September 2012 – Page 3 – Aussie Reviews

Dragonkeeper, by Carole Wilkinson

Back in print with an amazing new cover.

Here’s my review from 2003, when the book was first published:

In ancient China a slave girl who is told she is not worthy of a name witnesses the brutal carving up and pickling of a dragon. When the remaining dragon is threatened, the girl takes a chance and rescues him, fleeing her brutal master.

The pair are free, but a long way from safety. They must travel across China, evading a ruthless dragon hunter and protecting a mystic stone, the dragon stone.

This is a story of incredible beauty, with a delightful mix of fantasy and history. The dragon and his young keeper are created with such intricacy that it is hard to believe author Carole Wilkinson was not a first-hand witness to the events she describes.

Wilkinson’s earlier books were good – but this one, her longest yet, is simply brilliant.

Dragonkeeper, by Carole Wilkinson
Black Dog Books, 2003
New edition 2012

Millie's Something Special, by Tania Cox & David Miller

Millie sighed. “How can I be brave? I’m too small to stomp and roar and my feather’s aren’t meant for flying.”

Poor Millie. A small dinosaur with a long feathery tale, she has no means of protecting herself from big, bad Reggie. Each of her friends has something special to make them feel brave. But not Millie. She doesn’t thinks he’ll ever find her something special. Until she comes across Reggie late at night and is surprised when her tail tickles him and makes him laugh. At last it seems she’s found her special skill.

Millie’s Special Something is a delightful tale about unique talents, bravery, friendship – and the fun of tickling, too. Tania Cox’ text is beautifully brought to life by the paper sculpture illustrations for which David Miller is well known, full of detail and quirkiness.

Youngsters will love the dinosaur characters, and the message is gentle. Suitable for early childhood classrooms and at home enjoyment.

Millie’s Special Something, by Tania Cox & David Miller
Working Title Press, 2012
ISBN 9781921504389

this book is available from good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Rainbow Street Pets, by Wendy Orr

What would you do if you lost a pet?
Where would you go if you found one?

When Lachlan has to move from the family farm to a house in the city, the only consolation he can find is that his dog Bear is going to come with him. He loves Bear more than anything else in the world – and Bear loves him, too. But on the way to the city something terrible happens – Bear gets lost. He is devastated, and after searching for days he almost gives up hope. But miracles can happen, and when Lachlan starts at his new school there is someone there who just might have seen Bear.

‘Lost Dog Bear’ is the first of six wonderful animal stories in Rainbow Street Pets. Each is self contained but all are centred about animals lost or adopted from the Rainbow Street Animal Shelter, with the result that characters – animal and human – feature across several stories. There’s the tale of a brave cat that saves its elderly owner’s life, a stolen pony and even an orphaned lion cub.

Highly readable and lots of fun, Rainbow Street Pets is a boon for young animal lovers.

Rainbow Street Pets, by Wendy Orr
Allen & Unwin, 2012
ISBN 9781742379081

This book is available from all good bookstores and online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Katie & the Leprechaun by Kathryn England ill Emma Stuart

Katie’s day may have begun in a familiar way, but her walk to school soon changes that. It’s not every day you meet a leprechaun in your local park.

The day that Katie O’Reilly met Paddy Fitzpatrick had started out like most other school days. Katie slept through her alarm. Her sister, Ellen, woke her by yelling in her ear. The shower was lukewarm because she was the last one to use it. She only had tme to eat half her breakfast. Ellen didn’t wait for her. Finally, just as she bounded through her front gate she saw the school bus pull away from the stop on the corner.

‘Here we go again,’ Katie sighed.

Katie’s day may have begun in a familiar way, but her walk to school soon changes that. It’s not every day you meet a leprechaun in your local park. Paddy Fitzpatrick, leprechaun, is bored and uninspired, and somehow it’s up to Katie to help him out. Not that Paddy makes it easy. He’s not sure what he wants, except that he wants something different. He’s a shoemaker and he’s bored with his usual work. Katie spends the day helping him regain his mojo. Along the way, Paddy shares unfamiliar tellings of familiar fairy tales, until Katie’s not sure what to believe about anything.

