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Mia Megastar

Apr27
Mia Megastar

Mia Megastar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mia Megastar

Ada Nicodemou & Meredith Costain

Serena Geddes

Puffin, 2024

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

9781761342158

Meet Mia!
Her life is pretty interesting and amazing. She’s the only kid in her class who lives above a shop. And not just any shop – everyone knows Costa’s is the best place for groceries and the yummiest pastries. She has a cute-but-annoying little brother, Yianni, and the best friends ever. Oh, and her mum plays the worst pranks. Mia loves dancing and singing and is always putting on a show. And she’s ready to step into the limelight . . . this year will see Mia get closer to her dream of becoming a megastar.
But the road to stardom is not without a little drama. . .

Loosely based on her own childhood, this is the first in a three-part series  for young independent readers by Home and Away star of 22 years, Ada Nicodemou.  With the upsurge in online opportunities where anyone with ambition (if not talent) can showcase their abilities, there are many of our young students who will relate to Mia’s aspirations and who will find, like Mia (and someone close to me) that it involves a lot more than a camera and an internet connection.

A peek inside...

A peek inside…

Characters that appeal because the reader can put themselves into the lead role, an attractive layout with many visual features including acting tips from someone who has proven herself, and the promise of more to come in July and October, make this a series that is going to appeal to a large number of newly-independent readers who are looking for something new to pass the cold, winter months.  My aspiring young performer has grown through the phase now, but I know this will find a willing and wanting audience at the local primary school.  

Super Sloth: Revenge of the Chick-Oats

Apr10
Super Sloth: Revenge of the Chick-Oats

Super Sloth: Revenge of the Chick-Oats

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Super Sloth: Revenge of the Chick-Oats

Aleesah Darlison

Cheri Hughes

Big Sky, 2024

140pp., pbk., RRP $A14.99

9781923004948

On a remote itty-bitty island off the coast of Panama there is an itty-bitty community of itty-bitty creatures. And while the rest of these pygmy sloths are content to dwell in the trees and move around “as slow as a rainy winter weekend”, Romeo Fortez, is different.  At his naming ceremony, the heavens do spectacular and amazing things and  Romeo is imbibed with powers of speed, intelligence, and irresistibly hypnotic good looks. As he grows up, Romeo craves speed and adventure and even his parents know that Escudo Island would never be big enough for him. But then he overhears a reference to New York – the city that never sleeps – and he knows that that is where he must be…

In the second episode of this action-packed series for newly independent young readers, ,Romeo’s nemesis, the unhinged Professor Ian Weird-Warp, is at it again. Bent on revenge, he concocts a quirky catastrophe. Mixing chicken and goat genes, he spawns a gang of eccentric chick-oats and they’re on the loose in the Big Apple, destroying everything in their path all the while chanting, ‘Berk-berk-baa!’

As the team faces off against Professor Weird-Warp’s sinister demands for Romeo’s surrender, they must hatch a brilliant plan to thwart the mad professor’s wicked schemes once and for all. Can this unlikely crew save the city from the clutches of the chick-oats?

Apart from being a fun read, it ends with the professor obviously intending more shenanigans so readers might like to have fun imagining what his next mutations might be – firstly it was a shark and a wolf, now chickens and goats so what could be next?  Perhaps they could even draw what they visualise and develop their own story based on what they already know of the resident characters, Weird-Warp’s motivations and their own imaginations.  

Stacey Casey and the Lost City

Apr9
Stacey Casey and the Lost City

Stacey Casey and the Lost City

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stacey Casey and the Lost City

Michael C. Madden

Nancy Bevington

Big Sky, 2024

164pp., pbk., RRP $A14.99

9781922896667

Stacey Casey’s father is a terrible inventor. But now, despite years of failed inventions, he has created a functioning time machine.  But instead of sending him back in time, he turns their entire house into a time machine, transporting everyone and everything in it back into history, although they still have access to parts of 2022 like mobile phones and the internet.

