Jeff Kinney, Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Spooky Stories, March 2021, Penguin Random House Australia, 224 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781761043956 If you like stories about skeletons and zombies and human heads, then crawl under the covers and turn the page. Jeff Kinney, one of the Top 10 bestselling authors of all time, has done it again! This installment is the third in the Rowley Jefferson series and is set to excite fans aged 7 -12 years. Equipped with a warning to the reader and an “I told you so” to finish it off, the collection of 14 short stories…
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Shelly Unwin (text) Jedda Robaard (illustrator), Hello, Baby! Allen & Unwin, March 2021, 26 pp., RRP $19.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760876074 Hello, Baby! is an adorable new picture book from successful children’s author Shelly Unwin and bestselling illustrator, Jedda Robaard. Here you are. Look at you!Tiny, precious, all brand-new!At first you were a beating heart,Now your life’s about to start… Hello, Baby! As a child, Shelly Unwin loved the foster children that her mother used to care for, especially the tiny babies that she helped wash and feed. And it’s this authentic early awe and wonder that shines through these beautiful,…
Matt Goodfellow (text) and Yu Rong (illustrator), Shu Lin’s Grandpa, Walker Books, April 2021, 32 pp., RRP $29.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781913074029 Shu Lin is different. She stands on her own at the edge of the playground watching children play around her, she eats brightly coloured food out of little boxes at lunch time, and she doesn’t speak English very well. As the new girl at school, she is having a hard time. But when her grandfather comes to show her class his artworks, Shu Lin is given an opportunity to showcase her artistic skills and help her classmates. This is…
John Andrews, Bots and Bods: How Robots and Humans Work, from the Inside Out, CSIRO Publishing, March 2021, 96 pp., RRP $27.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781486314690 This browsable information book for readers 8 -12 years explores similarities and differences between people and robots. It covers chapters on anatomy, movement, senses, and thinking/emotions, and ends with speculation about our ongoing relationship into the future. Pages feature accessible design elements including coloured line illustrations and break-out fact boxes titled Try This, Fantastic Fact and Think About This. Useful diagrams help to explain some of the more complex concepts such as electrical energy and…
Jeff Hatwell and Elspeth Langford (text) and Catherine Gordon (illustrator), The Swans of Ypres, Echo Books, September 2020, 74 pp., $38.91 (hbk), ISBN 9781922387141 The Swans of Ypres is a story set in the town of Ypres, Belgium during the First World War from 1914 to 1918. The story tells of the everyday life of two white swans, Dirk and Sofia, and how their lives endured through the human intrusions of war in their town. Although the detail of the story of the swans is fictional, during the war two real swans persisted in the town of Ypres while it…
Louis Shea, Fintastic Four (School of Fish, #1), Scholastic Australia, 128 pp., RRP $15.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760971106 A mystery is stirring at Shipwreck Primary. New girl Philippa is smart and fast, but why do the teachers seem to be giving her special privileges? And where does she keep going in such a hurry? Finn the shark and his friends are sure there’s something fishy going on and are determined to get to the bottom of it. The truth is revealed when Phillipa rescues Finn from a net. But the story doesn’t end there. It’s almost time for the Great Ocean…
Jane Smith (text) and Pat Kan (illustrator), Superstar! (Carly Mills Pioneer Girl, #3), Big Sky Publishing, March 2021, 140 pp., RRP $12.50 (pbk), ISBN: 9781922387646 Superstar is the third instalment in the Carly Mills Pioneer Girl series, a collection of empowering stories about a feisty, time-travelling tween who discovers how female pioneers have paved the way and changed the world. Written by award-winning author Jane Smith (Bushranger non-fiction series and Tommy Bell Bushranger Boyfiction series) and illustrated by talented illustrator Pat Kan, this original series brings to life the overlooked colonial history of female changemakers, for younger readers in the 6-11 years’ bracket. By donning her…
Meg McKinlay, Bella and the Voyaging House, Fremantle Press, July 2021, 112 pp., RRP $12.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760990695 Meg McKinlay is a prize-winning author, and this delightful little novel is a sequel to her successful Bella and the Wandering House (2015). Bella, as those who read the first novel will know, now lives in a house made from a boat. At night her house goes back to the sea, but always returns everyone safely to their seaside block by the morning. The house has legs as well as its boat-timbers. It has ears too, because it follows Bella’s commands (at…
Laura Bunting (text) and Nicky Johnston (illustrator), Coco and the Butterfly, Scholastic Australia, 48 pp., RRP $19.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781743834923 Coco is grumpy. She does not like her new home in Tabby Valley and all the mini-beasts that she is forced to share it with. The city, with its fast-pace, bright colours and lack of insects was far more to her tastes. When her anger threatens to bubble up and out in an explosion, Coco grabs her favourite fairy wings and heads for the garden. Here she meets a very upset caterpillar who teaches her that fearing change is normal…
Clayton Zane Comber, 100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze, HarperCollins Children’s Books, June 2021, 288 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781460759455 Year 10 student Xander believes that if he ticks off everything on the wish-list he drew up at his grandmother’s request – 100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze – he will cure her of stage 4 cancer. After the list goes public, Xander (who hasn’t exactly been the most popular kid in school) receives help from some unexpected sources. Gradually, even his most unlikely feats, such as standing up to the high school bullies, kissing the most beautiful girl…