Christopher has travelled from London to visit his grandfather in a remote area of Scotland. He’s waiting at the ferry terminal to be picked up. While he sits a squirrel comes along and perches near him. It jumps from the toe of his show to his knee. His whiskers quivering with curiosity. Soon Christopher has several squirrels around him. His friends often joke about how animals are attracted to him. When he arrives at his grandfather’s home he is sternly told never to go to the top of the hill.
In. another world, Mal lives with her great-aunt Leonor. Mal has a great coat that enables her fly. She also has a baby Griffin, a very rare animal indeed. All is happy until a man turns up who wants to murder her. Who is he? Terrified, she flees with the griffin inside her coat.
When Christopher hears a noise at the top of the hill, he knows, regardless of being told not to go, that he must investigate. As he nears the top of the hill the ground begins to shake and suddenly a huge green horse covered in shining scales runs towards him. What follows was a stampede of fantastical creatures. After the stampede has passed he sprints to the top of the hill. Something is in the lake flailing.
Without a thought Christopher went in to save it. It sank, he dove after it. Up to the surface they both spluttered. In his hands was a baby griffin.
The world that Christopher lives in is very different from Mals. But he is intrinsically linked to hers and they both have a role to play to save both their worlds. They will face hardships, danger and thrills as they fight for the survival of all the fantastical creatures.
Katherine Rundell has the most wonderful imagination. Her inner child simply beams from the pages of this book. Your imagination conjures up the creatures from the story and you can’t help but be caught up in the adventures, cheering on both Mal and Christopher.
Her work has been translated into 30 languages and has won, among others, the Costa Children’s Book Award, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Blue Peter Book Award, the Boston Globe Horn Book Award in America, the Andersen Prize in Italy and Le Prix Sorcières in France.
In 2016 she wrote a play, ‘Life According to Saki’, which won the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh award and transferred to New York.
She worked on a short film about a tortoise, ‘Henry’, for Oculus Rift, which went on to win an Emmy for Outstanding Original Interactive Programme. She has been selected as one of the Aarhus39 – 39 of the leading children’s writers from across Europe – and one of the Hay30 ‘writers and thinkers’.
In her spare time she is learning, extremely slowly, to fly a small aeroplane, and goes climbing across the rooftops old buildings, secretly, late at night.
Food and young children together are always a little messy and this book celebrates the joy of this.
The little child in this book finds myriad ways to get food in all sorts of places. Uh oh, there’s avocado smeared in their hair. There’s bacon in their bellybutton, egg down their elbow and spaghetti … well who knows where that went! Carrots on the bum cheek. potato under the fingernails, porridge on the lip. You look like a tip!
Learning to eat is tricky. And especially tricky to get it where it belongs, in your belly! As they say, you might need to wear a welly.
This is a fun book about the pleasure of eating which highlights that food is not just all about taste, It’s the slippery spaghetti, the sticky bananas, it’s squishy and squashy and very funny.
Reviewed by Jane Stephens Age Guide 0+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bethany Clark worked for a number of years making books, promoting books and talking about books with many of Australia’s best authors, booksellers, publishers and librarians before she found herself as the manager of snacks for a small child. She lives in Adelaide with her husband and son where she can still be found making and talking about books in between catering continuous picnics and endless degustation menus for a myriad of small folk. You’ve Got Yoghurt In Your Nostrils is her debut picture book.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
Sara Acton is an award-winning author and illustrator. Sara grew up in the Cotswolds in England and always loved drawing, especially people and other strange creatures. She studied BA Hons Fine Art and trained as an Art Teacher in London. After teaching and practicing art in England and New Zealand Sara moved with her family to Australia.
Sara now lives in a small seaside village on the Central Coast of NSW, where she enjoys writing and illustrating for children in her studio, whilst drinking tea and eating far too many biscuits. When not in her studio she can be found out and about sketching and visiting schools, libraries and bookshops to deliver presentations and workshops.
Her first picture book Ben and Duck won the 2012 Children’s Book Council of Australia Crichton Award for new illustrators.
This is the story of a little girl born in 1901. Alice was born in Sawyer’s Gully, in the Hunter Valley north of Sydney, with its fertile farmland. In the morning she rides on her father’s shoulders to the milking shed and tastes the milk spurting from the udders of the cows. Her brothers are noisy as they arrive from running home from school, carefree with the dog panting and grinning alongside them. Alice is dressed in an embroidered gown and white satin shoes for her christening day. But she wiggles her toes and pulls those shoes right off.
