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Temora and the Wordsnatcher

Temora and the Wordsnatcher

Temora and the Wordsnatcher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Temora and the Wordsnatcher

Kate Gordon

Wombat Books, 2023

300pp., pbk., RRP $A19.99

9781761110122

Temora Murphy is eleven years old. She lives in a world where she never really fits. The other girls make fun of her. She’s not the “right” sort of girl for anyone – least of all her mother. On the candles of her birthday cake, she wishes for escape. Like magic, in a black pearl box at the bottom of her garden, books begin to appear. The books help her to leave her world and find another where she belongs.

On her twelfth birthday, Temora makes another wish, a wish that alters her life forever. Temora Tempest is welcomed into a world within a book, where everyone else has been waiting for her. But when some of the other apprentices fall victim to a magical disease that could only be caused by one person – a monster thought long dead – Temora realises that there can be darkness in every story. And that it might be her job to save everyone.

Described by the publisher as “a literary children’s story; a portal fantasy work, featuring a diverse cast of characters and a protagonist who marches to the beat of her own drum” this is a story for all those girls like my now-Ms 17 who go through primary school more in touch with the characters in stories than the luminaries of social media and who can not only transport themselves deep into a story but have a solid conversation as though they were a real part of it. Although S grew up in a loving family with a loving mother, and did not have the same adventures as Temora, she certainly had the confidence to march to the beat of her own drum because of her reading (and still does), and would have loved this book when she was in her late primary years. 

A complex read for independent readers who would like to find themselves in their favourite stories  it is one to snuggle up with on cold winter nights, particularly as the next in this Wordspinner series – Temora and the Dreamers – will be out in September. 

One and Everything

One and Everything

One and Everything

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One and Everything

Sam Winston

Walker, 2022

48pp., hbk., RRP $A29.99

9781529509298

Once there were many stories in the world. Some had beautiful sunsets, some lived at the bottom of the sea, and some were simply about dogs. Until one story decided that it was going to be the most important story ever. It called itself the One and started to consume every other story in existence. Soon it seemed that the One was all that was left … or was it? Because inside the One’s tummy, something was happening—the other stories, combined into new words, become a Voice. Pushing back against its captor, the Voice gets the One to understand that it is actually Every Story, not merely a single one. Will the One be angry and turn on the others, permanently silencing them for ever, or will it heed the words of the Voice and create magic?

At first, this looks like a book for little people, but then the storyline seems to be an allegory for political power for older students, and then you read the endpages and find it is something completely different and you return to pay much closer attention to the illustrations which rather than being randomly coloured dots whose patterns are actually symbols  of 50 different scripts (the written symbols for spoken language) of languages once spoken around the globe.  Given that it’s estimated that there are currently more than 7000 languages spoken, these fifty are but a sample of those that have already disappeared, but inspired by the Endangered Alphabets project, aimed at preserving cultures by sharing their unique scripts, Sam Winston has used writing systems such as cuneiform, Canadian aboriginal, Egyptian hieroglyphs and ogham to illustrate this book, as well as including a fascinating explanation of those languages, where they come from and a challenge to find them used in the story. 

Given today is Harmony Day, this is an ideal story to use as a springboard to explore the languages spoken in the classroom or school, and perhaps even invite someone to share a story from another culture.  Students could interview their parents and grandparents to investigate what their favourite stories and authors were, and then see which ones are still popular today – some of today’s parents will recall the excitement of the initial publication of the Harry Potter series!!!

 

Dorrie

Dorrie

Dorrie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dorrie

Tania McCartney

HarperCollins, 2023

32pp., hbk., RRP $A24.99

 9781460760109

If you read the entry for Dorothy Wall, creator of Blinky Bill, in the Australian Dictionary of Biographyyou learn, “Dorothy Wall (1894-1942), author and illustrator, was born on 12 January 1894 at Kilbirnie, Wellington, New Zealand, daughter of Charles James William Wall, soldier, and his wife Lillian, née Palethorpe, both English born.”

If you read the new biography by Tania McCartney, creator of Mamie (amongst many others), you learn. “On a frosty day , in a land of long white clouds and snowy peaks , a little girl was born. Her name was Dorothy but her family called her Dorrie.”

If you look at the ADB entry you get a formal photo of the subject…

While the McCartney version is this…

 

Two different styles for two different audiences, each appropriate for their situations, but Dorrie demonstrating yet again why it is essential that we, as teacher librarians, must continue to offer our students non fiction in accessible, engaging print format. 

