Marley and her friends are on the doorstep of independence and College life, but first they have to survive the last days of High School. As Seniors there are lots of end of school year events and activities, but there are also lots of unauthorised pranks. A wealthy young student, Rhett, has ‘inherited’ his family’s entitled attitude and sets dares and tasks for his classmates to complete. He is virtually blackmailing them to complete the dare, or he will release the dirt he has accumulated on them. An accident leads to Marley’s friendship group feeling compelled to lie and hide truth, because they are afraid of the consequences. The web of lies leads to fractures in their relationships and twisted complexities as they attempt to escape being found out. Can Marley survive the last days before school ends or will truth catch up with them?
This is a USA High School drama with twists and turns. The moral choices that are made are distressing and lack wisdom, but the twisted nature of some of the characters reveals that evil hides just below the surface. This is a story that teens will enjoy reading, because the tension keeps building. Every character seems to fall apart slowly and there are relatable examples of regrettable decisions made that have long term consequences. The twist for one of the characters is unexpected and readers will be surprised. I am not sure that everything in the story is believable, but this example of the thriller genre has all the features of a book that will be peer-to-peer recommended. Recommended for readers aged 14+, who love thrillers and teen realistic fiction.
Themes Thriller, Murder, Conspiracy, USA - school, Friendship, Trust.
Carolyn Hull
Fabulous frogs by Katrina Germein. Illus. by Suzanne Houghton
Children’s non-fiction picture book duo, author Katrina Germein and illustrator Suzanne Houghton who wrote the delightful book Wonderful Wasps, have once again combined to present another engaging factual book, Fabulous Frogs. Written in skilfully constructed rhyme, this book will captivate and amaze readers as they learn all about a variety of Australian frogs. With a striking front cover displaying some rather appealing frogs, readers will be immediately drawn to this book. The detailed endpapers showcase 18 different frogs, numbered and named, in various colours, shapes and sizes, that are featured throughout this entertaining book.
Cleverly commencing with two questions, Do you have a favourite, fabulous frog? A fine fascinating, Australian frog? provides a perfect learning moment for children to share what they already know about frogs. These questions are followed by many remarkable and unique facts about Australian frogs. For example, frogs eat frogs that are smaller in size, or that the male Pouched frog has pouches on his legs where the tadpoles turn into frogs. The glorious full colour illustrations accompanying the text provide added impact and the ability for the readers to visualise and differentiate between each frog.
Fabulous Frogs also raises important environmental issues that children will be able to understand and appreciate:
Frogs need fresh water to drink through their skin. So, make sure your rubbish goes into a bin. Litter that falls into gutters and drains flows into waterways after the rains. Avoid using chemicals out in your yard. They hurt froggy skin, which makes breathing too hard.
Educators in the early and middle grade years are often looking for accessible texts to teach their students research and report writing skills. Fabulous Frogs would be an excellent resource to support these concepts as there is the opportunity to find key words, learn about life cycles, descriptions, habitats, predators and diet. There are further fascinating facts in the final pages, an extensive glossary and a valuable guide to creating a frog-friendly garden.
The Dark Wives is the 11th addition to the familiar Book and TV Vera Stanhope series. As always Ann Cleeves’ wonderful writing had me compulsively reading to the end - and not guessing who dunnit! A young man’s body is found outside Rosebank, a home for troubled teens. Josh has been working at the home and didn’t show up the previous night. A fourteen-year-old girl, Chloe Spence, has also disappeared from the home. Chloe’s parents have died and she has refused to live with her grandparents and Vera knows she must find her. Is she connected to the murder? With Joe and new team member Rosie Bell, Vera is soon involved following clues to Chloe’s where-abouts. When another body is found near the Three Dark Wives monument in the Northumberland countryside and it is connected to Josh’s murder and Chloe’s disappearance, dark secrets begin to emerge and Vera and her team are in a race to uncover the identity of the murderer.
