BADGER, Hilary State of Grace Hardie Grant Egmont, 2014 336pp $19.95 pbk ISBN 9781760120382 SCIS 1676307 The back cover of warns that the book is powerful and creepy; I agree it is powerful and it certainly has its creepy moments – I had to skim over some of the descriptions when they got a little too creepy for me. State of Grace is also an unusual book because of the issues it looks at: how much reality and fantasy do we need to live happily; how should you live when you cannot forgive yourself or someone else; how helpful is…
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ALEXANDER, Goldie In Hades Celapene Press, 2014 143pp $14.95 pbk ISBN 9780975074268 SCIS 1676211 This tale dramatically begins with a high-speed car crash in which reckless driver Kai kills not only himself, but also his mentally confused younger brother Rod. Observing the crash from afar, the disembodied Kai watches paramedics pick up the bodies, and angrily recalls events of his home life and his own spiral into drugs and drink which have led to the fatal accident. Worried that Rod may be afraid and lost, Kai sets out to find him, wandering through a fog on a hidden road which…
ALBERTS, Jada Brothers Wreck Currency Press, 2014 42pp $19.95 pbk ISBN 9781925005134 SCIS 1676606 It is quite difficult to do justice to the impact made by reading this memorable play about a family in Darwin. Ruben is stunned by the terrible loss of Joe, in strife with the law, unco-operative with his case worker, and seems at odds with his cousins. To all appearances he is not prepared to do anything to help himself. In fact, however, he is ensnared by feelings of insurmountable grief and guilt. Grog and cigarettes do not help him. Then Aunt Petra arrives and, in…
The ‘Book an Adventure’ Bruny Island Children’s Literature Festival, ran from the 15th to the 18th of January, 2015. Organised by Tasmanian children’s author, Anne Morgan, it was also strongly supported by the CBCA Tasmania Branch. By all accounts, it was a resounding success! Here are a few images captured on the opening day of the festival, 15th of January.
BAILLIE, Allan The First Voyage Puffin, 2014 171pp $17.99 pbk+e ISBN 9780143307679 SCIS 1651553 This latest novel by prolific author Allan Baillie, starts serenely on Bird Island around 28,000 BC: the Yam tribe are watching narrator Bent Beak pass the Buffalo Horn to his young peer Shufflewing, in a rite of passage. By the end of this novel, which follows the Yam tribe’s repeated wars with the Crocodile tribe and their subsequent passage by raft to Timor over treacherous seas, I was on the edge of my seat reading. Baillie creates such a sense of danger, fear, adventure and wonder…
ABELA, Deborah New City Random House, 2014 312pp $16.99 pbk ISBN 9781742758558 SCIS 1668428 The seas have risen. The Floods have been catastrophic. In New City there is a strict curfew, enforced by the military. But that doesn’t stop Moochers thieving food from the pantries of the rich. Jeremiah, Bea, Raffy, Xavier, Fly, Griffin and Isabella are refugees in this new, dangerous world. New City is the second in a series following these characters. Previously they spent three years in Grimsdon, a city flooded, left without energy, these children separated from their parents and learning to survive. They read Dickens’…
SAXBY, Claire (text) Graham Byrne (illus.) Emu Walker (Nature Storybooks), 2014 29pp $27.95 ISBN 9781922179708 SCIS 1671866 The story of the character Emu, father of eight granite green emu eggs, is related on the left hand leaf of each double spread. This narrative is quite poetic: As sunshine follows frost, and winds fetch rain, emu safeguards his clutch. It contrasts with the factual material, usually found on the right hand leaves. This has been given an informal font to present matter of fact details: Untended eggs may be eaten by predators… There is a further section of information on p.28…
HALL, Susan (text) Naomi Zouwer (illus.) The Rescue Ark NLA Pub, 2014 unpaged $18.99 pbk ISBN 9780642278104 SCIS 1674694 The National Library of Australia has published this book ‘to further the Library’s objectives to interpret and highlight the Library’s collections and to support the creative work of the nation’s writers and researchers’. It begins with an Australian style The animals went in two by two. Children gazed gloomily at land that was ruined and dry rivers where creatures would die so they set off in a rescue ark to help animals survive. There was a great din as animals wriggled…
EIYO, Paskalina with Sarafino Enadio & Terry Whitebeach (text) Gay McKinnon (illus.) When I was a Girl in Sudan ISBN 9780992384814 ENADIO, Sarafino with Terry Whitebeach (text) Gay McKinnon (illus.) When I was a Boy in Sudan ISBN 9780992384807 Anzoa (Joy) Books, 2014 unpaged $15.00 pbk +post These two books are beautiful representations of the authors’ childhoods. Cleanly presented, with double-spread pages, a typical long-time-ago day as a boy or a girl in Sudan is told through anecdotes and memories. A sprinkling of Ma’di language throughout the text – translated into English on side bars adds authenticity to the stories…
FISHER, Lisa A. Challenge Thinking and Deepen Understanding: the instructional approach for implementing the Common Core Standards, Grades 3-12 Rowman and Littlefield, 2014 132pp $54.95 pbk ISBN 9781475808551 The new National Curriculum being implemented in all Australian states should be familiar to all teachers, and teacher librarians, the sets of standards attached to them to be achieved by students from kindergarten year to Year 10 must be regarded as important for every teacher to ensure real progress in the education of every child in their care. In particular the standards set for the English curriculum provide a reason for the…