Girl of Fire and Thorns, bk. 4. Greenwillow, 2020. ISBN: 9780062691903. (Age:14+) Highly recommended.
I eagerly picked up this outstanding fantasy novel, based on the name of the author. I had really enjoyed the Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy many years ago and was delighted to see another book in that extraordinary world. Carson has given her fans a stand-alone novel telling the story of Red Sparkle Stone as she grows into a young woman. The court will not accept her as one of Empress Elisa’s heirs, so she decides to join the elite Royal Guard, a group which has never had a woman warrior in it.
Red is indomitable, determined to prove her worth as a guard, but also as a young woman making her way in a man’s world. She allows herself to gradually befriend some of the new recruits and when danger faces the empire, she works with Ivan another young recruit and friend of the prince Rosario, to find who is trying to oust the empress.
There is plenty of action and adventure for thrill seeking fans, but the theme that stood out for me was that of soldier sickness. The story is told in both the past in chapters titled Then and the present entitled Now. Red’s heartbreaking upbringing and treatment as a child slave is disclosed in flashbacks, while what is happening with the recruits and her gradual emergence as a leader is told in the present. Red occasionally has moments when her past overwhelms her and she sometimes needs to find a safe small place to sleep, but she has learnt to live with this. The author gives an enlightening note about PTSD at the back of the book.
This is a coming-of-age story and will appeal to fans of Tamora Pierce while older readers may enjoy going on to A deadly education by Naomi Novik. I found myself rereading the Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy and can see why fans of the book asked Carson to write Red’s story.
Pip (or Pip@256X#YY.3_7 to be precise) is exactly what the title of this novel implies, a future friend. She lives 1001 years in the future and has little contact with anyone except her immediate family and pets. She has many amazing gadgets but is constantly confined to her living space due to an unhealthy outside environment. Her only real company is a robot, Pip 2, who is her exact duplicate.
Pip accidently stumbles into a time travel portal created by her inventor parents and arrives in the year 2019. She exits the portal through a toilet seat in Rahul’s parent’s shop. Rahul (who also loves to invent) is missing his friend, who has moved away, so it is no surprise that lonely Rahul and Pip easily begin to enjoy each other’s company. Rahul must keep Pip’s real identity a secret from his parents, school and the wider community. This becomes even harder when Pip’s two pets also travel through the portal.
Rahul struggles to help Pip work out how to return to her time, thwart Pip 2 who is up to no good back in 3020, keep the future pets (who have full command of the English language) hidden and try to make everything seem normal. No problem! The situation is not helped by the presence of a nosy, bully of a classmate who believes in a multitude of conspiracy theories.
David Baddiel has mixed humour with a time travel adventure and gives the reader an insight to a possible future world. This novel is about friendship and helping each other and the story highlights the importance of caring for an environment now, so that in the future it does not resemble Pip’s original world.
I enjoyed the twist at the end of the novel that clearly demonstrated how the future is created by the present.
David Baddiel is a bestselling author and his background as an English comedian is evident in his writing, as his stories use humour to capture and entertain his readers. The appealing, colourful book cover and black and white comic style illustrations by Steven Lenton add to the comedy and action of the novel.
You can watch David Baddiel read an extract of the book here .
Jane Moore
The promise by Lucy Diamond
Macmillan, 2020. ISBN: 9781529027020. (Age:Adult)
Dan likes working to a spreadsheet, so when his brother Patrick dies suddenly one night after an argument, Dan’s answer is to draw up a chart of tasks to help fill the gap left behind – this means stepping in to support the grieving Zoe and three children.
When the brothers were growing up the running joke was that Patrick got the looks, and Dan got the brains. Patrick was the popular one, happily married and a successful property owner. An underlying thread of resentment that coloured their relationship, is now compounded by remorse and guilt over the bitter last words on the fateful night.
Dan’s plans go smoothly at first; he fulfils his role of helpful brother-in-law and fun-loving uncle to the children, and he feels on top of the landlord tasks, until he discovers an unexplained maintenance line in the accounts. Then the problems start.
Diamond’s story starts slowly and fairly predictably, but the twist draws the reader in, to find out how Dan will handle the unravelling secrets. It is his character, a bit of a nerd, good intentioned but a little naive, that really makes this novel. The promise is a realistic depiction of the love but also the little jealousies within a family, and the young children are also portrayed with warmth and humour. All in all an enjoyable read.
