Elizabeth Honey, Hop Up! Wriggle Over! Allen & Unwin, May 2015, 40pp., $19.99 (hbk) ISBN 9781743319987 A lovely new picture book from award winning author/illustrator Elizabeth Honey about a day in the life of a unique Australian (animal) family. It isn’t often you see traditional line and wash used so confidently nor a picture book where illustrations truly lead the storyline. Text is reduced to single exclamations and action phrases that give you space to interpret and imagine the mischievous young characters’ conversations as they bump and giggle their way through the day. Beautifully executed loose watercolour describes texture, colour and…
Author: Admin
Tracy Alexander, Hacked. Scholastic, 1 April 2015. 288pp. $16.99 (pbk) ISBN 978 176015 2895 Hacked is a really griping and topical novel, one in which you become really involved with the main character, Dan. He’s an exceptionally gifted boy, who is misdiagnosed as ADHD and put on medication for some years. His grandmother, however, sums it up by saying there’s nothing wrong with him, he’s simply too clever for his own good. Dan is obsessed with computers and is a real ‘cyber-geek’. He finds hacking really easy and starts by adding some online credit to his girlfriend’s mobile phone. Things develop…
David Levithan, Hold Me Closer: the Tiny Cooper story, Text, 18 March 2015, 200 pp, $19.99 (pbk) ISBN 9781922 182722 Tiny Cooper is the recipient of one of those rather ironic nicknames because, by his own admission, Tiny is big! This is his life, told in the style of a musical comedy, from his birth to when he is sixteen. Not only is Tiny big, he is also gay. He is on the school football team and is subjected to bullying and discrimination. He has had a range of boyfriends none of whom has lasted long and he really wants…
Katrina Roe (text) Leigh Hedstrom (illus.) Emily Eases her Wheezes! Wombat Books, 31 December 2014, unpaged, $19.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781925139129 Emily Eases her Wheezes! is a vibrant picture book exploring the impact and effect of asthma. The book cleverly taps into this topical subject building awareness and promoting discussion around this common chronic disease. Emily the Elephant is a character first introduced to readers by the same creators in Marty’s Nut-Free Party. In Roe’s new story Emily is the central character and suffers from asthma. Emily is a likeable heroine, she is full of energy and the reader is sympathetic as her illness prevents her…
Neridah McMullin (text), Ainsley Walters (illus.) Knockabout Cricket; a story of sporting legend Johnny Mullagh One Day Hill, 1 February 2015, 32pp., $24.99 (hbk) ISBN 9780992439736 Knockabout Cricket is a story about Aboriginal sports hero Johnny Mullagh. Set in 1860 this picture book is an exploration of Australian culture at that time and looks at the relationship between Aboriginals and Westerners as well as the impact of sport and how it helped shape Australia’s national identity. Johnny Mullagh was one of Australia’s first international cricket stars and his skill with the bat and the ball made him a legend in the cricket world. This…
WA based Eve Pownall Award Judge, Helen Adam, gave Reading Time the lowdown on the Eve Pownall Award. Who was Eve Pownall? Why is there an award named after her? What treasures have the Eve Pownall Judges unearthed so far in 2015? Is the Information Book dead? Helen answers all these questions and more… The Eve Pownall Award for Information Books has been a part of the CBCA Book of the Year Awards since 1993. This is a very important category and an interesting one to judge. The 2015 awards have seen a wide range of interesting books in this category. …
Darrell Pitt, The Monster Within (Jack Mason Adventures #4), Text Publishing, 22 April 2015, 254pp., $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781922182876 Sailing over cities and seas in an airship called the Lion’s Mane, avoiding bombs by a hair’s breadth, climbing church spires as they are collapsing, Scarlet and Jack seek out the horrid perpetrators of crime, in this fourth title in the Jack Mason Adventure series. Jack and Scarlet are assistants to Mr Doyle, a steampunk Sherlock, and have participated in his cases since book number one in the series, The Firebird Mystery. There are many almost fatal adventures and a plethora…
Caleb Krisp, Anyone But Ivy Pocket, Bloomsbury, 9 April 2015, 313pp., $19.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781408858639 Ivy is self-deluding, bad mannered and generally insufferable, as one of the other characters in this story remarks, but she does have much going for her. Her delusions enable her to deal with any crisis faced, usually at the expense of someone else’s discomfort; her rudeness provides the writer with some delicious insults; and everyone she meets soon forms an unfavourable opinion of her. Everyone, that is, except those who really wish her ill. Ivy is a lady’s maid who is charged with taking a…
Brendan Ritchie, Carousel, Fremantle Press, 22 April 2015, 349pp, $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9 781925 162141 Nox, aged 22,Taylor and Lizzie meet in Carousel, a Perth shopping Mall. Nox recognises them as twin sisters, singers from Canada, who have had some gigs in Perth that he has attended. With another boy, Rocky, they are trapped in Carousel for over a year. They eat and drink the food in the shops, wear the abundant clothes, ride bikes around the long corridors, write music together, develop a garden, and nurse Rocky when he is ill. There are resources galore. From Target to…
Jane Higgins, Havoc (Southside #2), Text Publishing, 25 February 2015, $19.99 (pbk), 342pp., ISBN 978922147295 This is the sequel to the Text Prize winning The Bridge, and the second novel from New Zealand author Jane Higgins. The story picks up soon after the events of The Bridge – Southside is still advocating for peace and free movement, but Cityside remains suspicious and aggressive. When Cityside blow up one of the bridges linking it to Southside, and cordon off one of the Southside suburbs, it’s up to Nik and Lanya to find out what Cityside has planned, and to try to…