This is a well plotted mystery and shows Vera in a new light. She is grieving and is trying to be more sensitive to the needs of her team. She has a new DC, Rosie who is a city girl but is keen to get on the right side of Vera, who does keep her thoughts about the case from her team. This frustrating for Joe and Rosie, but Vera’s experience and intuition comes to the fore with a surprising conclusion to the book that I didn’t see coming. It was good to see the quiet Charlie play a pivotal role in the expose of the villain. The background of how children end up in care homes, the lack of funding for social workers and private industry trying to make a profit adds another dimension to the story.
I really enjoy the Vera Stanhope books and look forward to more books in the series. They are easy to read, have in-depth backgrounds and familiar characters, a wonderful combination for lovers of mysteries.
Themes Murder, Children's homes.
Pat Pledger
All you took from me by Lisa Kenway
Transit Lounge, 2024. ISBN: 9781923023123. (Age:Adult - Young adult)
When Dr Clare Carpenter wakes up from a coma in hospital where she works, she can’t remember what happened, but she can sense the menace of a big man with a backpack in the corridor approaching her room. She manages to alert the staff but the man is gone and they don’t believe her. It seems she has been in a serious car accident a month ago that killed her husband, Ray, and that she has a brain injury resulting in retrograde amnesia. When two detectives come to interview her about the single vehicle crash in the Blue Mountains, they question her about why her husband was wearing chain mail at the time of the crash and about his membership of the Megin Medieval Fight Club. Unable to help them, due to her memory loss, Clare is nevertheless sure there is something they are not telling her. She needs to find out what really happened and why there is someone after her. Isolated from her Jehovah’s Witness family and with few friends, Clare is determined to get back to her work as an anesthetist and to do this she must convince a psychologist that she is fit to practice. She must also deal with the mounting threats from someone about something she can’t remember. When hypnotism starts to reveal some uncomfortable memories, Clare decides on a course of action using anasthetic drugs to access her memories and then to track down those who can confirm what happened. The author is a writer and anesthetist and uses her professional knowledge to lend authenticity to the experiments the main character does to retrieve her memories. What I found truly terrifying in this thriller was that the protagonist was able to experiment on patients undergoing surgery under her care and that a staff member with mental health issues could still have free access to drugs and threaten staff at her workplace. It is hard to like such a reckless and self-centered character and ultimately I didn’t care who did what and why.
Themes Psychological thriller, Memory.
Sue Speck
Runt by Craig Silvey. Illus. by Sara Acton
Allen & Unwin, 2022. ISBN: 9781761067846. (Age:8+) Highly recommended.
Runt is a small brown haired dog of mixed ancestry who one day finds his forever owner, an unusual young girl called Annie. She sits by herself at lunchtime at her small school in Upson Downs, and beings to feed the stray dog. Runt has lived for a year or so, stealing food where he can, hounded by the local policemen. Annie and Runt bond totally with each other and he is taken in by her family. Annie finds that Runt obeys her every command, and is good at herding the small flock of sheep her family still owns, especially after they stray onto the well grassed farm next door, the owner ever vigilant in using the law to undermine the family.
The local big wig, Earl Robert-Barron lives in a mansion above the town, and has dammed the water supply, resulting in terrible water shortages, made even more devastating with a three year drought. This has precipitated the town’s decline, with many moving out and the once prosperous farms now dustbowls.
Her wonderful family, parents Brian and Susie, Doris (Grandma) and Max (brother), is struggling to survive, so when Annie gets the chance to enter Runt in the local show’s dog competition, she takes $20 from her mother’s takings at her cake stall, and enters. But one major problem still exists, Runt will not perform in front of an audience, he only has eyes for Annie. So the judge clears the arena and Runt wins, Fergus Fink coming second. Annie goes on to triumph at the Australia wide championships, winning an entry into Krumpets, the world championship held in London. This has a first prize of half a million dollars, which will pay off the farm’s overdraft on the overdraft. They are all keen for Annie to go, but it means her dog needs to perform with people watching. The family tries all sorts of unusual dog whisperers, but the last resort is to see the recluse, Bernadette Box, and she offers Annie some sage advice while the family works together to find a solution.
