Dear Unicorn by Josh Funk. Illus. by Charles Santoso
Viking, 2023. ISBN: 9780593206942. (Age:4+)
It is the beginning of the school year and Connie's art class is partnering up with pen pals. Both Connie and Nic's teachers encourage them to to ask their pen pals questions, to talk about their own lives, to be creative, share their likes and dislikes and to enjoy themselves. Even though Connie is a little reluctant to start with, soon both love exchanging letters despite the two of them seeming so very different. Connie takes her art seriously and thinks things like kittens are nothing more than a distraction, while Nic has a more whimsical approach to painting and knows the value of a good cupcake. Both are eagerly awaiting the end of year pen pal art festival where their two classes will finally meet, but what is the surprise that is in store for both of them?
Building on the original concept of Dear Dragon, the story has some clever wordplay (like Connie's surname summing up her pessimistic outlook) that leads to some misunderstandings that carry both the letter-writing and the story along, and young readers will immerse themselves in the fantasy particularly as, through the illustrations, they can see what Connie and Nic don't. What would it like to have a friend such as Nic? Can we be friends with those who seem to be so different from us (even if that is not as extreme as this relationship?)
As well as being useful for exploring the essential give-and-take nature of relationships, and how we can learn from those around us to seek common bonds despite being unique individuals, the book also opens up the almost-extinct concept of penpals, letter-writing and the anticipation of a letter in the mailbox. Perhaps it will be the spark for building some new connections between classes in this new school year.
Themes Letter writing, Unicorns, Friendship, Individuality.
Barbara Braxton
Sensational Australian animals by Stephanie Owen Reeder. Illus. by Cher Hart
Children learn about the five senses from a very early age. They understand that sight, sound, taste, smell and touch are an integral part of their daily life. For our Australian wildlife including sea creatures, insects, birds and all other animals, they too have senses - some which are extraordinary.
Sensational Australian Animals written by Stephanie Owen Reeder is a striking book full of information, images, questions, and sensational fact boxes. The information presented is easily accessible, written in sections with highlighted key words and surrounded by colourful illustrations. The Contents page clearly shows each of the five senses being discussed with four main headings underneath. There is a very detailed glossary in the final pages as well as a handy index to locate each animal.
Each of the five senses is introduced with a full page labelled diagram showing the particular sensory organ. In the sense of sight chapter there is some wonderful information about birds including the fact that the male Satin Bower Bird uses the colour blue to attract a mate. In his bower he has blue objects on display which he may pick up in his mouth and perform a noisy dance. In the sense of sound chapter, it is mentioned that the Emu creates sound by inflating a pouch in the windpipe of its neck. Their sounds can be heard up to two kilometres away. For the sense of smell there are many odorous facts including the Eastern Long-necked Turtle that suck up water through their bottoms to provide them with oxygen when underwater and they happily live in raw sewage. If you touch one, you may smell of rotting cabbage! The sense of taste gives some very interesting facts including the remarkable Rakali (native water rat) that knocks the cane toad on its back, uses its sharp front teeth like a scalpel to open up the stomach and scoops out the non-toxic heart and liver. Finally in the sense of touch chapter, the Pufferfish has enough deadly poison on its skin to kill up to 30 people so do not touch dead ones on the shore ever!
This engaging and beautifully illustrated book is a treasure trove of amazing facts that will delight and entertain both young and older readers. A fabulous resource for a home, school or public library. Teacher Notes are available.
Another novella starring Learned Penric and his Temple demon Desdemona will thrill fans of the series. When Otta, a six-year-old girl, becomes possessed by a brand-new demon Penric is called to the village that has taken her in. Unable to control the fire that she can call she has been cast into a well to keep everyone safe, and Penric must rescue her. His duty to his god means that he should cast out the demon, but Desdemona rejects this and the pair are cast into conflict. As usual, the pair’s quest is to help whenever they are called upon, but this time their difference in opinion is very painful. How will they resolve this problem and bring harmony back?
