You Like It Darker is a masterclass in suspense and psychological horror, showcasing Stephen King’s ability to weave complex characters with unnerving plots. The title echoes Canadian singer songwriter Leonard Cohen’s haunting 2016 song, ‘You Want It Darker’. King delivers narratives that are uniquely his own – dark and introspective tales of fear, regret, and the thin line between reality and nightmare.
The better stories include ‘Rattlesnakes’ which is a sequel to King’s 1981 novel, Cujo. Forty years after their deaths from rattlesnake bites, elderly woman Alita Bell insists that she can still hear and see her twin sons. King masterfully balances tension and raw emotion, creating a tale that blends supernatural horror with themes of grief and resilience.
‘Willie the Weirdo’ is a poignant and unsettling tale about an eccentric boy named Willie and his bond with his equally strange grandfather. The story explores themes of isolation, familial connection, and the darkness within human nature. It leaves the reader with a feeling of unease only an author as accomplished as King can successfully create.
In the novella ‘Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream’, a school janitor is haunted by a prophetic dream of a buried body that proves disturbingly real. As he becomes entangled in a murder investigation, the story explores themes of innocence and fate asks questions what we know as reality.
You Like It Darker may not resonate with readers seeking fast-paced action. Many of the stories are slow-burn and psychological in nature, rather than conventional horror. However, for those who particularly appreciate King’s ability to unsettle, this book is a chilling addition to his extensive body of work.
Waiting for Santa by Lucy Cochran. Illus. by Heidi McKinnon
Allen & Unwin, 2024. ISBN: 9781760526719. (Age:3-6)
Harry and Ren have written their letters to Santa and now they are off to the shopping centre to see him and share what's on their wishlist, Harry wants to take his pet cat Moloko, but Mum says no, so he sneaks him in his backpack anyway... and it's just as well he does.
But when they get to the mall they discover that many others have the same idea and the queue is very long.
7000 more elf-steps until Santa?' says Ren. 'I need a coffee,' says Mum. 'I need a phone charger,' says Dad. 'I need the bathroom!' says Harry.
Can the children remain patient? Or is there another way to the front of the line?
This is a modern take on what has become a tradition in many families - having the children's photo taken with Santa - and both author and illustrator have included both reality and humour into the story, much of which will be familiar to anyone who has waited in such a queue. How are the children feeling? What are the adults thinking? Is it worth it? Is Santa even there?
The wait for Christmas Eve can seem as long as the wait in the queue but there are lots of things to do that help the time pass - family traditions that build up the anticipation, and many of which are included in the illustrations - and children will delight in sharing those that are on their countdown calendar, as well as learning about others that other families have. And if that includes waiting in a seemingly never-ending line for a couple of minutes on Santa's knee and the click of a camera to maintain the magic, then so be it. I'm not the only grandmother with an album of photos to treasure because kids and grandkids are too big for Santa's knee now.
Don't let the forest in is a macabre and twisted tale which fits a genre which could be described as queer dark academia /YA thriller. Written by CG Drews, Don't let the forest in, like Drew's 2020 CBCA Honour Book of the Year for Older Readers The Boy who steals houses, traces two broken boys. The question is...Can the boys keep the forest out? and for the reader a further question...is this forest a real physical living forest beyond the walls of the wealthy and elite Wickwood school or is it a forest of imagination descending into madness? Is keeping madness at bay another way of saying 'Don't let the forest in'?
Don't let the forest in leaves an ongoing organic, visceral, rotting, mouldering, throat-catching feeling in the reader. Tendrils, roots and stems springing from monstrous beings penetrate frail young people and the walls of the boarding school buildings with an unstoppable, unassailable power. Andrew and Thomas (the main protagonists) try to fight monstrous creatures that seem to emerge from the very earth and the forest, clutching for the vital organs of humans. Are the boys descending into some kind of shared madness of twisted perception? Is this all the result of trauma where the supernatural becomes entangled with the psyche and the characters grow increasingly lost and bewildered? The reader, consequently, struggles with finding reality. What is real? What happened? The descent into a world of tension and fear exhausts Andrew in particular. Physically and mentally he wastes away. Occasionally counsellors, teachers and other students provide contact with reality. Even the bully Bryce Kane, seems like light relief compared to the psychological warfare that the boys are contending with. Every night Andrew and Thomas leave the walls of the school and venture into the forest. This is forbidden on pain of suspension because something terrible has happened in the forest previously - something unmentionable.
