Jon Arno Lawson (text/concept), Sydney Smith (illus), Footpath Flowers, Walker Books, 1 August 2015, 32pp., $24.95 (hbk). ISBN 978-1-4063-6208-4 This is a wordless picture book illustrated by Sydney Smith from a concept of Jon Arno Lawson. The book opens with a sepia full-page illustration with the only real splash of colour being the red of a little girl’s coat. On the next page a yellow dandelion is introduced. By this stage we know that the little girl is walking with her father through city streets. As she walks she gathers different flowers along the way, flowers which cling to cracks…
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Claire McFall, Black Cairn Point, Hot Key Books, 1 August 2015, 359pp., $16.95 (pbk), ISBN 9781471404870 This is a thriller set in Scotland. Five friends celebrate the birthday of one of them by going on a camping trip in a remote area. By the end of the trip, only two of them are alive – one in a coma in hospital and the other in a psychiatric home. The book is told in the first-person, by Heather whom we meet first as she sits in a session with her psychiatrist. Throughout the book she plays a kind of game with…
Michael Scott Parkinson, The Great and Wondrous Storyteller, Five Mile Press, 1 August 2015, 32pp., $19.95 (hbk), ISBN 978 1 76006 662 8 Norbert the frog who boasts that he has read myriad books on every imaginable subject to countless listeners soon turns out to be a storyteller himself, holding the book upside down then looking for the ON button. However his father comes to the rescue, explaining that Norbert is only four years old and that in time he will learn to read. Moreover he realizes there is no shame in saying that he cannot yet read. Children eager…
Taku (text), Jason Trevenen (illus), Multicultural Me, Taku Titles, 12 August 2015, 32pp., $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 978 0 9943434 0 6 This most appealing picture book aims to celebrate ‘the cultural diversity and friendship of young people in Australia’. It introduces four children from China, Iraq, Zimbabwe and Australia and, in straightforward language, describes the way they are different in terms of colour, hair, dress, food and religion and, equally important, all the aspects of life that they have in common from having lunch, sharing laughter, loving their families, playing and learning. The text is written with a…
Shona Innes (text), Írisz Agócs (illus), A Family is Like a Cake, Five Mile Press, August 2015, 32pp., $14.95, ISBN 978 1 76006 631 4 Shona Innes (text), Írisz Agócs (illus), Love is Like a Tree, Five Mile Press, August 2015, 32pp., $14.95, ISBN 978 1 76006 632 1 The author is a psychologist who has worked with children, teenagers and adults for 25 years. A Family is Like a Cake compares making a cake to a family: each cake has different ingredients, is a different size, turns out differently when baked, tastes different, and so on. The…
Brisbane playwright David Burton, has just published a book called How to be Happy: A memoir of love. sex and teenage confusion. It is the first non-fiction book to win the Text Prize. At its core, How to be happy is a serious yet humorous exploration of depression and anxiety. At his launch, David agreed to be interviewed, and answered a couple of tough questions in a thoughtful and gracious manner. How does writing extended prose compare with stage plays and theatre works? Can you see yourself writing more for young adults? There’s a lot of similarities between books and theatre. The basic rules…
David Burton, How to be Happy: a memoir of love, sex and teenage confusion, Text Publishing, 26 august 2015, 272pp., $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781925240344 Winner of the 2014 Text Prize, How to be Happy is David Burton’s autobiographical account of his life from about 13 through to his early 20s. It has a mix of styles, combining anecdotes and memoir with direct conversation with the reader. So while How to be Happy tells one person’s coming-of-age story, it also acts as a life coach, offering simple, modest advice. One truth we all know, is that life is never only just…
Martine Murray, Molly and Pim and the Millions of Stars, Text Publishing, 24 June 2015, 256pp., $14.95 (pbk), ISBN : 9781925240085 Molly doesn’t like being different, she longs to be an ordinary girl like her best friend Ellen. Molly’s mother collects herbs and makes them into potions that may or may not be magical and while Molly loves her deeply, she does feel ambivalent about the quirky house they live in, the unusual food they eat and their different way of life. At her primary school she is secretly fascinated by another person who is also a bit unusual. Pim…
Meg Haston. Paperweight. Hot Key Books/Five Mile Press, 2 July 2015, 240pp., $16.95 (pbk), ISBN 9781471404566 Paperweight punches above its weight in terms of bringing home the realities of time in a treatment centre for people with disordered eating issues. That’s probably because author Meg Haston lived this experience and is now a mental health counsellor. It’s a beautifully written book, and tells it like it is; without a hint of judgement or sermons anywhere in its pages. The marketing material lists its ingredients as 40% grief, 20% denial, 20% anger and 20% hope, and that break down is spot…
Anne Mangan (text), David Cornish (illus), Emu’s Halloween, HarperCollins, 1 September 2015, 32pp., $14.99 (hbk) ISBN 9780732298906 If your kids are itching to go trick-or-treating, but you’d really rather they didn’t, here’s a book to help you convince them to have a Halloween party instead. In Emu’s Halloween, Victorian author Anne Mangan takes the American traditions associated with Halloween and gives them an Australian spin, featuring iconic Aussie animals like the kangaroo and emu, alongside the infamous redback spider. The story is written as a rhyme, with mostly one to two sentences a page. It tells the tale of Emu’s struggle…