Paula Weston has just released her final book in the Rephaim series. We put to her a series of questions, to which Paula obligingly and generously responded. The review to Burn has also been posted, and there’s a link to it at the end of the interview. Thanks Paula for your thoughtful answers. How did you get started as a writer? I’ve been writing stories for as long as I can remember, including creating my own (badly drawn!) picture books in primary school. I wrote my first manuscript 20 years ago and received my first rejection letter not long after.…
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Rosie Rowell, Almost Grace. Hot Key Books , 1 June 2015. 204pp., $16.95 (pbk), ISBN 9782472401275 This is a quite complex coming-of-age novel, set in South Africa. Grace has just finished school and can’t quite see a place for herself in the world. There seems to be little in her life that she is able to control but her body image is one of them. As one of her friends describes it, she simply ‘stops eating’. Her mother and the school counsellor are both concerned about her but, until she sees the need to change, they can do little for…
Shamini Flint. Ten. Allen & Unwin, May 2015. 132 pp., $12.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760112264 Maya lives in a small seaside village in Malaysia. She dreams of becoming a soccer star, even though, at first she doesn’t even have a ball! Gradually she manages to influence some other girls to join her and soccer (or, as Maya insists, football) becomes suddenly popular when the daughter of the most important man in town decides to play. A competition is established between some of the girls’ schools in the area and Maya’s school wins. Even more exciting for her, however, is that she…
Paula Weston, Burn (Rephaim #4), Text Publishing, 24 June 2015, 432 pp., $19.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781925240078 Burn is an excellent conclusion to the Rephaim series. It’s not often a series runs to four books, but Weston knew early on she wanted this unusual number. Hearing her at the launch of Burn at Riverbend Books in Brisbane provided more insight into both the specifics of the new book, as well the series as whole. Weston claims she started Shadows as ‘a bit of fun’ after receiving another rejection letter from a publisher for an earlier series. She is particularly grateful to Text, the…
James O’Loghlin, Daisy Malone and the Blue Glowing Stone, Pan Macmillan, 1 April 2015, 324 pp., $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781743533024 Daisy has just turned 12, has a talking dog called Ben, a very frightened father who is scared of everything and an archaeologist mother who hasn’t called to say happy birthday when she always has before. Not only that, there are two strangers called Dennis and Sinclair who seem to want something that is inside her house and break in to find it. Daisy manages to cleverly fend off the strangers but finds a glowing blue stone she thinks may…
Piers Torday The Wild Beyond, Hachette, 10 November 2015, 416 pp., $17.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781848668485 Having not read the previous two books of this trilogy, I spent a lot of time trying to catch up on what had happened previously, but once I did, I was in. This is a big, colossal book with themes as big as they get: The future of our planet, its plants, animals and us. Kester is a young boy who has, in previous books, saved the animals, his city and now he faces his biggest challenge yet: to save what is left from a madman…
Alice Zaslavsky, Alice’s Food A – Z: edible adventures Walker Books, 1 April 2015, 144 pp., $19.95 (pbk) ISBN 978 1 922179 38 8 Alice Zaslavsky was born in Georgia (the European one, not the American one) and lived there until she was seven. She is now known in Australia as a former teacher, Masterchef competitor and television presenter. In this colourful, attractive and humorous book, she selects different foods for each letter of the alphabet and provides tips, recipes and facts about each one. There are ‘Whys Guy’, ‘What’s to love’, ‘Snack attack’ and ‘This goes with that’ sections,…
Teresa Toten, The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B. Walker Books, 1 May 2015, 272 pp., $16.95 (pbk), ISBN 9781406362992 Adam Ross has a lot going on in his life, a lot for an almost-fifteen year old to be dealing with. Adam has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), his much younger brother Sweetie has a lot of anxieties, he is under pressure to move in with his father and step-mother, he is trying to keep secret his mother’s hoarding and she has started receiving threatening letters. Adam has also recently joined a Young Adult Support Group for OCD, where he meets Robyn and…
Matt Porter, Mr Crikey and the Greedy Griffith (Crazy Relief Teachers #4), Celapene Press, 1 January 2015, 83pp., $14.95 (pbk), ISBN 9780975074282 This is the fourth book in the Crazy Relief Teachers series. Class 6B has been missing a regular teacher for a while, and have had a string of oddball relief teachers. This time it’s Mr Crikey, a wildlife warrior who dresses in khaki. He offers to help the students save their swimming hole and the surrounding bushland from developers, but how can they raise the money in time? Enter Benjamin Griffith, a businessman who buys shares in Class…
Michael Hyde, Footy Dreaming. Ford Street, 1 May 2015, 186pp., $17.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781925000993 Footy dreaming is the story of two boys, Noah and Ben, who live in a small town in country Victoria and are both keen AFL players. They’re in the same year at high school, but play for opposing football teams in the local area competition. There’s talk in the town that both boys are good enough to make it into the development squad, which is a feeder into the Australian Football League. If they are picked, they have a chance to achieve their dreams of playing…