Estela Bralaga survives a mysterious attack that kills both her parents and the passengers of a subway train, and is forced to accept an invitation to live with her estranged (and basically unknown) aunt at their ancestral Spanish castle, la Sombra. Aside from not speaking Spanish, Estela also doesn't speak after the tragedy, making her transition to Spain somewhat difficult. After arriving at la Sombra, Estela learns the castle harbours a trove of family secrets and she begins to suspect that the answer to her parents' deaths may be found in the twisting corridors of the castle - half of which is forbidden to venture into. Add into all of this, Estela has been dreaming of a silver-eyed shadow beast, who she begins to fear is after her - when she crosses paths with the shadow beast, they realise they are bound by unknown forces as well as an intense attraction, and they must work together to discover the truth that lies at the dark heart of la Sombra.
Very interestingly written, Castle of the Cursed begins with a flashback, and has numerous timeline jumps throughout the book, providing depth to the characters and story. The pacing is even and while some of the story is potentially predictable, much will leave the reader guessing and thinking after the book is finished. The novel has a disclaimer at the beginning warning readers that it is a dark story, about grief and lists that it addresses suicide, mental health issues, death of a parent, sex and violence. Fans of vampire or gothic novels would enjoy this novel.
Themes YA, Gothic, Mystery, Dark, Mental Health Issues, Death, Violence.
Melanie Pages
Lottie Brooks's essential guide to life by Katie Kirby
Lottie Brooks's Essential Guide to Life, created by talented author and illustrator Katie Kirby, is a delightful blend of humour, heart and creativity. Known for sharing all her personal and embarrassing moments in previous books, this one has a twist. Lottie invites her readers to actively participate in the story, sharing their own secrets, reflections and artistic flair; offering readers an interactive gateway into the world of Lottie Brooks.
Brimming with Lottie’s trademark wit as she navigates the ups and downs of school, friendship and the tricky terrain of adolescence, Kirby masterfully balances light-hearted anecdotes with moments of genuine advice. This book is not just entertaining, but also a source of support for those grappling with similar life experiences. From navigating social dynamics to dealing with school drama, Lottie's candid and humorous take on life feels like chatting with a close friend.
What sets this book apart is its interactive nature. Readers are encouraged to engage by sharing their own stories, doodles, and secrets; enhancing the personal connection between Lottie and her fans. This unique approach transforms the book into more than just a read; with quizzes, questions and would you rathers - it is sure to keep engagement levels high.
Lottie also shares her secrets to creating her simple yet utterly charming illustrations and enables everyone to feel capable of honing their own drawing skills. The entire mix of storytelling and creative activities ensures that this book is a great read for all young tweens; giving them the opportunity to enjoy some relatable life stories while reflecting on their own life experiences.
Lottie Brooks's Essential Guide to Life is not just a guide but a celebration of the messy, magical and memorable moments of growing up. Fun, uplifting and brimming with personality, it’s perfect for readers entering their teenage years who are looking for laughter, relatable advice, and a chance to leave their own memories within the story. Katie Kirby has once again crafted a gem that will resonate with her audience and keep them coming back for more.
Themes Life skills, Friendship, Family, Humour, Self reflection.
Michelle O'Connell
Panic by Catherine Jinks
Text Publishing, 2025. ISBN: 9781922790972. (Age:Adult - 16+) Recommended.
Bronte is jobless and friendless after a drunken online rant about her ex-boyfriend Callum. She is desperate for a place to hide and signs up to be a carer for Nell who has dementia. Nell's daughter Veda is busy running her rebirthing business and needs the help in looking after Nell. When Bronte arrives at Gwendelynne, an isolated homestead, she is faced with a group of individuals who reject the authority of the state and claim to be free citizens, not answerable to the law. Are they a harmless cult or dangerous individuals? Why is Nell obsessed with the dam that she can see out of her window? Will Bronte be safe?
