Boori Monty Pryor (text) and Rita Sinclair (illustrator), Story Doctors, Allen & Unwin, July 2021, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760526559 Story Doctors is an extraordinary story of healing. It asks readers aged 7-12 and older to listen deeply to and to feel what the author Boori Monty Pryor carries in him. The story that Boori carries tells of the sickness and pain of Australia’s history through an Indigenous perspective. Boori shares his pain in writing this story during a pandemic lockdown and about how the story can be a pathway to healing, explaining that these are written words…
Author: Admin
Kyla May and Zanni Louise, Paris Takes Over the World, Scholastic, June 2021, 128 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781743837412 Paris Takes Over the World is the first in a new series from Kyla May and Zanni Louise. Paris is finally old enough to go with her travel-blogger parents as they roam the world, and she is going to record all her international experiences in her diary. The very first place she visits is her favourite city in the world, Paris. Readers follow Paris as she enjoys the sights, sounds and flavours of Paris for the first time. She meets…
Maura Pierlot, Fragments: Journeys from Isolation to Connection, Big Ideas Press, October 2021, 126 pp., RRP $21.95 (pbk), ISBN 9780645099805 CBCA Reading Time is pleased to present two reviews of the work of one of our own reviewers, Maura Pierlot. We are excited to feature guest reviewer, Sandra Bennett, who had the privilege of seeing the play Fragments performed earlier this year. ‘I feel like I’m a piece, a fragment that’s missing all the good bits, but I don’t know where to find the rest… the parts I need to work properly. I bet they wouldn’t fit anyway.’ (Lexy, age…
Gary Lonesborough, The Boy from the Mish, HarperCollins Publishers, February 2021, 288m pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760525880 This story delves into the emotional turmoil thrust upon adolescents as they navigate issues of identity, sexuality, and relationships. The layering of racial and generational disadvantage adds to the richness of meaning and experience in a setting that has been sorely underrepresented in popular culture. It’s a hot summer on the ‘Mish’. For seventeen-year-old Jackson that means trekking to the camping ground by the lake to hang out with the tourists, a few beers at backyard parties and a flood of family…
Frida Nilsson (text), Stina Wirsén (illustrator), Hattie and Olaf, Gecko Press, August 2021, 184 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781776573189 Hattie and Olaf is the delightful follow-up novel to Hattie. Swedish author Frida Nilsson has created another dynamic adventure, with Hattie and her friend Linda, who are now in their second year of school. Six-year-old Hattie’s dream of owning a horse almost comes true when her dad brings Olaf home to their farm. Olaf is a donkey who is completely bonkers. Hattie’s relationship and attitude towards Olaf leads to some unplanned adventures. Hattie is instantly likeable, because she faces decisions and…
Jill Noble, author and illustrator of Ella Farmoodle, spoke to Reading Time reviewer, Shelley Stephens about her newly released book, published by Berbay Publishing. Australia has become fast lovers of oodles and poodles. Why do you think that is? Poodles are good tempered clever dogs with a happy personality, very compatible with children. The poodle has become the ‘mothership’ from which countless ‘oodle’ ambassadors populate the homes of happy ‘oodle’ owners. With a beautiful coat of wool, non-shedding unlike regular dog hair an obvious design advantage, it was inevitable other breeds would add a bit of Poodle magic to their…
Jill Noble, Ella Farmoodle, Berbay Publishing, July 2021, 32 pp., RRP $25.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780645069617 Jill Noble takes a light-hearted look at Australia’s fascination with oodles in her debut picture book, Ella Farmoodle. Ella is a busy poodle who runs her own farm. She loves all her animals – sheep, lamb, cows, horses, rabbits, chickens and kangaroos. From sun up to sun down Ella works tirelessly to ensure all the animals on her farm are happy, fed and protected. Until it is Fox o’ clock… Can Ella make enough noise to scare away Fox and keep her animals safe? Jill’s illustrations…
Beverly Jatwani (text) and Sunita Chawdhary (illustrator), Pedro the Puerto Rican Parrot, Little Steps Publishing, March 2021, 28 pp., RRP $14.95 (pbk), ISBN 9781922358684 Pedro the Puerto Rican Parrot is the first book in a seven book series called Together We Can Change the World. It’s a series dedicated to helping children embrace their emotions and to see the power in them; emotions like love, courage, compassion, respect, kindness, integrity and gratitude. In addition to helping children embrace and understand the power in their emotions, the series also wants them to feel a sense of responsibility towards the earth and…
Michelle Wilson (text) and Catherine Suvorova (illustrator), Crocs Don’t Do Yoga, Larrikin House, June 2021, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781922503237 When I was at school I’d never heard of yoga. Now my primary school kids do it quite regularly and have their favourite YouTube channels for it. So it makes sense for the children’s book industry to jump on that and provide the market with Yoga-themed books for the primary school audience, which is exactly what Crocs Don’t Do Yoga is. Connie the croc has some stereotypical crocodile traits, she’s got a tough exterior, she’s competitive and stubborn and is…
Isobelle Carmody, The Velvet City (The Kingdom of the Lost #4), Penguin Random House, July 2021, 368 pp., RRP $19.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780670075126 Bily and Zluty must travel to the dangerous Velvet City and learn the shocking truth about themselves… even as their beloved Monster faces his fate. The long awaited fourth and final instalment in Isobelle Carmody’s “Kingdom of the Lost” series, The Velvet City is a worthy and satisfying closing act to an inspired an imaginative saga of unique scope and depth. The events that were set in motion so long ago in The Red Wind have taken…