Private detectives Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott delve into the cold case involving the disappearance and probable murder of Dr. Margot Bamborough. Bamborough’s daughter Anna and her partner give the agency a year to see if they can solve the mystery. No easy feat with the disappearance happening in 1974 and the agency already stretched.
Margot Bamborough left her inner London medical practice due to meet an old friend in a nearby pub, but she didn’t keep her appointment and was never seen again. The D.I. in charge of the case at the time did not conduct the case well and was eventually removed with mental health issues. His notes on the case were disorganised and were littered with strange symbolism. The general opinion at the time was that Margot was abducted and murdered by Creed a serial killer who operated in the Clerkenwell area, but his cellar had no traces of Margot.
Strike at his uncommunicative best is trying to cope with his Aunt’s cancer and declining health in Cornwall, as well as being continually texted by his half brother to come to a family reunion with his raging pop star father, along with calls from his ex partner who is having problems dealing with her life in general. Robin on the other hand is having flashbacks to traumas in her past triggered by one of the subcontractors in the agency and her protracted divorce from Michael. Adding to all of this is their inability to tell one another not only their feelings but also aspects of their investigations.
Galbraith, has, in this fifth Strike novel given the readership a tome of 927 pages! Despite this the plot keeps moving with several minor investigations and the emotional family circumstances of both Strike and Ellacott. The circumstances of the Margot mystery are of course complicated. After so much time, with some of the participants dead and memories unclear, not to mention the poor police procedures the probability of finding any facts to give Anna closure is remote. There are numerous characters and a great many red herrings, which require the reader to have a very good memory for misplaced facts and movements. I’ve no doubt there will be a great desire for Comoran and Robin to solve the Margot Bamborough case, it was certainly mine!
I heartily recommend Troubled Blood, Galbraith is a gifted storyteller and Strike and Ellacott are marvellous characters, I can’t wait for the next in the series. And of course, Galbraith is a pseudonym for J K Rowing.
Mark Knight
Themes Crime, Murder, Relationships.
Before the storm by Di Morrissey
Pan Macmillan, 2020. ISBN: 9781760781736. (Age:15+) Highly recommended.
Ellie had a successful job in the IT industry until a colleague double crosses her to take her team. Ellie decides to quit her job. She is then left with no idea of what she is going to do next. Needing a change of scenery, she decides to go and stay with her grandfather in Storm Harbour, a place she spent some time while growing up.
On returning to Storm Harbour Ellie starts helping her grandfather who runs the local paper The Storm Harbour Chronicle. She organizes the papers IT and gets them up to date. She also has a go at writing some stories for the Chronicle, and finds that she enjoys writing for the paper and researching for the stories she is writing.
Ellie and her grandfather uncover some shady deals that are happening within the local council and find that there are some people not happy with them poking around. While this is going on Ellie has a secret that has been affecting her life for years and now she is back in Storm Harbour the memory of those events are becoming more real, and having a greater impact on her.
Ellie is faced with choices when she is offered her old job back. She talks to her grandfather and best friend while trying to make a decision about what to do. She is given some good advice. She begins to see that the worst thing you can do is keep a secret. Ellie realizes she needs to be true to herself and finally decides to act upon this advice finding that she now has the opportunity for a happy life.
I highly recommend this book, it was hard to put down once I started reading it.
A sparkling new series by Melbourne writer illustrator Zobel, will speak volumes to those kids who love all things a bit mysterious and zany as Gem’s latest spell goes remarkably awry. Practising her travel spells at Witchcraft School lands her not only in a different village but in a different time. She is in awe of her new surroundings, but convinced that she will be able to return, but the villagers of Ellsworth Pining welcome her as their new witch come to reside in the witch house on the hill, complete with its ghost, Henry, and so be able to do all the witch things that witches do to help her community. She is unconvinced and when some of the spells go wrong again she confides to Henry that she hasn’t passed Witchcraft School and has no idea of how she got to be where she is. But the Weather Watcher is missing, and the weather has been terrible ever since, and after going to the Lighthouse to see what has happened, they become embroiled in solving the mystery. Trying a new spell, one that returns things lost, she and Henry are besieged by all the village’s lost things from years gone by. She is at a loss how to right things, but is buoyed up by the support and enthusiasm of the villagers. There seems to be a beast in the village: several people, including Gem have had sights of it as it scurries from one hiding place to the next.
This is a charming story of a young girl finding her home: of fitting in with a community she at first felt was beyond her. Her bravery and adaptability, her willingness to try even though she makes mistakes, are endearing, and the fun of the story will hook readers from the first page.
