Sherryl Clark Jimmy’s War (Do You Dare? 1915) Penguin 28 January 2015 176pp $14.99 ISBN: 9780143308027 Jimmy’s War is set in Yarraville, a Melbourne suburb, during World War I. The young hero’s father is dead, his mother is ill and his big brother, Arthur, who was supposed to be safely training in Egypt, was brought back from the trenches in Gallipoli, with horrible injuries. Jimmy has to navigate a difficult path: he is supposed to be at school, but he needs to earn money to support his family. There a few places that will hire him because he is so young…
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Steve Worland Paper Planes Penguin 2 January 2015 208pp $16.99(pbk) ISBN: 9780143308744 Paper Planes is the story of a 12 year old boy, Dylan Weber, who discovers he has a gift for making and flying paper planes and manages to achieve his dreams despite living in relative poverty in an Australian country town with his father who is suffering from depression. Paper Planes is funny and hopeful, but the issues it looks at are realistic and difficult: Dylan lives with a parent who is unable to cope with loss; he begins to understand what makes a child a bully and…
Nathaniel Eckstrom Connected JoJo Publishing November 2014 38pp $16.99(pbk) $24.99 (hbk) ISBN: 9780987609519 (pbk) 9780987609526 (hbk) With lots of children now living in apartment buildings, this picture book will find a ready audience. With 16 different families occupying various levels, there are always interesting sounds and smells wafting through the building. In addition, some of the occupants communicate with each other via paper aeroplanes through each other’s windows while other intrusions are less welcome such as the magician who interferes with a child’s hairdryer. The story is told with minimal text (in toe-curling rhyming couplets) and complemented by light-hearted pastel drawings. …
Adam Wallace (author) James Hart (illustrator) Accidentally Awesome! Kreuger Wallace Press 1 March 2015 69pp $12.00 ISBN: 9780980828276 This nine-chapter paperback is aimed at newly independent readers and may entice boys who are not interested in reading. It is a fast-paced and irreverent account of young Jackson’s attempts to be a hero, with lots of colloquial language and ‘atttitude’. In fact this reviewer found the account of his visit to his grandfather’s nursing home disrespectful and uncaring; surely not behaviour that should be seen as amusing. The numerous black and white drawings of all sizes capture perfectly the antics of the…
IBBY Australia Inc. are thrilled to announce the names of the two Australian nominees, Ursula Dubosarsky (writing) and Bronwyn Bancroft (illustration) for the prestigious international 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award. The winners will be announced at the Bologna Book Fair in 2016 and medals presented at the IBBY International Congress in Auckland in August of that year. The full list of nominees and the judges are listed on the website and there is also a Press Release (pdf) with details about the two Australian nominees. You can also see a explanation about the Hans Christian Andersen Award here. Congratulations to both…
DONALDSON, Julia (text) Alex Schaeffer (illus.) The Scarecrows’ Wedding Alison Green, 2014 unpaged $24.99 ISBN 9781407144412 SCIS 1678631 Delightful endpapers of images from fields, poppies, grasshoppers, fieldmice and bees, lead one into this story set in the English countryside. Betty and Harry are anthropomorphised scarecrows who decide to get married. They make a list of all the things they’ll need to do before the ‘big day’ and set off around the farm to try to complete each of the things on their list. Most of the things are easily obtained but pink flowers are more elusive and require Harry to…
DARLISON Aleesah (text) Shannon Melville (illus.) Little Meerkat Wombat, 2014 unpaged $24.99 ISBN 9781921632822 SCIS 1644963 Little Meerkat is ready to exercise his independence. He wants to prove that he is no longer a baby but a bold and intrepid explorer. His extended family insists that he must wait to be an adult before he can participate in trekking, scouting and other exciting activities. Aleesah Darlison has employed the techniques of repetition and alliteration to make this story a fun reading experience as Little Meerkat goes adventuring. When the snake discovers him alone, the sonorous, sibilant sentences are a delight…
CHILDREN of GUNUNA with Alison Lester & Elizabeth Honey Our Island Viking, 2014 unpaged $24.99 ISBN 9780670077687 SCIS 1660887 This beautiful book about a sense of place came to be after a 2006 visit by Alison Lester and Elizabeth Honey to Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. With a group of students, they have made a truly seamless collaboration that delights in human-less seascape life. Animals and creatures awake as the day progresses and sparse but poignant text leaves suitably wide landscapes for the children’s illustrations. A clever use of wax-resist and food dye wash brings the most out…
CARNAVAS, Peter Oliver and George New Frontier, 2014 unpaged $24.99 ISBN 9781925059083 SCIS 1676323 Oliver and George delivers all that I expect from Peter Carnavas: his picture books embody emotion. In his latest offering, every child will recognise the impatience of Oliver, all dressed up and bursting for play, as he waits ‘a minute’ for George, the bear, to be ready. But George is reading a book and is unflappable, despite intense provocation from Oliver – until Oliver does the unforgivable! It is no surprise that the ending is a delight for book lovers. Sketched and filled in with watercolour,…
Erzinger, Tania (illus.) Sally Morgan & Ezekiel Kwaymullina (text) Magpie Learns A Lesson Omnibus, 2015 unpaged $24.99 ISBN 9781742990590 The artwork in this book is beautiful. In the full double page spreads, the strong use of colour and the clever use of line capture the two key bird characters in all their natural splendour. The story is a simple tale of Magpie and Brown Falcon, who share a tree. Brown Falcon is entranced by Magpie’s amazing song, and Brown Falcon has many talents that make Magpie jealous, so Magpie decides to prove herself the cleverer of the two birds. Although…