Annie is a memorable character, wearing her grandfather’s tool belt filled with useful bits and pieces which she loves to use to mend things that need fixing.
All sorts of obstacles lie in the way of the family getting to London, but everyone pitches in, Brian selling his amazing grafted rose, Max performing a dangerous stunt, Doris setting up a kissing booth and Susie selling pies. And again, obstacles are put in their way in London, but all turns out well in the end.
From the bestselling author of Jasper Jones and Honeybee, Runt won 2023 CBCA Book of the Year for Younger Readers.
'You don't have to carry the weight of the world in your tool belt.'
Runt is a heart-warming and very funny tale which exemplifies kindness and friendship, while hurdles, hoops, and see-saws are put in place to serve as impediments to the dog’s competitions, as well as the family’s survival.
I listened to the story after borrowing it from Libraries SA, using LIBBY.
An interview with Craig Silvey can be found here. And a film of the book will be on screens in 2024.
Themes Family, Drought, Small towns, Farms, Dogs, Competition, London.
Fran Knight
My dad thinks he's a scream by Katrina Germein. Illus. by Tom Jellett
Katrina Germein and Tom Jellett have once again provided another humorous and entertaining book to add the ever-growing ‘My dad..’ collection. This series is very popular in school libraries with children who love ‘Dad jokes’, with this latest edition all about Halloween and Dad’s attempt to be funny.
As the family prepare for trick or treating, Dad, dressed as a ghost, has already started on the jokes. To his wife who is a mummy, he says '…you look rotten. Perhaps you should sit in the living room?' To the narrator, his son, he says, 'You used to be small but now…you gruesome?' The jokes are flying fast and furiously on this Halloween evening. As the family walk past the cemetery, dad comes out with some very amusing puns:
'Look!...The dead centre of town. People are dying just to get in. They are so dead-icated! It’s a great place for stories, so many plots.'
Throughout this engaging book, the jokes dad comes up with will keep young readers guessing. They are witty and clever and his son, who has probably heard more jokes than he needs to, repeatedly says 'My dad thinks he’s a scream.'
This close family has a great time out together on Halloween and the bold and bright illustrations add so much to the enjoyment of the text. The colourful images on the endpapers will delight children with many sweet favourites such as lolly teeth, chocolate freckles and lolly snakes appearing amongst them.
A perfect book for families to share with Father’s Day and Halloween coming up.
It's all love: Reflections for your heart & soul by Jenna Ortega
Penguin, 2021. ISBN: 9780593174562. (Age:12+)
It's All Love is full of personal stories from the author, Jenna Ortega (TV shows include Wednesday, You and Stuck in the Middle), covering a range of things such as embracing confidence, talking about self-worth, taking chances, working under pressing, dealing with stress and anxiety, even being diagnosed with depression. Jenna covers many topics and encourages readers to focus on the positive, to rely on others and to trust themselves.
Aimed at teens, this non-fiction book full of extremely positive views, starts with a reflection from Jenna Ortega to the readers of the book, as a connection that even those in Jenna's position (now in many TV shows and movies, getting recognised and career taking off), can feel lonely or not believe in themselves. She expresses that she has written the book honestly, which does come across throughout the book, which is very simply written, brief, honest, positive. Jenna is also very encouraging to her readers, and upfront about how grateful she is for all she has, and discusses her faith openly. Some readers will not be expecting this, fans of her work will likely be aware of her journey. Great for fans of Jenna Ortega, and for those who are looking for more positivity in their life.