I found the background to Demon daughter very appealing. Scenes of domesticity are described and Penric’s love for his wife Nikys and daughter are very evident. The story is often told from the point of view of Otta who describes her tribulations in a matter-of-fact way, and Bujold manages to get inside the mind of a six-year-old with skill and empathy. Nikys plays a significant role in the novella; she is helpful, loving and clear sighted about what could happen to Otta and prepared for the upheaval that another child in the family could bring.
Although Demon daughter is short, it is multilayered and has a very satisfying conclusion. It is a powerful and memorable story and left me wishing I had another new book in this series to read immediately.
Themes Fantasy, Demons.
Pat Pledger
Bluey at the beach: A colouring book by Bluey
Penguin, 2023. ISBN: 9781761343100. (Age:2+)
Sixteen pages with images of Bluey and Bingo at the beach will tempt all comers to get out their pencils and colour them in. All the activities undertaken at the beach are there: being covered with sand, building a sand castle, the things at the beach to eat, modes of transport found at the beach, lots of images of food, kids playing together and having fun. A family day out will be full of colour as each page is coloured in by the reader. Another in the highly successful Bluey series, this one could be used as the family is watching an episode of Bluey and her family at at the beach.
What a blast! This is the second book involving Al Chaudhury who has previously travelled through time with a hamster. In this book, Al tries to rectify a significant glitch in his life – the absence of his loved father and the new family that he now lives with because of his father’s death. Grandpa Byron, the wise and memory-proficient man who seems to understand the challenges of the space-time continuum and its disruption, adds his input in his inimitable way, but sadly loses his memory in an accident. But it is the journey back in time with Carly (his new step-sister) and Paulie (his mean bully-friend) to the pre-historic era where he encounters a tortoise and several threatening dinosaurs that causes the most disruption. Zig-zagging back and forth in time, Al must solve problems that he has created without appearing like someone who has completely lost his marbles and he weaves in and out of situations that make no sense.
This is an action-packed drama with heart. Al negotiates the death of his father and grandfather more than once and learns to deal with some very difficult situations. Intriguingly, the ‘science’ of the space-time continuum or multiverses does not really need to be understood to enjoy this journey, and there is humour frequently scattered through the back-and-forth narrative. This extraordinary adventure will be enjoyed by anyone who has read any of Ross Welford’s books, but particularly those who began the Time-travel journey with Al in Time Travelling with a Hamster. Aimed at readers aged roughly 12 years old, it can also be offered to readers aged 9-14, and it will be guaranteed that they will lose track of time itself as they read this fun and intriguing story.
Themes Time travel, Dinosaurs, Grief, Space-time continuum.
The stylish cover won me over and when I read that Ashley Weaver was an Edgar-nominated author and that A peculiar combination was set in England during World War 2 with murder, spies and romance, I knew that I was in for a treat.
Electra (Ellie) McConnell is skilled at picking locks and breaking into safes. Her cousins Colm and Toby are off fighting in the war, and when her Uncle Mick’s business as a locksmith begins to fail, in need of funds, the pair decide to break into the home of a rich person. However, they are caught and taken to a large house where Major Ramsey is waiting for them with a proposition – go to jail or break into a safe to retrieve valuable blueprints that may be going to Nazi Germany. Ellie is keen to defend her country and as events unfold her skill set and her bravery make her a useful agent for the British Army.
I enjoyed this mystery, especially the character of Ellie, who emerges as a feisty young woman whose ability to break into safes and pick pockets proves to be just what Major Ramsey needs in the attempt to stop the sale of blueprints to the Nazis. Ramsey is big, handsome and a follower of rules, while Ellie is smart and often prepared to break the rules so sparks fly when the two get together.
All the ingredients for a thrilling spy mystery - danger, murder, narrow escapes, dastardly villains and London in black out - make for a winning combination of cosy mystery and historical fiction. I will certainly be following this series.
