Frané Lessac. A Is for Australia: a factastic tour, Walker Books, 1 January 2015, $24.95 (hbk), 48pp., ISBN 9781922179760 Frané Lessac’s brightly illustrated information book, A Is for Australia, uses the alphabet to highlight the variety of Australia’s landscapes, flora, fauna and cultures, from Kakadu in the north to Tasmania’s Walls of Jerusalem National Park in the south. Lessac’s gouache paintings, dominated by rich blues, greens and ochres, completely fill each page and echo elements of the text, the latter using a small font for the range of factual details about each featured place. The book begins with a double-page map…
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Dan Gemeinhart. The Honest Truth, Chicken House, 5 March 2015, $15.99 (pbk), 229pp., ISBN 978190002131 The Honest Truth tracks 13-year-old Mark’s epic journey with his dog to climb Mr Rainier where he plans to die. His decision comes after his cancer returns and Mark decides that death is preferable to further cancer treatment. The story is told from Mark’s perspective, and also from his best friend’s perspective as she agonises over how much information to reveal to his worried parents. The book’s marketing material describes its themes as friendship, determination and acceptance. These themes are delicately and thoughtfully explored throughout the…
Michael Gerard Bauer (text), Joe Bauer (illustrations). Secret Agent Derek ‘Danger’ Dale and the Case of the Really, REALLY Scary Things (Derek Danger Dale #2), Omnibus Books, February 2015, $12.99 (pbk), 128pp., ISBN 9781742990668 This is a fun book to read as Derek ‘Danger’ Dale tries to thwart Evil MacEvilness’ plan to use his device that turns people’s own nightmares against them. Derek is ‘assisted’ by his boss (Archibald Boss) whose self-absorbed perspective on life is the perfect foil to Derek’s selflessness. Author Michael Bauer moves the story along at a pretty fast pace, but it works. His descriptive names…
Deborah Ellis, Moon at Nine, Allen & Unwin, January 2015, $16.99 (pbk), 208pp., ISBN 9781760111977 Moon at Nine is set in Iran in the late 1980s when the Shah had been overthrown and the country was controlled by a deeply conservative and religious government. Based on real-life events, its central character is 15-year-old Farrin who is an only child from a wealthy family. Farrin meets Sadira at her school for gifted girls, and their friendship turns into a romance in a regime where homosexuality is a crime punishable by death. This story starts off lightly with Farrin behaving like any other…
Patrick Carlyon, The Gallipoli Story, Allen & Unwin, January 2015, $17.99 (pbk), 204pp,. ISBN 9781760112479 This compelling book (not be confused with Les Carlyon’s book on Gallipoli) reflects upon the nature of this part of the Great War and its effect on everyone directly and indirectly involved. Carlyon uses his natural storytelling ability to hook the reader immediately, creating a style of non-fiction writing that incorporates vivid images, imagined dialogue and constant references to legendary figures. The story starts pre-dawn on 25 April 1915 and continues until the last withdrawal of allied troops in December. This revised edition, an update…
Dan Smith, Big Game, Chicken House, 1 January 2015, $15.99 (pbk), 265pp., ISBN 9781909489943 On the eve of his 13th birthday, Oskari is sent into the Finnish wilderness to mark the beginning of his adulthood by hunting big game. Oskari is a weakling underdog and can’t even pull the sacred hunting bow back far enough for it to send a true and straight arrow. Even his father fears that the forest will not give Oskari anything and plants a dead buck’s head for Oskari to find. Within hours of his departure, though, Oskari finds himself involved in a plot to kidnap…
Nick Bland, Some Mums, Scholastic, 1 April 2015, $16.99 (hbk), 24pp., ISBN 9781743626047 A follow up to Some Dads, Nick Bland (The Very Cranky Bear) takes us through a charmingly anthropomorphized sequence of animal mothers who are busy showing their offspring some of the things they do best – skating, flying, being strong and fearless, being kind and caring, being noticeable and just being there. The rhyming verse is seamlessly in pace with the actions of the animals, slowing and varying to match the peaceful and then energetic compositions of different families. The painterly style has great tonal and palette…
Mandy Foot, Bums & Tums, Lothian Children’s Books/Hachette, 31 March 2015, $24.99 (hbk), $14.99 (pbk), 24pp., ISBN 9790734415950 Mandy Foot (Old MacDonald Had a Farm and Wheels on the Bus) has produced a lift-the-flap picture book for younger readers. Energetic ink, watercolour and crayon animals feature on each spread in this rhyming trip to the zoo. Turn the pages and the readers will find part of a creature and a large white on colour text flap hiding the give-away remainder. It’s not all bums and tums but legs and ears too. Children will like guessing from the shapes and colours…
Karen Collum (text), Serena Geddes (illus.), Blow Me A Kiss, New Frontier Publishing, 1 March 2015, $14.99 (pbk), 32pp., ISBN 9781925059342 Karen Collum’s Blow Me A Kiss is a picture storybook that gives a pre-school child’s happy slant on a trip to the shops – what some others might consider the mundaneness of everyday parental life. Serena Geddes’s, best known for illustrating Belinda Murrell’s Lulu Bell series, uses simple line and wash drawings to show how little Samuel cheers everybody up at the shopping mall. His unconditionally bestowed kisses on bored and impatient shoppers and workers alike are strung together…
Jackie French, I Spy a Great Reader: how to unlock the literacy secret and get your child hooked on books, HarperCollins, 1 August 2014, $19.99 (pbk), $9.99 (ebook), 312pp., ISBN 978-0-7322-9952-1 This book speaks strongly of French’s passion for books and reading and the pleasure of reading. Books are not dead; the children’s book industry in Australia is thriving and we owe it to our children to enable them to enjoy this richness. French gives many reasons why developing a love of books is so important, pointing out that “every book a child reads is part of [their] life’s experience” (…