Jinks has written an entralling thriller that is difficult to put down. Bronte's dilemma is gripping. After her drunken rant on video has gone viral she is easily recognisable and has been harassed online and in real time. Her window has been broken and her coffee spiked. She has no where to go but her innate ability to think clearly and to be practical helps her to struggle through the danger that she faces.
The action is non stop. Each chapter is rivetting and the reader is forced to continue reading to see whether Bronte will survive.
Readers who enjoy psychological thrillers and gripping suspense, a social media background and conspiracy theories, are sure to get a thrill from Panic.
Themes Thriller, Murder, Social media.
Pat Pledger
How not to kill your plant by Magda Garulakova and Lenka Chytilova. Illus. by Hannah Abbo
How Not to Kill Your Plant is a well presented book full of information about house plants. It will provide interesting reading for lovers of indoor plants as well as introducing basic plant terminology, facts about a variety of house plants plus step-by-step instructions for planting and care.
Beginning with clearly set out content pages, the first section is Basics of Care which includes ‘Getting to know: house plants’, the glossary and simple facts about all you need to know to grow your own plants. The second section, Encyclopedia of house plants, introduces 16 different plants that may be familiar such as the Peace Lily, Monstera, Jade, Cactus and Umbrella plant. These pages are outlined with a green border strip on the edge. The third and final section is Cultivation practice where consideration is given to buying, transplanting, trimming, propagation, expectation, reality and problems.
Throughout the book are text boxes highlighted in yellow that share basic facts. There are circled numbers which link readers to further information on other pages about the same topic. Illustrations are on every page and in the Encyclopedia of house plants section, there is a handy key with circular images showing a watering guide, light monitor, care level e.g. expert, advanced and beginners, flowers, unsuitable for pets and dewdrop moistening which then appear on each plant page.
The authors have thoughtfully made this text accessible for a variety of readers with well-spaced writing, lots of visual clues, simple procedures and clearly labelled tables on information. The spelling is American English.
Themes House plants, Care, Plant terminology, Problems, Instructions.
Kathryn Beilby
How to make a bedtime by Meg McKinlay and Karen Blair
Sometimes the hardest part of a parent's day is trying to get a little one to bed and to sleep and there are a myriad of books that focus on the theme. But even the experts agree that the most successful strategy is to have a recognisable routine and in this new offering from Meg McKinlay the young reader is taken through all the familiar things that must happen to draw the curtains on the day, including, of course, a bedtime story.
Using a cuddly bear as the adult, and rhythmic, rhyming language to carry the narrative, we share the final game in the blanket fort, bathtime, putting on pyjamas, looking for the lost teddy, a song and a cuddle and of course, the story - all events that little ones will recognise as they get ready to snuggle down. Perhaps there are other things that are part of their routine they could add as they compare their routine to that in the story. And certainly the adult sharing the story will relate to Bear's final action revealed on the back endpaper!!!
One to give to all parents who are travelling this path with their toddler and who dread that time of the day...
Themes Bedtime.
Barbara Braxton
Bear's lost glasses by Leo Timmers
Gecko Press, 2024. ISBN: 9781776575947. (Age:3+)
Bear can't find his glasses. He must have left them at Giraffe's house. On the way over to retrieve them, Bear sees all kinds of animals he didn't notice last time: an elephant, a crocodile, a flamingo, a deer. And who's this long spotty snake lying on Giraffe's deckchair?
This is a joyful story that little ones will love to share because they can see where Bear's glasses are, even if he can't, and they will delight in letting him know. But the bonus is that it doesn't end when Giraffe finds Bear's glasses as could be expected, but there is a whole new adventure when Bear goes to show Giraffe all those creatures he thought he saw.
The conversation between Bear and Giraffe carries the entire story - there is no narrative to intervene - and the illustrations also focus entirely on them and their expressions with white space providing the background rather than scenery, making this not only one to encourage young readers to marry the text and the pictures, but also an excellent choice for older students who are investigating narrative and illustrative techniques.
Apart from being just a fun read that will make little ones LOL and tell Bear to go to Specsavers - the power of advertising reaches far - it will also help validate wearing glasses for those who have to but don't want to, perhaps even sparking conversations about how things like glasses or wheelchairs are just there to help us to live our lives better.
