Penguin, 2021. ISBN: 9780241508794. (Age:9-13) Recommended for LGBTIQ collection.
This is the book for those who feel ‘out-of-place’ and who have been excluded or unheard. Abigail Balfe was diagnosed with Autism as an adult, and this book is her reflections and wisdom about being neuro diverse as well as her insights into her own childhood and teen years. She also identifies the difficulties of not being accepted or understood, and her own responses to the sometimes confusing world of ‘normality’. She also desires that autistic readers would feel comfortable with their identity however it is expressed, and that differences in the world would be accepted. For non-autistic readers her book is revealing of the struggles that young neuro-atypical children and young adults experience. Her discussion of gender and sexual diversity runs parallel to her autism insights.
Presented in a light style with her own amusing cartoon-esque style illustrations scattered throughout the text, this has a very youthful presentation. The book begins with a 5 page, poetic dedication for all those who feel different, and yet Balfe encourages them to celebrate their uniqueness. In her meandering style, explained as being an expression of her autism, she moves through her life and the manifestations of autism that she recognised in hindsight. She also explains the variations in autistic behaviours and the positives of being neuro-diverse. This is a book for 9- 12-year-old readers, but also for those who are curious about Autism.
A nostalgic one for COVID times, this is the recollected experiences of the lone traveller in Europe, serendipitously joining up with other travellers at various times and arranging to meet again in different places in different cities. Along the way they share stories to amuse each other. It is not by chance that the narrator happens to be carrying a copy of The Decameron. Some of the tales told by the luscious Nina could be from a book of that genre.
It is an interesting way to tie together a collection of short stories. The reader can enjoy the stories themselves and also the reactions of the listeners. At times the characters drawn together as the audience also provoke a humorous response, and more than once I could not help but chuckle.
Travelling companions could be regarded as a modern day version of The Decameron or The Canterbury Tales.
This is the highly enjoyable, believable story of twelve-year-old Bee as she matures both physically and mentally. On the home front Bee is coming to terms with Kath, her stepmother, who is doing her best to support Bee through puberty. This is in the absence of her unreliable real mother who left Australia to pursue life in an Indian Ashram. Bee is also starting high school, trying to make worthwhile friendships, and furthering her success in swimming. In trying to connect with her absent mother Bee pursues learning about Buddha. She repeatedly asks Buddha to help by delaying her period until after her swimming championships. Interspersed through the story are Buddha’s wise teachings which she considers and uses to guide her choices. Bee is quietly strong and wants to be true to herself despite mean girl bullying both at school and at the pool. Nor is she ready to turn her long-term friendship with Leon into a romantic one.
There are many things to like in this verse story such as the rhythm of the language with short sharp sentences, great dialogue, and humorous observations. I think readers will love Bee and appreciate the way Pip Harry captures the awful real things like hair growing in all the wrong places and embarrassing accidents with periods. Even in this day and age not many authors deal with these agonising dilemmas. The characters are well fleshed out and most of the males, like Leon and her father, are genuinely trying to help and understand women. With a background of extreme Australian bushfires and climate change Pip Harry considerately and appropriately, portrays Bee being positively proactive about these issues. Highly recommended for readers of 10 years and above.
The topic Seasons is an integral component of the Early Years Curriculum. It is looked at in Mathematics as well as having a place in the Hass Curriculum. Seasons in the City is a brightly illustrated book which explains each of the seasons in detail and then how a number of chosen cities from all over the world experience a particular season. For example, spring in Egypt’s capital city, Cairo, can be hot and dusty as the Khamaseen winds push sand from the Sahara Desert into the city. Summer in Stockholm can have days of up eighteen hours of sunlight. Autumn in Istanbul brings weather that can be warm and dry one day or chilly and wet the next day. Winter in St Petersburg, Russia, is very long and lasts from November to March. Each season is reflected in six very different cities on a double page spread with very appealing illustrations to investigate. As well as facts about each season in a particular city there is also more information about special events or interesting tourist places to visit.
This book is easy to read and will be of interest to young readers who have a fascination with weather and/or cities all over the world. Another welcome addition to a primary school or public library.
