Hot Dog!, by Anh Do

If you’re thinking this book is about the yummy hotdog that you eat, then you’re thinking of the wrong hotdog!

Hotdog is a long skinny dog – a sausage dog – who likes to try hard to get things right. His friend Lizzie is a lizard, who’s good at blending in, and their other friend, Kevin, is a lazy cat whose humans dress him up in all kinds of costumes. When the trip meet in the park for a ply, they are joined by a baby bird who has fallen out of his nest. The trio of friends are determined to get the bird back to his mother – but first they have to deal with obstacles including karate-chopping roosters and even dirty nappies.

Hotdog is a brand new series from comedian and best-selling author Anh Do. With simple, humorous text and cartoon-style illustrations (by Dan McGuiness), and textual embellishments to add interest, including different font sizes and speech bubbles, this first book will delight young readers transitioning to chapter books.

Hotdog, by Anh Do & Dan McGuiness
Scholastic 2016
ISBN 9781760279004

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.

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.

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

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.

Pilot & Huxley and the Holiday Portal, by Dan McGuiness

I can’t believe we get zapped to another world, make friends with a girl who can change into a monster , sae the world from a giant, then vanquish an evil alien race… only to get sent to Fruit-town!

Pilot and Huxley and the Holiday Portal is the second instalment in the adventures of these two computer-game-loving friends. In their first adventure they made a new friend, Brett, and she accompanies them as they travel from Fruit-town on their journey towards home. Mistakes and accidents see them meet Tentpeg, a zombie from another realm where everything is reversed, eg zombies are nice, snowmen are not. Faster than a speeding pinball, the four are bounced from world to world, disaster to disaster. This is a graphic novel, in full colour on black pages.

Pilot and Huxley and the Holiday Portal is a wild ride through bizarre worlds where nothing is as it seems. Appearances are almost always deceptive, except when they’re not. The title characters are here, but like many computer games, they’ve gathered ‘tools’ on their way that will help them in the future (if they only but knew). The ‘tools’ are the extra characters, Brett and Tentpeg. The world is ever-expanding and the pace zings. Everything they know is upside-down and inside-out, but like the game-players they are, they push onwards, looking for the way home. Recommended for mid-primary readers and beyond. Sure to be a hit with reluctant readers and gamers.

Pilot and Huxley and the Holiday Portal (Pilot and Huxley)

Pilot and Huxley and the Holiday Portal , Dan McGuiness,
Omnibus Books 2010
ISBN: 9781862918498

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

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

Pilot and Huxley, by Dan McGuiness

Mum? Dad?
This is weird. It’s eight o’clock in the morning, and my mum isn’t stuffing a delicious waffle into my mouth.
It is Saturday. Maybe they went down to the shops to buy me food.
But My sister and brothers aren’t here either. This is so weird.
BRRING!
Hello?

Huxley is surprised to wake on Saturday morning in an empty house. There is no indication of the whereabouts of his parents, sister or brother. His friend Pilot calls to share his own discovery. The two boys are fans of a video game they’ve borrowed from the local video shop. Their failure to return it on time has consequences for alien invaders who need the code imbedded in the video to activate their world-destroying ‘weapon of doom’. Little fazes these intrepid albeit inadvertent adventurers as they discover parallel worlds, traverse bee swamps and battle giants. The title characters are big-headed, large-eyed children and the monsters are often unexpected but always wild. The adventure ends with ‘to be continued…’, promising new instalments to follow.

Pilot and Huxley is a full-colour graphic novel. To read it is to feel as if you are eavesdropping on enthusiastic eight-year-old boys who have just finished playing a computer role-playing-game and have decided to make their own adventure. Understatement, exaggeration, techno-speak, pop culture references and wild adventure are all there. Although there are girl characters, Pilot and Huxley is most likely to appeal to young boys and reluctant readers. The author includes the reader in extra ‘insider’ jokes by having the characters aware of the book form, eg Pilot calls Huxley to his place – ‘be here in the next panel’. It’s easy to imagine boys copying the form and drawing their own stories after reading Pilot and Huxley. Recommended for mid-primary aged boys.

Pilot and Huxley, Dan McGuiness
Omnibus Books 2009
ISBN: 9781862918122

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