Little Rockets is a new series from New Frontier Publishing. Each title mixes reality with a little bit of magic. Katie and The Leprechaun provides an Australian solution to an Irishman’s quandary. Along the way there are giggles and twists, frustrations and fun. These short novels are perfect for newly confident readers. The text is widely spaced on the page and interspersed with colour illustrations. Grounding this story in reality gives the reader a safe place to begin, before floating them off into the delightful world of make believe. Recommended for lower- to mid-primary readers.

Katie and The Leprechaun, Kathryn England ill Emma Stuart
New Frontier Publishing 2012 ISBN: 9781921928239

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

Avaialble fromm good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Forget Me Not by Sue Lawson

Thomas Gilmore

‘Thomas, it’s time to leave.’ Father’s voice echoed up the stairs of the empty house.

Thomas took a last look around his room. Gone was the furniture, his books, cricket bat and model ship. He wondered if he should have talked Father into letting him keep his cricket bat. After all, cricket might be played in America.

Eve Gilmore

Head high, Mother sailed through the jostling crowd. I trailed behind, fighting the sorrow engulfing my heart. Even though the Southampton dock was crowded with passengers and spectators, I felt alone. The excited chatter, clop of horses’ hooves and blast of automobile horns mingled as mournful drone in my head.

Eve and her family are relocating from England to America. Her brother, Thomas, is excited but Eve can only think about the friends she is leaving behind. Not even the news that they are to travel on the Titanic’s maiden voyage is enough to cheer her up. Once aboard however, there is plenty of diversion for Thomas and Eve, even if Eve is left to care for her baby sister more often than she would like. There are new friends to make, other decks to explore and adventures to be had. On a ship so large and fancy, with so much to look forward to, Eve’s apprehension and sadness slowly ease.

Forget Me Not is the story of one family’s journey aboard the ill-fated Titanic. The reader knows at the outset the fate of the ship, but like the pull of the sinking ship, the story moves them inexorably closer to the moment of impact and beyond. By that time, Eve, Thomas, Bea and their friends Huge and Meggie have become the reader’s friends too and every page turn becomes breath-holding as their fates unfold. In addition to being a story about a family emigration, ‘Forget Me Not’ is a window to another time, when middle class girls were expected to behave like ladies at all times, and young men had responsibilities way beyond their years. And despite this, they found ways to just be children and to enjoy the stuff of childhood. Recommended for middle- to upper-primary readers.

Forget Me Not, by Sue Lawson
Black Dog Books 2012 ISBN: 9781742032108

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

Avaialble to purchase online from

'His Day', and 'Her Day' by Heather Potter

Two first books for baby.

His Day follows a baby/toddler through a day from waking up, through nappies, eating, playing, bathtime and more. Her Day follows a little girl through the same day and the same activities. Every image is accompanied by simple text indicating the activity and/or time of day. Each is a sturdy board book, coloured in blue (for him) and pink (for her). Both babies are realistically and softly drawn in pencil and coloured with watercolour.

These sweet titles offer the simplicity and truth of Baby’s ideal day. Anyone who has spent time with babies will recognise the poses depicted, the activities observed and shared. Either would make an ideal present to celebrate the arrival of a new baby. Recommended as a first book for baby. (Or for parents, aunts, uncles or grandparents!)

His Day , Heather Potter Walker Books 2012 ISBN: 9781921720352

Her Day , Heather Potter Walker Books 2012 ISBN: 9781921720369

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

The Ink Bridge by Neil Grant

Omed, a boy, flees Afganistan after a run in with the Taliban. He leaves behind his family and all he knows. His agonising and protracted journey leads him to Australia. There he is supposed to find peace and prosperity. Hector is an Australian boy, locked into silence by trauma. He’s gradually withdrawing from all he has known.

