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Sunny and Storm

Jul19
Sunny and Storm

Sunny and Storm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunny and Storm

Tanya Hennessy

Rachael Maclean

Penguin, 2026

160pp., pbk., RRP $A14.99

9781761354298

Even though nine-year old Sunny and Storm are as different as their names suggest, they are the best of friends – “besticles” as Storm describes them. They live on farms in the country, go to a school where there are only 45 students, live an idyllic life but where, sometimes, even watching paint dry can be exciting.  Storm is a boisterous, exuberant extrovert whose special skill is “interrupting class” while Sunny is the opposite. But they have great fun inventing new words to the extent that they have a secret language, each new word written in their dictionary of words that only they understand.

Living in the country can present unique situations such as standing in cow poo and discovering what looks solid is anything but, and so this is a story of events that are probably unfamiliar to their city cousins, but make entertaining reading as the girls share them in their diary which they take turns to take home and write in. But when things start to go missing and all the evidence seems to point to the girls to the point they end up in the police station, they face a bigger challenge than a teacher thinking they are “up to something” and reminding them they are in class, “not the Storm Wilson stadium arena concert!”

With illustrations and a format designed to support newly independent readers transitioning to more complex storylines and plots, this is a story that is going to appeal to many young girls who will see bits of themselves in the characters, as well as appreciating Storm’s storytelling as the action moves along at a fast pace, sometimes with Storm’s energy driving it forward while Sunny’s more measured approach gives it balance.  So while Storm is all for letting Zach, the coolest boy in school, know how Sunny feels about him, Sunny prefers to keep her feelings to herself – which Storm, thankfully, appreciates so that the yin and yang of their friendship is not only preserved but reflects that of real life.  Even if two people are so different, they can still have a solid, steadfast friendship.

The story behind the story is featured here and in it, Hennessy reveals that a sequel is well under way to be released in late August 2026. But for a sneak peek…

Buck & Ears Pirate Detectives

Jul18
Buck & Ears Pirate Detectives

Buck & Ears Pirate Detectives

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buck & Ears Pirate Detectives

Jennifer Bell

Sarah Horne

Walker Books, 2026

224pp., pbk., RRP $A17.99

9781529519518

When a scrawny boy wearing a pirate captain’s hat and a scruffy rabbit wash up on the shores of Scuttleflint Bay strapped to a barrel labelled “Shark Bait”, you have to wonder who they are, where they have come from and what they did to end up in such a predicament. It turns out that the boy, Buck, was destined to be a “fearsome pirate captain” like his parents but on his maiden voyage the crew mutinied claiming he was the worst pirate on the Seventy Seas ever, and he and his best friend Ears were put over the side…

At just 10 years old, Buck realises his career as a pirate is over  – “I am too polite and I do have excellent personal hygiene and I’m terrible at singing sea shanties” – and so they wander into town to see what else they might do instead.  But at their first job interview, they hear someone crying and when they investigate they meet someone who changes their lives for ever!

Written for young independent readers, this is a mystery that challenges them to follow the clues (helpfully flagged throughout the story by crime and mystery writer Agatha Fishty) and solve the puzzle of the missing mermaid chef  Valentina Vermicelli before Buck and Ears do. Not only do they have to find her but work out who kidnapped her in the first place.  But rather just than look for visual cues or solve challenges, the discoveries have to be made through interviews and observations, and notes  made of everything they find out, giving the reader the opportunity to work things out for themselves. 

Fast-paced, funny and full of quirky but lovable characters, this is one for those who are ready for more complex plots, like to get actively involved in a story and can appreciate the humour in the illustrations and the text, beginning with the title. 

A peek inside...

A peek inside…

And for those who like a good series, they won’t have to wait too long for the next episode which will be released in early October. 