And the second in the series, Little Gem and the mysterious letters will be out in 2021 with its first chapter at the end of this book as a teaser.
Themes Humour, Witchcraft, Friendship, Bravery, Spells, Village life.
Emmy, Dan and their children Coco and Bear seem to have it all. They live in a Georgian town house in London and have all the trappings of success. Emmy is an “influencer” with thousands of followers on instagram. She is Mamabare to her fans. She posts insights into her life as a mother of her two children and responds to fans (and haters) giving advice and support to other mothers.
Dan is a writer who published novel several years ago and his publisher would love him to publish another. He just doesn’t seem to be able get it right. He is conflicted, he has no study where he can write in peace and he has to fit in with the Mamabare brand.
Emmy has an agent, Irene, who has a stable of other influencers, sports stars and A listers she manages and carefully profiles. Emmy is one of her big earners and she has outlined exactly what she needs to do to retain her image and keep the endorsements coming in. Emmy is a business - a very carefully managed one. Mamabare is like producing and editing a magazine, photos are shot weeks in advance and edited to look spontaneous, there are streams on topical themes tags to her influencer friends and precision planned hash tags.
In truth Mamabare and her family is a fiction. There is a lot of air brushing and a huge amount of stage managing. When the Sunday Times reporter and photographer arrive the house was artfully untidy and Emmy was studiously imperfect to suit her image as the somewhat harassed mother of a toddler and baby.
Dan on the other hand is becoming more disturbed at the way the children are being used to promote an image especially when Coco’s birthday party is an enormous event with product endorsement and placement at its centre.
Their lives are turned upside down when the lives of Emmy and Bear are threatened, and Emmy’s Mamabare persona revealed as a fake, life changes but not as much as you would think.
Ellery Lloyd is the pseudonym for husband and wife writers Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos. Their peek into the lives of a celebrity couple is a revelation especially for readers who are not part of the whole online “instaworld”. The careful grooming and management of these ordinary people who become extraordinary through social media, but are in reality tools for commercial gain is fascinating. But added to the mix are the disaffected followers, particularly one whose sinister intent comes into focus as the narrative reaches its climax, making this novel very readable. Emmy and Dan are not likeable characters and there is a wish by this reader for them to get their just desserts. Thoroughly recommended.
Mark Knight
Themes Crime, Influencers, Social media.
Loner by Georgina Young
Text Publishing, 2020. ISBN: 9781922330130. (Age:Young Adult, 16+) Recommended.
Winner, Text Prize 2019. The mood of this book is melancholic as we follow the aptly named young woman, Lona, as she negotiates the dramas of life after school is over. Even though she has chosen a path to follow in studying in the Art world, she has dropped out of her course and flounders in the directionless land of the introverted young person who does not really know where she should be heading. Her joys are television shows and discussions of niche-interest movies and books. Her best friend keeps her afloat with her buoyant personality, but Lona still is wallowing in the anguish of aimlessness. The voice of Lona is so original and even though she is sad she is refreshingly astute in her observations about the world in which she drifts and the people that she bumps against. Her relationships and first steps into romance are fraught with the anxiety of the introvert, and these concerns are so well voiced by the author. The struggles Lona deals with at home, in life and in her relationships become muddied and mired and yet there is something beautifully honest about Lona’s reflections about life.
This is a book with great appeal because of its honesty and insight into the difficulties of negotiating the entry into adult life when you don’t quite fit and are not filled with confidence. The voice of Lona is wise and yet needy. Although some readers will be frustrated by Lona’s inability to progress through life, most will find her observations and journey recognisable and relatable. I loved the wit and Post-modern world observations of the young woman and would recommend this to readers aged 16+. Teacher's notes are available.
Henrietta Bartlett is a surgeon’s daughter and a survivor of the Napoleonic Wars. But she is more than that, Henrietta went by many different names, the soldiers called her the Angel of Waterloo, her husband she loved called her Hen and the patients she treated in secret called her Auntie Love. Hen was so many things to so many people. She was always helping where ever she could. Hen always saw the best in people, and on occasions this did not work out for the best. She started to learn that not everyone was good and did what they said they would.
The new colony of New South Wales sounded like an adventure, a new beginning. When she arrived in New South Wales she didn’t find what she had expected. The poor people were not well looked after and she found herself helping them whenever she was able. Hen had grand plans for her life in the new colony and what she wanted to achieve. She slowly became aware that there were people in the new colony that were not happy with her plans. She also started to learn that she could not trust everyone, people don’t always do what they say.