Omed had the Buddha’s eyes and a tongue that refused words. His was the silence of caves; the false peace that descends when a mortar shell rips apart a building. His was the stillness of bald mountains and long beards and the paths cleared by bullets; the quiet of a long-bladed knife.

Did all this begin with Omed? Or did it start with me at fifteen, shouting for answers; words running sour in my mouth, bleeding to whispers in my throat, evaporating in numbed ears. Those ears: my dad, my invisible friends, teachers that either didn’t care or cared too much.

Omed, a boy, flees Afghanistan after a run in with the Taliban. He leaves behind his family and all he knows. His agonising and protracted journey leads him to Australia. There he is supposed to find peace and prosperity. Hector is an Australian boy, locked into silence by trauma. He’s gradually withdrawing from all he has known. Their lives intersect in a candle factory in the suburbs. It is a place of numbing boredom, but also a place of secrets. Dangerous secrets. Hector and Omed are linked by their stories, by their experience and by the secrets they uncover.

Hector and Omed are from very different worlds. Both are silent, although it’s not immediately obvious why that is. Candles are supposed to light up the darkness, but illumination leaves shadows, even when two candles combine. There are dark corners in the worlds these boys encounter, separately and together. Meeting each other is a turning point, although neither could have predicted the direction. Grant takes the reader into the enduring horror of Afghanistan’s wars and shows the complexity of the challenges, the realities for a people so long the focus of aggression and hate. The metaphor of a bridge linking the seemingly unlinkable features strongly. He also shines a light on the desperation that impels refugees to seek homes elsewhere, and the barriers that make the journey so much harder than it should have to be. Hector’s rites of passage journey contrasts with Omed’s, but shows the power of empathy and shared experiences. Recommended for mid-secondary readers.

The Ink Bridge, Neil Grant
Allen & Unwin 2012 ISBN: 9781742376691

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

The Wrong Boy by Suzy Zail

They came at midnight, splintering the silence with their fists, pounding at our door until Father let them in. I tiptoed to my sister’s bed, threw back the covers and slid in beside her. She was already awake.

‘I hate them,’ I whispered. Mother didn’t like us using the word hate but there was not getting around it; I hated them. I hated their perfectly pressed uniforms and the way they pushed past Father, dragging the mud from their boots across Mother’s Persian rug. I hated them for nailing the synagogue doors shut and for burning our books. But mostly I hated them for how they made me feel: scared and small.

Hanna Mendel has her life mapped out. She will wear her yellow dress to the dance on Saturday night and she will be a famous pianist. Just like her hero Clara Schumann. But she assumes a reasonable world. And in the days of WWII, there is a lack of reason. She and her family have been fortunate until now – even when a ghetto is declared in their Budapest street, they do not have to move. But then they are herded into rail cars and sent to Auschwitz. Nothing could have prepared her – or anyone – for the horrors of Auschwitz. Hanna’s growing understanding of the environment she now inhabits leads her to desperation and despair. Throughout, she uses her music as an island of calm in her increasingly turbulent world. And then she sees Karl, handsome son of the cruel camp commandant.

Some teenagers transition from child to adult with only minor hiccups. Others, like Hanna and her sister Erika, have their childhood ripped from them in ways almost too brutal to believe. Except that evidence makes it impossible to refute. Some respond to the brutality by giving up, others by fighting. It’s impossible to imagine which response any individual will form, until they are faced with the unfaceable. Ignorance can be damaging, it can be protective. In The Wrong Boy, there are examples of many survival strategies. There are no longer any simple solutions or simple judgements that can be made. Characters are flawed and changeable, good and evil, and sometimes a mixture of both. Hanna is forged strong by her experiences, by the same characteristics that have enabled her to excel at piano-playing. ‘The Wrong Boy’ draws a compelling picture of life in a prison camp from the point of view of a determined but naïve teenage girl. Recommended for secondary readers.