 

 

Fake News and How to Spot It

Jul12
Fake News and How to Spot It

Fake News and How to Spot It

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fake News and How to Spot It

Holly Bathie & Alex Frith

Laura Wood & Jack Brougham

Usborne, 2026

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

9781836040606

“Fake news” was a term originally coined by Donald Trump to describe deliberate online disinformation spread during the 2016 US election, but soon became a phrase to label press reporting or books that misrepresent him or publish false reports. Now, in a world in which our lives seem to have become a rat-race through hoaxes, schemes, scams, frauds, swindles and other nefarious ways to dupe us, change our thinking or part us from our money, it has become a euphemism used by many for lies, deception, or anything we suspect to be untrue. I’ve even heard preschoolers use it when they suspect a friend is about to dob on them to a teacher!

But with almost everyone having 24/7 access to media, particularly online where there are no checks and balances to determine truth, and thus anyone able to post anything (and have it distorted through human or artificial intelligence at will) how can we encourage even our youngest readers to become critical thinkers, to evaluate information, determine its accuracy, accountability, currency, credibility, objectivity, relevance and reasonableness? Even the Australian Curriculum requires those in their Foundation Year of formal education to begin to “identify, process and evaluate information”. 

Therefore, this book which is “packed with entertaining illustrations alongside practical information” to enable students to  “identify many pitfalls of everyday and online life – from scams and advertising tricks, to one-sided information and image manipulation” is a must-have in any curriculum program designed to help them develop information literacy skills, which, after all, is the core business of any teacher librarian.  

Presented in an appealing format, it encourages readers to think like a misinformer, schemer, influencer, conspiracy theorist, politician and scammer so they can start to identify and understand the language, tricks and techniques used to distort or invent “truth” as a means to meet the perpetrator’s own ends. 

A peek inside...

A peek inside…

At first, I thought this was a book too old for the target of this blog, and to some extent it is, but further thought and a deeper delve into those AC outcomes for younger children prompted some ideas such as examining how the wolf tried to fool Little Red Riding Hood so she believed he was her grandma, or how the witch enticed Hansel and Gretel into her house, or why the dwarves warned Snow White not to talk to strangers.   What cues and clues would they have used to detect a scam? Traditional tales like those were intended to be didactic so what lessons can be still learned from them in the 21st century?

While we don’t want to develop a generation of kids who are paranoid, or at least, suspicious, of those around them and their intentions and motives, with $2.18 billion lost by Australians to scams in 2025, we have a duty-of-care to start developing a healthy scepticism and an understanding of the old adage “If it’s too good to be true…”  This book goes a long way to encouraging that, informing and empowering them to be aware and evaluate what they are seeing, hearing and reading before they involve themselves. It wouldn’t go astray in the Christmas stockings of some adults I know.

 

 

 

Detective Beans and the Map of Mystery

Jun18
Detective Beans and the Map of Mystery

Detective Beans and the Map of Mystery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Detective Beans and the Map of Mystery

Li Chen

Penguin, 2026

208pp., graphic novel, RRP $A17.99

9781761353420

Dressed in the traditional trench coat and fedora hat that are the trademarks of real detectives,  Detective Beans -known as Jellybean to his mother – is a tabby cat who takes his job seriously. He believes he is  “a hard-boiled detective cleaning up this city one case at a time” and he  is back on the job after solving the mystery of his missing hat (which won Best Junior Fiction book at the New Zealand Book Awards in 2025).

This time, Beans is given a treasure map by Captain Scuttlebeard and  Beans is determined to find the prize at the end. The clues take him all over Cat Town – to places he doesn’t expect! With Biscuits by his side, and with help from some other familiar faces, can Beans find the treasure . . . and get home in time to clean up his room?

Many younger students choose to gravitate towards the graphic novel section of the school library searching for something in that format that is suitable for both their ability, interest and maturity, because they believe that this is the format that real readers read, because that’s what their older peers read. But it is seldom that they find something to meet their needs, so they will be happy to discover this series (and accompanying website)  which will appeal and meet their level of maturity – a A clever but funny cat who is also a detective who solves everyday crimes is much more suitable, particularly if they can solve the mystery before Detective Beans does.

However, it is also a teaching opportunity as they may be unfamiliar with the format that so closely integrates text and illustration to carry the story forward as well as portraying the thoughts and emotions, actions and motives of the key characters.  Most obvious are the visual and structural elements such as the individual panels and sound effects, as well as the variety of textual elements like the different shapes of the speech, thought and narrative balloons, each with their own purpose but still carrying the core elements of story, characters, setting, atmosphere and theme of its more traditional text-based counterpart.  (More comprehensive information about these elements and using graphic novels in the classroom is available in Getting to Know Graphic Novels ).