Val McDermid’s latest novel starring DCI Karen Pirie, an Edgar Award Nominee for Sue Grafton Memorial Award (2024), is set in the lonely streets of Edinburgh during lockdown. Karen is soon on the trail of a new cold case. An employee at the National Library has come across some unusual documents in the archive of a deceased crime author and believes that there might be something to investigate. And this proves to be the case – two novelists face each other across a chessboard, challenging each other about performing the perfect crime. As Karen and her team delve deeper into the novelist’s past, lies and revenge rear their ugly heads. Could the novelist’s last documents relate to the unsolved murder of a young student?
The eerie quiet of Edinburgh during lockdown provides a perfect background to Karen’s pursuit of the truth. She describes the difficulties with only being allowed an hour’s exercise a day while trying to investigate, and what it means to have Daisy her colleague as a flatmate. The plight of an asylum seeker is also interwoven in the story.
McDermid’s expert plotting has a story within a story – the one that the novelist was writing at the time of his death, and the events that are happening in the present. There are many twists and turns, but with determination and skill, Karen pursues the truth.
This was the 7th book in the Inspector Karen Pirie series. I had not picked up any others but found that the expert background given by McDermid made it easy to pick up as a stand-alone. I will be looking out for others by this clever author.
When I saw that In the Blink of An Eye had won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2024 and 2024 CWA ILP John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and read the blurb about artificial intelligence aiding police work, I thought it sounded original and current. I was not disappointed – the book is a compulsive read and very difficult to put down. Recently bereaved police detective Kat Frank is given a cold case featuring the disappearance of a young university student. She is chosen to lead a pilot program researching the use of artificial intelligence, and partners with AIDE Lock, AIDE meaning ‘Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity.’ She and her bosses are very sceptical about the use of Artificial Intelligence, and trust in old fashioned experience and knowledge to solve cases, but Kat soon finds that Lock’s ability to analyse data in seconds can be helpful, and when her colleagues don’t trust her instincts, it is Lock who stands by her as the cold case become live and personal.
This is a wonderful police procedure that showcases the way clever humans work a case. Kat is very experienced and has previously solved a major case. She uses her ability to read body language, her sense of smell and knowledge of human motivations to hone her investigation. Meanwhile AIDE Lock can produce predictions of probability within seconds, and analyse phone data and CCTV images in a flash, work that would take humans days to conclude. Along side the descriptions of police procedure, the background of the main characters adds a depth to the story, making it easy to relate to them. Kat’s husband has recently died from cancer, her son Cam is recovering from depression and her offsiders all have personal problems to contend with.
A fast-paced thriller that gripped me to the end, I liked the combination of Kat with her experience and Lock with its emotionless analysis so much that I immediately obtained the next in the series, Leave no trace.
Text Publishing, 2024. ISBN: 9781922790712. (Age:9-11) Recommended.
Penny Lowry is in Grade 5 and is sometimes troubled by anxious thoughts. When her class gets given an opportunity to visit New York, she manages to swallow most of her fears to experience the Big Apple. But first she has to deal with a friendship dilemma with her former friend Violet, who has been made her trip buddy. Learning how to work together with her classmates and overcome her own uncertainties reveals that Penny is learning strategies that reveal a potential for leadership and for helping others.
This is a charming story, told through ‘letters’ to Penny’s pet dog, and illustrated with short graphic-novel style comic strips. With pre-teen issues and solutions for friendship and anxiety concerns, this is a light but warm story. It has occasional funny moments, but it is mostly a gentle child-friendly story set on a school trip in a recognisable USA location. This is Book 4 in the series, and it is good to meet a central character who must overcome her personal issues in psychologically healthy ways.
Recommended for readers aged 9-11.
Themes Anxiety, New York, Friendship.
Carolyn Hull
Our dreaming by Kirli Saunders. Illus. by Dub Leffler
Two echidnas are walking together, the older one telling the younger one stories as they go. They keep their Dreaming alive in their mother tongue, by talking with each other, sharing stories of the land and what it means.
Through the story, Language is used which provokes the children to think about what the word may mean by its context, and which can be checked using the glossary at the end.