Themes Lost and found, Glasses, Bears, Humour.
Barbara Braxton
All aboard! Planes by Radka Piro. Illus. by Diarmuid O. Cathain
PLANES is the third book in the All Aboard! informative series, following on from ROCKETS and SUBMARINES. This brightly coloured and well-illustrated board book begins with Karl the kiwi wishing he could fly. He then decides to become a pilot and begins some research into what he needs to do to achieve his dream. Along the way Karl learns many new facts about important details of flight such as aerodynamics, the four opposing forces: lift, weight, thrust and resistance, the history of aviation, the earth’s atmosphere, weather, sky traffic and finally what the future may hold.
The information is easily accessible in blocks of text with highlighted challenging words and well-spaced among colourful illustrations of objects/images related to the topic. This book is definitely one for sharing one-on-one with a young plane enthusiast.
Themes Planes, Flight, History of Aviation, Board Book.
Technically, The Grandest Game is the debut novel in a new series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. However, it should really be read as the fifth instalment in Barnes’ bestselling The Inheritance Games series. The events of the book take place shortly after the conclusion of the fourth novel, The Brothers Hawthorne, and at best The Grandest Game is a spinoff story rather than the start of something completely new.
In The Grandest Game a whole new cast of characters joins the series regulars. Billionaire Avery Grambs and the four Hawthorne brothers are running the second annual ‘Grandest Game’, a competition where Avery will give away part of her circuitously inherited fortune to the winner. Included on the participant list are Grayson Hawthorne’s long lost twin sisters, a man who knows Jameson Hawthorne’s darkest secret and a troubled girl whose tragic past is intrinsically linked with the Hawthorne family. As the game unfolds, alliances are made and broken, hidden agendas surface and someone is most definitely not playing by the rules.
While The Grandest Game offers plenty of twists and a satisfying dose of tension, it does not quite reach the heights of Barnes’ previous works. The pacing occasionally falters, with some sections feeling drawn out and certain character dynamics lacking the spark that made the original protagonists so compelling.
That said, fans of Barnes’ signature mysteries and sharp-witted protagonists will still find much to enjoy. The Grandest Game remains an engaging read, even if it falls short of her best work.
Kind little hands by Kathy Urban and Sally Garland
Little Steps, 2024. ISBN: 9781922678423. (Age:3+)
Alone in the city, the little bee is lost and hungry and falls to the earth, to be caught in the protective hands of Noah. He peers closely at the bee, taking it to his Grandfather and they take it home to their apartment. When Noah says bees do not live in apartments, Grandpa points out the flowers in the window box. Just the place for a bee. But she still seems unwell, so Grandpa makes up some water and sugar mixture which they put near her. She drinks it, watched closely by an excited Noah. He and Grandpa look in some books to find out about bees.
The next day the bee seems to be well again and crawls up Noah’s arm. They go outside and the bee flies away. As they walk they notice that there are few flowers around for the bees. Noah suggests that they put some planter boxes on the top of the apartment building and grow some flowers to attract the bees. The idea spreads as many apartment houses have gardens on their roofs. A small idea is taken up by others and little by little flowers appear in their environment.
A lovely story about people power, where a small act can be the catalyst for lots happening. A small roof garden attracts insects and more importunely, bees, and this small garden is replicated by others.
At the end of the book, are two pages outlining why bees need our help, and on the last page is a list of ways we can help all pollinators, especially bees, as our future depends on these little animals.
Colourful illustrations can be found on every page, reiterating the themes of flowers and bees, as well as promoting kindness and empathy.
Themes Bees, Kindness, Empathy, Apartments.
Fran Knight
The pelican can! by Toni Yuly
Little Brown, 2024. ISBN: 9780316497817. Recommended.
In 1910, Dixon Lanier Merritt wrote a rhyme that endures to this day as a favourite of little ones who want to legitimately say "naughty words"...
A wonderful bird is the Pelican. His beak can hold more than his belly can. He can hold in his beak Enough food for a week! But I'll be darned if I know how the hellican?