Themes Mystery, Espionage, World War 2, London.
Pat Pledger
Absolutely everything! by Christopher Lloyd
What on Earth Books, 2023. ISBN: 9781804660768. (Age:8-Adult) Highly recommended.
This new and expanded 2023 hardback edition of Absolutely Everything! is so packed full of amazing facts that it is quite a heavy book to physically carry. Information shared is from the beginning of the universe - about 13.8 billion years ago, up to the present day. As you can imagine, this book attempts to include as much as possible in an accessible, concise and engaging presentation.
The foreword by author Christpoher Lloyd provides an interesting read as he explains his reason for undertaking such a momentous task to write this factual tome. The sixteen chapters begin with Chapter 1 Nothing to Something where it starts at 13.8 billion years with the Big Bang and ends with Chapter 16 To Be Continued 2002 – present. Each chapter is differentiated by colour and the beginning right hand page has a very useful vertical timeline with a key statement. Throughout the book there are labelled photographs, diagrams and illustrations, as well as quotes and graphic images. In the final pages is a world map with an accompanying map index, plus a very detailed glossary and index. There are also image credits, and further information from the author regarding his research, quote sources and a message of thanks.
This latest edition has been updated with more recent information including the final chapter To Be Continued… where Tupperware (invented in 1948) is mentioned alongside plastic waste, recycling and climate change. There is mention of the recent invasion of Ukraine and the effects of global health outbreaks such as the SARS virus in 2004 and the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019.
This fascinating book provides so much scope for discussion and learning with many unknown facts, milestones and events to be further researched. A worthy addition to a home school or public library.
EK Books, 2023. ISBN: 9781922539557. (Age:3+) Highly recommended.
A beautiful watery cover beckons the reader inside, if only to see whose tail it is inscribing the title, the ink dripping down the page.
Enticingly, the title page has two tails beckoning the reader again to look further. A dozen double pages give more clues as to this sea animal as we see images of the thing it has changed itself into on the ocean floor. Mim is a brown flatfish gliding along the ocean floor, then Mim is a sea snake twirling between the tree roots, Mim is a jellyfish floating in the ocean, then Mim is an anemone, its many arms floating above the sand, next she is a seahorse, then a feather star, and a stingray, then a sea shell, mantis shrimp, and over the next page we find out that she is: a mimic octopus. Over the page are several pages showing the animals that the mimic octopus can change into, all mentioned in the text.
The illustrations are glorious, using a variety of methods, including pencils, erasers and the computer, to create the watery feeling of the environment the mimic lives in. Each page reveals a different aspect of the sea below, the animals and fauna that exist there along with the octopus.The endpapers are fascinating, the first showing an array of the animals the octopus can mimic, while the last endpaper shows the octopus in all her glory as herself. And the five fabulous facts about the mimic octopus will keep readers amused for much longer. And the book will be one often borrowed. I loved looking at where her eyes were each time she changed shape, and I am sure younger readers will spot other things to focus on, as the book offers so much.
Join Alexandra Jennings and her friends for one last adventure across Medora, starting with Alex and her friends at the first Kaldoras after the war - with all the changes that came from that, and the new changes that are to come. Alex has a new tradition of taking a piece of cake into the painting in the library, and Kaldoras is no exception to this, so she sets off with a piece of cake and the expectation that she will be met with the same anger and hate - only this time, something is different, something shocking...
Fans of the Medoran Chronicles were ecstatic that Lynette Noni announced that she was going to revisit the series with a new release Kaldoras. While not an overly large book, it does not disappoint! All your favourite characters are back, and even some of your not favourite characters… Joining Alex and her friends after their studies and in their after school lives, in big moments, in significant moments, in everyday life and in seeing where life is taking them. Written in the perfection that fans have come to expect from Noni, the book is written in multiple parts – with a different character being the narrator for different parts. Moving swiftly as other Medoran Chronicle novels do, Kaldoras will take readers through a range of emotions. Some readers will face a difficult choice – reread the entire series before reading Kaldoras, or dive straight in? And then when they finish Kaldoras – what will they do with the questions Noni has left them… An absolute must for fans of the series and fans of Lynette Noni’s work. The book does contain spoilers for the rest of the series, so it is imperative that readers have finished the other books before commencing this one.