Even though there may be some pushback about promoting this format as a valid and valuable reading source, there is plenty of evidence available to show it is an important form of learning  that for those who prefer this style as they ” actively participate in [the story’s] construction by inferring what they see from the image and linking it to the corresponding text to understand the narrative developing from panel to panel, or picture to picture. The order and organisation of the panels, images and text on the page determine the flow and movement of the story by giving the reader cues as to what their eyes should follow next”. They may also reconnect reluctant readers to reading itself, particularly those for whom the screen has more appeal.

Thus, a series that is not only fun and funny but can also be used to enrich and enhance both the reading journey and experience is a valuable addition to the library collection. 

Lexie Moon (series)

Jun17
Lexie Moon (series)

Lexie Moon (series)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lexie Moon 

The Word-Burgling Bundle

9781763526037

The Space Day Disaster

9781764007115

The Remote Control Catastrophe

9781764256766

Melissa Garside

Lauren Mullinder

Riveted Press, 2025- 2026

96pp., pbk., RRP $A12.99

Above 10-year-old Lexie Moon’s desk is a shelf crammed with notebooks, textbooks and scrapbooks and each of those is, itself, crammed with diagrams, sticky notes and pictures that inspire her because Lexie likes nothing better than using her tools to invent things. and build them with her Grandad. Wherever you looked in her bedroom, there were strange machines stuffed away, the results of her work over the last two years since her grandfather moved in with them. 

In the first episode, Lexie invents a machine to help people like her little sister say tricky words like ‘spaghetti”; in the second it’s a way to see the stars during the day time for the school’s Space Day, and in the third, she has built  a scrap-box remote-control car she hopes will win second prize in the local competition—a Mega-Boost signal amplifier she desperately wants.

But things don’t always go to plan and the infamous gadget thief, Gizmo Lightfinger who has been banned for life from the Inventor’s Guild, is always lurking nearby to try to steal her inventions and gain the glory for himself.

Short chapters, clever wordplay and text broken up by illustrations make this is an ideal series for newly independent readers who have an interest in science and inventions, but also like the sort of tension that is built by having an antagonist who has to be overcome to prevent havoc and mayhem in the town. But at the same time as the fast-paced action evolves, there are underlying issues such as using someone else’s ideas and calling them your own to consider which could then lead into discussions about the ethical use of information and images generally – important in an era where copy-and-paste is so simple – as well as moral dilemmas about the use of technology.  Just because Lexie’s invention achieves her goal of seeing stars in the daytime, does that make it okay for Gizmo Lightfinger to plunge the world into darkness? Just because you can get AI to do something nasty like create fake images of someone you don’t like, does that make it right to do so?  

 

Something different for those seeking something different, and with three books published in the series already, the opportunity for a satisfying binge-read under the covers on these cold winter nights. 

The Travelling Bookshop: Mim and the Frazzled Fruit Farmer

Apr19
The Travelling Bookshop: Mim and the Frazzled Fruit Farmer

The Travelling Bookshop: Mim and the Frazzled Fruit Farmer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Travelling Bookshop: Mim and the Frazzled Fruit Farmer

Katrina Nannestad

Cheryl Orsini

ABC Books, 2026

240pp., pbk., RRP $a16.99

9780733343131

Imagine being a young girl travelling the world in an old wooden caravan pulled by a horse that decides where they will go and which seems to have magical powers that mean borders and mountains and oceans are no barriers.  And that caravan is full of books, because it, too, has a magic that means that it is like a Tardis with so much more on the inside than appears on the outside. 

That is the life of 10-year-old Miriam-Rose Cohen (who prefers Mim), her father and little brother Nat, Coco the cockatoo and Flossy the horse.  Led by Flossy’s instinct, they travel to wherever they are needed, wherever there is a child in need of a book to make their world right again because “the line between books and real life is not as clear as people suppose.”

