build awareness in the adults around them are an essential part of any mindfulness programs and library collections. 

Scar Town

Aug1
Scar Town

Scar Town

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scar Town

Tristan Bancks

Puffin, 2023

256pp., pbk., RRP $A16.99

9780143791812

Imagine watching your old town emerge from the depths of a lake – a town that was drowned seven years ago taking untold secrets with it, secrets that were thought to have been hidden forever but now, as the water drops,  are rising and threatening to reveal mysteries, crimes and their perpetrators.  

Buildings and bridges rise from the depths of Lake Eucumbene as water levels drop during the severe drought in 2007. Taken on the Old Snowy Mountains highway near Anglers Reach. What secrets did they divulge? (My photos taken while we were living in Old Adaminaby, 2007)

Buildings and bridges rise from the depths of Lake Eucumbene as water levels drop during the severe drought in 2007. Taken on the Old Snowy Mountains highway near Anglers Reach. What secrets did they divulge? (My photos taken while we were living in Old Adaminaby, 2007)

Will,  and twins J and Dar are fascinated as an old house starts to appear and despite Will’s misgivings, they decide to swim out to explore it.  But when they discover a large stash of cash in the walls and then human remains, they expose old secrets that were presumed buried forever.  Could the bones be those of Will’s dad who, along with eight others, disappeared seven years ago? Should they keep the money a secret because J sees it as the twins’ path to financial freedom from their deadbeat, alcoholic, broken dad and Will sees it as a ticket to somewhere else for his mum and him, away from the memories and their current money problems? And who else wants it so badly they are willing to beat up kids, kidnap Dar and trash houses? 

The title Scar Town has a lot more meaning than just being short for Scarborough as old wounds that have thin scars are opened up.  

As with his other suspense thrillers like Cop and Robber  and Detention, Bancks has again written an un-putdownable read that races along and puts the reader firmly in the position of having to consider what they would do if they were in that situation. By creating characters that are, in so many ways, just like them, Bancks hooks the reader into being more than just an observer, and places them in the position of having to take a stance.   Would they go to the police, which is what Will wants to do, because, after all, his father was the local policeman before his mysterious disappearance, or would their loyalty to their friends persuade them to follow the belligerent, seemingly fearless J?  Can kids outsmart crooks or would adult help be better?  But which adults can you trust? 

Apart from sheer entertainment, one of the purposes of contemporary realistic fiction is to place the reader in situations where they can experience life vicariously and consider their own responses, and although they might not be exactly in Will’s situation, there will be times when they are torn between friendship and doing what they know to be the smart thing. Thus, this is a perfect example of this year’s CBCA Book week theme of Read. Grow. Inspire.