The central characters have complex inner lives and motivations. There is much psychological intricacy within and between them for the reader to try to understand. Thomas Rye is wild and damaged. His parents have been killed or have they...and who did it? Andrew is gentle, delicate and broken. He has a twin sister Dove...' glittering ice, beautiful and dangerous and impossible to reshape'...'while Andrew was more like a collection of skeleton leaves, fragile and crumbling.' The central focus is the growing and dangerous obsession between the two boys. Andrew writes the twisted fairy tales and Thomas illustrates them. Are the stories coming to life? What must be destroyed? What has already been destroyed? Drew's depiction of coming of age and queer sexuality is perceptive and naturally contextual. As in all good psychological thrillers, the reader develops questions about the characters; about their past, their beliefs,who they really are and what they are capable of.
Tension is built where snatches of the past are interwoven with the present. The plot is complex and the storyline is unpredictable as the reader travels with the boys into their dark, twisted world where they become more and more socially withdrawn and unmoored from reality. Suspicions, projections and disorientation increase especially for Andrew who on the surface develops panic attacks and is labelled with an anxiety disorder. The toilet scene is just one of many that illustrate overwhelming fear. Drews draws out the interiority of character and through foreshadowing, withholding, misdirecting, revealing and twisting, the reader, with an increasing sense of impending doom, is led through chaotic and grisly physical and psychological horror. Having to view the action through the cracked filters of our protagonists leaves the reader grasping for sanity. To stop the monsters the fear is that something has to be destroyed.
The setting evokes memories of fairy tales where the forests become sinister players, of Lanny by Max Porter where Dead Papa Toothwort, the all-knowing ancient spirit stirs in hedgerows. Don't let the forest in is written, like these stories, with an eco-psychological perspective. The mental and social impact of Wickwood school and the forest beyond its walls is crucial to the story. Being a campus novel too, it is reminiscent of novels such as Donna Tartt's The Secret History in its depiction of the cloistered hothouse world of elite boarding schools/frat houses.
Black and white droplets (suggestive of blood) are scattered throughout the book, along with some full page gruesome illustrations. At regular intervals Andrew's stories are reproduced in spidery writing on a grey background. These are very hard to read and in future editions it would be nice if this could be rectified.
Don't let the forest in is not a nice story with a happy ending. It's a dark, horrible thriller but compulsive reading and if you don't mind feeling haunted then it is recommended.
Worst.Superhero.Ever. is the latest novel for younger readers by English actor, comedian and author Charlie Higson. Previously Higson has written for adults and the young adult cohort producing the post-apocalyptic series The Enemy and the first five novels of the Young Bond series. Worst.Superhero.Ever. (26 Nov 2024) is the hilarious sequel to Worst.Holiday.Ever. (4May 2021) suitable for primary years readers. Worst.Superhero.Ever. is also moving, thought-provoking and troubling because the reader lives through all the worries, catastrophes and triumphs through the first person narrative of Stan himself.
Twelve-year-old Stan sees himself as a 'shy little nerd'. After returning from his holiday in Italy he ends up auditioning for a role as Ollie, a shy nerd who turns into a Superhero called 'The Nerd' in a TV series called Teen team. He doesn't want the part but ends up being perfect for it and leaving school for a period of time in order to take part in the filming. At school he has good nerdy friends who hang out in the library taking part in Library Club. This group is planning to save the library by producing a film about a Superhero called Library Boy starring none other than Stan himself. The reader travels with Stan as he juggles school and life on a TV set.