Many Australians will be familiar with Lisa Millar’s reports for the ABC programme Foreign Correspondent over many years but few will be aware of the personal cost reporters and crew pay to bring us those stories. Lisa’s recollections of a childhood growing up in a small Queensland rural town with her three much older siblings and younger sister are recounted with fondness. Her hardworking parents, indulgent and supportive brothers and sisters anchored her aspirations to be a journalist. What set them apart was the airfield her dad built on their property and the light aircraft her slightly eccentric grandmother bought for the family. It is ironic therefore that as an adult Lisa, whose assignments regularly required her to fly, developed a crippling fear of flying. Seeking help she signed up in 1999 for a Fear of Flying programme created by clinical psychologist Neil McLean, offered by Ansett Airlines, where she learned to control her anxiety, enabling her pursue the dream of becoming a foreign correspondent. Lisa pushed through trauma to complete her assignments including that caused by two near fatal car crashes.
She reflects on the secondary trauma experienced as a result of reporting on events such as the hanging in Singapore of drug courier Vietnamese Australian Van Nguyen and the shooting by a young man at Sandy Hook School in Connecticut of twenty grade one children and six teachers. ‘You spent the first twenty-four hours reporting the details while trying to block out the horror, knowing there was a job to do. Then the reality would sink in and it was harder to push aside.” pp. 179. Strength came from the support of colleagues and the particular camaraderie felt by ABC reporting teams.
This is a revealing personal account with a journalist’s ability to set the scene and convey the drama of the moment and what shines through is the drive to bring world stories to the Australian public. It also reminds us of how those stories, so promptly reported from other time zones often at personal risk, have a human face and a cost that is not to be taken lightly.
Anna is a high school student brought up by her adoptive mother Sophie, in Sydney, and her past is unknown. Sophie is Russian, she endeavours to teach Anna about the great Russian writers of her home country, but Anna is drawn more to art, photography in particular, and she becomes intrigued with magnifying images, and photographing changes with time. Somehow images recall lost memories. Gradually she tries to work out the past: the lives of her birth mother Julia, Friedrich the writer, and Sophie.
Many times in this book, one character will recall another, past lives are intermingled with present, and secrets eventually reveal the connections. There is a poem that Friedrich writes, with the question ‘How will you know me?’ It is a question the novel explores. The lives of Friedrich, Julia and Sophie are woven together during the years leading to the German invasion of the Soviet Union during the second World War, a time where people became separated and divided from one another.
The theme is picked up again in the second part of the book, as school student Robin and his childhood friend Iris, come to know Anna, now in her late thirties. There are complexities in their relationship as well. The past haunts the present, and patterns seem to continually repeat themselves. It’s like the art book that Robin peruses, discovering faces he knows in history’s faces. Anna comments, ‘Everything is a variation of some essential idea . . . the same forms get repeated in different dimensions and perspectives and scale.’ This is the central premise of the book; how the traumas of the past impact the present and old loves are embodied in present loves.
It’s an absorbing story, an intriguing twist of relationships, and one that would reward re-reading and reflection.
Themes Identity, Past lives, Memories, Relationships, German invasion of the Soviet Union, Eastern Front (WWII).
Heads up Year 5 teachers! Here's a fresh approach for ACARA History curriculum students learning about the settlement and colonisation of Australia. Julia Lawrinson has set her latest book Mel and Shell in WA.This is refreshing in itself because the majority of young readers' fiction currently available that could be matched to the History curriculum, is set in NSW and Vic. Mel and Shell follows Lawrinson's Maddie in the Middle which was a popular 2020 CBCA Notable book.
When reading Mel and Shell, contemporary students have to travel to two different time periods. The book is structured as a series of letters from Shell to Mary which span the first half of 1979. With 1979 being the sesquicentenary of WA, Shell's class project was to write letters as pretend penpals to one of the original settlers who had arrived in Perth 150 years previously, in 1829. Shell was allotted Mary Ann Swift who sailed on HMS Sulphur captained by Robert Dance.
These letters turn out to be a release valve for Shell who is negotiating the usual shifting friendships and other issues faced by tweens. Interspersed between the unfolding drama of 1979 tweenage issues shared with her long dead predecessor Mary (who becomes something like an agony aunt) Shell shares details of life in the 1970s. She tells Mary of washing machines, electronic games (dated indeed by today's standards) and especially of LP records and her favourite band ABBA.
