Tag: fremantle press

Just Desserts, by Simon Haynes

Clunk jogged down the Volante’s cargo ramp, his mind in turmoil. Had he really threatened to walk out on Mr Spacejock? He went cold at the thought. What other human would give him a home, would rely on his advice and help daily? All right, so Mr Spacejock didn’t so much rely on advice as completely ignore it…Regardless, Clunk needed a roof over his head and a socket to charge by, and the Volante was all he had.

Hal Spacejock and his (t)rusty sidekick robot, Clunk, have arrived on planet Cathua to collect a load of cargo. It’s not a high-profit job, but when they’re offered an outrageous sum to add one sealed crate to their load, the sums look better. The trouble is, they can’t leave until the ship’s new equipment is fixed. Whilst they are busy getting sidetracked in their efforts to get the right parts, their ship is stolen by an amnesic secret-agent robot and two mercenaries. Hal and Clunk’s only chance of getting their ship back is a hot pursuit in a rusting hulk. Their chances of surviving long enough to recover the Volante are slim.

Just Desserts is the third title in the Hal Spacejock series. The silliness of the first two titles continues, with plenty of clichés, one liners from a zany cast of characters, and more twists and turns than a packet of Twisties. Author Simon Haynes has found a formula that works, yet manages to make each new instalment sufficiently different to avoid it becoming predictable.

Roll on instalment four.

Hal Spacejock: Just Desserts, by Simon Haynes
FACP, 2007

Hal Spacejock Second Course, by Simon Haynes

The interstellar freighter Volante powered through space, her streamlined flanks speckled with points of light from distant stars. In the flight deck, Hal Spacejock was studying the main viewscreen from his customary stance in the pilot’s chair – hand clasped behind his head, boots up on the flight console and a cup of coffee at his side.

We first met Hal Spacejock in the book of the same name, as he travelled through space in a rusty ship trying to avoid debt collectors, and getting into scrape after scrape. Now he’s back in a second instalment of his adventures – still just as gung-ho and gullible, but now with a new ship and a new set of challenges.

In Hal Spacejock: Second Course, Hal is offered a job delivering some bank documents – but when he accepts it he makes himself an enemy. Rex Curtis owns a huge freight line and he’s not happy that Hal has undercut him. He will stop at nothing to destroy Hal and regain the contract – he even wants Hal’s ship!

Hal and his sidekick, aging robot Clunk, must overcome a mischievous orange ape, a mysterious female passenger with links to Curtis, accidental teleportation to another galaxy and grumpy customs officers who want to borrow Clunk for a museum display.

Often sequels to successful first books can be downright disappointing or repetitive, but this sequel is better than the first, with more development of Hal and Clunk as characters and an interesting cast of supporting characters, as well as a plot with twists and turns, and plenty of humour. Bobby the Briefcase, a talking computer invented by a loony inventor, offers the reader a sardonic take on modern ‘helpful’ software, with his regular ‘it looks like you are trying to…’ and ‘would you like to…’.

Readers will be glad to know there is a third book in the series, as there is still so much of the universe for Spacejock to bumble his way through.

Hal Spacejock: Second Course, by Simon Haynes
FACP, 2006

Another Fine Mess 002, by Norman Jorgensen

The bathroom was in complete darkness. Where was the light switch? Not on the doorframe. Where could it be? He fumbled about. Not on the wall either. He stumbled into the room and groped in the darkness. Where was the bloody toilet? He found the basin. By now his bladder was due to explode, literally. I need to pee, it screamed to his brain. He found the basin but still no loo. Suddenly he felt the edge of the bathtub. No choice. The bath would have to do.

Michael Hardy has a knack of landing himself in trouble. From watching the town fire truck sink in the sewage pond, to kidnapping garden gnomes and suffering the indignity of a wardrobe malfunction in front of the whole school, Michael and his friend Woody go from one misadventure to another. But suddenly Michael finds himself labelled a hero. How will he cope with his newfound status?

