Sean E. Avery, Frank’s Red Hat, Walker Books Australia, October 2022, 32 pp., RRP $25.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760654283 Frank is a rather endearing penguin – or at least he is endearing to the reader. The other penguins in the story find him challenging and even a little frightening. Frank is an ideas penguin; sometimes his ideas work but often they don’t. Frank’s is a monochromatic world of shades of black, white, and grey so when he makes himself a hat, more particularly a red hat, the other penguins are puzzled and frightened. Frank goes on making hats despite this and…
Author: Admin
Jordan Stephens (text), and Beth Suzanna (illustrator), The Missing Piece, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, August 2022, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781526618139 Soft warm colours, bold and pastel, swirl around and fill the pages of this gently life affirming picture book about finding happiness in unexpected places. Sunny thinks that completing jigsaw puzzles is the only thing that can give her that ‘happy honeybee buzz.’ But when grandma gives her a one – thousand – piece puzzle to do she finds herself on a journey of discovery that requires both determination and courage but is also fun; taking her to…
Sally Morgan (text) and Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr (illustrator), Thank You Rain!, Magabala Books, September 2022, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781922613646 Magabala Books is Australia’s leading publisher of Indigenous stories. Aboriginal owned and led, they are a powerhouse publisher producing and nurturing Indigenous voices. Once again, they’ve hit the mark by producing this picture book celebrating a most precious resource – the rain. Thank You Rain! is the result of another successful partnership between writer Sally Morgan and illustrator Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr. Their previous collaborations, both Notabled, Little Bird’s Day and The River, were also published by Magabala Books. This is a simple…
Liv Downing (text), and Mel Matthews (illustrator), You are Loved, Allen & Unwin, October 2022, 36 pp., RRP $24.99, (hbk), ISBN 9781760878146 At the back of this picture book are a series of simple exercises that parent and child can do together; encouraging a more mindful way of being through directing awareness to the beating of their hearts and the breath that passes in and out of their lips. This gentle practice is not only something that can be shared but incorporated into everyday life. Author, Liv Downing, a psychologist, podcast host, mindfulness educator, meditation teacher and parent has brought…
Eddie Jaku (text) and Nathaniel Eckstrom (illustrator), The Happiest Boy on Earth, Pan Macmillan, August 2022, 64 pp., RRP $26.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760985608 Eddie Jaku was renowned for his book The Happiest Man on Earth, written when he was more than 100 years old. The early part of his life now forms the basis of this picture book, described by the publishers as a ‘picture book for older readers’. The cover shows a happy, untroubled small boy, skating through a snow-covered square in a European setting. This image of the boy is repeated in the opening spread with three other…
Solli Raphael (text) and Olana Janfa (illustrator), 29 Things You Didn’t Know About Me, Pan Macmillan, June 2022, 96 pp., RRP $24.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760988913 The latest in a new series of junior fiction books that explores and celebrates diversity, 29 Things You Didn’t Know About Me centres on a sleepover between new friends Franco and Lucas. As the Grade Two boys learn more about each other, they discover how much they have in common. Lucas shares things he likes and dislikes, as well as cultural information about Mexico, where his mother and grandparents are from. These elements are woven…
Dianne Wolfer, Mia, Allen & Unwin, August 2022, 236 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760877026 Thirteen year old Mia lives with her mother on an isolated bush block in the Pilbara. She dreams of becoming a vet like her mum and assists her whenever possible. They share their home with a menagerie of pets and recovering animals, and the three horses they use in their equine therapy sessions. Her parents divorced a number of years ago, and her dad now lives in Perth with his new wife and their twins. Mia spends holidays with them and often Face-times. Her parents have an…
Adrian Beck, Furball (Spy Cat #1), Larrikin House, October 2022, 160 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781922804006 Furball and his sidekicks Jade, the karate kid and Kit the gadget guy are super sleuths. Well, sort of. They are the good guys who work for the secret organisation Meow-6 and fight the bad guys who work for the evil organisation Klawz. But what do you do when the leader of the group spends more time fussing about how he looks in his tux and prioritises fish tacos and sleep over, well, just about everything? Lucky his helper sleuths are around to…
Lystra Rose, The Upwelling, Lothian Children’s Books, August 2022, 387 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780734420251 Lystra Rose is a descendant of the Guugu Yimithirr, Birri Gubba, Erub nations—from the Yugambeh-speaking country of South-East Queensland. The Upwelling is her debut novel, though she has world-wide fame already for being the first editor-in-chief of a mainstream surfing magazine, Surfing Life. And surfing plays its part in her YA fantasy novel, which features Kirra, a surfer on the Queensland coast in the present time who has a gift for seeing into the future. Two other characters share the narration of this apocalyptic…
Sue Lawson and Sue Hindle (text) and Prue Pittock (illustrator), You Matter: Be Your Own Best Friend, Wild Dog Books, March 2022, 64 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781742036144 You Matter: Be Your Own Best Friend is a self-help guide to self-care for kids. Using language that should be understandable to many children aged seven and over, You Matter presents various strategies for coping with complex emotions and building resilience and self-esteem. These strategies are compared to a toolkit that “will help keep your emotions flowing” (p. 5). The first section explains how breathing can settle and help kids tune into their feelings…