Our Dreaming tells us about creation, sacred sites, how the spirits guide, it reminds people where they belong. Timeless, it is kept alive when the Dreaming is shared with others, yarning.Their environment and animals are known to the people, and stories about them are incorporated into their story. When the environment and living creatures are protected it helps us all. Sharing is a big part of the Dreaming, a word which incorporates the past, present and future. Dreaming incorporates the past with stepping stones which point the way forward.
The illustrations are superb, Dub Leffler’s style will engage the readers, as they follow the echidnas on their journey which takes them through forested area, desert, past a lyre bird’s nest, over a log where they watch dragonflies, past a bottlebrush bush with a honeyeater sipping the nectar. All are part of the environment which is held dear, not only now but into the future.
A reading by Kirti Saunders can be accessed here. This lovely reading of the story speaks the Language words used in the text, showing children how to say these words. Land, culture and the lore are all part of the Dreaming, and we must work and walk together to ensure that all is protected for those who come after us.
The unusual font may put off less capable readers and so extra help may need to be given.
Themes Environment, Dreaming, Aboriginal stories, Echidnas, Australian animals.
Fran Knight
Medici heist by Caitlin Schneiderhan
Atom Books, 2024. ISBN: 9780349125411. (Age:15+) Highly recommended.
Rosa Cellini has grown up in a family known for its crime-filled subterfuge. She has become a master in her own right, and the unpleasantness of living under the Medici ‘touch’ has inspired her to create an assault on their wealth and power. In a manner that Danny Ocean (from Oceans 11) would be proud, she creates a band of misfits, muscles, brains and scammers to infiltrate the Medici stronghold and commit a heist that twists and turns in its intricacies. The environment of Florence in 1517 is filled with brocades, riches, frescoes, guards and yet poverty also walks side by side with those who have the stranglehold on power. Rosa Cellini’s band of swindlers are attempting to right wrongs and restore some opportunities for the oppressed, they just don’t follow a linear path in the process.
This is a story from a screenwriter and its colour and pace would definitely make an awesome film or TV series. The historical setting with its drama and power imbalances creates a perfect backdrop for the heist action. With physical violence and corruption playing out (even in the role of the papacy) there is a backdrop of evil to the story. But essentially this is a well-paced drama weaving the stories of each of the swindlers into the tense action of a risky heist. And as readers, we are always on the side of those who are trying to bring down the Medici power and authority in Florence and redistribute their wealth. A little bit of danger and romance is possible en route for some of the characters. This is a book that you will not want to put down.
Themes Florence - 1500s, theft, Medici family, power and corruption, Michelangelo, Romance, Same-sex attraction.
Children who are just beginning to read early chapter books will welcome this addition to the Bluey series of books, as the characters and setting will be very familiar to them. Bluey:Trains is based on the TV episode Trains and features Bluey’s family playing a game of Trains. It focuses on Dr Glenda and Poppy catching a train, Dr Glenda dropping Poppy off at her Day Care Centre and then travelling on to work at her Vet clinic. Meanwhile, a careless passenger on the train drinks bubble tea, puts their feet up on the seats and uses a cat to take up a seat which is needed by an elderly woman. Chaos follows as he plays pranks on the conductor and the train begins to run late, having unforeseen consequences.
This chapter book, illustrated with black and white pictures that complement the story, will be a boon to beginning readers, whowill be very familiar with the story and will be able to concentrate on predicting what the words will mean. It will be a thrill for them to be able to read about an episode that they have liked and is sure to encourage them to learn to read and to enjoy stories, while learning about good behaviour on trains.
Others in the series, Bluey: Bus and Bluey: Taxi are sure to please, helping children to begin their important journey to learn to read.
Themes Bluey, Trains.
Pat Pledger
The hidden hat by Phil Cummings. Illus. by Jennifer Goldsmith
How do you write a picture book about war that exposes young children to the unknown stories of their grandparents’ lives, gives information that can be easily absorbed and at the same time provide a rush of pride in the ceremony of Anzac Day. Phil Cummings has shown that he is a master of this genre, with Anzac biscuits (2013) and Ride, Ricardo, ride (2015) showcasing children touched by war in widely different circumstances.