And in this enchanting book, when Pelican knows it is time to feed the nestlings, creator Toni Yuly asks simple questions about the process and answers them with an equally simple repetitive answer that will appeal to little ones' love of word play ...
Who can see its time to eat? The pelican can. The pelican can.
Against the solid-colour sunset backgrounds, the pelican is silhouetted as it goes about looking for the evening meal, and these images make it easy for the young reader not only to anticipate the text of the question, but join in enthusiastically with the answer.
Pelicans are found all over Australia, even far inland wherever there is a water source, and there would be few young readers who do not meet Mr Percival, Mr Proud and Mr Ponder from the classic Storm Boy, by Colin Thiele, or even Pannikin & Pinta, also by Thiele, in their reading journeys, so this one, which has all the elements that help develop concepts about print and allow our youngest to believe they can be readers, is the ideal starting point to learning about how and why their 'beaks can hold more than their belly can'.
Themes Pelicans, Humour.
Barbara Braxton
Costa's garden: Flowers by Costa Georgiadies. Illus. by Brenna Quinlan
Costa welcomes readers into his garden, a place of quiet, of contemplation, a place to explore and look at all that goes on there. By close observation children will learn lots of things that happen in all gardens. Flowers make you smile, their beauty, scent, their shape and colour can be closely observed, and children will see they are a conduit between animals and plants. Most flowers open during the day where they come in contact with butterflies, native bees and dragonflies, all the pollinators that rely on their nectar and pollen. At night the flowers attract moths, bats and small marsupials. There is a balance between animals and flowers which readers can observe in a garden.
Flower are loud, attracting the attention of the pollinators, they are bold and large, ready for the pollinator to see them and choose them over another. They grow at different times of the year, ready for the insects, birds and animals that are around then.
Part of their impact upon us is known as horticultural therapy, a state where the flowers impact with their looks, smell, size and colour, helping us smile. A field of sunflowers bring us joy. Many people travel with gardens at the centre of their plans. In Australia we travel west to see wildflowers or to a botanic gardens to see the death smell flower when it opens.
Flowers bring people together; they are used at all sorts of ceremonies, at many of the rites of passage we observe through various stages of our lives.
Flowers are associated with people and the smell of a flower can bring back all sorts of memories of someone beloved. Flowers invite everyone to look with their heads, hearts and hands to explore and observe what flowers mean to us. And Costa asks us to connect, to look with awe and wonder.
This invitation to connect with flowers around us will have classes bouncing to plant their own gardens, to observe what is already there and be part of it.
Colourful, bold illustrations are amazingly done using watercolour presenting magnificent images of flowers of all sorts. Kids will love recognising the ones they know and questions some they do not. The text and illustrations together invite readers to use their heads to question, their hearts to look at the flowers with joy and hands to feel what they are seeing. With all three parts of their being engaged, children will be helping their wellbeing, a major part of horticultural therapy.
Costa has spread his love of gardening so well known to us all through Gardening Australia, speaking to young children about the positive impact of their involvement in loving a garden.
The Encyclopedia of Animals is another tall hardcover book in this For Younger Readers series. Set out under the following main headings of Mammals, Birds, Fish, Amphibians, Reptiles, Invertebrates, the information is then separated into minor headings. Each category has a simple labelled illustration of why an animal belongs in the group and then further interesting facts are shared. For example, a hippopotamus is a mammal and also an ungulate because it has hoofs giving it the ability to travel long distances looking for plants as a food source.
Fish is divided in two categories: general and cartilaginous. Some cartilaginous fish include the Great White shark, Manta ray and Smalltooth sawfish. Amphibians excrete slime from their skin and include the Poison Dart frog whose dazzling colour warns predators of its poisonous skin. Reptiles are divided into a general section and then snakes, tortoise and lizards. The Tokay gecko males make a sound that resembles barking and the Red-eared slider turtle has a red stripe on its neck.
As with the other two books in this series, the information is easily accessible, interesting and accompanied by colourful, well drawn images.
