Barbara Sloan, The Lonely Pony, Little Steps Publishing, February 2020, 92 pp., RRP $24.95 (hbk), ISBN 9781925839494 Scout is lonely. His parents are show horses, but he is not big enough. Instead, Scout has become a companion to visiting horses at Amberfield Park where he lives. One day Lena arrives. She loves being around horses and is helping Amy and Brett who own the training centre. Recovering from a horse-riding accident, Lena decides she wants to start training again and she chooses Scout as her horse. Maybe life won’t be so lonely after all. Scout and Lena have many adventures together from training and family outings to facing new challenges and overcoming adversity. Barbara Sloan guides…
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Karen Dunsmore (text) and Grace Chen (illustrator), Forever Fairies, Little Steps Publishing, February 2020, 168 pp., RRP: $14.95 (pbk), ISBN 9781925839678 Who wouldn’t be enchanted to find a baby fairy in their garden? This full colour illustrated junior fiction book is the first in a proposed series of fantasy stories featuring brother and sister twins Luka and Leandra and their grandparents. With all the classic elements of a quest, the plot moves quickly along introducing characters and dilemmas for the resourceful children to overcome. Grandma is a passive supporting character in the background. Grandpa is missing but turns out to be intertwined with the magical mystery. Little Steps…
Bruce Pascoe (text) and Charmaine Ledden-Lewis (illustrator), Found, Magabala Books, August 2020, 38 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781925936483 Magabala Books continue to perform a needed and laudable service to Indigenous writers and illustrators with this latest addition to their impressive catalogue. Found is a story of family and belonging. Each double page spread is a gorgeous ink and pen washed colour illustration featuring the countryside and animals of the far north of Australia. Charmaine Ledden-Lewis has been awarded the Kestin Indigenous Illustrator Award for her work on this book, and the award is well deserved. The story follows the distress of a small calf being taken from her mother and pitched into the back of a truck. This particular calf manages…
Deborah Abela (text) and Marjorie Crosby-Fairall (illustrator), Bear in Space, Walker Books, August 2020, 32 pp., RRP $25.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760651510 Little introverts will adore this story about Bear who dreams of flying into space and collects astronomical facts. His favourite? Space is always quiet. Bear endures laughter and name-calling from his pre-school classmates. Undeterred, he makes a rocket and straps himself in for take-off. Space is a blissful place where he can read, make plans for rocket improvement and drink hot chocolate. No one laughs at him or calls him names. But it is a little lonely. Then through a window Bear discovers Panda in a spaceship of her own and he invites…
Puffin Little, Little Scientist: The Solar System, Puffin Books, July 2020, 96 pp., RRP $12.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760897017 The Puffin Little series of information books for young readers includes Scientist, Environmentalist, Cook, Explorer, and Historian. They are a handy size (a little under A5) and published in a sturdy matt paperback with similarly strong pages. The plain and bright design style is common to the series, with covers combining bright yellow and a different contrasting colour for each subject area – bright blue for Little Scientist. Little Scientist: The Solar System covers the topic in a clear and satisfying way, dividing the information into neat subtopics and manageable chunks. After a brief introduction we have The…
Various, Super Sporty Girls, Penguin Random House Australia, April 2020, 40 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760896058 Super Sporty Girls is a picture book in the trend of other recent publications about amazing Australians or wonderful women in the world. It profiles famous Australian sportswomen such as tennis star Ashleigh Barty and the Matilda’s Sam Kerr, as well as women from less well publicised sports such as golfer Hannah Green and BMX rider Caroline Buchanan. This bright and animated picture book encourages girls to imagine the many different forms of activity they could get involved in – and not just for the physicality. It champions the fact that these women…
Alexandra Worth (text) and Amy Calautti (illustrator), Heart of Gold, Little Steps Publishing, February 2020, 32 pp., RRP $14.99, (pbk), ISBN 9781925839470 Based on the author’s own experience as a child, we follow the story of Anna, an active nine year old who loves to swim, ride her bike and take her dog for a walk. Most of all though, Anna loves to dance; her family call her ‘twinkle toes’. One day however Anna learns she has a heart condition and must undergo open heart surgery if she is going to stay healthy. The story follows Anna’s journey from doctor’s consultation, to MRI, surgery, recovery and getting back to normal life.…
Philippa Brown (text), and Krista Brennan (illustrator), The New Baby’s Bunny, Little Steps publishing, February 2020, 32 pp., RRP $16.95, (pbk), ISBN 9781925839029 Nanna wants to get the bunny she is making finished before Mum has her baby. She has made a bunny for each of her other grandchildren but this time she can’t decide what kind of buttons to choose for the bunny’s eyes. Soon it becomes a family affair as each of the children, along with Mum and Dad all pitch in to help. First time author Philippa Brown focuses on one of life’s small quests while suggesting something larger about the simple joys of family life and working together as a group to solve…
James Rallison, The Odd 1s Out (The First Sequel), Scholastic Australia, June 2020, 224 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760973377 This is a funny and accessible book by a young writer and humourist who knows how to appeal to the eight to twelves – especially, but not exclusively, boys. Not having read the first title (The Odd 1s Out: How to be Cool and Other Things I Definitely Learned from Growing Up), I was fooled by the first couple of chapters into thinking it was a book about writing a book (“How to pick the right font for your book” and “The problem with having the name Theodd1sout”). But it is…
Blake Chapman (text) and Astred Hicks (illustrator), Ocean Animals, CSIRO Publishing, June 2020, 144 pp., RRP $29.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781486311415 Who amongst us didn’t at one point want to be a marine biologist when they grew up? Sea creatures have long fascinated students, from terrifying angler-fish to the weird and wonderful octopus. And now, given the precarious position many of these creatures and the oceans themselves are in, it seems more important than ever that children learn about and appreciate ocean animals. Chapman has created a thorough and engaging resource that will attract children of all ages. It has been carefully organised into chapters based on…