Louise Fatio (text) and Roger Duvoisin (illustrator), The Three Happy Lions, Scallywag Press, May 2021, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781912650712 The Three Happy Lions is a reprint of an old classic picture book, originally published in 1959. It was illustrated by Roger Duvoisin, who was a pioneer of children’s picture books and won several prestigious awards, including the Caldecott Medal. He illustrated a great many works from the 1930s until his death in 1980, including this title in The happy lion series, which were written by his wife, Louise Fatio. Typically of Duvoisin’s works, The Three Happy Lions…
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Samera Kamaleddine, Half My Luck, HarperCollins Publishers, July 2021, 272 pp., RRP $17.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781460760222 With an absent Lebanese dad, and a white Australian mum, 16-year-old Layla feels like she doesn’t fit in either world. Her superstitious grandmother claims she’s been cursed by ‘the evil eye’, which makes sense to Layla as she seems to have the worst luck. As temperatures break records that summer, the tension between the white and Lebanese kids reaches boiling point. At the first beach party of the summer things get out of hand and someone gets seriously hurt. When one group is wrongfully…
Constanze Spengler (text), Katja Gehrmann (illustrator) and Shelley Tanaka (translator), Seahorses Are Sold Out, Gecko Press, July 2021, 40 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781925820973 Mika’s father works from home and is completely engrossed in his current project. Mika is terribly bored and wishes they could go to the lake or get a pet. The pair come to a compromise; Mika is allowed to get a pet, as long as it is quiet and allows their frazzled father to get on with his work. So young Mika goes to the pet shop, chooses a mouse, and takes it home. By…
Chris Colfer (text) and Jon Proctor (illustrator), Goldilocks: Wanted Dead or Alive, Hachette Children’s Books, July 2021, 336 pp., RRP $20.35 (pbb), ISBN 9781510202504 In this graphic novel offshoot of Chris Colfer’s The Land of Stories series, readers discover the events which resulted in Goldilocks becoming a fugitive from the law in what is an inconsistently woven tale of her ‘becoming’. Goldilocks or ‘Goldie’ for short, is shunned by her parents when she is unjustly accused of wreaking havoc at the home of the three bears and for trespassing on private property. Goldilocks flees her home and seeks refuge in the…
Author, Sue Saliba, spoke to Reading Time reviewer, Angela Brown about their newly released self-published book. once, at the edge of the sea, is a story of friendship, love and how relationships can seem to question our identity. Fifteen-year-old Alice perceives her world through her relationship with nature. Can you tell us a little bit about how Alice and the Hooded Plovers came together in the story, and why nature is so present in your writing? Alice discovers the Hooded Plovers on the beach one day when she should be at school. She comes across the nest of three eggs…
Sue Saliba (text) and Ann Shenfield (illustrator), once, at the edge of the sea, self-published, May 2021, pp.166, RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780648919001 once, at the edge of the sea by Sue Saliba is the extraordinary story of fifteen-year-old Alice who leaves her wild Phillip Island home to live in Melbourne. Alice grapples in storming emotions. New friendships and relationships rise and fall like a great tide. Alice’s struggle becomes how to traverse this without eroding her own sense of identity. Entangled with Alice is her connection to the fragile life of endangered shorebirds, Hooded Plovers, on the beaches of…
Gabriel Evans, Norton and the Borrowing Bear, Berbay Publishing, September 2021, 32 pp., RRP $25.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780645069655 Norton and the Borrowing Bear is the second title in the Norton series by talented author and illustrator, Gabriel Evans. A simple story about a new neighbour (but old friend, Bear) who keeps borrowing Norton’s favourite possessions without returning them. Evans perfectly captures in the text and illustrations Norton’s frustration, as Bear borrows Norton’s possessions and barely offers him a chance to say ‘yes’ or even ‘no’ to his many requests. Norton’s attempts to ‘soothe’ himself are also thwarted by Bear and…
Rick Riordan, Daughter of the Deep, Penguin Random House, October 2021, 368 pp., RRP $22.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780241538180 Rick Riordan fans this is a must read! Meet Ana Dakkar. Her life is turned upside in one day. Harding Perfect is no ordinary school. They have a cold war with another school that has just turned hot. They teach and train the best underwater explorers in the world. With her freshmen trial on the horizons, all Ana can think about is what they’re going to be like. This all changes in an instant. Trouble is brewing. Readers must expect the unexpected.…
Katrin Dreiling, A Perfect Pig, Scholastic Australia, July 2021, 32 pp, RRP $17.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760974374 Meet Anton Pig. He likes everything to be in perfect order. From his perfect side-partto to his perfectly arranged breakfast, everything in Anton’s world is controlled and organised. His best friend, Lola, has a birthday coming up and Anton tackles her birthday party planning the only way he knows how, with precision and lists in his neatest handwriting with his sharpest pencil. But Anton’s perfect party planning quickly comes undone by unforeseeable and comical events such as a rainstorm that crumples his neatly-ironed shirt…
Davina Bell (text) and Allison Colpoys (illustrator), Tomorrow is a Brand-New Day, Scribble Books, November 2021, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781925849462 Davina Bell (author) and Allison Colpoys (illustrator) have teamed up again to produce a second exceptional picture book which looks like being another award winner for them. This book is called Tomorrow is a Brand-New Day and it conveys a relatable and validating message that strong feelings of anger, frustration, disappointment, and shame are universal but temporary experiences and regretted actions can be corrected with a “brand-new day” and a return to calmer emotions. The text takes…