Stan is gutsy and true to himself as he negotiates challenging social situations and workload. Of all the labels that people can have at school: geeks, freaks, dweebs, jocks, goths, preppies, hipsters, skaters, steampunks, drags, emos etc, he decides that he's a nerd. He is a nerd in real life and plays two other nerd characters on the film and TV series simultaneously. He navigates this with the help of his parents, friends, his girlfriend and film crew.Through Stan's eyes the reader learns a bit about what it takes to be in a film; about the hard work that happens behind the scenes and about navigating the social scene as well. One can tell that Higson is not a fan of social media. The premise of this story is based on a boy who falls foul of the internet. Because he (Charlie Chadwick) misuses social media, he is dismissed from starring in the series and hapless, innocent, nerdy Stan takes his place. Stan has to deal with fame and ultimately decides what he will do with his future and what he values.
Stan is a friendly, energetic and chatty first person narrator. At times he speaks directly to the reader suggesting that they try things like... 'You could look at it too (The fellowship of the ring), if you want to see what I'm talking about.' He invites the reader to find it on Youtube and count the number of shots in The Council of Elrond scene so they can see how many shots (close-up, wide etc) it takes to make a tiny bit of film. The young reader is encouraged to interact and engage in other ways besides reading and would feel that they are being taken on an adventure with a warm, funny and interesting friend.
Worst.Superhero.Ever. is structured and type-set to engage a reader who is progressing from graphic novels like Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy Kid to extended prose novels. Warwick Johnson-Cadwell's illustrations head every chapter. The font is attractive and highly legible. There are many pages dedicated to Stan's lists and conversations are at times written as scripts with very wide spacing that adds interest for young readers.
Worst.Superhero.Ever. is a fun book where likeable, nerdy Stan engages readers and takes them on an adventure through school problems, to his lovely family, onto film sets and with his friends whilst all the time sharing his innermost thoughts and actions. There are some good messages in the book in relation to use of the internet and social media, true friendship, fame, wealth, schoolwork, the value of libraries and reading and family.
Themes Film making, Fame, Social media, Friendship, Being true to yourself, Family.
Wendy Jeffrey
Encyclopedia of plants, fungi, and lichens for young readers by Tereza Nemcova. Illus. by Tomas Pernicky
Albatros, 2022. ISBN: 9788000063515. (Age:6-9)
The Encyclopedia of Plants, Fungi and Lichens is a tall hardcover book with an engaging cover that will draw the eye. The contents page separates the information into four sections: Flowering plants, Non-flowering plants, Fungi and Lichens. There is a huge variety of flowering plants and the plants are broken into the following headings:
1. Conifers including the Monkey Puzzle tree one of the oldest woody plants on Earth 2. Deciduous trees including the Rainbow eucalyptus a tree with multi coloured bark 3. Shrubs including the Crimson Bottlebrush with striking red flowers that look like brushes 4. Palms including the Wax palm which is the world’s tallest palm 5. Succulents & cacti including the Saguaro which can live for 250 years 6. Parasitic & carnivorous plants including the Corpse Lily which has the largest flower on Earth and very unpleasant smell 7. Creeping plants including the Magnolia vine that in China is called the plant of five tastes (sour, bitter, sweet, salty, spicy) 8. Marsh plants including the Common water Hyacinth which can cause a problem for shipping with its dense forming of cover in calm waters 9. Meadow plants including the yarrow which helps heal wounds 10. Poisonous plants including Garden monkshood which is used on poison arrows 11. Medicinal plants including Peppermint used in mouthwash 12. Culinary herbs and spices including caraway seeds which are good for digestion 13. Field crops including common flax used for making fabrics such as linen 14. Vegetables including beetroot which is good for liver function 15. Fruit crops including apples that can float because they are one quarter air
Information about non-flowering plants and lichens are spread across a double page. Fungi is broken up into general facts, edible mushrooms, inedible mushrooms and poisonous mushrooms. The appealing illustrations accompanying the accessible explanatory text are an important visual element for readers.
