scholastic press – Page 2

Red Plane to the Rescue, Melissa Firth, Cheryl Orsini, Scholastic Press

A red plane, a blue plane and a yellow plane are planning a display. Together and separately they perform their tricks. Up and down, even swapping planes, with a ‘Chucka chucka chucka, vroom vroom vroom! Zing zing zow, zoom zoom zoom! When it looks like disaster has struck, the aerobatic team become a rescue team, bringing everyone safely into land. Illustrations are in bright, primary colours set on solid colour pages.

Imaginative play is so important for children, and Red Plane to the Rescue is a wonderful example of the heights and drama that can be achieved in play. Young children will follow the movement of the planes as the story is being read, and it won’t be long before they’re joining in the refrain. Then they’ll be flying their own planes, toy or imaginary. Teachers will have children zooming their planes all around the place. Great fun for pre- and early school-age children.

Red Plane to the Rescue, Melissa Firth & Cheryl Orsini
Scholastic Press 2011
ISBN: 9781741698534

Other titles by this duo: Frederik Goes Bananas

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

This title is available from good bookstores or online from RFishponde.

Nog and the Land of Noses, by Bruce Whatley

Nog has a pretty fine looking nose, reader’s will note, if size has any bearing. But Nog’s nose doesn’t do anything special. Everybody else in the land of Nog has a special nose which does something special – whether it’s a fat nose for sheltering others from rain, or a long nose for picking fruit, or even a nose for balancing things on. But Nog’s nose does nothing – it just sits there on his face.

In the land of noses everyboydy’s nose was different and everybody had a nose that did something special.
Except for Nog.

Nog has a pretty fine looking nose, reader’s will note, if size has any bearing. But Nog’s nose doesn’t do anything special. Everybody else in the land of noses has a special nose which does something special – whether it’s a fat nose for sheltering others from rain, or a long nose for picking fruit, or even a nose for balancing things on. But Nog’s nose does nothing – it just sits there on his face. Nog’s grandmother has been saying since he was a baby that he has a ‘nose for trouble’ but nobody understands what that means – until Nog smells an approaching pepper storm one day, and saves the whole land from being exposed – because in a land of spectacular noses, nothing could be worse than a pepper storm!

Nog and the Land of Noses is recognisably a Bruce Whatley offering – whimsical, funny, yet subtly ‘right’ in its message that everyone has a purpose or talent. Whilst Nog hasn’t discovered his nose’s specialness, it seems more to worry him than it does those around him, so this is not so much a story of being accepted as it is a tale of self-acceptance and discovering one’s self worth.

Whatley’s illustrations are, as always, a delight, with the whimsy of fantastically shaped noses complemented by fantastically shaped owners of those noses – some are bird like, others more like moles or elephants, but all beautifully rendered so that each character is distinct. The colour palette is a kind of gentle fruit salad , with lots of white space so the focus is on those characters.

This is laugh out loud funny and will bear repeated readings.

Nog and the Land of Noses, by Bruce Whatley
Scholastic Press, 2011
ISBN 978174169809

This book can be purchased in good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Button Boy, by Rebecca Young & Sue deGennaro

It’s amazing how many buttons you can find when you’re looking.

Banjo loves collecting buttons. While the other children are playing chase, or swapping stories, or laughing, Banjo is looking for buttons. Each day he takes his finds home to Grandma Woolly, who sews the buttons onto Banjo’s jumper, until there is hardly any room left for more.

Then, one morning, as Banjo plays in the park, he meets a little girl sobbing because she is missing a special button. Banjo hands the button back. The next day he meets an old man missing a button from his coat sleeve. Banjo hands this one back, too. Soon, he has no buttons no his jumper – but there are lots of happy people around him. At home, Grandma Woolly has a surprise – a nice new jumper. And the next day he discovers that collecting friends is as easy as collecting buttons was!

Button Boy is a delightful picture book with plenty of whimsy as well as a lovely message about friendship. The text is simple, with pieces of repetition with which young readers will enjoy joining in, and the illustrations also appear simple, though this is a clever deception, with plenty of little details for readers to discover. Illustrator Sue de Gennaro has used acrylics and coloured pencils with blues and greens predominant as well as details in black lines and grey shading, for an overall whimsical effect.

A gorgeous picture book.

Button Boy, by Rebecca Young & Sue deGennaro

Scholastic Press, 2011
ISBN 9781741697971

This book can be purchased in good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Scrimshaw, by Nazam Anhar

Never will I forget that fine spring day when I first crossed the gangway and set foot on the deck of the barque Pioneer. The Pioneer was a humble ship, but to my young eyes she seemed a marvel. Her three tall masts soared up to the sky, bearing acres of canvas and miles of tangled rigging. Her flag fluttered restlessly from the mainmast, as if she were as impatient as I was to begin her great adventure across the seas. The sailors were working furiously as they prepared to weigh anchor: loading the last items of cargo; scurrying over the deck shouting, cursing and singing; and hoisting themselves up nimbly up to the dizzying heights above to work among the spars and sails.

English boy, Nathan Whitford has just completed his schooling but his family consider him too young for Oxford and he is thrilled when his ship surgeon father convinces his mother that he should spend some time at sea. Nathan sets off with his father in the barque Pioneer. The adventure that follows is nothing he could ever have imagined. They are sailing down the coast of Africa when approached by a pirate ship, captained by the infamous Captain Graham. Graham was once a British Naval captain but a series of events had seen him lose his ship and his family. Now he attacks any British ship he sees. Nathan is taken hostage by Graham. He is presented with a choice: join the pirates or be hung.

Scrimshaw is an adventure in a grand style, told from the point of view of a sixteen year-old boy. Set in the 1700’s, Nathan leaves the security of England and travels into the wild oceans with his father. Nazam Anhar’s betrays a love of the sea and sailing in the detailed depiction of life at sea. His journey is a rite of passage and he faces many challenges once he is taken aboard the pirate ship. Characters reveal themselves gradually, with first impressions sometimes deceiving, sometimes proving true. Nathan is completely beyond any familiar experience and must begin to form his own opinions about who to trust. He must also call upon his own inner resources if he is to survive. A scrimshaw is a carved or etched whale tooth or bone. Recommended for 13+ and all those who wish they could ‘go to sea’.

Scrimshaw, Nazam Anhar
Scholastic Press 2009
ISBN: 9781741693386

Also by Nazam Anhar:
Milad: The Voyage to Ophir

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

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