R.A Spratt, Last Chance (Friday Barnes #11), Penguin, January 2023, 288 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780143779247 After her last thrilling adventure in Undercover, teenage detective Friday Barnes is ready to solve a new mystery within the depths of the Parisian art world. Specifically, the controversy surrounding the Mona Lisa and its authenticity. Friday, with her detective best friends, is sent to Paris undercover as art students to take a closer look. Is the Mona Lisa fake? If so, then where is it hiding… Last Chance provides an excellent instalment in the Friday Barnes series, more than worthy enough to…
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Elys Dolan, Rex: Dinosaur in Disguise, Walker Books, June 2022, 240 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781406397703 Rex is a Dinosaur who has everything- he rules the prehistoric world. Life is great for Rex until he finds himself frozen solid with all his fellow Dinosaurs in an Ice Age. When he wakes up, over 60 million years later, everything has changed – less trees, no dinosaur buddies and some orange things called CHEEZ NUBBINS. The only way that funny and clueless Rex can survive without being taken to the zoo is with a good disguise, the help of a few…
Tristan Bancks, Cop and Robber, Penguin Random House Australia, July 2022, 246 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781761045943 Nash Hall is stuck between a rock and a hard place in a way: his mum is a cop, and his dad is a robber. And his Dad doesn’t have any issues about making Nash an unintentional accomplice if he commits a crime with Nash in the car. That itself should give readers an indication of the push and pull of Nash’s life. His dad is a former boxer fallen on hard times, and stealing money is all he thinks he has…
Venita Dimos (text) and Natashia Curtin (illustrator), Mini & Milo: The Teeny-Tiny Voice, Walker Books, March 2023, 32 pp,, RRP $25.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760656157 Mini the elephant is not what her name suggests. But the voice inside her head is – the teeny-tiny, weeny-zeeny, itty-bitty voice that encourages Mini to do brave things, when it’s not entertaining or distracting her. But sometimes this little voice that only Mini hears grows big and loud, groaning and grumbling, saying mean things that make Mini feel tiny. Until brave Mini comes up with a plan that even the grumpiest of voices can’t ignore.…
Catherine Bauer, Tulips for Breakfast, Ford Street Publishing, October 2022, 200 pp., RRP $19.95 (pbk) ISBN 9781922696199 The early childhood of Adelena (Lena for short) was a comfortable life – best friends by her side, looking for fairies, and getting up to mischief by pulling pranks. It never mattered that she was Jewish. Her new hometown, Amsterdam, was perfect and beautiful. Until May 10th 1940 when the ‘Occupation’ happened. The Nazis swept through her city, stripping away the joys from Jewish people’s lives, eventually creating a colourless world controlled by fear and hatred. Many had gone into hiding, terrified of…
Kelly Canby, Timeless, Fremantle Press, January 2023, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781460992323 Timeless is a picture book that comments on good use of time, in a playful way. It’s about Emit (whose name is “time” spelt backwards) lamenting lack of time to manage all the busyness he sees around him and attempting to literally capture more time. The story ends with the satisfying solution that to get more time we need to “make more time”. It’s written and illustrated by Kelly Canby whose previous picture books have been CBCA Notables and Timeless looks like it too will be…
Renee Treml, Bunny Ideas (The Super Adventures of Ollie and Bea #5), Allen & Unwin, January 2023, 64 pp., RRP $12.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781761068119 Renee Treml, Otter-ly Ridiculous (The Super Adventures of Ollie and Bea #6), Allen & Unwin, January 2023, 64 pp., RRP $12.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781761068126 Parents with emerging readers might be familiar with the growing bank of colourful, graphic novels for young children featuring a friend duo. This niche category might have become established with the huge popularity of Mo Willems’ Elephant and Piggie series. But recently there are more and more series in this category: Gustav…
Tim Harford (text) and Ollie Mann (illustrator), The Truth Detective, Hachette Australia, March 2023, 192 pp., RRP $22.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781526364579 Tim Harford is the author of nine books on economics and mathematics, and the presenter of a BBC podcast that has attracted Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates as guests. This is his first children’s book. It is aimed at children who want to learn how to find what is true when so much misleading information (or misleading data) is available to them. In a world of fake news, targeted advertising, biased reporting, conspiracy theories, and pressure from pundits and…
Joanne O’Callaghan (text) and Kori Song (illustrator), Found in Sydney: A Counting Adventure, Allen & Unwin, January 2023, 36 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760526245 Following on from Found in Melbourne, this new picture book, Found in Sydney, is a counting journey through Sydney and its surrounds. Hitting many iconic landmarks, two friends discover Sydney. Starting a Circular Quay with the ferries, harbour bridge and opera house, a young girl offers to help a lost young boy. They make their way around Taronga Zoo, Manly Beach, Bondi, Centennial Park, the Art Gallery of NSW and the Sydney Aquarium among other…
R L LaFevers, Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris (Theodosia #2), Walker Books Australia, November 2022, 352 pp., RRP $18.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781839132353 Theodosia Throckmorton has a very special talent. Her father is the head curator at the Museum of Legends and Antiquities in London, a place Theodosia loves, but it’s only Theo who can detect curses which may be attached to the artifacts: curses that have the power to unleash chaos on the world. In the first book in the series Theo prevented the destruction of the British Empire, with the help of a secret society called the Brotherhood…