In this, the final in the series, having left Mum behind in Vienna to continue her important work, Flossy has led the caravan to Norway, a land of myths and legends, Vikings and trolls and other fantastic folk that give Nat great cause for concern but who add an extra touch of magic to the adventure.  In a local market they meet Norbert who is selling his apples, but who is in danger of being put out of business because someone or something is stealing huge quantities of apples from his orchard.  Clearly, he is in need of help but why does Dad, renowned for giving people just the right book at the right time,  give him a book called Dentist Dona?

This is the ideal series for young independent readers to engross themselves in as they follow Mim’s adventures and perhaps even wish they were her.  Could there be a better life than wandering across Europe in a traditional horse-drawn caravan,  next destination unknown, while immersing yourself in books and the stories they hold, yet, at the same time, learning about the communities and cultures that you visit? If Mim and her family arrived in your town, what would you show them and what might they learn? 

One of the many good things about this series is that the first, Mim and the Baffling Bully,  was published first in 2021 and now the series is complete, so those young readers who embarked on that original journey are still young enough to have enjoyed them all and completed the adventure, rather than outgrowing it. And now that it is complete, a new wave of newly independent young readers have it at their fingertips to binge read, enjoy and imagine…

Howzat Pat! Money Mystery

Nov24
Howzat Pat! Money Mystery

Howzat Pat! Money Mystery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Howzat Pat! Money Mystery

Pat Cummins & Dave Hartley

Serena Geddes

Harper Collins, 2025

192pp., pbk., RRP $A15.99

9781460764701

I’m Pat Cummins and I love playing cricket. I love it so much that I sleep with my bat!

This is the third in this series co-written by Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins, and released just in time for the 2025-26 season and the much-anticipated Ashes series.  (And given the results of the first test in Perth, interest will be even greater now!) 

This time, as with the first two, we are taken back to the time when  young Pat Cummins is playing for an under-11 mixed-gender cricket team and they have a chance to win this year’s competition. That, in itself, is exciting, but the chance for their cricket club to host the first regional game of the the Big Bash League and for the young players to see their heroes in action in live play really has them fired up. But they need lights to play under and so it’s up to the local community, including Pat’s team to raise the $40 000 needed. They decide to contribute by cleaning up the bush where everyone dumps their rubbish and recycling it, but there are stories about a mysterious creature who lives there.  But while he is doing his bit, Pat finds something that poses a serious dilemma for him…

There are  a lot of young independent readers who are going to find this in their Christmas stocking just because it’s about cricket and Pat Cummins in particular, but the difference between this series and a lot of others with famous names on the cover is that there is actually an engaging story woven through it.  In fact, while there are plenty of cricket references throughout, the story is actually more important and there are many who might ask themselves, “What would I do?” As well, there are characters whose back stories will resonate with many so that this is going to appeal to a wider range than just cricket fans, and they will eagerly await the next episode Cricket Champs which is due in tomorrow!!!  

Christmas reading sorted!! 

The Table Cape Crusader

Nov18
The Table Cape Crusader

The Table Cape Crusader

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Secret Detectives Club

The Table Cape Crusader

Kate Gordon

Riveted Press. 2025

144pp., pbk., RRP $A15.99

9781764007153

Having solved the mystery of  The Haunting of Hindmarsh Hall, shy, introverted Rocko Davis is feeling very pleased with himself and is planning an afternoon of doing whatever he pleases – playing Scrabble against every bot in the world or reading an entire fantasy novel or even dancing around the house in his boxer shorts to the best synthesiser music of the 80s – because he has the house to himself.  Or does he?  

Because sitting on the kitchen bench is a large, cream envelope addressed to him that was not there when he left the house an hour ago!

Inside it is a letter that tells him to meet the writer on the bench outside Fred’s Café because the whole town of Table Cape is about to be swept up into a mystery and the Secret Detectives Club (formerly the Scrabble Club) are the only ones who can help.  Intrigued by something that promises to be bigger than Bruce’s missing milk jug (which was the SDC’s current commission) Rocko calls his bestie Cosmo, who dwells in the world of superheroes, and together they head for Fred’s Café. But when they get there, all they see is a goose bite a lady on the leg – and another envelope!