As with Mamie, in which McCartney brought to life May Gibbs, the creator of the Gumnut Babies and Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, so too has she created an appealing, readable biography of the author of the Blinky Bill series, focusing on her early life that helped shape the creation of the characters. As a child, Dorrie was  a master creator- singing, Dancing, sewing, making jewellery, designing patterns, painting nature and drawing illustrations, winning scholarships to prestigious art colleges in New Zealand and then migrating to Australia at the outbreak of World War 1. But it is when a cheeky koala appears in a tree outside her window, her world is turned upside down. A fascination and passion for Blinky soon becomes her life work – and not only is  a lifelong friendship born but also a series of stories that remain children’s favourites generations on.  Who hasn’t read The Adventures of Blinky Bill  or seen the television series or movie made from them? 

The little koala in the red overalls is a  literary staple in our children’s lives and this outstanding new biography is an essential addition to the collection because just as Dorrie captured the warmth and beauty of Blinky, his pals and their environment, so has McCartney.  Although in reality, if you continue to read the ADB entry, Wall’s life was not an easy one and she died from pneumonia at a young age, McCartney focuses on the joy and the fun of playing and singing and dancing like no one’s watching.  The final illustration of her books being displayed in an Angus & Robertson window (a company synonymous with books in times past) is perfect – not just for the book itself, but also for this year’s CBCA Book Week them of Read. Grow. Inspire.  Both Wall and McCartney encourage that. 

  

Mim and the Disastrous Dog Show

Mim and the Disastrous Dog Show

Mim and the Disastrous Dog Show

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mim and the Disastrous Dog Show

Katrina Nannestad

Cheryl Orsini

ABC Books, 2023

256pp., pbk., RRP $A14.99

9780733342240

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.  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.”

This time, in the fourth episode of this intriguing series for young independent readers, Mim has arrived in the picturesque Cotswolds, in England just in time for a dog show. But the judge, Lord Melville-Timms, is in a pickle. He has judged cakes and flowers and vegetables, but never dogs. And his bulldog, Bubbles, is shamefully disobedient! Mim knows they’re here to help Lord Melville-Timms. To give him courage. To prevent a dog-show disaster.  If only she can find Lord Melville-Timms the right book. If only Dad would stop giving him the wrong book.

Put “bookshop” in the title of a book and you’ve got me – and, I suspect, many others. Young readers will delight in meeting Mim and Nat and their dad again as well as travelling to a completely different country as this series (this is #4) goes from strength to strength.  Even though I’ve never quite seen the point of dog shows and the like – they’re all beautiful just as they are to me- this one still kept me reading to the end.  

Bears Don’t Cry!

Bears Don't Cry!

Bears Don’t Cry!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bears Don’t Cry!

Emma Chichester Clark

HarperCollins, 2023

32pp., hbk., RRP $A24.99

 9780008491833

George is no ordinary bear. He lives with a little girl called Clementine and her mother, who have taught him to read! There was nothing he liked more than to sit in the garden and read once he’d helped out around the house because, next to reading, being useful was his favourite thing to do.

One day, when George finishes his book early and knows it will be a long time before Clementine and her mother return home, he decides to go the library by himself. At first it’s exciting to stroll along the sunny street. But poor George’s trip soon ends in disaster because not everyone can cope with seeing a large brown bear walking down the street, and, to make things worse, his library book is ruined. Do bears really cry? Can anyone help George to feel better when his feelings are hurt?

This is a heart-warming story for young readers who probably wouldn’t blink if they saw a bear walking down the street and they certainly wouldn’t carry on like the townspeople.  But it is also a timely reminder that some of the things that we say and do can hurt other’s feelings, even if that is not our intention, and so we need to think before we speak or act and be sensitive to the feelings of those around us.  For little ones who are so egocentric this is something they have to learn and so this, apart from being just a grand read-together, is a great discussion starter. 

Pages & Co.5-The Treehouse Library

Pages & Co. 5-The Treehouse Library

Pages & Co. 5-The Treehouse Library

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pages & Co. 5-The Treehouse Library

Anna James

HarperCollins, 2022

416pp., hbk., RRP $A19.99

 9780008410858

“From outside on the busy north London high street, Pages & Co looked like an entirely normal bookshop. but once inside it didn’t quite make sense how everything fitted inside its ordinary walls. The shop was made up of five floors of corners and cubbyholes, sofas and squashy armchairs, and a labyrinth of bookshelves heading off in different direction.  A spiral staircase danced up one wall, and painted wooden ladders stretched into difficult-to-reach corners.  Tall arched windows above made it feel a little like a church when the light spilled in and danced on the air. When it was good weather the sun pooled on the floor and the bookshop cat – named Alice for her curious nature- could often be found dozing in the warmest spots.  During the summer the big fireplace behind the till was filled to bursting with fresh flowers, but at it was October, a fire was roaring there…”