In the meantime, Michael has made a start on his future career – as a novelist. Chapters of his high-action spy novel are sprinkled throughout this tale, adding to the humour of the whole. Michael’s alter-ego, Dirk Fleming, Junior M16 Agent, lands himself in far bigger scrapes than Michael does – including being captured by the Russians after an air-fight – but he always saves the day.

Another Fine Mess 002 is a sequel to A Fine Mess, but can be read independently. Both are ideal for readers aged 10 to 14, and will appeal equally to boys and girls.

Great stuff.

Another Fine Mess 002, by Norman Jorgensen
FACP, 2007

I Want to be a Footballer, by Sally Carbon

Dream the dream,
live the life,
play the game.

From the day that he plays his first Auskick game Dane loves footy and dreams of one day playing in the AFL. But as he grows up, Danes discovers that becoming a champion will take more than dreaming – there’s a lot of hard word and dedication needed, too.

I Want to be a Footballer follows Dane from that first Auskick Game through to the Under 16s National Schoolboy Championships, as his dream burgeons and gets closer to becoming reality. Alongside the story there are loads of AFL facts, a short history of AFL and plenty more.

Author Sally Carbon has plenty of experience with top level sport. She represented Australia in women’s hockey at Olympic level. Through this book she aims to inspire children to participate in sport .

Suitable for young footy players I Want to Be a Footballer bears the official AFL logo, showing their endorsement of this fine book.

I Want to be a Footballer, by Sally Carbon
FACP, 2007

The Albanian, by Donna Mazza

I am facing the great white walls of Dubrovnik, a fortress-city that clings to the floor of the sea…I stand in a dip worn into the marble step. The stone is almost conscious, exhales its history into the soles of my feet. My breath is distinct, this is just the beginning, I will stand on history all over Europe. I can hardly wait.

Feeling trapped in a humdrum life in small-town Bunbury, Rosa longs for freedom, adventure and romance. On her way to Istanbul, the place of childhood fantasies, she stops in Dubrovnik. Alone in this city already in turmoil in the lead up to the implosion of old Yugoslavia, she meets a strange man, an Albanian. Unsure of her feelings for her new friend, still Rosa finds herself drawn into an affair which seems to hold no promise, yet which she feels irresistibly drawn to continue.

Rosa helps her nameless man to flee Yugoslavia and enter Sweden, before she returns home, alone, to Bunbury. Here she is unable to settle and struggles with her feelings for the Albanian. In spite of her misgivings, she saves up to return to Europe and to her man, but it seems he has more secrets than Rosa can handle.

The Albanian is a compelling debut novel from Tag Hungerford award winning author Donna Mazza. Utilising the familiar backdrop of country Western Australia and its contrast with exotic European locations to explore a young girl’s longing for excitement and adventure, and the resultant difficulties this creates, Mazza weaves an absorbing tale.

An unforgettable read from a new talent.

The Albanian, by Donna Mazza
FACP, 2007

No More Borders for Josef,by Diana Chase

Josef sat there, his mind churning over and over. Maybe this man was his uncle, maybe he wasn’t, but this could never be his land – or his home. He closed his eyes. His insides ached and he wanted to curl up in a ball. At the back of his mind he could hear Sasich saying, ‘Our village is kaput … gone … zapped.’

When Josef’s parents are killed in the Balkans conflict, he must flee with the women and children across the border. After months in a refugee camp, he is sent to Australia to live with an uncle he didn’t know about.

In Perth Josef must adapt to life with a new family, a new language and a countryside that is alien to him. He thinks he will never fit in here –and he isn’t sure he wants to.

No More Borders for Josef is one boy’s story of survival as he faces issues which most Australian teens will never have to deal with – war, loss of his parents and becoming a refugee. Yet in spite of its difficult subject matter, it is accessible to teens because of the familiarity of the setting and scenarios – school days, school camps, family life and so on. Teen readers will also relate to Josef’s quest for identity and difficulties in fitting in.

An outstanding read for children aged 10 to 14.

No More Borders for Josef, by Diana Chase
Fremantle Arst Centre Press, 2006

Destroying Avalon, by Kate McCaffrey

I stared at the email in disbelief, the skin around my mouth prickling in horror … I had to know what they were saying. I shut my eyes and clicked on the link.