Suddenly, strange and silly accidents start happening. One by one, people in Table Cape are being targeted, and no one knows who’s behind it—or who’s next. As the clues pile up, Rocko starts to worry: what if it’s his mum, with her big art show coming up? Or his sister’s band, The Capers, right before their big festival gig? Or worse… what if he’s the next target?

And just when things couldn’t get weirder, strange symbols begin to appear on the town’s walls. Are they connected to the pranks? Or something even more mysterious? Rocko, Cosmo, and Mingus must crack the case before the next prank goes too far. And through it all… Bruce’s milk jugs are still going missing!

What is going on?

Building on the first in the series in which Rocko and Cosmo who desperately want to be cool, meet up with Mingus who is, Kate Gordon has crafted another intriguing story for younger readers who are ready for novels that still support their developmental needs but are slightly more complex than others that bridge the gap. While the reader may well put themselves into Rocko’s  shoes, when the perpetrator and their motives are finally revealed, there are questions they might ask themselves about their own beliefs and behaviour – Are people always who they seem or is there a public face that masks the private one, and we make assumptions based on what we see?  Are there other, better ways we can do things to get what we want that don’t alienate those we want to help us?  – building on the themes established in the first book. And for those, like Rocko, whose brain is “a little different sometimes” there is affirmation that that’s okay. 

This is a series best read in order. not only because the characters and their relationships develop, but because each leads into the next with a teaser about what the next case the SDC will be working on.  So readers are left waiting for the next episode in 2026 which remains mysterious even on the publisher’s website! 

 

Friday Barnes: In Plain Sight

Sep7
Friday Barnes: In Plain Sight

Friday Barnes: In Plain Sight

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday Barnes: In Plain Sight

R. A. Spratt

Puffin, 2025

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

9781761349713

The story so far…

Friday Barnes is the daughter of two highly-intelligent, eccentric physicists who are so disconnected from her upbringing that they called her Friday even though she was born on a Thursday.  She did have four siblings, all much older than her being born during the four-and-a-half years their mother had allocated for the task.  Friday was not scheduled and her birth was fitted in around a lecture her mother had to give in Switzerland.  Eleven years later, Friday had largely raised herself and she was happy with that.  Her greatest wish was to be unnoticed because you could do so much more that way like eating a whole block of chocolate at once without it being taken off you.    Unfortunately, it also means that you do not develop very good social skills particularly if you spend your time reading scientific tomes and educating yourself beyond the realms of anything a school could offer.

However, as well as the non-fiction her parents library consisted of, Friday had a penchant for detective novels because “being a detective allowed a person a licence to behave very eccentrically indeed” and she had honed her powers of observation and logical thought over the years.  But the time has now come for Friday to go to high school and given her parents haven’t even realised she is no longer in preschool, it was up to her to sort it.  She would have preferred not to go at all because she saw it as being all about “bullying, dodge ball and having to find a date for the prom” but the government was insistent that she do.  She tried to compromise by applying for university and passed the exam to study medicine but was knocked back on her age. 

So rejecting the idea of the Foreign Legion, the Peace Corps and being smuggled out of the country by people traffickers, after helping her ex-cop, private investigator Uncle Bernie solve a case she finds herself with the means to send herself to Highcrest Academy the best and most expensive boarding school in the whole country.  Her intention is to stay under the radar, do what she has to do and leave.  But things do not work out that way.  Right from the start, her nondescript self-imposed uniform of brown cardigans, grey t-shirts and blue jeans makes her stand out among the fashion parade that is the elite, wealthy students who also attend and being knocked down in the carpark on the first day doesn’t help either. Nor does being the brightest student in the entire school, being labelled “scholarship girl” by the school bully and being unable to help herself being able to point out the flaws and inaccuracies in the conversation and presentations of others. Antagonising the handsome, previously-smartest student Ian Wainscott adds to her woes, particularly when her roommate, the not-so-bright, filter-free Melanie insists there is a romance blooming, something that Friday scoffs at. But their paths have already been inextricably interwoven…

