ADAMS, Michael The Last Girl Allen & Unwin, 2013 384pp $19.99 pbk ISBN 9781743316368 SCIS 1626739 Set a few years into the future, this story has a unique take on an end of the world scenario. Sixteen year old Danby is spending Christmas morning in Sydney with her father, step-mother and 6 year old brother when it happens. Suddenly, everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts. Chaos and utter madness follows, there is death and destruction everywhere. Danby discovers she is unique – she can hear other people’s thoughts but they can’t hear hers. Desperate to keep her little brother safe,…
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ABDEL-FATTAH, Randa Jodie This is the Book of You Omnibus, 2013 185pp $16.99 pbk ISBN 9781742990101 SCIS 1624742 This is a rites-of-passage story about Jodie, a tall girl (always the tallest in her class) who has issues about self-esteem. She has two special friends who provide her with support and good advice, which she doesn’t always accept. But not everyone at school is so friendly and she is often subject to bullying and name-calling. Not surprisingly, she finds this very distressing especially as she is going through some difficult changes in her life. Jodie and her friends are in their…
BOYCE, Julie Life in the Mulga Lands Village View Gallery, 2013 35pp $14.95 pbk ISBN 9780987583208 The arresting colours of far western Queensland, depicted in acrylic and oil naive style art works by Julie Boyce, leap from the pages of this publication. It was released to accompany her exhibition at the Village View Gallery, in Highfields, Toowoomba, in September 2013. Julie Boyce also received attention at the Stockman’s Hall of Fame celebrations in Longreach in the same month. The artist narrates and illustrates events from her family’s life based and working on a large sheep property in the Charleville area.…
BORNHOLDT, Jenny (text) Sarah Wilkins (illus.) A Book is a Book Gecko Press/Whitieia Pub, 2013 unpaged NZ$24.99 ISBN 9781877579929 This small format picture book is a quirky pastiche of proverbial sayings about what a book is and possibly is not. The acknowledgment page suggests that many insights were suggested by children but the author, an established poet, no doubt gives them a fresh perspective as well as other insights. The illustrations are thought-provoking; often taking the words into a different space. For example, how would you illustrate the insight ‘Books can be true and not true and sometimes they can…
BELL, Krista (text) Ainsley Walters (illus.) Burning the Bails: The Story of the Ashes One Day Hill, 2013 30pp $19.99 pbk ISBN 9780987313980 SCIS 1619902 Cricket enthusiasts will embrace this production with enthusiasm. While it is in narrative form, it is mostly factual, and packed with information. The story is told through the eyes of Russell Clarke who when the book opens is on a deckchair ‘engrossed in his cricket book’ on board the Peshawur sailing home to Australia from England. Russell is a cricket fan, so is drawn to a Miss Morphy, also on board and a friend of…
BISHOP, Gavin Bruiser & the Big Snow Random House, 2013 unpaged NZ$21.00 pbk ISBN 9781775534860 SCIS 1634378 Younger children living in the deep south of New Zealand will relate well to stories of snow falls and all the trouble and chaos that a cold southerly from Antarctica can bring. But it will be children with a love of machines that will really get hooked in by this story of Bruiser, a grader that enjoys the challenge of mid-winter rescues. Be it buses full of people or SUVs that are stuck, and indeed even tricycles that are lost and alone, Bruiser…
BENTLEY, Jonathan Little Big Little Hare, 2013 unpaged $24.95 ISBN 9781921894442 SCIS 1627396 Little Big is the endearing story of a very small boy who longs to be big like his school-boy brother. His efforts to achieve bigness, sadly, all end in disaster – the big shoes don’t fit, he can’t carry the schoolbag, and most disappointing of all, he still can’t reach the cookie jar. He yearns for big legs like a giraffe, so he can be fast, big hands like a gorilla to open the cookie jar and grab lots of cookies, and a big mouth like a…
ALLEN, Pamela Fat Ferdie Viking, 2013 unpaged $24.99 ISBN 9780670077168 SCIS 1625643 Fat Ferdie is a greedy beast. The first page is not for the faint-hearted. He loves to eat red raw meat… little creatures, and lots of them. When there are no more left in his forest he ventures off in search of a new feast. He happens across three tasty looking children and his tummy grumbles…sounding scary? Luckily there is a twist to this tale and thankfully, a hopeful ending. Pamela Allen is a master wordsmith. Her spare, rhythmic language is a delight to read aloud and the…