Hachette, 2023. ISBN: 9781399700436. (Age:18+, Adult) Recommended for an adult audience.
This is a story for those who love twisted power struggles! I admired it and yet its serious intensity was hard to love. In essence it is a fantasy epic that explores a world where the tumultuous history has now led to a very imbalanced royal rule, one that perhaps has forgotten the people that it is supposed to serve. Strangely, in this world there are also mystical elements that provide opportunities to escape hardship and difficulty by slipping into other bodies, a trait that has benefits and huge problems. In this strange world there is also a royal-sanctioned competition to give opportunity to individuals to rise above their position in life and benefit hugely from the prize awarded. However, there is only one winner, and in order to win they must kill the other competitors. In a Hunger Games-style contest an exiled Princess Calla, attempting to restore the authority in the country to a more admirable rule, and Anton, a young man whose youthful love interest has been in a coma for years and who desperately needs resources to keep her alive, are pitted against each other in a violent challenge. Behind the scenes there are alliances and others with their own machinations for power. The story twists and turns with trust the loser throughout this complex story.
In a strange way this story feels like the strange descendant of The Hunger Games, Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, and Game of Thrones! This bizarre and intricate tale has many elements from all of these tales, but it is its own well-crafted drama with incredible power to capture an audience. Written for an adult audience, its violence is quite extreme and frequent, and there is even an x-rated scene in a highly charged moment in the narrative, and the power struggles and conspiracies are complex. Lovers of the fantasy genre should not expect a teen-aged light drama, but rather a story that has many threads and intricacies related to the quest for power (and maybe even the search for love and connection) in a complex world. The mystical body-swapping aspect is also head-spinning for readers as characters change in appearance at regular times. With a hint of the Asian mystical qi (life force), there are some subtle Asian influences in this fantasy. With a powerful conclusion that implies that this is not the end of the story connecting the main characters, readers who are hooked by the impressive writing of Chloe Gong will need to wait to see how this world will change.
Recommended for an adult audience who love complex fantasy.
Author Shirley Marr has written a powerful and unique novel that sensitively deals with a marriage breakdown and the effect that has on only child, eleven-year-old James. When his parents decide to separate and his Mum moves into a small run down flat, James struggles with the changes that take place in his life. Expected to spend time with each parent, he wishes fervently that he could go back to the past to a time when the whole family were happy, connected and living together.
James is an appealing character; reserved and thoughtful, passionate about space, David Bowie’s Major Tom and The Australian Women’s Weekly Birthday Cakes recipe book. At school, James struggles to fit in and is often on the end of bullying from Roscoe, the son of his mother’s supposed close friend. James deals with this in different ways but mostly by spending time in the office helping the office staff with various things such as the cake competition. The great fundraising cake bake-off is taking place soon and to James’ surprise his mother has entered. This is a new mum, not one that James recognises. His dad has also changed and James struggles to reconcile his ‘now’ parents with how they were before.
Running parallel to James’ family story, is his growing friendship with Yan, a clever and personable girl who sees the world in a completely different way. From a Chinese background with seemingly strict parenting, she also struggles to fit in and has a fascination with the past, in particular with older style computers. Yan spends before school and lunch time in the library and James gradually joins her there. It is here that they concoct a plan to create a time machine where James can choose one of six happy memories he has with his family and go back to the past and stay there permanently. Does this time machine work for James? Or will he discover that what he remembers may not necessarily be what really happened? And that perhaps living in the now may be the time to create new memories?
