christine bongers – Aussie Reviews

Drongoes, by Christine Bongers ill Dan McGuiness

Jack has bully trouble. Nothing he has done in the past has succeeded. Rocket Robson seems to have it in for him. Not only is he faster and stronger, he’s just plain tricky. This year Jack, with the help of Eric, is determined to beat him. So he and Eric train and train, encouraged and supported by Jack’s mascot birds, the drongoes. But Rocket Robson beats him in all the athletic events, until there’s only the cross country to go. Colour illustrations appear on every opening, with header and footer illustrations, and differing font sizes to break up text.

It’s the Year Five cross-country tomorrow – the biggest day ever for me and my best mate, Eric.

It was Eric’s big chance to finish a race. And it was my big chance to finally beat Rocket Robinson.

In Year One, Rocket Robson tripped me on purpose in the egg-and-spoon race.

I might have forgotten about it. If it hadn’t been for what he did in Year Two.

‘Hey, Jack, your shoelaces are undone,’ he said. ‘Here, let me help. I’m good with shoelaces.’ He was good, too. Good at tying them together.

Eric was even more upset than I was. ‘We need to shut that Rocket down,’ he muttered. ‘We need to beat him.’ He said ‘we’ but he meant me.

Drongoes is a new offering in the Mates series published by Omnibus. Each is uniquely Australian and offers realistic and tall-tale fiction for newly independent readers. Word styles and colours vary throughout, although the majority of the text is in a uniform font. Text variations and illustrations intersperse and add to the story and provide an accessible story for readers transitioning from fully illustrated books. Drongoes also explores friendship and competitiveness. It presents ways to deal with bullies without intervention from teachers or parents. Recommended for newly-independent readers.

Drongoes, Christine Bongers ill Dan McGuiness
Omnibus Books 2013
ISBN: 9781862919822

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

Available from good bookstores or here.

Henry Hoey Hobson, by Christine Bongers

She was waiting with a gaggle of mates, blocking the stairs leading back down from our classroom. Golden in the sunlight, with that curious blend of stealth and grace that marked the lion queens of the jungle. I lumbered towards the all-female pride, a wildebeest, hell-bent on his own destruction.
In nature, there were thousands of us, protected by numbers, sacrificing only the occasional member to predators that liked to feed on the weak. But here in the wildlife preserve of Perpetual Suckers, I was the only straggler. The odd one out. The one to be brought down, torn to pieces and consumed.

Henry is starting at yet another new school. And as if starting all over again wasn’t tough enough, he discovers that he is the only boy in his year level. His mother is a young real estate agent and she works long hours trying to make a living to support the two of them. Because it’s always been just the two of them. And sometimes the relationship seems less parent/child than it might be. Henry is weighed down by the challenges in this new start and then things get worse. The new next-door neighbours might just be vampires. They seem friendly enough but when the school bully sees him help carry a coffin into their house, his slim chance of fitting seems certain to vanish.

Henry Hoey Hobson, or TripleH as his mother calls him, is used to life being tough. Mum struggles to support them, he’s unusual looking, and until recently was overweight. But surely it shouldn’t be this tough. And because it’s just the two of them, he feels very responsible for his mother. Henry tells his story in first person and he’s hilarious. He has conversations with himself (who else is likely to listen?), tries to stand up to the bully at school and does tasks for the principal (better than admitting he has no friends). Themes are around trying to fit in, making mistakes, not judging others and about the different shapes families can be. This is great fun to read. Recommended for mid- to upper-primary readers.

Henry Hoey Hobson, Christine Bongers
Woolshed Press 2010
ISBN: 9781864719956

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author
www.clairesaxby.com

This book can be purchased online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Dust, by Christine Bongers

This place was disgusting with dust. It was everywhere. Gravity had totally lost its grip on the problem.
It hung like gauze in the sunlight, rising in waves from the scorched earth, clinging to my lips and teeth, suffocating me with its presence.

Cecilia Maria was given the names of two saints to give her something to live up to – and hates both the names and the implied legacy. Growing up on a drought stricken Queensland farm, and with six brothers to contend with, she thinks her life is pretty tough. There’s no room in it for the despised Kapernicky girls, the new neighbours who her mother wants her to befriend.

But as the hot summer rolls by, and she moves from primary school to secondary, Cecilia begins to discover that there is more to her neighbours than she first thought – and that there are far worse things than having some rough brothers to contend with.

Dust is a warm exploration of some tough subject matter, with twelve year old Cecilia both a main character and a spectator, interpreting events through her first person eyes, as well as through opening and closing chapters showing her adult perspective.

The reader is drawn into the action, feeling with Cecilia the difficulties of finding an identity in a small town and a large family, the need to build friendships, and the difficulties of reaching out to fellow teens in situations you do not understand. The story unfolds over the course of several months, but readers will find themselves swept along, unable to put the story aside.

A fantastic debut novel.

Dust, by Christine Bongers
Woolshed Press, 2009

This book can be purchased online at Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.