And this book strengthens his reputation, using an old man’s hat to unlock memories that have lain dormant. Just as in Newspaper hats (2015) where a hat helps recall memories in a nursing home, this one enables the grandfather to recall things that he was part of sixty years ago.
Hiding in Grandpa’s wardrobe, Mitch finds an old hat. Tumbling out of the wardrobe parallels the grandfather, now pictured as a young man, hiding in the jungles in Vietnam, and from this page on the words and actions of the children on one side of the page complement the actions of the soldiers on the facing page.
This way of showing the war and Grandpa’s involvement, gives it a more personal feel for young readers, while the illustrations by Jennifer Goldsmith are amazingly detailed in their imagery of the man’s farm and his time in war.
Showing their find to Grandpa, unlocks memories of his time in Vietnam: going on patrol, walking carefully through the jungle, helping his mates, waiting for a chopper, losing his hat, looking down from the chopper at the jungle below.
The watercolour illustrations bring the children and their grandfather to life. Smiles radiate from the faces, arms hold the children to the old man's chest as he remembers his youth glancing back over his shoulder at the choppers in the sky.
The movement achieved with the watercolour medium is spectacular. The wind whips up the leaves on the farm, swirling around the children’s feet, while in Vietnam, the choppers cause mayhem as the men's clothes and foliage are picked up as the blades rotate. The soft images of the old man and the children are admirable, and bear closer inspection, particularly on the second last double page of the story which shows the march along the main street, Grandfather with his old mates, his family (watch out for the dog) looking on.
Over the page can be seen a meal with the family and an outline of facts about the Australian soldiers’ hats.
This is a most satisfying picture book about war. It begins and ends with the family, the children now more aware of their Grandfather’s time in Vietnam, he supported by his old friends and the stories they share together.
Themes War, Vietnam War, Families, Grandchildren and grandparents, Memory, Anzac Day.
I quickly became immersed in this historical mystery as I followed the path of mounted trooper Augustus Hawkins who discovered the bodies of three of the children of a wealthy landowner, brutally murdered on an isolated country road in northern New South Wales. He should have been patrolling the road as part of his duties, instead he spent time with the local schoolteacher. It is 1911, and Hawkins is a traumatised veteran of the Boer War, who suffers from terrible nightmares and drowns them in drink. Detectives are sent up from Sydney to investigate but they are out of depth in the unforgiving countryside. Hawkins is scrutinised by the detectives and he is determined to defend his honour and find the murderer. As he rides around the countryside, he uncovers dark secrets about people he knows well and the deep divide between the rich and poor, landowner and worker becomes increasingly evident.
What makes Bone Lands stand out as a novel is the rich historical background that Fioretti brings to the story. It is easy to imagine the large homesteads of the wealthy graziers, their flocks of sheep and the backbreaking work that the men must do to keep the properties going. The doggers, men are employed to kill dingoes, become used to the violence of slaughter, and piles of kangaroo, wombat and rabbit carcasses are common. The poverty of the very poor, with children dressed in clothes made from flour bags and suffering from scurvy is heart rending. The lot of poor women, the housekeepers and cooks, as well as the Aboriginal people, is also one of poverty and deprivation. The daughters of the rich must settle for marriage with men from their own class. Lack of birth control also makes their plight even more difficult.
The divide between the rich graziers and working people is pronounced. Even though Hawkins has gone to Kings, an elite school and is considered good enough to be invited to the Kirkbride’s home, he is not wanted as a suitor for the grazier’s daughter or even as an investigator of the three murders. But Hawkins cannot accept the verdict of the Sydney detectives and gradually uncovers the truth, with some surprises for the reader along the way.
Bone lands’ rich descriptive prose and wonderful historical background makes this a riveting read that is very difficult to put down. An interesting interview with the author can be found here. I look forward to more books by Fioretti.