This is a fabulous read with so much to ponder over, especially regarding memories both happy and not so happy. There are many opportunities for thoughtful shared discussion and understanding the notion that there is often more to a situation than meets the eye.
Themes Time, Memories, Changes, Family, Friendship, Separation, School, Science Week, Cake making, Cultural Expectations, Loneliness, Connections.
Kathryn Beilby
Being a cat: a tail of curiosity by Maria Gianferrari. Illus. by Pete Oswald
From the start of this book showing how cats behave, children are asked to be like them in seeking, watching, wandering and wondering. Be like a cat and survey all that surrounds you. Can you search like a cat: looking up and around you? Can you chill out between actions like a cat, and just sit and preen, be happy like a cat, be curious? Lots of things are asked of the reader, using the cat as a template of things to do, asking the child to follow the same ways of seeing the world. Be inquisitive, seek, look around you: all sorts of wonders are there to be seen and explored. Why not search through a drawer, stop and smell the flowers, check out a box (all cats like a box). Cats sleep anywhere, and everywhere. Cats are inquisitive and inspect and inquire, all of course in between a time for preening. Cats say I love you in a range of ways: bunting, rubbing, jumping onto a lap, twisting and twirling.
After pages of what a cat does, and how curious a cat can be, are four pages of information about cats which will intrigue younger readers. A cat’s tail sticks straight up when it is happy, and other gems will have readers longing to get home and check out their cat, or reminisce about their cat with their peers.
And then they may question about how they show they are happy.
The information about the cat forms a list of activities that kids can follow, it is hoped that children be curious, seek out answers, run and play, jump and twirl, look into things, look around, up and down and so on.
And I love the last page which shows children how hey cna leap like a cat, and gives them meanings for words associated with cats.
All of this is accompanied by endearing illustrations showing a cat and a girl attempting all the things in the text. Oswald entwines lots of humour in his images of the cat, and gives the cat lots of different feelings through the deft lines in its face. He makes the cat look ferocious, happy, dumbfounded, cross, clever, sad, pleased with itself and so on with just a few changes of the eyes and mouth.
Readers will love seeking out how the cat feels, and take in the detail given on each page, along with trying out some of the things the cat does, especially leaping.
I can imagine classrooms with kids in boxes, preening themselves or leaping about.
For teachers wanting to deliver the cross curricular priority Studies of Asia layer of the Australian school curriculum, finding literature for children that portrays the Asian perspective is quite difficult. Nazneen Ahmed Pathak's debut novel City of stolen magic is a recommended novel to add to library collections as it delivers an atmospheric, magical adventure that is distinctly Asian and particularly Indian. Reminiscent of Salman Rushdie's powerful Haroun and the sea of stories, City of stolen magic could fit the phantasmagorical sub-genre which, to children, means very strange - like something in a dream.
Pathak is a British Bangladeshi writer and historian with an interest in the geography and history of migration. Hence migration is one of the underlying themes of City of stolen magic and is reflected in the movement of the four magic children at the centre of the story and their adventures travelling from India to London and on their arrival living amongst the migrant communities in the dock areas. Clive Devayne's sinister trading company is the (thinly veiled) East India Company and it represents much that was evil about colonialism and the effect of British rule on India. Through this rich mining of the history of the extraction of goods and labour from India and of real historical characters, events and objects is wound an atmosphere and story of Asian magic - of djinn's and amulets and magical powers residing in particular beings.
The main character, Chompa - an outspoken, courageous and magical child - moves through settings from rural Bengal to Dacca, to the ocean voyage to London and the silver palace in the search for her kidnapped mother. Map illustrations (by Romanian artist Lia Visirin) of Dacca and the docks area of London help the reader establish a sense of place. Chompa encounters treachery and dangerous challenges as she hones her magical powers.