When Avalon’s mum is offered a better job in Perth, Avalon reluctantly agrees to the move. Maybe it won’t be too bad in the city. But from her very first day at her new school, Avalon realises just how bad it can be. The kids at her new school seem to hate her, and soon she finds herself the focus of a brutal cyber-bullying campaign. Chat rooms and message boards are full of vitriol about her and her phone beeps regularly to deliver obscene text messages.

Avalon’s only support is a small group of friends – all also left out and isolated – who let her sit with them and offer her friendship. She is particularly close to Marshall, who is always positive and full of life, despite himself being a target for bullies. But is Marshall’s optimism just a front, and are either of them safe from the bullies?

Destroying Avalon is an insightful and confronting look at the modern phenomenon of cyber bullying, a phenomenon which is, unfortunately, growing in schools and workplaces. Avalon’s story is told in an honest and believable first-person voice, and will speak as much to teachers and parents as it does to teenage readers, who will recognise the accuracy of much of what happens at Avalon’s school.

This is an important book for teens and those who work with them.

Destroying Avalon, by Kate McCaffrey
Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2006

Beastly Nights, by Elizabeth Pyle

If only a special friend were waiting in my dreams, that would be fun…

Every night when Jessica goes to sleep she dreams of scary beasts who chase after her. She wakes screaming – and her mum gets woken, too. The dreams keep coming night after night and Jessica’s mum is so tired she’s turning into a beast herself. Then Jessica’s pop comes to visit. He tells Jessica about the scary things in his own dreams when he was a child. Soon, Jessica is able to conquer her fears.

Beastly Nights is a lovely story about how one child overcomes her nightmares with help from a wise grandparent. With black and white line drawings by author/illustrator Elizabeth Pyle, which bring the dreams to life, this book could be used as a tool for helping children address their own fears, and is suitable for reading aloud at home or in the classroom.

Beastly Nights, by Elizabeth Pyle
Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2006

The Kid Whose Mum Kept Possums in her Bra, by Dianne Wolfer

Mum looked down. The possum’s nose was peeking out from her bra. She laughed as the scratchy whiskers twitched back and forth. ‘Stop it,’ I hissed. ‘You’re embarrassing me!’

Harmony (she much prefers to be called Mon) used to think that her mum’s work with injured wildlife was cool, but now that she’s in year six she’s tired of being pecked and peed on by Mum’s orphans, and she’s tired of living in the bush. She wants her mum to be normal. Or does she?

The Kid Whose Mum Kept Possums in Her Bra is funny junior fiction, which explores some important issues, including family relationships and communication. As Harmony struggles to cope with her need to fit in with other children, she must also understand her mother’s motivations, and learn to compromise about the things that are important to each of them.

As well as being an insightful tale, the story also deals with animal rehabilitation issues, and includes back of book information about caring for injured animals and contact details for Emergency Wildlife Rescue organisations in each state.

The Kid Whose Mum Kept Possums in her Bra, by Dianne Wolfer
Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2006

Mama's Trippin', by Katy Watson-Kell

When Von travels from his home in Fremantle to Wellington, New Zealand, he is unsure what to expect. He hasn’t seen his mother, Charlene, since she left him when he was just six years old. Now, ten years later, she has a two year old daughter and is working as a dancer in a nightclub.

Von finds himself acting as babysitter for his new sister, Stella, while Charlene works and tries to survive without her boyfriend, Peter, who is running from the cops and from his former partner in a drug-manufacturing business which has turned sour. Then Charlene disappears and Von is left with little Stella to care for. Has his mum gone off on a drug-induced bender, or is something even more sinister at play? And why does Von feel called to the ancestral home of his Moriori ancestors in his search for answers?

Mama’s Trippin’ is a young adult novel about family, heritage and about the seedy underworld of drug culture and its effects on family. Von’s mother loves her children but Von sees history repeating itself as he watches Charlene’s struggle with looking after Stella in just the same way she struggled with Von. He is also coming to terms with his Moriori and Maori ancestry and his relationship with both of his parents.

This is a heart-wrenching read for teens.

Mama’s Trippin’, by Katy Watson-Kell
Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2006