Does this not conjure up every booklover’s dream of a magical place, a bookstore where magic and mysteries, adventures and escapades beckon?  And for it to be the home of Tilly who prefers the company of book characters to the people in real life and, although not having been outside London, is a seasoned traveller within the pages of the books that abound on the shelves  for in the first in the series she discovered her father was a fictional character and she, herself, was half fictional.  There is much more to her grandfather and grandmother and the family’s history and lives than she ever imagined. Bookwandering is what this family does, and it might explain the mysterious disappearance of her mother and the absence of her father. As she and her best friend Oskar search for her missing mother, they meet the powerful but sinister Underwood family, search for the mysterious  Archivists and encounter the Sesquipedalian, a magical train that uses the power of imagination to travel through both Story and the real world. It is owned by Horatio Bolt who specialises dodgy dealings as a book smuggler trading in rare books, and his nephew Milo…

In this, the second last in this series, Tilly and Milo hurtle towards their final showdown with the Alchemist, and the stakes are higher than ever – though there is always time for hot chocolate!
Milo Bolt is ready to be the hero of his own story. With Uncle Horatio trapped in an enchanted sleep by the power-hungry Alchemist, he sets off with his new friend Alessia to find a cure and save them all.  Their journey leads them to the magical treehouse – home of the Botanist, the Alchemist’s sworn enemy. Against the clock, they hunt for the cure: foraging in the Secret Garden, challenging Robin Hood and confronting the mighty Jabberwock.

But the Alchemist will stop at nothing to unlock the powerful secrets of The Book of Books, and Tilly, Pages & Co. and the whole world of imagination are under threat as a battle for the fate of bookwandering is set in motion…

Created for independent readers or perfect for classroom read-alouds, this is a series that really needs to be read from the first one in order so that the subsequent adventures have context but it will have the book lover hooked from the start, regardless of their age, and wishing they too could bookwander into the magical, mystical world of their favourite characters. Miss Now 12 is going to be delighted when her copy arrives in the post as she has been hooked on this from the start.

And if you have readers looking for similar stories about magical bookshops, suggest The Bookseller’s Apprentice and The Grandest Bookshop in the World.  to tide them over while they are waiting for the final of Pages & Co., probably about this time next year.  In the meantime, those who haven’t ventured into the doors of this magical place have time to catch up! 

 

One Book Was All it Took

One Book Was All it Took

One Book Was All it Took

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Book Was All it Took

Wenda Shurety

Amy Calautti

EK Books, 2022

32pp., hbk., RRP $A24.99

9781922539137

As the rain patters on the window, it seems like the perfect day to just curl up and read- if only Violet could find something new that she hasn’t read before.

“I wish our town had a library,” she muses and, putting thoughts into action she writes a letter to the mayor suggesting just that. But will it be read?

However, when she spots a new book that is propping up the kitchen table she sets in motion a chain of events that has the most unexpected consequences…

Young readers will delight in following the action through the playful illustrations as one thing leads to another, able to retell the story to themselves without having to know all the words and predicting what happens after the last page. They can share their favourite stories and begin to learn about the purpose and importance of libraries – public or school, visit their local library and get their own library card so they too can experience Violet’s delight, and start to learn about procedures as they master the circulation process.

One book could be all it takes…

 

 

The Travelling Bookshop: Mim and the Woeful Wedding

The Travelling Bookshop: Mim and the Woeful Wedding

The Travelling Bookshop: Mim and the Woeful Wedding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Travelling Bookshop: Mim and the Woeful Wedding

Katrina Nannestad

Cheryl Orsini

ABC Books, 2022 

240pp., pbk., RRP $A14.99

9780733341663

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.  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.”

This time, in the second in this series,  Mim has arrived on a charming Greek Island, where a wedding is about to take place. Everyone is excited – everyone, that is, except the bride and groom. Mim knows they’re here to help Anjelica, the bride. To stop the wedding. To set her free to follow her dreams. If only Anjelica would read the right book, the one Mim gave her. If only she would stop reading the wrong book…

The first book in this series captivated me from the get-go and this one was no different.  Young readers will delight in meeting Mim and Nat and their dad again as well as travelling to a completely different country and they have the third, due in early August, to look forward to.  Could there be a better life?