City of stolen magic offers the Middle year reader a story that is historically accurate although fictitious. The characters are believable and the language is authentic. Most importantly, City of stolen magic brings under-represented voices from the sub continent and in addition a heroine with alopecia universalis - an appearance- changing condition - a proudly different looking heroine - the story book equivalent of Danny Choo's Smart dolls that are similarly designed to represent diversity and unique identity.
There is a lot of depth and new experience on offer to the reader of Pathak's City of stolen magic.
Themes India-colonialism, Migration, Magic, Appearance-changing medical conditions.
This disarming story of friendship allied with age is offered here with a lovely tale of a crocodile and a boy who share the same birthday. The crocodile hatches on the same day that Edward is taken to the zoo as a birthday present. Edward see the crocodile break out of its shell and comes back every birthday to share the day with his friend. We see the pair sharing the day each year going through the years as Edward grows up, eventually becoming the keeper at the zoo, enabling him to see Gus every day. As time passes, the man can no longer look after Gus, and eventually he retires from work, but still comes in on their birthdays each year. One year, Edward is not there, so Gus sets out to look for him.
He tracks him down in the yellow house on the hill, a place for retired older people, and he sits by Edward’s bedside, working out a way for Edward to come and visit.
The scope of age is given in this lovely tale where the ages of a man are covered from youth to getting a job, marrying, having his own children, then retiring and eventually finding a home for his last years. Each of the birthdays is celebrated with his old friend, Gus, who is also getting older, the text dropping hints about his ageing process as well.
The illustrations show a wonderful crocodile reclining in his pool at the zoo, looking forward to each birthday and later seeing Edward every day. We see the zoo visitors through the crocodile’s eyes, and feel with him when Edward does not come to see him.
I love Gus’ pants, from the nappy on the small animal to his jaunty older pants. And I laughed at the contrasting faces at the nursing home when Edward arrives. What fun to imagine a crocodile walking the streets looking for his friend.
This warm hearted story will encourage readers to think about an array of things, friendship and how people age, but some eager readers will want to know about crocodiles as well.
Themes Age, Friendship, Crocodiles, Zoos.
Fran Knight
A lesson in vengeance by Victoria Lee
Titan Books, 2022. ISBN: 9781789099768. (Age:14+)
Felicity Morrow is back at Dalloway School. Perched in the Catskill mountains, the centuries-old, ivy-covered campus was home until the tragic death of her girlfriend. Now, after a time away, she’s returned to graduate. She even has her old room in Godwin House, the exclusive dormitory rumoured to be haunted by the spirits of five Dalloway students - girls some say were witches. The Dalloway Five all died mysteriously, one after another, right on Godwin grounds.
Witchcraft is woven into Dalloway’s history. The school doesn’t talk about it, but the students do. And before her girlfriend died, Felicity was drawn to the dark. She’s determined to leave that behind her now; all Felicity wants is to focus on her senior thesis and graduate. But it’s hard when Dalloway’s occult history is everywhere. And when the new girl won’t let her forget.
It’s Ellis Haley’s first year at Dalloway, and she’s already amassed a loyal following. A prodigy novelist at seventeen, Ellis is a so-called 'method writer.' She’s eccentric and brilliant, and Felicity can’t shake the pull she feels to her. So when Ellis asks Felicity for help researching the Dalloway Five for her second book, Felicity can’t say no. Given her history with the arcane, Felicity is the perfect resource.
The story very quickly draws readers in, with intriguing characters and the right mix of back story, literary references and historical, feminism mystic, referring to the story created for the overall novel – the murders of girls who were thought to be witches back in the 1700s. Interweaving witchcraft along with the fear of witches and magic, as well as feminism and the persecution of women, the whole novel has women’s rights vibes, while also looking at mental health and interpersonal relationships. LGBTQIA+ characters feature through the book in a natural way, and the whole story flows extremely well. There is a darkness to the entire novel, provided through the layering of the backstory of the main character over the history of the murdered girls – and the ‘method writer’ of the house. Well worth a read, ideal for fans of Krystal Sutherland’s House of Hollow.
