Sandra Kendall author of Saltie Mumma, chats to Reading Time reviewer Julie Murphy JM: What made you choose this topic for your book? SK: I had resisted creating a crocodile book for so long despite many people asking me for one. It seemed almost a cliché for a Northern Territory author but because Crocodiles are so firmly ingrained in our culture and psyche in the Top End a few ideas inevitably began brewing. As soon I started researching crocodiles in earnest I was hooked. Saltwater crocodiles are the largest reptiles in the world, they are like living dinosaurs. Little wonder…
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Sandra Kendall, Saltie Mumma, Windy Hollow Books, October 2020, 28pp., RRP $25.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781922081889 This picture book for children 4-8 years is set in the wetlands of the Northern Territory. Two text types on each page present an engaging combination of story and information. In large, bold type, the narrative story follows Saltie Mumma; a saltwater crocodile raising her clutch of eggs. Lively language with repeated phrase structures, exciting verbs and onomatopoeia will entertain readers and make a wonderful read-aloud experience. Adjectives in even larger, bolder capital letters highlight the features of Saltie Mumma, who is alternately tired, busy,…
Dav Pilkey, Cat Kid Comic Club, Scholastic, December 2020, 174 pp., RRP $17.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781338712766 Cat Kid Comic Club is a graphic novel featuring Cat Kid Li’l Petey, a crazy bunch of tadpole friends with their frog father and Cat Kid’s off-sider Molly who I think is another tadpole but the fact that Molly is airborne leaves me with some uncertainty. Younger readers will know exactly the species of this character. Cat Kid is trying to get the young tadpoles to write comics; this being the idea behind the formation of the Comic Club. But the tadpoles are unsure…
Lucinda Gifford, Whitney and Britney: Chicken Detectives, Scholastic, November 2020, 32pp., RRP $17.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781743836057 Whitney and Britney are two “marvellous chooks” that readers may have previously become acquainted with in their book Whitney and Britney: Chicken Divas. In this sequel, Whitney and Britney: Chicken Detectives, the singers return to solve a mystery. When fellow performer Dora is devastated because Gloria is missing, Whitney and Britney turn their coop into detective headquarters and set out to “crack this case open”.Whitney and Britney: Chicken Detectives is a lively and engaging read. Written in rhyming couplets, children will enjoy joining in…
Anna Zobel, Little Gem, Penguin Australia, January 2021, 240pp., RRP $14.99, ISBN 9781760896089 Little Gem is a bad witch. In Witchcraft School she is always getting in trouble for messing up spells and being clumsy. When a simple travelling spell goes terribly wrong Gem finds herself in an unfamiliar cottage outside a strange little town 100 years in the future! Everyone in Ellsworth Pining is convinced that she is their new village witch, and they really do need her help. The Weather Worker has mysteriously vanished, and there are rumours of a terrifying beast in the woods. Still, Gem really…
Saroo Brierley (text) and Bruce Whatley (illustrator), Little Lion: A Long Way Home, Penguin Random House Australia, November 2020, 40 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780143795094 The well-known story of Saroo Brierley’s long search for his family and his home town is now available in picture book form for young readers. With a long written text, Saroo’s story is illustrated with Whatley’s exquisite illustrations. Beginning in India when Saroo was a little boy, we meet his family and learn what his life was like, harsh and poverty stricken, but happy. He then travels to Calcutta, as it was known then,…
Chloe Gong, These Violent Delights (book #1), Hodder & Stoughton, December 2020, 273 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781529344554 A love like theirs was never going to survive in a city divided by hatred. When I read the blurb for These Violent Delights, I was excited by something fresh: a mash-up of a Romeo & Juliet retelling, set in the exotic location of Shanghai in the 1920s. Add to this mix two gangs in the midst of a blood feud…and a monster who is a harbinger of madness. Chloe Gong loves her words, and she is a skillful wordsmith. In the…
Jodie Mcleod (text), and Eloise Short (illustrator), Leonard the Lyrebird, King Street Press, September 2018, 32pp., RRP $16.95 (pbk), ISBN 9780994450753 Jodie Mcleod (text), and Eloise Short (illustrator), Lilah the Lyrebird, King Street Press, December 2020, 32pp., RRP $24.95 (hbk), ISBN 9780646824444 Both these books are written and illustrated by award-winning author, Jodie McLeod, and artist, Eloise Short, who are familiar with the Australian bush, specifically the Blue Mountains whose prominent features are named and illustrated. The first book introduces Leonard who, like all male lyrebirds, loves to perform – to sing and dance and to imitate the sounds of…
Helen Castles, Waves of Mystery (Scoop McLaren #2), New Frontier Publishing, October 2020, 170 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781922326010 Waves of Mystery is the second in the Scoop McLaren series. Detective Editor Scoop, along with her Roving Report Evie, run Click, a local online newspaper that has grown pretty popular as a result of the events in book 1. That said, Waves of Mystery is an exciting, funny self-contained mystery, so readers can dive straight into this one if they so desire. Helen Castles takes readers right into the action, so to speak, as Scoop and Evie are reporting…
Jackie French (text) and Bruce Whatley (illustrator), Pandemic, Scholastic Australia, November 2020, 24pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760976088 From the award-winning creators of Flood, Fire, Cyclone and Drought comes Pandemic – a compelling story depicting the time when the war carried the Spanish Flu across the world. At the end of the book, author Jackie French explains that her story was inspired by the stories her Grandmother shared with her about the Spanish Flu pandemic and the effects it had on children and families in her community. The language used powerfully captures the loneliness, fear and isolation of the time…