Month: December 2004

Australian and World Records

Did you know that Guy Sebastian’s Angels Brought Me here was Australia’s highest selling single? Or that Neighbours is Australia’s longest selling soap? Do you know the name of the world’s oldest astronaut? Or the world’s deadliest snake?

These facts and more are explored in Scholastic’s offering, Australain and World Records. Covering records from Australia and around the world, the book provides facts, photos and tables in an accessible format that kids will be able to engage with. Records are divided into categories including Popular Culture, Sports, Nature and more, appealing to a wide range of interests.

This would make an ideal gift for the young trivia lover or reluctant reader, and would be also suitable for classroom or school library collections.

Australian and World Records is a high interest offering for 8 to 14 year old readers.

Australian and World records, by Jennifer Corr Morse and David G. Harris
Scholastic, 2004

The Pontiac and the Fairy, by Grace Oakley

 

‘Hey, mate, you can’t marry a tooth fairy!’ Uncle John spoke up, astounded. “You’re way taller than her, she’s got wings and you haven’t, and she would be out all night picking up kid’s teeth!’
‘I’ll get a night job,’ Pete said defiantly, ‘and through the day I’ll shrink myself, so I’ll be the same size as Isabella. The wings are neither here nor there. She’s got wings; I’ve got a beard. So what? We’re all different aren’t we?’

Tim loves having his very own tooth fairy, but his dad isn’t so sure. So when the family goes to Kalgoorlie for a holiday, Tim smuggles her along in his bag. Which seems okay until his bag gets accidentally mixed up. When he reclaims his bag from Pete Poupa, the bikie, Isabella is missing. Pete says he hasn’t seen her, but Tim isn’t convinced. He is sure Pete knows where Isabella is. What he doesn’t know is what to do about it.

The Pontiac and the Fairy is a yellow level title in Macmillan Education’s Breakers series. Kids will enjoy the combination of the bikie and the fairy and it’s a pity that this plot couldn’t be further developed. Still, it is a fun tale and is suitable for classroom or private reading, aimed at children with a reading age around 10.5 years.

The Pontiac and the Fairy, by Grace Oakley
Macmillan Education, 2004

I Have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes, by Jaclyn Moriarty

Every Friday night the adult members of the Zing family meet in their garden shed; btu this is no ordinary garden shed – not a wheelbarrow or hammer or paint pot to be seen. Instead there is a meeting table, filing cabinets and high-tech surveillance equipment. All this is in aid of the Zing Family Secret – a secret so big that it consumes all of their lives.

Cath Murphy is just an ordinary second grade teacher. She loves her job and is also studying law part time, because it is something she has always been interested in. She is freshly over a broken heart incurred when her last boyfreind left for America and thinks she will probably meet someone new soon. None of these things link her to the Zing family in any way, except that young Cassie Zing is in her grade two class this year.

Yet perhaps Cath Murphy is more closely involved in the Zing family secret than she thinks. Cath seems to live a charmed life. She wins scholarships that she has never applied for and she wins every competition that she enters. Is she just lucky or is there some other force at play here?

Tagged as a fairytale for grown-ups, I Have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes does have a certain fairy-tale feel about it. The Zings are either msiguided or mad, and their zany actions are a pleasure to follow, even while they make the reader squirm. This is not a normal family, nor is it a normal story and whilst it does, in part, have a happy-ever-after feel, it also explores some serious issues. Adultery, family, growing up and dysfunctional families are all explored as is happiness and what it entails.

Part-mystery, part family drama, this one is definitely for grown-ups.

I Have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes, by Jaclyn Moriarty
Picador, 2004

Madoop and the Mountain Mower, by Jonathan Gould

The King couldn’t believe it. He’d never seen anything like these magnificently majestic mountains in his life. They were so incredibly huge, with their snow-covered tips soaring into the heavens. The King felt awed. He felt humbled. Then he felt angry. He knew now there was only one thing he could do.
“I have to get rid of those mountains,” the King raged.

The mythical kingdom of Oopsalonia is ruled by a very tiny King. King Oppsbert does not like being tiny. So, when he notices that the kingdom is surrounded by giant mountains, he orders that they be destroyed.

Madoop, one of the King’s loyal subjects, loves the mountains surrounding Oopsalonia, and is appalled that the King wants them destroyed. He tries to convince the King that the mountains should stay. But the King is not easily convinced.