Now, in this, the 13th episode, the reader joins Friday in New York because Princess Ingrid has been kidnapped, along with her fiancé, Binky Pelly, and it’s all over the international news. The King of Norway is distraught. The people of Norway are bewildered. And Ingrid’s bodyguard is fired. So, he calls on Friday, his least favourite Interpol agent, for help, and together with her now-buddies, Ian and Melanie, they follow the trail which takes them to New York City, where finding a princess is harder than finding a tiara in a haystack. Can Friday unravel the mystery of the disappearing lovebirds? Is their disappearance a crime or something else? And when a Manhattan rockstar’s book of handwritten lyrics goes missing, it’s up to Friday to restore this priceless artefact to its rightful home.

When  this series  was first published in 2014, it quickly became a favourite among those looking for a story that had some meat to it with a heroine they could relate to, including Ms Then-8. Since then Friday’s adventures and escapades have garnered a wide and increasing audience.  But as well as the established fan base who are now in their teens – even Ms Now 19 will enjoy revisiting her childhood reads- this is such a timeless and quality series  that it is worth introducing it to a new generation of independent readers.  For those who like immersing themselves in a series, particularly those who see themselves in Friday –  intelligent, quirky, and a bit different from her peers but very comfortable in their own skin, yet deep down wanting to be just like them- having 12 previous episodes to snuggle down with is a dream!  And when they have worked their way through solving crimes with Friday and co, they can then indulge in The Peski Kids , another equally engaging series. 

The Haunting of Hindmarsh Hall

Jul26
The Haunting of Hindmarsh Hall

The Haunting of Hindmarsh Hall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Secret Detectives Club

The Haunting of Hindmarsh Hall

Kate Gordon

Riveted Press, 2025

140pp., pbk., RRP $A16.99

9780645869385

As the first meeting of the Table Cape Scrabble Club gets underway at Fred’s Café with its only two members (also its founders) Rocko and Cosmo in attendance, they have no idea that their latest attempt to join the “cool kids” of this tiny town where everyone knows everyone and nothing ever remains a mystery, is going to lead them on the greatest adventure of their lives so far.

Seated at the table they have reserved for the meeting, is someone who seems to be absorbed in writing furiously on his laptop, carelessly splashing his coffee on the table and clearly not a prospective member of the club. Turns out he is PD Watkins, the renowned author of the Winston the Wizard  series which is a current favourite of all the kids in town, particularly Rocko who is a reader, and Cosmo who is not but who loves superhero movies. Watkins has taken up a writer’s residency in the local Hindmarsh Hall, an old mansion steeped in mystery and rumour but is finding it impossible to write there because of the strange goings-on that are terrifying him. Instead of the quiet writing retreat he anticipated, he has barely been able to work or sleep. There have been weird noises, things rearranged, strange messages carved on the walls … how is he supposed to write another bestseller with all of that going on? And so, joined by Mingus Reid, who is a cool kid and who does want to be a member, the Scrabble Club morphs into The Secret Detectives Club.

But as Rocko starts to investigate, backed by his big sister Pen, who is the coolest kid in town, he starts to realise that no one and nothing is what it seems and that he is not only not the wallpaper kid who was mercilessly bullied at his old school, but that his ability to be in the background and notice things that others don’t is a real advantage. 

This is the first in a new series – the second is due in October – for younger readers venturing into this genre of mystery, crime and the seemingly supernatural by Kate Gordon who consistently writes intriguing stories that engross the reader but which have powerful underlying themes that the reader can relate to and which make her characters so much like the kids they know, giving them a more-rounded personality.  In this one, she explores the idea of people having both a public and private persona, one they want the world to see and view them as, while keeping their vulnerability out of sight, visible only to those who know them well. Just as the mysterious events at the Hall may not be what they first appear to be, so too the characters are not who they first present as, either.

Not only does this have all the hallmarks of being a series that is going to appeal to the younger independent reader, but it may well send them in search of other titles by her such as The Ballad of Melodie Rose,  The Calling of Jackdaw Hollow  The Heartsong of Wonder Quinn, My Brother Finch,  and Small Acts.   A different way to Book an Adventure.