Our Library

Our Library

Our Library

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Library

Donna Rawlins

Wild Dog Books, 2022

32pp., hbk., RRP $A24.99

9781742036342

Sharing a book called “Our Library” on networks dominated by teacher librarians seems to be like preaching to the converted but…

Although libraries for the public have their roots deep into history – they have been traced back to the Assyrian Empire in Mesopotamia in 700BCE and the Library of Alexandria in Egypt in 300BCE  and down through the centuries and civilisations although they were  only for the exclusive use of royalty and scholars as a symbol of wealth, position and power- it wasn’t until the 17th century with the development of the printing press and paper that their transformation to what we know now began, although they were still only accessible to those with the income to pay the subscription.  And then along came wealthy but philanthropic Andrew Carnegie…

And he would have been delighted to see the 21st century realisation of his vision which is captured in this delightful book for little people who adore their public library and its librarian, Suzy.  Every day, Monday to Saturday, she has a special session planned for them including Make-new-friends-Monday, Dinosaur Tuesday, I-can-do-it Wednesday, Wiggle and Jiggle Thursday, Nature Day on Friday and Everyone and Everything Day on Saturday. With Librarian Suzy’s rich array of books and resources, her imagination and her unfrazzled nature she welcomes the children to new adventures every day and parents and pre-schoolers alike not only value what she offers but sees their visit to the  library as the highlight of their day. Suzy is that librarian we all saw ourselves being until bureaucracy, curriculum, ignorant principals and paperwork got in the way.  

It celebrates the communal nature of the library where there is so much more than books and reading (although they are central) and while it might seem a million miles from the precepts of the founders of the first public library in Australia, the Melbourne Library (now the State Library of Victoria ) in 1854 who believed ” that access to knowledge was critical for the development of a civil and prosperous community, and [they] created the library as ‘the people’s university,’ nevertheless Suzy is laying those critical concepts in the children’s minds of the library being the place to go to find out about what you don’t know, of it being a fun place to learn where there are people who will help you and new pathways stretch into the future at the turning of a cover… Her space is the epitome of the recommendations of the Horton Report commissioned in the 70s by then prime minister Gough Whitlam which was that libraries should be community hubs, one of more than 1600 public library outlets now in this country. 

When I did my Master of Information Studies in 2011 I viewed it through the lens of how my expertise and experience of being a teacher librarian could enrich and enhance a Children’s Services Librarian role, but this book offers the opportunity for us to look at that CSL role and envision how that could enrich and enhance the position of the TL.  What can we learn from Suzy?  At the very least we can teach our littlies about the local public library and what it offers, that there is a facility in their neighbourhood or nearby that offers an even wider range of resources than the school library, that is a great place to discover new reads, do new things and meet new friends, and that it is all free!  We could even team up with the local CSL and make sure that students have the  application for their very own library card in their hands by the time you have shared this book.  

 

Arabella’s Alphabet Adventure

Arabella's Alphabet Adventure

Arabella’s Alphabet Adventure

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arabella’s Alphabet Adventure

Suzy Zail

Christopher Nielsen

Walker Books, 2022

32pp., hbk., RRP $A25.99

9781760652425

On the library shelf marked “Especially for Children”, sits Arabella’s Alphabet Adventure, a book with just 26 letters, one to a page yet not one single word.

“I’m an ABC book and that’s all I’ll ever be,” Arabella complained to her capital C.  How she wished she was filled with words and stuffed with stories like the other books even though she has flaps to lift and levers to pull and is the most beautiful and most borrowed book in the library – but only ever by children. Tired of having her pages torn by sticky fingers, Arabella slips into the Very Serious Book section of the library and takes an adventure within the pages of an African travel guide. But will Arabella realise that where she belongs is closer than she thinks?

As well as the strong message about being careful what you wish for, Arabella offers young readers the opportunity to explore the different sorts of books in the library – there are so many more than just the story books they are probably familiar with providing a pathway to exploring fiction and non fiction, picture books and novels, and all the other variations and their characteristics,  Astute teachers might even touch on how Arabella had an impact on others’ lives even though she wasn’t aware of it and how that can happen with people too.  “If someone has lost their smile, give them one of yours” is as necessary today as it was when I first heard it as a child myself. 

There are other themes to explore too and these can be found on the free  Read to Us! Story Time Kit , a new initiative from the publishers offering ideas and activities for some of their new publications providing the opportunity to make them more than just a single read.  

This is one of those splendid picture books that offer something new to explore every time you share it – it’s no wonder it was the most popular book in the library!