The letters are naturally in the first person and thus the reader has access to the inner thoughts of Shell. She is an energetic and sensitive girl, wracked by friendship allegiances, loyalty and behaviour choices. The drama in her life - the words and behaviours of people in class, her teachers and parents, which she can only perceive and negotiate as a year 5 girl, culminate in a dramatic way on school camp where the two worlds, past and present, briefly collide. The resultant shifts in perception make this a coming-of-age story and indeed a "...conversation-starter for parents." Reading Time
In it's structure, this is quite a clever book. Julia Lawrinson understands the patter and concerns of tweenage girls. This is a book for girls. Those who enjoyed Maddie in the Middle will likewise enjoy Mel and Shell. Teacher's notes are available.
Themes Friendship, The 70's, WA sesquicentenary, Commemoration, Colonisation.
Elmer the colourful patchwork elephant returns in another exquisitely illustrated story. This time Elmer has been asked to babysit two little elephants. Their mother is returning late so Elmer must put them to sleep. Mum advises Elmer to read them a story as that will do it. Elmer decides that taking a tiring walk would do it just as well and off he goes, meeting many other animals who are babysitting as well. They all recommend that the baby elephants will go to sleep if told a story, each recommending one. Mum suggests the one about the flying carpet; Lion suggests the story about the magic biscuit, while crocodile thinks the one about the monster who lost his shadow would do the trick. Monkey thinks the one about the echo is good and the young rabbit thinks the one about the invisible teddy bear would do. By this time Elmer is tired and is sure the walk will put the children to sleep but when he gets home, they want a story. He starts with 'Once upon a time … there were two brave elephants …’ and all were asleep before he finishes.
What fun for children to make up their own stories to tell the baby animals, providing teachers and caregivers the perfect opportunity to get children’s imaginations working, telling, or writing their own bedtime stories. The illustrations are so bright and colourful, the faces on the animals so happy and cute, and the surroundings on the walk so appealing, that Elmer and the bedtime story is sure to become a family favourite.
Readers new to the many books about Elmer (Elmer and the bedtime story is the 29th in the series), will want to read more about this multi-coloured elephant, and could try Elmer the elephant, Elmer’s birthday, celebrating 30 years of Elmer, and Elmer and the race.
Themes Elephants, Bedtime, Storytelling.
Pat Pledger
Seal child by Robert Vescio and Anna Pignataro
New Frontier, 2021. ISBN: 9781922326294. (Age:3+) Highly recommended.
A child loses her bearings when a storm hits her village. She cannot find anyone else and all she knows has disappeared. Going to the beach to find a boat, she spots a baby seal, a pup, and takes it with her as she guides the boat out into the sea. The two form a companionship which keeps them both alive as they are tossed about on the waves, searching for home. They huddle together for warmth during the cold nights, perilously watch the storm as it passes by, see frightening monsters rising from the deep, and fish when the water is calm. Eventually mother seal comes nearby and the pup is happily reunited. The seal guides the child to an island where she is also reunited with her family.
This lovely story of loss and longing will touch those who read of the young girl’s plight, separated from her family, alone in a hostile world, wondering what will become of her, a seal pup her only companion.
Children will recognise that there are many such children alone in our world and talk about the children they see on the TV news and when charity ads are shown. The readers will be able to discuss why children are so separated from their families, and form opinions about what is needed to make sure children are safe.
Empathy and compassion will be show by the readers as they take in the child’s loneliness, tossed on the sea of life.
Pagnataro’s beautiful illustrations reveal a sea at once frightening, with waves seeming to crash around them, the deeper blues hiding a host of monsters and the unknown, while the calmer days are overlaid with colour and stillness and warmth.
The contrast between the different stages on the ocean will not be lost on the readers and they will search each page for hints of lurking dangers and clear skies ahead. Teacher's notes are available.
The Nazis knew my name by Magda Hellinger & May Lee
Simon & Schuster, 2021. ISBN: 9781760859299. (Age:15 - Adult) Recommended.
Magda Hellinger was a Slovakian kindergarten teacher when, in 1942, she was deported into the hands of the Nazis and forced into the horror of existence in Auschwitz. Her natural leadership skills and language abilities were recognised by the Germans, and she was regularly co-opted into the role of prisoner leader – a role that enabled her to be ‘known’ by the Nazis, but also put her in a position that could sometimes help others, but always at the risk of her own life. Her life was never easy, and her survival was a miracle, but the story of the years lost in Auschwitz and the many lives lost is so awful that it should not be forgotten. This is the story of one Jewish life; her influence, and her story, is powerful and compelling.
