Katie & Kevin Tsang, Dragon City, Simon & Schuster, September 2021, 320 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781471193125 Dragon City is the third book in the Dragon Realm series, following Dragon Mountain and Dragon Legend. In the third book of this thrilling series, Billy and his friends find themselves five thousand years in the future, in a dystopian city ruled by the Dragon of Death. Everything outside Dragon City has been decimated, it is uninhabitable – poisoned with dark magic. Inside, humans and dragons live to serve the Dragon of Death. Humans exist at the very bottom of the food…
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Adrian Beck (text) and Simon Greiner (illustrator), Stop the Dad Jokes!, Penguin Random House Australia, July 2021, RRP $17.99 (pbk), 24 pp., ISBN 9781761043086 You’re all set for a great day at the zoo, just Dad and you. But every kid’s dream soon turns to nightmare when the dad jokes begin. Just imagine a whole day with your dad and his embarrassing one liners where all the animals you meet are in on the jokes too. Sounds like your kind of outing? Read on. The joys of being a dad and an embarrassing one at that start from the very…
Lauren Briggs, Little Pago, Boolarong Press, September 2021, 32 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781922643001 Little Pago tells the story of a baby sea turtle and the dangers posed to it by the plastic waste found in our oceans. Although their preferred diet is sea grass, seaweed, plankton, kelp, and jellyfish, it is easy for Little Pago to mistake plastic bags, straws and balloons for food. Fortunately, Little Pago has friends who recognize the plastic for what it is and warn him off, except for the plastic bag in which he gets trapped. He is rescued by a small human…
Haydn Crespan (text) and Damien Crespan (illustrator), The Adventures of Triz the Babysitter, Boolarong Press, May 2021, 32 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760526894 The Adventures of Triz the Babysitter is a fun and quirky story. The book was written and illustrated by two brothers: Hadyn and Damien Crespan. They are both on the Autism Spectrum, which has presented many challenges in their lives. The brothers have used their collaboration as a way to reflect the difficulties they have experienced with Asperger’s syndrome. The story is set in prehistoric times and stars Triz the tiny gliding lizard as the hapless…
Pamela Rushby, The Secret Battle, Christmas Press, October 2021, 180 pp., RRP $17.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780648815426 It’s 1942. Over two days, American and Australian servicemen fought against each other, rioting in the streets of Brisbane, in an event that would become known as “The Battle of Brisbane”. When nine year-old newspaper seller Roddy helps an injured American serviceman he never expects that the battle will be covered up – a wartime secret, never to be reported in the newspapers he sells. Nor does Roddy expect that his life will change forever… The Secret Battle is the latest release from Pamela…
Andrea Balance (text) and Grasya Oliyko (illustrator), Creature, Walker Books Australia, September 2021, 32 pp., RRP $27.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781838740412 For cat lovers, felines can be the centre of the universe. Andrea Ballance and Grasya Oliyko’s Creature embraces this concept in vivid colour. By taking a fresh look at a day in the life of a cat, we see the familiar antics of a cat at play take on a whole new meaning. Narrated in first-person (first-feline?) this book explores the idea that a cat’s world is like an entire universe. “I stretch out, roll over and yawn. Exposing my…
Sophie Masson (text) and Cheryl Orsini (Illustrator), Four All at Sea, Christmas Press, September 2021, 72 pp., RRP $13.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780648815419 From award-winning author Sophie Masson comes Four All at Sea. This is the second adventure of Maxie, Lady, Flash and Fergie, four vehicle friends whose friendships are tested when they flee their farm home under threat of the scrap yard, and together faced danger, excitement, and adventure in their first tale, Four On The Run.Aimed at young readers aged 5-8, Four All at Sea is told in seven action-packed chapters with double spaced text and Cheryl Orsini’s black and white line illustrations. My 5-year-old…
Lauren James, Green Rising, Walker Books, September 2021, 384 pp., RRP $18.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781406384673 In a near future where climate change is making Earth uninhabitable, three teenagers from drastically different backgrounds are brought together by a supernatural power developed by young people around the world: The ability to grow plants from their skin. A power that sprouts new hope for their planet. But in a world where corruption and greed are wrought, some companies seek to use the so-called “Greenfingers” for their own means. Not everyone wants the planet to be saved. Gabrielle, Hester, and Theo realise that it’s…
Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith (text) and First Dog on the Moon (illustrator) Little book, BIG universe: A guide to exploring Australia’s night skies, Thames & Hudson Australia, September 2021, 8pp., RRP $4.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760762292 This little book with the amazing price is one of the four titles in this year’s Australia Reads program. The operative word in the title is ‘exploring’ because the emphasis in the text is on how to look at our night sky and the tools the reader can use to locate and identify various astronomical bodies and then photograph and study them. Chapters cover topics such as…
Alan Lightman and Olga Pastuchiv (text) and Susanna Chapman (illustrator), Ada and the Galaxies, Walker Books Australia, September 2021, RRP $29.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781536215618 New York Times bestselling author and renowned physicist, Alan Lightman, has collaborated with children’s book author Olga Pastuchiv and illustrator Susanna Chapman to create this stunning picture-book. When Ada stays with her grandparents (Poobah and Ama) at their island home in Maine, she knows she will be treated to the true awe and wonder of her surroundings. By day she tracks osprey, paddles kayaks, and hunts for shells with her family, but it’s the dark evenings that Ada really looks forward to.…