During Hen’s long journey she begins to understand more about herself and the people around her. She grew as a person and manages to build a life for herself in the new colony of New South Wales.
This book was difficult to put down and had a number of twists that you don’t see coming.
The little recipes and tips at the beginning of each chapter were great, I think I might even try some of the recipes particularly the Portable Lemonade.
Recommended for Nora Roberts’ fans. Roberts return to the familiar setting of Ireland in her latest romantic fantasy. Breen Kelly is a teacher, anxious and in debt when she accidentally discovers that her mother has been hiding an account with four million dollars in it, money that her estranged father had sent for her. She is determined to build a new life with the money, and she embarks on a trip to Ireland to find her father. There she uncovers secrets about her past and enters a fabulous portal into a land of mysteries and magic.
Breen is tentative and lacks confidence in herself before going to Ireland and it is great to see her begin to realise her potential and grow in skills, both in her writing in the real world, and her ability to fight in the fantasy world.
One of the outstanding themes of this book is the friendship that Breen has with Marco, who supports and encourages her while the friendships she makes in Ireland help her grow as a person. I really liked the relationship she had with her grandmother and the skills that she learnt with her guidance. The slow-burning romance with Keegan is handled with a light touch.
Robert is a master at writing compulsive prose that keeps the reader engrossed to the end. Even though her themes are often recognisable to her readers, it is this familiarity that gives such a feel-good aspect to her books and has readers rereading them in hard times and looking forward to new books as they come out. And the lush green setting of Ireland in The awakening will have fans wanting to travel there.
A thrilling cliff-hanger of an ending will ensure that the next in the series is picked up.
This extraordinary novel, based on a true story about a group of men and boys stranded on a rocky outcrop (a Stac) in the North Sea for nine months, is riveting as McCaughrean ponders their survival. She gives each of the nine boys and three men a name and a back story, making sure each is recognisable and memorable.
The group is dropped off each summer to collect, kill and dry some of the birds which roost there, raising their chicks through the spring. The work is perilous and stories are handed down of some of their predecessors falling to their deaths as they scale the vertical cliffs. They must climb the rocks to the nests, using rope made by the islanders and handed down from one family to the next. They dry the dead birds, first taking their feathers to take back for bedding, and sharpening the quills for needles, an extra source of income for this isolated community.
Even getting to the island is breathtaking: each having to leap from the boat to the rocky edge as the boat rises with the waves.
These people are from the island of Hirta, the westernmost island in the St Kilda Archipelago, on the west coast of Scotland. The last inhabitants unsurprisingly opted to leave in 1930, settling on the mainland.
But this story takes place two hundred years before. In this tale, the men are in awe of one who calls himself minister, imposing the more objectionable traits of Christianity upon them, causing the younger ones to blanche with fear, but Quilliam a little older than these, offers a safe haven. Outcast, he finds a ledge where he can shelter, and it is to his cave that they come for a rest from the tyrant. Eventually the man leaves, commandeering the raft and sailing off for an island nearby from which he can signal their community.
But why they have been abandoned is a question they all ask, the minister saying that it is the end of the world and they have been forgotten by God. They dream of their families in Heaven and long to be with them.
The cold and wet is a constant throughout this long story, documenting their mental state as they cope with each other, the hunger and isolation. It was said that boys going fowling came back men, and this experience in 1727 made sure of that.
Subtitled The Complete Guide on How To Be Senior I settled down ready to be amused and entertained. The back cover has a short questionnaire including 'You still say ‘colour television' and you watch television on a television' and suggests that you are officially a senior if you answer 'yes' to any of the questions, setting the tone for the book. However, I was put off by some of the author’s comments, including 'Or don’t read it at all, what do I care? I’ve already got my cut of the royalties.' p. 3, a sentiment repeated several times in the book. What follows is a series of one-liners, grouped under titles such as Senior Moments in Medicine, Senior Moments in Sports and Leisure following the same format of recycled jokes, double entendres and loose associations that come across as childish and peevish.
There are some funny parts, including the hints on ‘Becoming the preferred grandparents’ p. 66, but the chapters fall into a repetitive format that lost me. The book is “inspired by the comedy revue Senior Moments” and much of the material might pass in that environment but I found its mocking tone tiresome. I think I might leave my copy at the local Men’s Shed for the grumpy old men to read, they will probably enjoy it.
Themes Nostalgia.