This is a biography written using the accounts of Magda herself, but it is her daughter’s research following her death and David Brewster’s writing skills that have drawn the threads together giving an insight into the awfulness of the Holocaust experience for those who suffered its horrors. Resilience does not always explain why some survived and others didn’t, but Magda’s story reveals that sometimes it was the power of a single voice or relationship that could make a difference.
Themes World War II, Jewish holocaust, Survival, Auschwitz, Concentration camps, Biography.
Carolyn Hull
Enola Holmes and the black barouche by Nancy Springer
Allen & Unwin, 2021. ISBN: 9781761065255. (Age:12-17) Highly recommended.
American author Nancy Springer is back with Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche, adding to the growing popular Enola Holmes series of books that now span a decade of publication. These books have been adapted to the screen and Enola Holmes can now be viewed on Netflix.
The central character Enola (Alone spelt backwards) is the feisty and independent teen sister of the famous super-sleuth Sherlock Holmes. Her speciality is missing persons investigations. Enola lives alone in rooms rented in the Professional Women's Club in London. She works in concert with her brother at times but keeps ahead of him most of the time. Springer evokes through language, costume and setting the atmosphere and society of the Victorian era of London. The social and personal expectations of women of the times is not a handicap to Enola. Rather she uses fashion as performativ e- very much a part of her presentation and game. She conforms beautifully outwardly and can, like a chameleon, manage any social situation. Her life is one of strength and action.The language is beautiful upper crust English at its best and most fun and the wit of the conversations is quick and dry. The story is told in first person through Enola herself.
In Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche, Enola is presented with the problem of the missing twin sister of Miss Letitia Glover. Letitia's sister, Lady Felicity (Flossie) was married to the handsome and arrogant Earl of Dunhench and, like his previous wife, has suddenly died of a "sudden and virulent disease" and also, like his previous wife, been rapidly cremated. This is all very suspicious. The death certificate was not signed by their friend Dr Watson at all but seems to be a forgery of his signature. Enola, along with Letitia and her old friend the young Viscount Tewkesbury, Marquess of Basilwether conspire to find out the truth. Dangerous, exuberant sleuth work begins. Hilarious things happen involving amongst other things the misbehaviour of crazy hired hacks and fantastic disguises. Much time is spent sleuthing in dark gardens, crumbling country mansions, asylums for the insane and country inns of doubtful reputation and driving in horse-drawn conveyances of many styles accompanied by coachmen or alone. Enola flits from the drawing rooms of the Victorian landed gentry to the lowest country inns and Victorian madhouses where wealthy men could lock their wives away with the flimsiest of excuses.
Enola is a young, capable and smart girl of her time. She never falters and never gives up as she supports her friends. Tension remains high throughout the story as our intrepid heroine unravels a sinister crime.
A great read. Addictive for lovers of crime fiction.
Themes Detectives - Sherlock and Enola Holmes, London, Missing persons investigations, Victorian England.
Perfect for young children, this gorgeous board book, illustrated all in black and white, has everything that caregivers would want to share. It would not only stimulate interest in Australian animals, but each double page spread gives the child the opportunity to move or sound like the animal, creating lots of action and laughter.
The lyrical narrative also moves through a day, with the sun waking up, getting bigger, thawing out, warming, cooling, fading and then sleeping. The repetition of the first sentence on each double spread reading ‘As today’s sun … ‘ will have children chanting along with the reader.
As today’s sun stretched, I laughed like a happy kookaburra.
Each time the book is read the illustrations reveal more details to comment on and think about. It is amazing how expressive these black and white illustrations are, with possums scurrying out of a hollow log, kookaburras greeting the sun, joyful kangaroos bouncing along and finally a child sleeping on a smiling moon in a star swept sky.
I really liked this board book, and it is one I will keep for my grandchild and one that could be passed onto the next generation of young children.
Themes Australian animals, Movement.
Pat Pledger
A trip to the hospital by Freda Chiu
Allen & Unwin, 2021. ISBN: 9781760526702. (Age:3+) Highly recommended.
