James Hart, Planet Pancake (Super Geeks #2), Penguin Random House, July 2021, 208 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760895143 When Zeek and Arnie, best friends and SUPER GEEKS, hear about a trove of treasure hidden at the edge of the world (which may or may not be flat… they’re not yet sure!), they decide to investigate. Zeek, of course, wants to use the treasure to fund his quest for WORLD DOMINATION! Arnie just wants to find out what happened to his latest invention: the Pancaker! Using their inventing skills to build a ship, the Enchilada, they sail, taking their super intelligent…
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Anita Zurbrugg, My Brother is an Alien, Ocean Reeve Publishing, December 2020, 34 pp., RRP $34.09 (hbk), ISBN 9781925935790 When a baby brother arrives in the house, some weird changes come with him. Odd behaviour, strange smells and an unintelligible language must surely mean that this brother is an alien. In this delightful picture book for young children, Anita Zurbrugg cleverly captures the uncertainty that a change in family dynamics brings to its members, especially an older sibling. Written in direct rhyming text, My Brother is an Alien is almost a singalong story with its humourous references delivered in an…
Jess Racklyeft, There’s Only One Grandma Like You, Affirm Press, March 2021, 24 pp., RRP $19.99 (hbk), ISBN 781922400680 We all need a hug right now and this book delivers them page after page, in warm colours and carefully chosen words that explore special relationships with grandmothers. Parenting can be stressful and readers will recognise the extra time, devotion and wonder a grandparent can bring. I will not be alone in shedding a quiet tear as I enjoyed this book, remembering the best of my own dear gran. Delicate watercolour illustrations use minimal line yet achieve beautifully defined shapes that lead a…
Nat Amoore, The Right Way to Rock, Puffin Books Australia, June 2021, 337 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760897703 This is Nat Amoore’s third novel for young readers after two highly successful and hugely popular earlier novels, all based in the ‘boring’ little town of Watterson. Twelve-year-old Mac Fleetwood Cooper and his little brother Stevie Nick are the children of a single mother who’s mad about Fleetwood Mac and who works at a bar where the live bands are about to be replaced by pokie machines. The silver lining in her world is that her son is going to be…
Adam Wallace (text) and Shane McG (illustrator), There’s a Bull Ant in the Bedroom, June 2021, 24 pp., RRP $17.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760973407 The presence of a bull ant is always cause for alarm. So, when that bull ant is in the house and it decides to bite someone, its removal is a priority. Unfortunately, the young lad who takes on the responsibility of resolving this and many other misadventures, decides that his sister’s bed is the best place not only for a bull ant but all sorts of out-of-place animals that seem to find their way into all sorts…
Matt Cosgrove, Macca the Backpacker, Scholastic Australia, June 2021, 24 pp., RRP $17.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760978464 Another great rhyming romp from the friend of all alpacas and master of coloured pencils, Matt Cosgrove. After introducing readers to Macca and his mates (great for readers who are new to the series), the author sends him off “on a quest to seek the highest peak”. Adventures are exciting to dream of, but the reality often proves to be hard work and lonely. It is his friends’ kind words, gifts and packed snacks that keep the struggling Macca going when times are tough. Closely-cropped comic book…
Michael Rosen (text) and Robert Starling (illustrator), I Am Angry, Walker Books, July 2021, 32 pp, RRP $27.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781406396652 Nearly every parent has experienced it: a toddler who flails about without warning (usually in the grocery store or mall), screaming at the top of their lungs because they can’t quite put a word to what they’re feeling. Hunger? Discomfort? Fatigue? Cat is having a bad day but doesn’t quite know how to deal with complex emotions like anger, so finds some creative ways to express it: I’ll … mash up names, grind up games, burst balloons, squash the…
Sigi Cohen (text) and Patrick Corrigan (illustrator), The Vampires Next Door, Larrikin House, April 2021, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781922503084 Sigi Cohen’s first book, My Dead Bunny, was published in 2015 and shortlisted for the Picture Book of the Year award in 2016. It had a macabre sense of humour which is again evident in his new book, The Vampires Next Door. Lee sees lots of bats hanging upside down in a tree outside a house down the road. She is convinced they are vampires, especially when local children start going missing. No-one believes her but after thwarting…
Emily S Smith (text) and Aleksandra Szmidt (illustrator), How to Hug a Cactus, Larrikin House, May 2021, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781922503176 Small children can make strange and impractical relationships in their blurred world between real and make-believe and here we meet a little girl who has personified her cactus. This imaginative invention comes with its own problem, how to cuddle and hug her ‘friend’. There are some nice touches in this story about problem solving and the illustrations use warm colours and tone to create an interesting family and home. We are introduced to the family members…
Kesta Fleming (text) and Marjory Gardner (illustrator), Marlow Brown Magician in the Making, Celapene Press, June 2021, 104 pp., RRP $14.95 Marlow Brown is Kesta Fleming’s irresistible young character, the scourge of her mother’s desire for order and a source of endless entertainment for her father who loves a spot of chaos in the family household. In this brief, madcap novel, Marlow decides to learn magic. Her dog Rockstar is her over-attentive assistant at first, and after one disastrous show at home, that soaked her mother, a trick involving an upside-down glass of water, Marlow manages to make it into…