Lize Meddings, The Sad Ghost Club, Hachette Australia, January 2021, 208 pp., RRP $22.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781444957358 The Sad Ghost Club by Lize Meddings is a graphic novel centred around mental health. The protagonist, SG, agonises over going to a party or staying home and working on an essay. Eventually they decide to go to the party but feel very out of place until they spy another sad ghost across the room. The two ghosts leave the party together and after sharing their stories and unique perspectives, SG realises they feel better. The author has tackled some of the issues surrounding mental health in a unique and brilliant way.…
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Penny Chrimes, The Dragon and Her Boy, Hachette Children’s Books, 23 February 2021, 384 pp., RRP $15.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781510107120 Stick is a gutterling, living on the streets of London. Along with Sparrow and Spud, he uses his tumbling skills to make a few pennies for food. But this London summer has become unbearably hot, it’s almost as if the heat is coming up from below. When a series of rumbles tosses about the visitors to the Bartlemy Market, Stick finds himself alone. He’s lost Sparrow and Spud. When he investigates a crack in the ground, in the hope of…
Jennifer Cossins, The Mummy Animal Book, Lothian Children’s Books, February 2020, 32pp., RRP $9.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780734419897 Jennifer Cossins, The Daddy Animal Book, Lothian Children’s Books, February 2020, 32pp., RRP $9.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780734419897 A mummy swan is called a pen. A baby swan is called a cygnet. If a cygnet gets tired of swimming, its mum will carry it around on her back. The Mummy Animal Book and The Daddy Animal Book are companion texts by author Jennifer Cossins. Both appear on the CBCA 2021 Notables list, nominated for the Eve Pownall Award which recognises imaginative texts about factual…
Sarah Epstein, Deep Water, Allen & Unwin, March 2020, 400 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760877286 Chloe’s friend Henry disappears during a freak storm. Questions surround Henry’s disappearance: has he run away to find his estranged father, was there misadventure at the hands of his alcoholic mother or his troubled and violent older brother, Mason? Set in the fictional town of The Shallows in rural New South Wales, Deep Water traces the aftermath of the freak storm and the search for Henry Weaver. Chloe and her remaining friends investigate Henry’s disappearance. Chloe doggedly seeks the truth, sometimes with little regard…
Cath Moore, Metal Fish, Falling Snow, Text Publishing, July 2020, 272 pp., RRP $19.99, ISBN 9781922330079 Dylan was born to a French mother and Guyanese father. In her small outback town of Beyen, Dylan has the wrong coloured skin. She and her mother dreamed of moving to Paris, where Dylan wouldn’t stand out. But her mother died in a freak accident and Dylan is in the care of her mother’s boyfriend, Pat. Dylan can barely comprehend the loss of her mother, but Pat has made arrangements and after the funeral, Dylan finds herself on a road trip across the Australian…
Katrina Nannestad, We Are Wolves, ABC Books, October 2020, 320 pp., RRP $19.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780733340888 When We Are Wolves begins, readers are introduced to a loving German family. They are what you would expect every family to be. Unfortunately, Hitler is losing the war and conscripting everyone he can to join his armies – including the Wolf family’s father. Like good Germans, the family supports Hitler outwardly, but there are enough inferences for readers to realise they start to doubt his actions and the events that are going on around them. Eventually, the family must leave their village to…
Kate Constable, The January Stars, Allen & Unwin, March 2020, 288 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760525026 The January Stars by Kate Constable is an urban adventure which follows twelve-year-old Clancy’s quest to find a better home for her grandfather. With their parents overseas dealing with a family emergency, Clancy and her older sister Tash accidentally-on-purpose kidnap their Pa from his aged-care home determined to find him a better place to live. As their quest takes them through city, country and surf, Clancy becomes increasingly aware of star themed signs that make her suspect the ghost of her grandmother is guiding…
Libby Gleeson (text) and Jedda Robaard (illustrator), Soon, Hardie Grant Egmont, May 2020, 24 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760501235 Mum Mouse is waiting for the birth of her new baby, complete with tummy rubbing gestures, and baby’s big sister is helping with all the chores: washing the tiny clothes, painting the crib, sorting the toys. The refrain, at the end of each activity, when will the baby come? is accompanied by Mum’s reply Soon! Expectant parents will recognise many of the situations during the wait, including baby bumping the young mouse’s hand. How much longer? And still they wait,…
Bronwyn Bancroft, Coming Home to Country, Hardie Grant Egmont, February 2020, 24 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760501921 In Coming Home To Country, renowned and respected artist and “proud Bundjalung Woman”, Bronwyn Bancroft, poetically describes her connection to country and visually moves the reader to consider the environment and how we feel about it. This book is slightly more abstract than many children will be used to, both in the images and the text. While poetic, there is no rhyming, which might be a new experience for some children. It may take a few times reading it for them to make…
Ashleigh Barton (text) and Martina Heiduczek (illustrator), What Do You Call Your Grandpa? HarperCollins Publishers, July 2020, 32 pp., RRP $19.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780733340864 In every country around the world are grandpas short and tall. Though they go by different names, we love them one and all. Behind the delightful and bold orange front cover of What Do you Call Your Grandpa? lies an inclusive picture book ode to grandfathers and as the title suggests, an exploration of what they are called throughout the world by their loving grandchildren. With her rhythmic and captivating text, Barton invites young readers to…