Madoop and the Mountain Mower is a funny, cleverly crafted tale of wisdom and of self-esteem. Madoop, a young, insignificant boy, is able to help the King overcome not just his hatred of the mountains, but his insecurities relating to his size.

Madoop is a yellow level title in Macmillan Education’s Breakers series. Aimed at readers with a reading age of around 10 years, it is suitable both for classroom and private reading.

A clever book.

Madoop and the Mountain Mower, by Jonathan Gould
Macmillan education, 2003

The Xtreme World of Billy Kool (Books 3-8), by Phil Kettle

The director pointed to a map on the wall. There was a drawing of a plane at the top of the piece of paper, then little stick figures joined to parachutes falling. Even on a sheet of paper, it looked like a long way down. I caught Basher looking at it. He’d turned kind of pale. Come to think of it, I think I had too.

Life is pretty cool for Billy Kool. He entered a contest to win the chance to host a television show and now he and his two best friends Sally and Nathan are television stars. With their own extreme sports program, the trio get to experience snowboarding, skydiving, bungy jumping, rock climbing and more.

Each one of these books focusses on one extreme sport which, in turn, is the basis of one episode of the television show. Part of the story is told through first first person narrative from Billy’s point of view, while the rest is in the form of a television script. Each book also includes non-fiction compnents including a glossary, diagrams of equipment and an explanation of the sport and its history.

At just 54 pages each, these little books are very accessible to reluctant readers in middle and even upper primary, with the combination of reality television and extreme sports an attractive subject especially for male readers. Teachers will appreciate the varying text-types and non-fiction elements which make them suitable for classroom use. The books also subtly explore issues which confront all children such as popularity, friendship and family.

A clever concept.

The Xtreme World of Billy Kool: Bungy Jumping, Snowboarding, Skydiving, Mountain Biking, Kart Racing and Rock Climbing, all by Phil Kettle
Scholastic Australia, 2004

The Road, by Catherine Jinks

When Grace finally leaves her abusive husband, she takes refuge with an elderly uncle on his outback property. Still, even there she doesn’t feel safe. When someone brutally murders the uncle’s two dogs, she realises that her escape hasn’t worked.

On the highway nearby, travellers drive the barren highway between Mildura and Broken Hill. A family on holiday, a truckie on his regular route, two brothers off on an Outback adventure and an eccentric country woman are all on the road, unwittingly being caught up in Grace’s drama and its chilling aftermath.

When Grace’s ex finds her and seeks his retribution, supernatural forces are woken. The travellers find themsleves caught in a twilight zone, where their destinations are suddenly unreachable. The rules are unclear, the way out seemingly unreachable. Only justice will end their ordeal.

The Road is a gripping thriller from versatile Australian author Catherine Jinks. Jinks has previously tackled children’s young adult, historical and chick-lit genres. Her transition to the thriller genre is seamless – readers would be forgiven for thinking Jinks has always written books of this kind. The strands of the story are woven together with Jinks’ magic control. The characters are real and incredibly fascinating and the setting, whilst necessarily stark, is clearly drawn.

Fans of Stephen King and of thriller movies will not be disappointed with this offering. It is a very visual story and the scene changes, the use of suspense and changes in atmosphere all make The Road a book crying out to made into a movie.

Of course, readers won’t need the movie to be gripped by this tale. Its page-turning suspense and chilling sequence of events make it perfect as it is.

The Road, by Catherine Jinks
Allen & Unwin, 2004

The Children of Theatre Place, by Adrian Peniston-Bird

High on the wall above the counter the old railway clock ticked away the minutes. Again Sally-Anne peered out nervously through the front window of the shop. With every passing moment the sky was darkening and deep shadows were steadily creeping across the paved square.

Sally-Anne has taken on a holiday job to help pay for extra basketball coaching. She likes working for her mum’s friend, Meg,but when she’s left to close up by herself one evening, a strange chain of events begins.

First, Sally-Anne receives a strange delivery for the shop: three large cartons that Meg, the store owner, hasn’t ordered. When Meg allows Sally-Anne to open one of the boxes the next day, they find a store mannequin that is disarmingly life-like.

In the days that follow, strange things start happening at the shop in Theatre Place. Someone with access to the shop saves it from being flooded, and new stock is ordered without Meg’s permission. Sally-Anne is blamed for the mysterious happenings – but she knows nothing about them. But who else could it be and how can she convince Meg it isn’t her?

