BISHOP, Gavin Teddy One-eye: the autobiography of a teddy bear Random House (NZ), 2014 225pp NZ$34.99 ISBN 9781775537274 SCIS 1684917 A companion piece to his own autobiography Piano Rock, this blend of novel and picture book, Teddy One-Eye, will give pleasure to the child-within-the-adult as much as the child reader. Looking at his own life from the point of view of his own teddy bear Gavin Bishop has created a unique and heart-warming story of life in the deep South of 1950s New Zealand. Firstly, what is noticeable is the format, design and textuality of the book, reminiscent of the…
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BATES, Dianne A Game of Keeps Celapene Press, 2014 117pp $14.95 pbk ISBN 9780987367785 SCIS 1675018 Ashley’s Mum is a single parent who stays out all night having a good time. Her father gone, Ashley finds friends wherever she can in the block of flats where she lives. Aunty Green, elderly and ill, can no longer give the support she has in the past. Into this lonely life come surrogate grandparents (or aunty and uncle) Daisy and Will, who have plenty of time, a comfortable home, and a generous spirit to offer. Mum’s boyfriend Eddie is a threatening presence in…
Scholastic The Last Thirteen concludes with 2 & 1 James Phelan ($14.99 pbk); Omnibus The Book of You #2 Rania Randa Abdel-Farrah (14.99 pbk) Walker Companion novel to The Mortal Instruments & The Infernal Devices is The Bane Chronicles Cassandra Clare/Sarah Rees Brennan/Maureen Johnson ($19.95 pbk) Text have another Text Classic The True Story of Spit MacPhee James Aldridge + intro by Phillip Gwynne (A$12.95/NZ$15.99 pbk+e) HarperCollins conclusion Skulduggery Pleasant: The Dying of the Light Derek Landy (NZ$17.99 pbk) Unusual publication from the National Library of Australia – a duck is watching me, strange and unusual phobias with commentary by…
ZHANG, Amy Falling Into Place HarperCollins, 2014 NZ$19.99 pbk ISBN 9780062367884 SCIS 1677337 This non-linear novel is written about a young college girl who plans a suicide that ends with the central protagonist in hospital. Accomplished use of narrative structure moves the story back and forwards around the crucial event and lightens the otherwise obsessive focus on Liz Emerson. A mystery narrator is never entirely revealed – hypothetically Liz’s alter-ego – who wants her to live. This gives an intriguing edge to the perspective. Her friends learn to face up to their superficialities and let down their emotional guard sufficiently…
The Wilderness Society believes that children’s books have a profound impact in shaping who we become as grown-ups. The stories we read and enjoy as kids impact the adventures we take, the way we see and experience our landscapes, and sometimes our outlook on life. In 1994, a group of environmental educators in Tasmania wanted to celebrate books that promoted a love of nature, a sense of caring for the world, and curiosity in children. This group quickly realised that there was no such award for excellence in environmental writing for children, so they asked the Wilderness Society to help.…
Brisbane’s Renaissance man, Peter Taylor shares some of his writing and illustrating and educating stories. If you do a Google search for ‘author Peter Taylor’, you will find there are several of us. I’m one of those still alive, and just for the record, my new picture book is Once a Creepy Crocodile illustrated by Nina Rycroft and published by The Five Mile Press. This is a photo of me with CBCA Qld’s former Patron, the Governor of Queensland, Her Excellency, the Hon. Penelope Wensley AC, when the book was first shown to the public on the CBCA stand…
WESTERFELD, Scott Afterworlds Penguin, 2014 600pp $19.99 pbk ISBN 9780143572046 SCIS 1676631 Eighteen year old Darcy Patel’s first book has been accepted by Paradox publishing for enough money to make her head to New York for a year or two instead of college. Paradox has such faith in Darcy that they’ve paid her for a sequel. She has a year to rework Afterworlds and complete Untitled Patel – if she sticks to the budget imposed by her clever younger sister. New York may be the perfect place to write but it also exposes Darcy to the world of YA publishing,…
What’s it like to be asked to illustrate a book by one of your favourite children’s authors? Phil Lesnie gives us his reaction. I think I should probably come clean about this, because it feels like it’s going to come up at some point – I actually don’t know the first thing about World War One. It’s almost obnoxious how rubbish I am as a student of history, given that I’ve been drawing and painting a particularly devastating part of it for the last year and a bit. I won’t lie though – for Glenda’s book, a poor…
TOZER, Gabrielle The Intern A & R, 2014 323pp $16.99 pbk+e ISBN 9780732297053 SCIS 1649623 Josie Browning is a Straight A type of girl, studying journalism at uni and about to commence an internship at Sash magazine. This is a great break, except Josie is a fashion disaster and a novice in the ways of love; she expects all this will limit her prospects of features writing in a glam mag. Gabrielle Tozer herself was an intern at a fashion magazine and she writes with the knowing observation of one who has attended photo shoots, interviewed boy bands and endured…
MARILLIER, Juliet Dreamer’s Pool Pan (Blackthorn and Grim #1), 2014 420pp $29.99 pbk ISBN 9781743517024 SCIS 1684119 This is the first novel in a new series by Marillier. Like some of her previous novels it is set in Ireland in a time when Christianity had arrived but paganism was still the dominant set of beliefs. Blackthorn is a healer who has been thrown into prison for speaking out against a corrupt and vicious chieftain. The law states she cannot be imprisoned for more than a year without a trial, and she counts down the days until she can have her…