Children have asked questions about fairy tale characters living happily ever after since the stories were first heard, but now they can write to C.C. Cecily, the Senior Secretary of the Fairy Tale Fan Club who will pass on the letters and await their reply. In this collection Cecily has added some editorial content to letters sent to characters like Prince Charming, Humpty Dumpty, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty and Rumpelstiltskin with questions like 'Are you an egg or a human?' In reply to this question Humpty introduces us to the term 'anthropomorphism' and the idea of naked eggs versus the difficulties of keeping cargo shorts up if you are egg shaped. In his letter Pinocchio clarifies the difference between a puppet and a marionette, points out that anyway he could talk and walk about even when he was a puppet pointing to the overall lack of logic in fairy tales.
The letters are quirky and funny with a smattering of insight into the messages these tales impart, with reflections on contemporary interpretations like the Little Mermaid movie. Each page has delightful illustrations and themed borders by David Roberts, with the characters rendered in finely textured ink drawings with touches of subtle colour used with great effect. A witty and fun book for adults and children familiar with the fairy tales in their original form, a perfect gift book for reading together.
Themes Fairy tales, Letters.
Sue Speck
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Wrath of the triple goddess by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and his girlfriend Annabeth are nearing the end of high school and Percy needs another two letters of recommendation from Greek gods to secure his place at New Rome University with Annabeth. While he is a demigod son of Poseidon, he is also dyslexic and has a short attention span hence the letters are very important to make up for his poor grades; so when the triple goddess Hecate asks him to pet-sit her hellhound Hecuba and polecat Gale at Halloween in exchange for a recommendation, Percy takes on the quest with his friends. Hecate’s house is a large spooky mansion and Annabeth declares it a perfect place for a last Halloween party inviting all their half-blood friends. All they have to do is feed and walk the pets and not eat the strawberry ice cream. what could possibly go wrong? Is the powerful goddess Hecate setting the friends up for failure, especially as satyr Grover finds it hard to resist any tasty treat? Are they acting from free will or are their actions controlled by fate? Does it matter as long as they act with courage and compassion, let go of anger and blame to work together?
This fast-paced addition to the highly successful Percy Jackson series is told with drama, humour and fun facts about New York and the Greek gods. Fans of the Percy Jackson series will embrace this addition.
Driver Jason Chaser and navigator, his shy young brother 'Bug', are passionate about racing hover cars, encouraged and supported by their parents. But their car, the Argonaut, is not the latest and they don’t have a sponsor, so when they fail to win the regional championships it looks like they are out of luck. Then legendary racer Scott Syracuse recognizes their talent and offers to sponsor them to study at the International Race School in Tasmania under his supervision. The boys are assigned talented mechanic, Sally McDuff, and a winning team is formed. The race schedule is demanding but exhilarating. In a series of trials they must prove their abilities in navigation, reaction time, teamwork, strategy and courage. What is harder to deal with is the hostility of the other teams and sabotage. As the stakes get higher they not only have to maintain their place in the leader tables but stay alive.
Originally published in 2004 this graphic version captures the fast-paced storyline in a fairly standard black and white comic style with about 10 frames per page. The racing scenes are exciting with lots of sound effects and not too much text. The expressions on the manga influenced characters were sometimes hard to relate to but they were consistent. A successful adaptation that will find a wide readership.
Themes Car racing, Adventure, Science fiction, Graphic novel.
John Grisham has teamed with Jim McCloskey, a long-time activist with the Centurion Ministries organisation working to exonerate innocent prisoners, to produce Framed, ‘astonishing true stories of wrongful convictions’. They each present five stories, told alternately, all of them horrendous travesties of justice.
They are accounts of police bullying and forced confessions, where the suspect is so badgered that he just wants to confess in order to end the ordeal. Police can lie, they can tell the suspect his friends have implicated him, or that his lie detector test showed him guilty, or that they have evidence putting him at the scene of the crime, anything to make the suspect cave in and confess. Most appalling is where so-called experts are called in to provide the necessary evidence required to impress a jury, bamboozling them with pseudo-science. One particular team of forensic ‘experts’ made a substantial business out of showcasing incriminating evidence for a fee.
These are all American cases, where the police decide to follow their own particular hunch, discarding or hiding evidence that doesn’t support their theory, in the drive to get their man. Racism plays a part, and class prejudice, but the selected stories present a variety of cases, where the convicted are black, and white, and the occasional woman. All serve lengthy sentences, wasting away their lives in prison, before there is any chance of exoneration.