In this, the third episode, while Stacey, her dad and the baby dinosaur have escaped back to 2022 after robbing a bank with Ned Kelly, Oliver was captured by the evil Isla Palmer. But now he has turned up at their home but as an old man…  Travelling back to 1964 to rescue him, and to stop an evil woman from stealing a powerful artifact and taking over the world, Stacey and her friends  take on a dangerous quest that takes them to a place outside of all time and space as they team up with the world’s most famous philosopher, Plato, to explore the lost city of Atlantis. And somehow, they have a dinosaur to return to its mum…

This is a series best read in order so there is continuity of the narrative but it is one that will appeal to those who prefer to go back in time rather than forward for their reading matter.  Atlantis, a mythical island in the Atlantic Ocean born in the imagination of Plato has always held intrigue for many, and this story may even inspire young readers to delve deeper into its origins, opening up new reading horizons.

Tree

Apr6
Tree

Tree

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tree

Claire Saxby

Jess Racklyeft

A & U Children, 2024

28pp., hbk., RRP $A24.99

9781761069505

On a misty mountain morning, just like the one outside my window this morning, the tree stands tall in the forest, high above those that surround it , “older than those who find it, younger than the land it grows from.”

From its roots that gather food and the tiny, feathery threads that connect it to other trees to the tips of it top leaves that reach for the sun and give dappled shade from it, the tree brims with life – both its own and those who seek shelter and food from it.

Known as “the forest giant” as they can soar to a height of more than 100 metres, and sometimes living up to 300 years old, this is the story of a mountain ash – Eucalyptus regnans – native to the forests of Tasmania and Victoria, born from a seed the size of a pinhead but uniquely designed to be able to push its way through the ash of a bushfire and begin its rapid growth that helps regenerate the scorched land below. 

Just like Iceberg this is another incredible offering from this team of author and illustrator, one that brings to life the life of something so ordinary yet extraordinary  in words and pictures (including an amazing three-page spread) in a way that should be used as a role model for students tasked with research-and-report writing.  Compare “In the layered litter, a a scaly thrush flicks. A lyrebird scritch-scratches. Slaters curl, beetles burrow and centipedes scurry.” to  something like “At the bottom of the tree lots of birds and animals live among the dropped leaves and twigs.” It is the lyricism of Saxby’s language that shines through in all her books and in this case, Racklyeft’s watercolour illustrations put the reader right in with those little inhabitants.

But whether the tree is a magnificent mountain ash, or a humble backyard specimen, this is one that will spark awareness of the value that any tree adds to both the landscape and life itself, and thus needs protection rather than destruction. 

 

How to Be Invisible

Mar31
How to Be Invisible

How to Be Invisible

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Be Invisible

Nick Bland

HarperCollins, 2024

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

9781460764060

When Bunny arrives at the park wearing Grandpa’s hat, he thinks it has made him invisible. But Bird can still see him!  The more Bunny tries, the less invisible he seems. The best friends enjoy the hat even if it’s not magical. But are they sure it’s not a magical hat? Grandpa has a surprise for them!

This is the second in this series for our earliest readers who are just learning about the joy of stories in print, and they are going to be delighted to meet up with characters they already know, while impressing the grown-ups around them by not only saying the word “invisible” but knowing its meaning!  Can there be anything more empowering than learning and using such a big word? And in such an enjoyable way?

In my opinion, the real heroes in this world are those who can entertain, engage and educate our little ones so they have a strong platform on which to base their future formal learning, and Nick Bland is among those. His ability to take something simple and everyday and spin it into something magical through the clever use of words and pictures is amazing, the envy of others, and a gift that our youngest readers are grateful for. On their behalf, I say thank you.

 

 

 

The Crayons Love Our Planet

Mar29
The Crayons Love Our Planet

The Crayons Love Our Planet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Crayons Love Our Planet

Drew Daywalt

Oliver Jeffers

HarperCollins, 2024

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

9780008560898

Our planet is a colourful place…white ice caps, green trees, blue oceans and skies, brown soil . . . and more! And each crayon is delighted to share their part in keeping it colourful, especially Beige who pops up constantly to highlight his contribution,  like a little toddler desperate not to be overlooked.

