Marc Martin, Masters of Disguise: Camouflaging Creatures & Magnificent Mimics, Penguin Random House Australia, 56 pp., RRP $26.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760895891 There are few things more exciting than opening a package of books to review for Reading Time. Perhaps discovering that one of the books is by Marc Martin, one of my favourite Australian illustrators, could be one of them. Like all of his books, this one, titled Masters of Disguise: Camouflaging Creatures & Magnificent Mimics, is incredible. Beautiful, fascinating, well-written and educational, it’s a delight to read and explore with my children. There’s a predictable, repetitive structure to this…
Author: Admin
Obama, Michelle, Becoming: Adapted for Younger Readers, Penguin Random House, March, 2021, 406 pp., RRP $29.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780241531815 I approached this autobiography with some apprehension: I have little interest in politics in general, let alone US politics. However, Michelle Obama’s memoir is less about politics and more about her life’s journey. By sharing her story, she hopes that she will inspire her readers (and young women in particular) to think about their own [story], because it’s the most beautiful gift you’ll ever have. She recounts her childhood with warmth and deep affection for her family and for the neighbourhood where she…
Emily Gale, Aussie STEM Stars, Gisela Kaplan, Wild Dingo Press, April 2021, 170 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781925893465 Gisela Kaplan: Bird and primate scientist is part of the first release of five books in a new real-life biographical series called Aussie Stem Stars. In this story we learn about Gisela Kaplan, an inspiring Australian scientist. Gisela has contributed incredible new knowledge about animal behaviour, particularly primates and Australian birds, through her studies of orangutan in Borneo and magpies and tawny frogmouths in Australia. Aimed at 10 to 13 year old readers, the story of Gisela’s childhood in Berlin during…
Richard Yaxley, Harmony, Scholastic Australia, March 2021, 272 pp., RRP $18.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760973261 In this book, as in This is My Song¸ Richard Yaxley explores inter-generational connectedness and the surprising discoveries that can come from that. The book begins with a kind of Romeo and Juliet romance between two young people at the outbreak of the First World War. Tom and Grace are separated by decisions made by others and, in his unhappiness, Tom joins the army and, with a terrible inevitability, is killed. The narrative voice and focalisation moves throughout the book as we hear from Grace and…
David Campbell (text) and Daron Parton (illustrator), Bedtime is Boring, Scholastic Australia, 32 pp., RRP $17.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760976507 Children’s books by ‘celebrity authors’ don’t usually feature on my ‘favourites’ list, but this latest title from the team of David Campbell and Daron Parton hits the mark. Hardly surprising, as its predecessor, Stupid Carrots, was equally hilarious. There’s always some ‘urgent’ business at bedtime for Billy Bunny, like bouncing, burrowing, building and bulldozing … or, in that split-second randomness that comes naturally to children, becoming a robot. I laughed aloud at ‘Robot Billy’ because, for a time, we were convinced…
Jane Martino (text) and Annie White (illustrator), Noisy Tom, Penguin Random House, March 2021, 32 pp., RRP $19.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781761040078 Noisy Tom is the third book in the five-part mindfulness series, developed in collaboration with Smiling Mind, Australia’s leading not-for-profit organisation in the pre-emptive mental health space. Following on from The Thank-you Present, which focuses on showing gratitude and giving rather than receiving and Super Me, celebrating individuality and community, Noisy Tom is a book about communicating and all the different ways that people express and demonstrate their feelings. On the way to the park, Tom claps and dances and…
Jon Klassen, The Rock from the Sky, Walker Books, April 2021, 96 pp., RRP $27.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781406395570 Quintessential contemporary storyteller and master of the ‘slow reveal’, Klassen gives readers a true gem of his deadpan wit in this long-form visual ‘play’. The five ‘acts’, will have readers young and old alike chuckling as they predict what might happen next for turtle, armadillo, snake… and alien. Reminiscent of Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, Klassen explores pride, fear of missing out, imagination and existential philosophy in the conversations between friends as they watch the sun…
Mary H. K. Choi, Yolk, Hachette Australia, March 2021, 400 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780349003696 This work is very much at the upper end of young adult books. It tells the story of the trials and tribulations of two sisters at a time when one of them is diagnosed with a potentially fatal illness. One of the sisters is in her twenties and the other at university. The book is largely set in New York and, to a lesser extent, in Texas. The settings also allow the contrast between the lifestyles of the two sisters to be foregrounded. June,…
Jack Heath (text), and Max Rambaldi (illustrator), Stunt Kid Seriously Stacks It!, Scholastic Australia, March 2021, 336 pp., RRP $17.99, (pbk), ISBN 9781760970598 Levi is a bit of a word nerd but instead of being curled up somewhere safe and warm with a book he finds himself in a state of constant danger as the lead actor and stunt man in Dad’s crazy TV show Kid Kablam, inspired by the movies of his hero Joe Dangerfield. Levi has endured performing some pretty scary stunts, but the last scene will see him perform the most dangerous stunt of all. What can…
Cristina Sanders, Displaced, Walker Books, April 2021, 304 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760653347 With the hopeful promise of prosperous farmlands, Eloise and her family embark on the risky sea journey from Cornwall, England to New Zealand. Little did they know the treacherous journey will force them to face hardships unlike anything they have experienced before. A sea burial, a gruelling fever and a missing brother result in the family broken seemingly beyond repair. Following their arrival to New Zealand, they discover that the promised farmlands was a ruse. After her father abandons the family, Eloise is left to care…