The cases are told in a factual unembellished style drawn from police reports, witness statements and trial proceedings. In some cases the police framing is so ridiculous it would be laughable if it weren’t so deadly serious, the consequences for the accused so soul destroying. It can be hard to keep reading the stories. But they serve a necessary purpose, shining a light on miscarriages of justice. They would be important reading for anyone considering police or legal work, a warning to not make the same failures of judgement, the same blinkered decisions, but to keep an open mind, remembering that people’s lives are in the balance.
Whilst the stories are all American, the lessons are relevant to other jurisdictions. LexisNexis recently published an infographic highlighting 6 famous Australian cases where the failures of forensic science has led to wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice. See the Appeal site for similar cases in the UK. Centurion Ministries continues its work in the United States.
Allen & Unwin, 2024. ISBN: 9781761180958. (Age:12-16) Recommended.
Sophie Beer, Brisbane-based author and illustrator of Thunderhead, has published books internationally, illustrated with companies including Disney and Google and has written for Frankie magazine and The Big Issue. Thunderhead is Sophie's first novel, an illustrated middle-grade fiction work, informed by Sophie's own experience of hearing loss. Thunderhead is an immediately engaging and interactive reading experience as to truly appreciate the central character who speaks in first person voice through the medium of heartfelt internet diary entries and to enhance the reading experience, the reader could listen to the playlists that Thunderhead compiles for each chapter. Each playlist is compiled for a different reason to help Thunderhead (not their real name but their secret superhero identity) navigate emotional states and situations. Playlists include one for luck, a playlist for school of woe and torture, for the future, for Gran, for haircuts, for being a normal teen and others which lead to the final playlist 'for the end of my hearing'.
Thunderhead has an irresistible, energetic and quirky voice. The reader is privy to their innermost thoughts and taken along for the ride as they discover that they have brain tumours that effect balance and hearing, causing tinnitus and vertigo and eventual loss of hearing. The novel traces Thunderhead's rollercoaster emotional journey from diagnosis through to the operation to remove the tumours with the fear, illness and preparation for permanent hearing loss playing out against the background of trying to fit into new high school friendship groups whilst facing impending loss of the thing that is loved the most - music.
This novel, by tracing Thunderhead's journal entries, which are an outlet to try to calm the storm brewing in their brain (check the illustration on the front cover), is recommended as helpful for any young reader who is trying to find the courage to face big life changing events and transitions. Transitioning to high school, navigating shifting friendship groups and finding your true identity and friends is something every person goes through. Knowing that there are others out there who have to negotiate so much more (like Thunderhead) helps the reader to focus less on themselves and to find perspective and empathy for others. Books like Thunderhead are important for teaching that empathy.
Danielle Binks (award winning author of The Year the Maps Changed) states that Thunderhead is 'Australia's answer to Wonder by RJ Palacio.' Although the format is different, the message is as powerful.
Full of hope and fear, love, family and friendship, this is a whip smart, funny, heartfelt and moving story. It is the access to the interiority of Thunderhead's psyche as he processes all his thoughts, impressions, opinions, reactions and inner struggles that make this novel so engaging and moving. Teacher's notes are available.
Themes Resilience, Change, Disability(hearing loss), Music, Friendship, Transition to High School.
In Post-war East Berlin a young couple meet and fall in love. They come from either side of the East-West divide and it is not yet easy to forsake their separate histories. But the young man, Kaspar, does everything he can to enable his love, Birgit, to escape her austere life and join him in the West. The life and history she leaves behind included a daughter she gave up for adoption, and in her later years she is silently tormented by this secret child that Kaspar only discovers after Birgit’s death. When finally he unravels the notes for the story she was writing for her daughter, he is led to discover the granddaughter that Birgit never knew. Bound up in a Nationalist neo-Nazi world, this child connects to her wise and gentle step-grandfather and is slowly drawn to consider truths that have been hidden by her family’s ideologies. The contemporary world of Germany and the Nationalist blindness, and the neo-Nazi focus is counterposed with the gentle Bookseller’s loving embrace of the granddaughter of his late wife.
