Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, Stolen Child, Scholastic Australia, 1 August 2015, 154pp., $14.99, (pbk) ISBN 9781760157241 Nadia has arrived in Canada from a Displaced Persons’ Camp in Europe, after World War II, to begin a new life with her new family. She finds this very difficult because she has to learn a new language, new customs and lie about her origins. Nadia has so much to remember and so much she would like to forget. She is haunted by her memories of and her nightmares about the war, and is also is confused about her identity. Her new mother has told…
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Alison Reynolds (text), Mikki Butterley (illus) The Birthday Party Cake (Pickle and Bree’s Guide to Good Deeds), Five Mile Press, October 2015, 32pp., $14.95 (hbk) ISBN 9781760067236 Alison Reynolds (text), Mikki Butterley (illus) The Decorating Disaster (Pickle and Bree’s Guide to Good Deeds), Five Mile Press, October 2015, 32pp., $14.95 (hbk) ISBN 9781760067229 These are the first two books in Pickle and Bree’s Guide to Good Deeds series from The File Mile Press designed to help children explore “social etiquette and positive behaviour.” Gently humorous with a message about understanding others and getting along together, these charming and heart-warming stories feature endearing characters in readily…
John Flanagan, The Tournament at Gorlan (Ranger’s Apprentice: The Early Years #1), Random House, 16 September 2015, 400pp., $18.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781742759302 John Flanagan has built up a huge following of readers with his Ranger’s Apprentice series. This is the first in a prequel series, featuring Halt, the mature and somewhat grim Ranger who teaches Will in the original series. The action follows on from a short story called The Hibernian published in book 11 of the Ranger’s Apprentice series, The Lost Stories. Flanagan gives a brief synopsis of this in his foreword, and reading this does give some…
Kathryn Apel, On Track, University of Queensland Press, 1 June 2015, 304pp., $16.95 (pbk), ISBN: 9780702253737 Kathryn Apel is creating a niche for herself by writing verse novels about issues that can affect children. Her previous novel Bully on the Bus was a thoughtful and engaging work about a boy’s experience of bullying. In On Track she is concerned with the issue of rivalry between two brothers, Toby and Shaun. Each boy reveals his private world in alternating sections. Toby, the younger one, is a C grade student who tries hard at everything but has limited success. Shaun is an A…
Kate Forsyth. The Drowned Kingdom (The Impossible Quest #4), Scholastic Australia, 1 May 2015, 185pp., $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781743624089 The Drowned Kingdom is the 4th book (out of five) of the The Impossible Quest series. It plots the quests the four main characters – Tom (son of the castle cook), Lady Elanor (daughter of the castle lord), Quinn (trainee witch) and Sebastian (trainee knight)- must complete to waken the legendary sleeping warriors of the past. I hadn’t read the first three books in this series, but that didn’t matter. The author succinctly recapped the story-so-far at the beginning of the book…
Geoffrey McSkimming. Phyllis Wong and the Waking of the Wizard : a Phyllis Wong Mystery, Allen & Unwin, June 2015, 400pp., $15.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760113384 Phyllis Wong and the Waking of the Wizard is the 3rd Phyllis Wong Mystery. It follows a quest started by Phyllis’s great grandfather Wallace to find one of history’s greatest magicians – Myrddin Emrys, popularly known as Merlin. But the path of discovery doesn’t run smoothly thanks to The Great Whimpering. The characters in this book time travel across space and time – two attributes with lasting appeal to young readers. But there is another dimension…
Bernadette Hellard and Lisa Gibbs, Hooked on Netball (Netball Gems #1), Random House Australia, 3 August 2015, 144pp., $12.99 (pbk), ISBN 978 0 85798 793 1 The first in a series, this junior novel was written in partnership with Netball Australia – and it shows. There is a lot of technical game description in the story which follows Maddy Browne, an ambitious pre-teen, who hopes to succeed as a netball player. The book includes a real-life player profile (Madison Robinson of the Melbourne Vixens), player position descriptions and suggested drills. There is also a sparse spread of black and white…
Barbara Beery, The Snow Princess Cookbook, Exisle Publishing, 1 August 2015, 80pp., $24.99 (hbk) ISBN 9781939629753 Barbara Beery is the American author of a number of cookbooks for children. (Her other titles include Pink Princess Cookbook, Fairies Cookbook and The Space Hero Cookbook.) The Snow Princess Cookbook, dovetailing with the success of Disney’s animated movie Frozen, features two dozen recipes for frost-and-snow-themed parties and six ideas for related craft activities. The recipes, which include ‘Sparkling Ice Snow Cones’, ‘Magic Spell Meringues’ and ‘Snowflake Tortilla Treats’, generally require between four and ten ingredients. Nearly every recipe is illustrated in full colour…
Jess Black (text), Celeste Hulme (illus) Eve and the Runaway Unicorn (Keeper of the Crystals #1) New Frontier Publishing, 1 June 2015, 75pp., $14.99 (pbk.) ISBN 9781925059441 Eve’s parents have deposited her at her grandmother’s house for the holidays while they zip off on a cruise. Desperate for company her own age, Eve teams up with the only available option—young Oscar, her gran’s next door neighbour. Complications arise when Eve wants to play dress-ups, but Oscar prefers ninja games. The pair reach a compromise and decide to investigate Eve’s gran’s out-of-bounds attic. This is where the real complications begin. Eve’s discovery…
Jess Black (text), Celeste Hulme (illus) Eve and the Fiery Phoenix (Keeper of the Crystals #2) New Frontier Publishing, 6 August 2015, 71pp., $14.99 (pbk.) ISBN 9781925059441 Eve and the Fiery Phoenix is the second title in Jess Black’s Keeper of the Crystals series. Like the first book, Eve and the Runaway Unicorn, it takes Eve and her friend Oscar on an adventure to an alternate world, spiced with danger and magic. Avoiding a sudden downpour in the sleepy town where Eve’s gran and Oscar both live (and where Eve is visiting for the Easter holidays), the two children find themselves…