The Wrong Boy, Suzy Zail Black Dog Books 2012 ISBN: 9781742031651

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

This book is available from good bookstores or online from Fishpond.

Spitting Image by James Roy

‘Surprise!’ Dad said as he turned off the engine. ‘Here we are.’

‘What do you call this:’ I asked, frowning at the horror outside the car. ‘I thought we were going to the zoo today.’

‘That’s right. And here we are.’

‘Dad, this isn’t the zoo,’ my twin sister, Helen, chimed in. ‘I’ve had a school excursion at the zoo, and I’m sorry, but this … isn’t … it!’

Dad was right – it was a surprise, and not a very nice one. But my sister was also right – this wasn’t the zoo. All the excitement I’d felt about seeing the wild animals and the birds of prey and the incredibly venomous reptiles, all the anticipation of the past couple of days had evaporated in an instant.

‘Dad, you’re joking, right?’ I said.

The family day out that Charlie was looking forward to is now looking less promising. Instead of the proper zoo, Charlie, his twin sister Helen, their baby sister Abby and their parents have arrived at a petting zoo full of farm animals. The only ones who are happy about it are his parents and Abby. Charlie and Helen slip off by themselves to see if anything can be salvaged of their day. And that’s when they meet an called Capone. The day begins to spiral rapidly downhill. Somehow Capone escapes his paddock, and according to Farmer Phil, it’s Charlie’s fault. His efforts to help recapture Capone produce more chaos, until Charlie is sure things can get no worse. But of course, they can. And do.

The best intentions are often unequal to the challenge of reality. And thank goodness! Where would fiction be without catastrophes? Spitting Imageis a new title from Walker Books ‘Lightning Strikes’ series. This series features short fast-paced stories that tip frequently into well-intentioned disaster. With hilarious results. Charlie’s efforts to help seldom turn out well, but bless him, he keeps trying. Upper primary readers will empathise with Charlie as he lurches from one misunderstanding to another, while apparently being outsmarted by a relative of a camel. And a young girl who witnesses every one of his failures and feels compelled to comment. Indignity on indignity. A fun read for upper primary readers.

Spitting Image, http://www.jamesroy.com.au/Home.html
Walker Books 2012 ISBN: 9781921977497

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

This book is available in good bookstores or online from Fishpond.

Shade’s Children, by Garth Nix

Shade’s secret home was a submarine. Soon after the Change it had come away from its mooring and drifted between two old, long, wooden finger wharves…Shade’s children came and went via a torpedo tube in the bow, safely out of sight under the wharf. They could then wade between the piles up to a storm-water tunnel that led into the city’s network of drains.

Fifteen years after a dramatic ‘Change’ the world is populated only by evil creatures and children under the age of fourteen. All the adults have disappeared, vanishing without trace on the morning of the Change, and the children have been herded into dormitories where they are raised until the age of fourteen, when they are taken for body parts. Overlords rule various horrible beasts, crafted from these body parts, which fight in the battles over which the overlords preside. Human beings have no place in the world outside the dormitories.

But living hidden in the city are the few children who have managed to avoid or escape capture. They are Shade’s children, and it is Shade, a computer memory of a man, who looks after them until such time as the change can be reversed. But could Shade be an enemy too?

Shade’s Children is a dark fantasy, set in an unimaginably desperate future where creatures from a parallel world have taken over and where teenagers are the only ones able to resist their dark forces. The central characters are four such teens, two boys and two girls, each with their own special gift, and each coping with the daily horrors of their lives in different ways, yet all also very strong in their desire for a better world.

This is a book which is disturbingly compelling. The young characters are faced with death and violence on a daily basis and must learn to accept it without being so immune that they become inhuman. Young readers must also look past the violence to the positive portrayal of strength and selflessness which sees the young characters working not just for their own survival, but for the restoration of the human race.

An absorbing read.

Shade’s Children, by Garth Nix
First Published in 1997, this new edition Allen & Unwin, 2012