Anna Whateley, Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal, Allen & Unwin, April 2020, 248 pp., RRP $19.99, ISBN 9781760525309 Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal is the debut novel by #ownvoices author Anna Whateley. It tells the story of Peta Lyre who with diagnoses of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Sensory Processing Disorder is wonderfully neurodivergent. Peta struggles to pass for “normal” using the social skills taught to her by various therapists, guidance officers and specialists. The story recounts her efforts, past and present, to comply with the many “rules” given to her by the cacophony of voices created by the…
Author: Admin
Phil Cummings (text) and Connah Brecon (illustrator), Joe and the Stars, Scholastic Australia, February 2021, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781742995045 Joe lives way out in the red dust, under an enormous blanket of stars. The land was flat and the sky was wide, and he loves to sit under a tree his grandfather planted. Until, one day, trucks arrive and Joe and his family pack up and move to the city, to a home that sat in shadows as grey as a thunderstorm day. Here, Joe misses his stars, but with creativity and friendship, finds a way to…
Angie and Alli Simpson (text) and Lucy Fleming (illustrator), Clouds: Life’s Big & Little Moments, Aladdin, December 2020, 32pp., RRP $29.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781534439535 A mother is sitting on the grass gazing at the clouds which cause her to reminisce about her daughter. She remembers her as a baby and growing up with her brothers. Every now and then a cloud reminds her of some special event in their lives. Now her daughter is no longer little, and the mother’s heart is ‘bittersweet at this passage of time’. This is an expression of love between mother and daughter softly illustrated…
Ally Carter, Winterborne Home for Mayhem and Mystery (Winterborne Home #2), Hachette Australia, February 2021, 256 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780734419187 This is the second book about April and the other kids taken in by the Winterborne Foundation. It starts a month or two after the events of the first book. Ms. Nelson is still mad at Gabriel Winterbourne, and has disappeared. Smithers the butler has won a competition and is on a cruise around the world, leaving the kids alone with Gabriel. It’s not long until he disappears too, and they are forced to put themselves to the…
Dave Petzold, Seven Seas of Fleas, Starfish Bay Publishing, September 2020, 32 pp., RRP $22.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760360986 Seven Seas of Fleas has been Shortlisted for the CBCA New Illustrator Award. The imaginative illustrations showcase an excellent choice and use of colour on the part of first time author and illustrator, Dave Petzold. The pallette is fairly simple with strong use of blues and yellow highlighted with an occasional pop of red. The layout of text and images is well balanced throughout the book. The images that combine to make the illustrations expertly include areas with lots of definition and…
Bren MacDibble, Across the Risen Sea, Allen & Unwin, August 2020, 288 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760526054 Neoma (Neo) lives on Cottage Hill Island, part of the Ockery Islands. With her best friend Jag, she lives a life of fishing and scavenging. Her days are simple. The older islanders remember a different life, when people travelled, went to restaurants, had technology, and were inoculated against disease. But all that is gone now, and it’s a life that seems unimaginable to Neo and those her age. The sea has risen, drowning cities and houses. People build homes out of washed…
Mathew Bate (text) and Liz Rowland (illustrator), With a Little Kelp from Our Friends: The secret life of seaweed, Thames & Hudson, January 2021, 64pp., RRP $29.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760760946 This is the perfect book for any child doing a project on seaweed. Mathew Bate details its history and evolution, describes the state of seaweed today and reveals how it is used in food, health, and medicine. Most of the headings are each covered in a double page spread. Topics covered include not only the previously mentioned but also global warming and the pollution puzzle. There is a strong environmental…
Victoria Mackinlay (text) and Sofya Karmazina (illustrator), Ribbit Rabbit Robot, Scholastic Australia, April 2020, 32 pp., RRP $19.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781743834060 Ribbit Rabbit Robot opens with three friends, a frog, a rabbit and a robot, browsing in an antiques store. Thanks to the frog’s clumsiness the trio discover an ancient lamp. Upon rubbing the lamp a genie is revealed along with a list of conditions. Madness ensues with each of the friends seeking to own the lamp and control the genie. I won’t give away the ending suffice to say that everything works out in a very sweet and somewhat…
Jackie French, Night Ride into Danger, HarperCollins Australia, May 2021, 256 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781460758939 Night Ride into Danger is a historical fiction adventure aimed at younger/intermediate readers aged ten and over. Set in Australia in 1874, the story is based on the historical Cobb and Co postal and passenger horse-drawn stagecoaches in Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland during Australia’s gold rush period. The story centres around a young boy, Jem who helps his father, a driver for Cobb and Co to deliver their passengers and cargo through a dangerous and thrilling night journey. Things do not…
Leo Timmers, Where is the Dragon?, Gecko Press, March 2021, 40 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781776573127 I’m a sucker for picture books about dragons, and Where is the Dragon? had me smiling the whole way, with an out-loud chuckle or three for good measure. The king sends out his brave knights to Save the realm! But mainly me from a terrible, nightmare dragon, and the three knights venture into the darkness to find the dragon. What they find might be a little less intimidating. I can’t go past the delightful artwork in this book. The three knights are just…