This slow journey of love and pain, secrets and disclosure, openness and a closed heart are all framed within the personal history of one woman from East Germany and her secret and abandoned child. She tells the early part of this narrative through her own writing and attempt to make sense of her life. The generational distress that is recounted in this powerful but slow-moving story is exceptionally potent. The second part of the book shares the insight into the heart of an older man that is incredibly moving. Told over many years and through the social change from the 1960s to the present in Germany, the insights we have of the world of the uber-nationalist movement and neo-nazis are layered alongside the selfless life of one man and his work as a bookseller and his attempt to bring hope and wisdom to one teenager who had been deprived of a balanced view of the world. This book is an absolute gem and although it has a melancholic feel and confronting aspects, it resonates with gentle grace. Slowly working through big issues in Germany, it does so with a deft and incredibly light touch, like a beautiful piece of music might evoke emotions in an unexpected way. Schlink’s book The Reader had a significant impact, and this book too will be one to discuss into the future. The story does not finish with a grand flourishing conclusion, rather it leaves a note of quiet hope in a minor key.
This is book that resonates and would make a brilliant Bookclub book. For readers aged 16-Adult.
Themes Post-World War II Germany, Right-wing idealism, Neo-Nazism, Family drama, Love, Suicide, Grief.
Carolyn Hull
Underestimated the wisdom and power of teenage girls by Chelsey Goodan
This is a powerful book! My inner teenager wanted to say, ‘Yes!!!’ (And the exclamation marks are a given for a teenage girl.) Written by an experienced counsellor, mentor and tutor who has worked with teenage girls as they struggled to find their voice and navigate life, it is an inspiring and powerful reminder of the best way to support and encourage young women. This book speaks to fellow counsellors, teachers and parents of teens (and parents who are yet to nurture daughters to the teenage years and wish to be well-prepared) and gives wise advice to recognise and listen to these young women who are navigating a complex world. The advice is practical and filled with insight learned from her own experience and even her mistakes. The essence of this book is that teenage girls should not be underestimated as they usually have unrecognised power and a voice that has yet to be listened to, and often instinctively know how to address their own concerns. Their emotions may confront others, but seeing their interests and feelings and listening to them will often enable them to rise above expectations.
With insights on the following topics - feelings, expectations, sexuality, beauty, friends, the media and identity and shame (plus many others), this is a potent insight into counseling strategies and contains practical parenting advice. There is an emotional wheel in the appendix to assist in giving vocabulary to emotions and also examples of wise questions to enable teens to voice their views and clarify their struggles. Always the idea is to affirm a teen’s identity and autonomy, to listen to and affirm and not take on the role of problem solver. This book is easy to read and with many examples of real USA teens speaking their truths (with the use of pseudonyms) to give evidence of their wisdom even in the face of big issues, it has a real-life rather than an academic perspective. Anyone with a teen girl in their lives would benefit from reading this book (and there is wisdom that may help male teens too, even though it does not specifically deal with their unique way of dealing with life.) Secondary teachers, parents and counsellors will particularly appreciate this book of wisdom. I am not a counsellor, but I have raised teen daughters to adulthood and also taught and encouraged school teens and would have valued a book like this.
Santa's new sleigh by Caroline Crowe and Jess Pauwels
Faber, 2024. ISBN: 9780571364473.
Christmas Eve was here at last, The countdown clock was ticking fast . . . But yikes! When Santa turned the key (The reindeer need some help you see) The engine didn't start, it spluttered, 'That isn't right', the elves all muttered . . .
When Santa's sleigh stops working on Christmas Eve the elves all rally round to help. Maybe they could use a slingshot? Or the owls could help? How about polar bears? Will they be able to sort the sleigh out before it is too late? Things are not looking good until one small elf has a bright idea!