This is a funny addition to this series for young readers, as they are encouraged to look at the world around them and its colours and begin to develop an appreciation for their environment and their responsibility towards it. It opens up opportunities for some elementary data collection as natural elements and objects are classified according to colour as well as art appreciation as they discover the myriads of tints, tones and shades of the hues of the colour wheel represented in Nature.

As well as being lovable characters in themselves, the Crayons always have adventures and experiences that can lead to greater learning, and this one is just as promising as all the others. in the series. 

Computer Technology for Curious Kids

Mar24
Computer Technology for Curious Kids

Computer Technology for Curious Kids

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Computer Technology for Curious Kids

Chris Oxlade

Nik Neves

CSIRO Publishing, 2024

128pp., hbk., RRP $A32.99

9781486318360 

It’s 1996, lunchtime in the library of a new government primary school in Canberra, and rather than the students you would expect to find there, there is a group of staff members lined up for their turn on the one computer that is linked to a local internet service via a dial-up line.  It’s long before the department gets a LAN let alone a WAN, but these teachers are encouraged to be there by their enlightened, visionary principal (who has even hired an ICT coach for the teachers) as each one waits their turn to send an email to a colleague, to feel the thrill of having received one, and marvelling at this new way of doing business and its potential.

Fast forward nearly 30 years and nothing has moved quite as fast as the development of the technology and the impact it has had on the global community, even beyond.  Now, instead of the wonder of email, encyclopedias on CD-ROM and being able to prepare a program without the trusty white-out on hand, we have terminology like artificial intelligence, smartphones, social media and cyber-security as part of our everyday vocabulary and our youngest students are participating in programming, playing video games and making movies using drones in a realm that was once reserved for the boffins and nerds. 

So this new release from CSIRO Publishing in their Curious Kids series, is as much a journey through time as it is one of discovery. Taking the young reader on a trip that covers the history of computing, hardware and software components, data and apps, programming, communications and their ubiquity in daily life, this explains all sorts of things at their level of understanding, using text and illustrations that are straightforward but not overly technical or complex.  For example, “image editing” is described as “editing photographs, perhaps to make then brighter or darker; to get rid of unwanted parts or to remove imperfections” followed by simple explanations and examples of the ways that people do this as they resize photos, or crop them to make the subject more prominent, or removing things like trees that seem to be growing out of a person’s head.

Similarly, the way computers are used to make life simpler, even being a central part of many of the toys and games the child plays with is explained as so many things are just taken for granted because they have always been in the child’s life, much as the telephone, radio and television were for previous generations. Just as their parents might not be able to recall a time when there wasn’t instant entertainment available in the room with the click of a remote, so too our little ones can’t imagine life without their friends and their activities being visible on a screen. 

Whether this is a trip down memory lane for some, a way of understanding these “new-fangled computers” for others, and explanation of the how, what and why for those with a need to know, or the opening of a door to further explanation,  this is a fascinating dip-and-delve book that has something or everyone. 

 

 

11 Ruby Road: 1900

Mar23
11 Ruby Road: 1900

11 Ruby Road: 1900

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11 Ruby Road: 1900

Charlotte Barkla

Walker Books, 2024

192pp., pbk., RRP $A16.99

9781760657949

Ever since her Great Aunt Mildred picked the vacant block on the new housing development as a child in 1863 because she loved its giant Moreton Bay fig tree, it has belonged to Dorothy’s family and now they have moved from the country to the city to live in the house and run the store that Mildred’s mother established.