Sue Speck
An Amazing Australian road trip by Jackie Hosking. Illus. by Leslie Vamos
With Aunty turning sixty, a picnic is in order, but no one is sure where, so the family packs the car and traverses Australia going clockwise from Melbourne, taking in as many of the World Heritage sites that they can.
Each double page, replete with brilliantly coloured and inviting digital illustrations, gives a view somewhere in Australia: Great Barrier Reef, Uluru, Coober Pedy, Great Ocean Road, Kakadu amongst others. Each double page has a stanza telling of their quest, and augmented with paragraphs of information about the site being visited.
For example on the pages about Ningaloo Reed, there is a stanza about the family swimming with the whales, except the poem turns the idea on its head, as the whales in this part of Western Australia are Whale Sharks. An illustration of the Whale Shark almost fills the two pages, and has the family swimming around it. Above and below the image of this phenomenal beast are three paragraphs of information about the reef and its creatures. Humour is used to portray Aunty grimacing in the boat as she looks at the creature and the swimming children, unsure herself of what to do.
Australia has 19 World Heritage sites listed, and some are represented in this book for students to find.
Each double page is full of detail, and eager eyes will try and find the World Heritage site along with spotting many Australian icons.
The endpapers have a map of Australia with the route shown, allowing readers to see where the trip is going and also where all the places listed can be found.
A most informative and fun filled book for younger students to acquire knowledge of our hot spots and learn a little of the geography of our island home.
Themes Australia, World Heritage, Travel, Family.
Fran Knight
Scoop McLaren : Waves of mystery by Helen Castles
New Frontier, 2020. ISBN: 9781922326010. (Age:10-13 years) Recommended.
Scoop McLaren, a feisty, thirteen year old journalist/detective is the main character in Scoop McLaren : Waves of mystery. This is a second book starring Scoop. This time she stumbles across a crime involving bribery, corruption and sabotage.
Scoop and her friends live in a coastal town probably on the Australian east coast. A surfing competition is being staged and the prize money is considerable. Scoop's friend Fletch is a champion surfer. Inexplicable and dangerous things start to happen to him. Surfing events are rigged, people go missing and strange things happen but Scoop and her friend Evie are ever watchful and resourceful. The reader must attend to detail because it is in remembered conversations and tiny, inconsequential events that the mystery is solved. The attentive reader might remember clues along the way and come to their own conclusions.
The book is narrated in first person by Scoop. Regularly inserted within and between the chapters are news scoops by Scoop as appearing in her online newspaper.
Helen Castles, the author, herself a roving news reporter, is an excellent position to authentically create and describe the action-packed, problem solving approach that characterises Scoop as she pursues crime busting answers and news worthy information.
It is pleasing to see crime/mystery/detective books reemerge onto the children's literature scene. Crime books demand a high level of engagement with text. The motivation for attention to detail and plot for the reader is to try to successfully solve the crime themselves. Reading crime has to develop excellent reading strategies!
This is a light and humorous novel that showcases friendship, loyalty and intelligent thinking and action on the part of young adolescent protagonists. It is a very enjoyable read with just the right amount of challenge for would-be crime solvers! Teacher's notes are available.
New Frontier, 2020. ISBN: 9781922326096. (Age:4+) Recommended.
Suzie and her family have moved house, but everyone is so busy unpacking and moving things into various rooms that no one has time for Suzie. She asks Mum for a biscuit, asks Dad for some time to play with her and asks Grandma if she will play dress ups, but everyone brushes her aside, carrying their load of things to put away.
Suzie decides to do something about this and advertises for a friend. Initially no one applies for the job, but one morning a bear appears. She takes him inside and interviews him to see if he is suitable. She asks him if he likes biscuits and he gobbles down the whole plateful. She asks if he likes to paint and judging by the mess of paint over that page, yes he does! She puts Grandpa’s hat on his head to see if he likes dress ups and then hands him a pair of shoes. At this he baulks and roars at her that bears do not wear shoes. No matter what she does, he is adamant that he does not wear shoes. She has a problem to solve.
A wonderful solution will greet the reader already intrigued with the warmly funny laugh out loud illustrations, showing the two trying to overcome their problem. And the lovely family oriented resolution at the end will be another tick for an audience already smiling with loads of good humour. The endpapers too will delight readers as they see another layer of story with the first endpaper revealing a house with little adornment contrasting with the last endpaper showing the detritus of a family having moved in.
And visual jokes abound, allowing readers to peruse the detail on each page, happily pointing out what they have found, sharing their finds with others.
Concentrating on problem solving, friendship and family, this book will have wide appeal.