The thought of going to hospital can be a terrifying event for a young child. This newly released book, A Trip to the Hospital, written and illustrated by Freda Chiu, is a very welcome addition to a home, school, public or even a hospital library. Three diverse young characters are all visiting the hospital for various reasons: Rani with a suspected broken arm, Momo who is struggling with asthma and Henry who is recovering from bone cancer and has a shiny new leg which requires him to attend physiotherapy. The author takes the reader through the stages of the admittance journey, which hospital workers they may meet on the way and to their eventual discharge from the hospital. Everything is explained clearly and in easy-to-understand terms. The illustrations are bright and colourful with plenty to see on each page. At the end is a page of information mentioning Melbourne’s first children’s hospital which opened in 1870. It also gives quick facts about other aspects of hospital life as well as photographs of some real hospital workers who were illustrated as characters in the story.
Allen & Unwin, 2021. ISBN: 9781760878573. (Age:8-12) Highly recommended.
The Song of Lewis Carmichael is a beautiful book for children. It is written by Sofie Laguna and illustrated by her husband Marc McBride. Both Laguna and McBride are highly acclaimed in their fields; writing and illustrating respectively. They have two young sons and this may partially explain how and why two such talented, creative people could collaborate to produce such a book for children. This is the kind of book that takes children to another dreamlike and yet seemingly real world of whimsical adventure. It is a delight.
There is an old-fashioned quality to the drawings which are done by hand with 2B pencil in Adobe Photoshop. The font is unusual in that it is blue on white and the story is about cold, cold places. Mathew Zajac, a young boy, is our central character. He is a lonely, only child who is obsessed with the North Pole. He feels that he is a disappointment to his parents because he doesn't understand how to enter the games of other children. He feels that his parents need another child to compensate for his shortcomings.
One night Mathew is woken by a crow that enters his dormer window. The crow, Lewis Carmichael, invites him on an adventure to the North Pole. Mathew and Lewis sail off in a beautiful hot air balloon. Great danger and adventure befalls both of them. Lewis is Mathew's constant companion throughout and as the story unfolds so does the song that Lewis sings about Mathew. Mathew learns to face down great fear, solve difficult problems (like how to adjust the gas release and pressure in the balloon) and to triumph over complete exhaustion in his struggles with the fierce polar weather, the Arctic Wolves and a deadly mother Polar Bear. With the encouragement of Lewis Carmichael, Mathew prevails and matures enough to say to his parents on his return, "I need you to trust me to find my way."
There are inexplicable, magical aspects to The Song of Lewis Carmichael. There is a crying sound that Mathew keeps hearing and responding to. Not everything is clear. The whys and the wherefores exist, as in all good stories, for the reader to ponder. The story unfolds within a time-slip... a cleft between two worlds...a dream.
This is wonderful storytelling and a chance for children to travel into the world of imagination and dreams. Wait - was it a dream or did Mathew really sail off to the North Pole and return all in the space of a day? Young boys aged around eight years would really benefit from reading this book and being transported to the harsh and wonderful world of the Arctic in a hot air balloon with a boy their own age and a crow called Lewis Carmichael.
Themes Arctic, Friendship, Finding courage.
Wendy Jeffrey
Get back in your books! by Rory H. Mather. Illus. by Shane McG
I doubt there is a child or adult who has not been involved in a Book Week celebration of some sort of another. It may have been at a school or kindergarten, local library or play group, but the theme is the same: get reading, get involved and dress up. And this is the basis of the latest book from Mather and McG, promoting Book Week, as the main character is confronted by an array of characters normally seen in books.
Arriving at school, he usually heads for the library but on this particular day he is amazed to see Wally sitting by the pot plant, and instead of the librarian a buffalo greets him, while a fox runs past. Over by the picture books a caterpillar is being greedy while three little pigs trot by. But then a bunch of wizards mix things up in a puff of smoke, and pirates inhabit the paperback stand. A smiling cat is the last straw and he rummages for a megaphone and intones loudly, ‘get back in your books’, but the laugh is on him when they take their masks off to reveal his class, all dressed in costume ready for the Book Week Parade.
A nice salute to an annual event around Australia, the underlying humour in both the text and illustrations will please young readers. The rhyming text will bring smiles of recognition as readers predict the rhyming word and say it out loud as it is read, or mull over the characters and the books they appear in, or look closely at the illustrations, recognising characters that appear. Children will love working out how they can make masks to fit a favourite character, and look through the dress up box to create a costume for the coming event.
Themes Book Week, Parade, Book characters, Dressing up, Humour.