But city life  is very different to the rural one Dorothy has known. Ruby Road is bustling – full of families and children, horse-drawn carts and even a mysterious dog – and there are many other changes such as having to go to school and crossing swords with Miss Armstrong who insists on perfect printing of letters and needlework , despite Dorothy’s love of writing stories which she does in her secret writing room. Meeting a young Asian boy who also likes to write stories, Dorothy not only finds an outlet and audience for her imagination, but is also exposed to prejudice and racism, particularly towards the Chinese who were blamed for “taking all the gold” from the gold rush and inspired the White Australia Policy, as the colonies united to become one country. Inspired by a declaration by her Aunt Esme that she wouldn’t marry and be the possession of a man, Dorothy dreams of being a famous actress and independent and writes a play that she persuades the neighbourhood children to perform. But then a conversation between her mother and Esme about women having the right to vote and have a say in their lives, inspires a change of focus… and hopefully, a change in thinking for many.

Somewhat akin to the concept of Nadia Wheatley’s classic, My Place, this is the first in a series tracing the stories of the occupants of 11 Ruby Road in Brisbane, introducing young independent readers to the lives of those who lived in the times, as well as the genre of historical fiction.  It opens up many avenues of Australia’s history to explore – federation, racism, the status of women- all of which give today’s children an insight into how things were and an opportunity to investigate how and why they have changed.

A series worth following and offering to those investigating or interested in this country’s history in a way that makes it meaningful and accessible.

Dinosaur Roar! (series)

Mar18
Dinosaur Roar!

Dinosaur Roar!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinosaur Roar! (series)

Peter Curtis

Jeanne Willis

Orchard Books, 2024

16pp., board book, RRP $A16.99

Imagine a series of books about dinosaurs created especially for our youngest readers, in board book format just perfect for their little hands to hold by themselves.

Inspired by the classic picture book Dinosaur Roar! by Paul Stickland and Henrietta Stickland, this colourful collection of children’s books features dinosaurs with personalities even bigger than they are! Each book in the series introduces a different title character and uses his or her personality to teach children about dinosaurs and convey a simple moral lesson. The 26 dinosaur characters frequently pop up in other characters’ books in the collection, which together make up The World of Dinosaur Roar!

With wonderful, rhyming text written by series creator, Peter Curtis, and award-winning author, Jeanne Willis, these laugh-out-loud stories are sure to be a hit with young dinosaur fans! Each book includes a spread of simple dinosaur facts and a pronunciation guide, and is produced in association with the Natural History Museum in London. 

There are few children who don’t go through a “dinosaur phase” and so, not only does this series engage, entertain and educate them, but it also starts developing those early reading behaviours particularly those about print works being valuable for finding things out, and being something they can easily return to time and again. The website offers lots of activities and there is a YouTube channel with even more things to do.

An ideal series for the young readers in your life. 

 

The Transylvanian Express

Mar16
The Transylvanian Express

The Transylvanian Express

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solve Your Own Mystery: The Transylvanian Express

Gareth P. Jones

Louise Forshaw

Walker Books, 2023

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

9781760656591

Haventry is a town where the ordinary and extraordinary collide and with ghosts, werewolves, vampires, mummies, zombies and all sorts of other fantastic creatures living side by side, trouble is always brewing. Following the delivery of a mysterious letter from an unknown client, Klaus Solstang is on the Transylvania express travelling to the home of dreaded  Count Fledermaus, a vampire whose castle will be opened for an annual public event. The trouble is that a VIP, Night Mayor Franklefink, has gone missing while on the train, and one of the suspects is his arch nemesis, Bramwell Stoker.

However, Klaus Solstang is not an ordinary detective – he is a yeti and the reader becomes his assistant in solving the mystery, bestowed with special magical powers. And so this modern choose=your-own-adventure begins…

Written for independent readers, this is one of a series in which the reader is actively engaged in solving a mystery, each choice of action made offering a new permutation of the story. This feeling of being directly involved is consolidated with the narrative being written in the second person, addressing the reader encouraging them to follow the prompts and clues, identify opportunities and motives, and then choose which path to take to work out who committed the crime.  Each path leads to a different outcome so it is one of those books that keeps on giving. 

Part of a series of four that depend on the reader’s participation, it encourages a deeper interaction with the story than normal and is ideal for those who like to solve crimes and mysteries and fancy themselves as detectives..

Solve Your Own Mystery (series)

Solve Your Own Mystery (series)