DUNSTAN, Kylie This Way Up Windy Hollow, 2013 unpaged $25.95 ISBN 9781922081223 SCIS 1628837 Grace and her family have been living overseas and are returning home. The story is a play on the title and focuses on the process of unpacking boxes and settling into a previous home. Grace finds her own way to deal with the upheaval, calmly assisted by her supportive parents. The cover illustration and the endpapers hint at the long plane journey home and reinforces the theme of transition. Extra detail and movement is added to the illustrations by use of shadow cut outs in the…
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Debut author Catherine Carvell tells Reading Time about her life long dream to be a published author, and how some ‘wild things’ gave her the push she needed to make her dream come true… I was born in England and lived there until I was eight. I was a happy child and memories of my early days are filled with friendships, changing seasons, skipping ropes and books. I was an avid reader from a very young age. Some of my favourite books included The Famous Five by Enid Blyton, Five Children and It by Edith Nesbitt, the Little Women series…
CARVELL, Catherine Darcy Moon and the Deep-fried Frogs Fremantle Press, 2014 121pp $14.99 pbk ISBN 9781922089717 SCIS 1646755 Although Darcy has grown up with hippie tree-hugging parents who refuse to wear deodorant (Dad) or a bra (Mum), she finds it hard to believe that she could be the Earth Guardian whose destiny is to save the frogs. It must be true, though, because Wizen, the ancient Western Swamp Tortoise, has spoken to her. Someone is taking the frogs, endangering the natural balance of swamp life. Darcy’s investigations reveal the dastardly actions of a local businessman who is using frog mucus…
Darrell Pitt, author of the new Jack Mason Adventure series tells Reading Time why writing The Firebird Mystery made him laugh and cry – and why family is so important – even to those living in a steampunk Victorian London. The Game’s Afoot! What’s it like writing the Jack Mason books? Someone was a little shocked recently when I told them that I’ve literally shed tears of laughter as well as sadness whilst working on the books. For example, this scene when our intrepid heroes meet the Prime Minister: Jack felt nervous shaking the hand of the man in charge…
PITT, Darrell The Firebird Mystery Text, 2014 325pp A$16.95 NZ$21.00 pbk ISBN 9781922147752 SCIS 1647153 This book, a complicated mystery story, shows many signs of the author’s fascination with Victorian fiction, particularly Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries. It is the first in the Jack Mason Adventures. Jack is an orphan, living a miserable existence in an orphanage where he is bullied by bigger boys. Miraculously, he is rescued and sent to live with the famous detective, Ignatius Doyle, to become Doyle’s apprentice. He is thrown into the midst of a mystery almost immediately and the book then becomes a kind…
Debut author Rosie Borella shares with Reading Time the inspiration behind her first novel for Older Readers The One and Only Jack Chant, and gives us a hint at what is coming next for her… Jack Chant – extreme challenge The One and Only Jack Chant is a young adult novel set inside a nursing home. You can almost hear the groans, the pointed shifting of body weight on chairs, feel the eye-rolls. But I was working in one when I started writing it, and the place had become weirdly fascinating to me. So I set myself an extreme challenge…
Rosie BORELLA The One and Only Jack Chant Allen & Unwin, 2014 319pp $15.99 pbk ISBN 9781743311387 SCIS 1648010 Amber’s life is undergoing change as she decides to take a gap year, do a short course and qualify as a carer in a local nursing home. Her best friend has gone off to university and Amber misses her company and a chance to confide in someone. When a mysterious, attractive boy appears both in the spare room at the nursing home and camping on her family’s property, Amber’s curiosity leads her on a path of discovery and ultimately loss. She must be…
Bob DARROCH Little Kiwi Finds Fantail Penguin, 2014 unpaged NZ$15.99 pbk ISBN 9780143505952 SCIS 1648112 Bossy brothers are always a problem for little sisters, even if you are a kiwi. Little kiwi has been asked to find little fantail and little sister has offered to help ‘track’ the bird. If pictorial size has got anything to do with it, little sister is the younger one, but older brother doesn’t accept. Birds don’t leave tracks according to brother. Really? On the first double-page spread, a ladybird points to some tracks and so the conflict begins. The reader too is asked to join…
COSTAIN, Meredith (text) Michelle Mackintosh (illus.) My First Day at School Windy Hollow/Helen Chamberlin, 2013 unpaged $25.95 ISBN 9781922081254 SCIS 1635054 This picture book addresses some of the concerns that children may have on their first day at school, from not having a partner, understanding all the rules, and wanting to go to the toilet. Most are happily resolved but some, such as not wanting to hold hands with a particular child, help children to understand that sometimes they have to do what they don’t want to do. The story introduces numerous children and follows the course of a school…
CLARKE, Pat (text) Graeme Compton (illus.) A One-Eyed Chook Called Sheila Little Steps, 2014 60pp $25.00 ISBN 9781925059014 An anthropomorphic tale about a chook and her friends who have some exciting adventures and close shaves when they escape from the farm to avoid becoming the Christmas meal. The story brings in a number of native animals and a not so native fox, who is always on the prowl for his next meal. The book is divided into brief chapters which will make it a very satisfactory read for younger independent readers, but perhaps it could be edited a little to…