Themes Animals, Characteristics, Facts, Habitats.
Kathryn Beilby
Tales from Muggleswick Wood by Vick Cowie Charlie Mackesy
Tired little Beth climbed into her bed. "Could you tell me a story?" she sleepily said. Granny smiled and replied, "Of course I could! I'll tell you a story of Muggleswick Wood."
Five little children are eagerly awaiting the visit of Granny because she tells the most wonderful bedtime stories of the creatures that can be found in Muggleswick Wood where she lives. From the beautiful map of the village and its surrounds that is unveiled as soon as you open the cover, to the rhyming introduction that beckons you to keep reading, and with a story for each child - Muggleswick Wood, Kevin the Kelpie, The Biggest Blooming Beetle, The Secret of Snittington Hall and Melvin the Mole - this is a treasury of those sorts of stories that we tend to associate with the British landscape of a bygone era, with mysterious woods and magical creatures and personalised adventures.
Each story is told in rhyme with just a few lines per page, so it is not as daunting as its size suggests, and is accompanied by ink and wash vignettes by Charlie Mackesy (The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse) which other reviewers have consistently compared to classics like Winnie-the-Pooh and The Wind in the Willows.
Based on the author's childhood memories of the real Muggleswick Wood in County Durham, which gives the stories an added authenticity, this is one that will transport young listeners away from the here-and-now and into the worlds of the Enchanted Wood and the Magic Faraway Tree and continue that childhood wonder we associate with the English countryside.
Frog Squad: Bungle in the jungle by Kate and Jol Temple. Illus. by Shiloh Gordon
HarperCollins, 2024. ISBN: 9781460764435. (Age:6-9) Recommended (not as literature, but as diversion).
This is quirky, a little bit mischievous, significantly barmy and a tale about the Frog Squad as they solve an environmental problem. With puns and silly bits that will appeal to a slightly older audience (e.g. parents who read this to their children), this is just an adventure involving a variety of frogs as they try to solve a potential disaster. They must overcome their arch-rivals the TOADS (The Organisation of Amphibious Devious Scoundrels) and use all of their many skills to thwart the threat.
This is a silly story and illustrated with comic cartoon-style visual storytelling, so will appeal to young readers aged 6-9. The puns and vaguely accurate Info panels might still be appreciated by slightly older readers, or those who want a very quick read for the ‘fun-tertainment’ quality. (There are some vocabulary inclusions that might stretch some early readers, but the humour makes up for that.) With a couple of quirkily inserted ‘advertisement breaks’ to divide the story, this is almost like reading a cartoon.
Themes Amphibians, Environment, Comedy.
Carolyn Hull
We're hopping around Australia by Martha Mumford. Illus. by Ag Jatkowska
Bloomsbury, 2024. ISBN: 9781526675668.
We're hopping around Australia. Come and join the fun!
The Bunnies are back in a new interactive adventure for our youngest readers, this time discovering some of Australia's most well-known icons like kangaroos, koalas, crocodiles and fairy bread! Little ones will adore lifting the flaps as they try to find all the things mentioned in the fast-paced rhyming text and hidden in the bright, engaging illustrations whether they are in the bush searching for some of our unique wildlife or donning scuba gear to explore the coral reefs.
But then, just as the adventure seems like it could last forever, there is something dangerous lurking in the coral and it's time to get out of there.
Few things engage our little ones in stories as much as familiar characters doing and seeing familiar things, text that flows along because of its specially-chosen rhyme and rhythm and predictability, illustrations that capture both the eye and the imagination, and the opportunity to be actively engaged in the tale either through lifting flaps to find hidden treasures or mimicking movements - and this, like its predecessors, has all of those. This is one that can be shared and talked about as familiar things are identified, and then read and read again independently because of all those features, as well encouraging suggestions for other things the Bunnies might see or do in the local neighbourhood. Perhaps they could listen for kookaburras, wonder at the whales or try a taste of Vegemite!
It's ideal for kids in Australi as well as those who might like to be here one day.