From the team who gave our young readers Santa's New Beard and Santa's New Reindeer, comes another rollicking story in rhyme that not only pose a huge problem for Santa, but also for them. If Santa's sleigh is not working, how on earth is he going to do his one, and most important job of the year? Because, just as the elves have all sorts of ideas, each with its own particular issue, so will the young reader. And they will have fun predicting what might be the answer, while being delighted with the very up-to-date solution. Especially, as, once again, it is Lizzie who solves the problem.
With its clever rhyme and detailed illustrations that offer something new every read, this series is definitely one to bring out during your Christmas Countdown.
Wonderfully vivid, dazzling illustrations will catch readers’ eyes as they open this book promoting the involvement of everyone in art. Looking at the cover and endpapers before opening the book, readers will be intrigued at the differences between the endpapers, and think about why the author has presented them in such a way.
Olive Chen is one amazing artist. She is colourful, all inclusive, authoritative, all encompassing as she tries out splashes, dribbles, and brushes full of colour to splash and throw across the canvas. The resultant work is simply beautiful. But her parents take a dim view of her efforts. Mum loves to draw triangles, Dad loves squares, and each artist is drawn to their own rigid boundaries, deploring Olive for thinking outside the regime they honour. But thinking outside the square is Olive’s theme, different from the style she is expected to use.
Even at school, the teacher encourages the sort of art produced by Olive’s parents, telling Olive she will be better next time, while standing in front of Olive’s glowing, vivid painting. But her classmates tell her how they like her work, and wish that they could do some as well. Too easy, Olive responds, picking up the paint brushes full of paint, directing the group to use them with panache.
Over the page we see the results of her encouragement as everything within their environment is coloured. Gone is the first black and white endpaper, now replaced by a bright, colourful streetscape. Her parents call out enough, but when the children pull back the curtain of black and white squares and triangles, the bright, colourful class is revealed. Her parents are overwhelmed and love what their daughter has achieved, asking her to help them colour their work. And of course there is a small twist at the end of this fabulous book.
A wonderful testament to thinking outside the square, of encouraging children to find their own path, is shown as Olive bypasses the work expected by her parents and her teacher, and shows everyone what they can achieved, by seeing differently.
The illustrations are wonderful, paint trailing after Olive as she moves across the pages, all sorts of painting styles shown as she lifts her brush. I love the double page showing the parents with their black and white background, telling Olive to stop, then turning over the page to find the opposite, colour swamping the black and white as we look at the class in all their glory. There are exquisite moments in this book, and younger readers will see lots to look at and to talk about.
Themes Art, Colour, Imagination, STEM.
Fran Knight
The Special Gift by Ruth Doyle & Carmen Saldana
Orchard Books, 2024. ISBN: 9781408369166.
On a bitterly cold, fierce winter's night Donkey wanders from the farm where there is no room for one so little to pull a cart, getting colder and colder as the snow falls. But as he stops to drink in an almost-frozen stream he sees the reflection of a brilliant star that grew brighter as he watched. Suddenly, a silver and white bird flew down, and magically, Donkey is wrapped in a warm blanket and is told to follow the star.
Distressed that he has nothing to offer in return, nevertheless he trudges forward - and so begins a journey that now has hope and purpose. And on his travels, Donkey meets other animals who are lost in their own way: a lonely lamb, an old sheepdog who longs to be useful and a robin searching for a reason to sing. Guided by Donkey, the new friends help each other to navigate the storm to safety . . .
At this time of the year, gift-giving seems to be at the front of mind for many, and while those gifts may seem to have to be the bigger/better/brighter kind, this is a gentle story that reminds us that they can be much simpler. Not a day goes by that we don't hear about the "cost-of-living-crisis" and so it could mean that this year's season is more stressful than ever, so as the characters in this story offer nothing that is tangible but everything that is meaningful, it offers an opportunity for readers to think about what they might offer that could change someone's life for a short time, if not forever. All the creatures have lost their "tribe", lonely and outcast for one reason or another, so perhaps they could think about those in their circle in similar circumstances and consider whether a smile, a visit or a match of homemade biscuits might make the difference. Whether as a family or a class, what can they do to make someone's life a little better - and what might that lead to in the future?
The publishers describe the book as a reminder "of the most special gift we can offer - our own kindness."