The Children of Theatre Place is a yellow level reader in the new Breakers series from Macmillan Education. Although the trigger or motive for the strange happenings is a little unclear, children will enjoy the mystery of the ‘children’ who rescue the shop.

The Children of Theatre Place is targeted at children with a reading age of around 10 years and is suitable for private or classroom reading.

The Children of Theatre Place, by Adrian Peniston-Bird
Macmillan Education, 2003

Drown Them in the Sea, by Nicholas Angel

He didn’t compain about flies or blood and it showed in the way he looked. His small nose was flat and his ears caulifowered. He had thick grey hair and at times his eyes matched either his khaki shorts or blue workshorts. They were bright eyes but the sun had pushed them into permanent slits and when he looked out at the glare from the shed the rest of his face wrinkled in contortion.

After six years of drought, Millvan and his wife, Michelle, are celebrating a good harvest. Millvan has struggled for years to make a go of his rural property, to provide for his family and to, eventually, realise a dream of retiring to a house by the sea. His good harvest, however, does not mark the start of better times. His bank manager, who has extended his credit to get him through the drought, is now pushing for repayments greater than Millvan can manage. He may be about to lose eveything he has ever worked for – including that longed-for retirement.

Drown Them in the Sea is a very Australian story about life on the land and the ever-present struggle against adversary. It is about a man’s love of his land and his family and also, very strongly, about mateship. Millvan’s friends are fellow farmers who rally to help him, both physically and with moral support. They are strong, unemotional men, like Millvan, but show their empathy with their presence.

This is a moving, authentic tale, which is perhaps why it was awarded the coveted Vogel Award this year. Although it would be nice to perhaps get to know Millvan’s son, Murray, and his wife, Michelle, a little better, it is not really their story. This is Millvan’s tale and the reader comes to know him well.

A memorable read.

Drown Them in the Sea, by Nicholas Angel
Allen & Unwin, 2004

The Naked Man Festival, by Brian Thacker

It was only a degree above zero and the rain was coming down in sheets, yet here I was about to run around in nothing more than a nappy. I was pretty sure it was going to be the silliest thing I’d ever done.

How many wierd and silly festivals can one man attend in six months? Not a question many would have ever considered, but Brian Thacker did, so he set out to find the answer. In six months he attended as many festivals as time and money would allow.

With a festival of some kind being celebrated somewhere in the world on any given day of the eyar, Thacker decided to focus on Australia, the United States and Japan, with brief forays into Vietnam and Scotland, just for a bit of variety.

Visiting such varied festivals as the Bean Throwing Festival and the Naked Man Festival in Japan and the UFO and Tomato Festivals in the United States, Thacker shares his own humorous insight into the events and recounts his experiences with a good blend of genuine information and healthy imagination.

This is a book for travellers looking for something different, for armchair travellers and for those who just like a dose of something different.

The Naked Man festival (and other excuses to fly around the world), by Brian Thacker
Allen & Unwin, 2004

All Things Bright and Beautiful, by Susan Mitchell

On the one hand, the good people of Adelaide want it to be prosperous and successful as a modern twenty-first century city; on the other, they don’t want anything to change, and they certainly don’t want large influxes of outsiders discovering how wonderful the lifestyle is and coming to live here.

After the contents of a disused bank vault in South Australia’s Snowtown were discovered and the ‘bodies in the barrels’ killings became public knowledge, Adelaide became the focus of much negative publicity, even being labelled by one British tabloid as ‘the murder capital of the world’.

Susan Mitchell, born and raised in Adelaide but no longer resident there, returned to the city for the trial of the suspects, with the intention of writing a feature article. That article grew into this book.

This is not just a book about the body in a barrel killings, or about its subsequent trial, although of course both topics are explored in depth. Mitchell is equally concerned with exploring Adelaide’s physical and social makeup and answering a question which troubles her – how did Adelaide come to be the scene of such crimes?

Mitchell explores this question using a variety of text styles – a little fiction, quotes from court reports, interviews, personal recall and more, which makes the story very personal and also very readable. It also lessens the harsh impact of a story which is throughly chilling.

All Things Bright and Beautiful is not a comfortable book to read – but it is gripping and very well written.

All Things Bright and Beautiful, by Susan Mitchell
Macmillan, 2004