One day Alice has a red-hot fever. All night and all day the fever continues until finally, she sleeps. When she wakes her mother’s face appears smudged, her voice far away. It is as if the world is muffled by a large grey blanket. She closes her eyes and sticks her fingers in her ears but Alice can’t see or hear. The doctor says that Alice is deafblind.
Alice’s life has changed but that does not stop her from feeling the world. She can feel the rattle of the wheels on the train home from the doctor. She walks bare-foot around the house. The floorboards are smooth. Her fingers trace the pattern of the tiles on the kitchen floor as she strokes the cat. The tiles feel cool and damp. She kicks and splashes as she sits in a warm soapy bath. She sings at church and feels the vibrations of the church organ.
Finally Alice is old enough to go to school. Miss Reid, her teacher smells of lavender. On Alice’s palm Miss Reid makes four finger signs. She repeats this every day and places a shoe in Alice’s hand each time. Eventually Alice has a lightbulb moment. She has learned the sign for the word shoe. She had found the key to unlock the door to a whole new world.
This picture book tells the remarkable tale of Alice Betteridge, the first deafblind child to be educated in the country.
Miss Reid helped Alice to learn signing the deafblind alphabet. In a few months Alice knew 200 nouns and several verbs, including run, jump, and laugh. It wasn’t long before she was reading braille. Alice graduated as dux of the school, after which she returned as a teacher for nine years, before returning to the family farm.
Alice’s Shoeis an important book telling an important life story. It is one that should be shared in every classroom. The illustrations perfectly depict the era but also the warmth of a little girl experiencing the joy of living, no matter the challenges given to her.
Reviewed by Jane Stephens Age Guide 4+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Julie Anne Thorndyke graduated with merit from the Master of Creative Writing program at the University of Sydney. She has published poems and stories in many literary journals. A winner in the US based Tanka Splendor competition in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, she was also awarded an honourable mention in 6th International Tanka Festival Competition 2009 (Japan).
She has facilitated a tanka-writers’ group, participated in collaborative poetry presentations and led creative writing workshops. Julie won the 2011, 2015, 2017 and 2020 Fellowship of Australian Writers Pauline Walsh short story competitions and the 2018 John Kelly Short Story competition for an original myth, folk or fairy tale. Her short story The Maid’s Room was shortlisted in the FAW Marjorie Barnard Award 2019.
Her novel Mrs Rickaby’s Lullaby was published by Ginninderra Press in 2019, and it was Shortlisted in the Society of Women Writers Member Book Awards (Fiction) in 2020. Divertimento (her short story collection) was published in 2021, and launched by Judith Tribe at Mount Wilson during Julie’s Artist Residency at The Old School, Mount Wilson, in June 2021.
Julie was the recipient of the Society of Women Writers New South Wales Inaugural Writers’ Grant in 2019, and received a Highly Commended certificate in the Society of Women Writers Victoria Nance Donkin Literary Award 2021. Her poem Doing their Sum won an award in the Society of Women Writers New South Wales National Writing Competition 2021
Lisa Harvey-Smith has been looking up at the night skies all her life. She loves it so much she studied the galaxies and is now a professor and an astrophysicist.
You can live in either hemisphere to read her new book. Near the start she encourages readers to visit stellarium-web.org. So I did. It is fabulous, as it shows you what you can see in the night sky where you live. There is also a great app you can download as well. So I did! I learned that it’s Venus I can see as I walk home at night. Throughout the book Lisa recommends other safe and trustworthy websites to look up and apps to download to help guide us. This very much adds to the value of the book.
Lisa takes us right from the beginning of our stargazing adventure, from setting ourselves up to view the sky, to a tour of the galaxy, to discovering and learning about planets and celestial objects. We learn the moon is not made of cheese, but a light-grey powdery rock dust called regolith, which reflects light. That’s why our moon looks so bright in the night sky.
We’re encouraged to start with binoculars rather than a telescope. Did you know you can see some asteroids through binoculars? We learn how to spot satellites and all about the hidden treasures above, including space clouds, star clusters and supernovas.
Universal Guide to the Night Sky is a terrific book. Compact in nature, but really brimming with information to fill young minds and encourage them to investigate the world above us.
Let’s meet the characters in our story. Old Eucalypt, that can grow up to 30 metres tall, and Wallum Banksia, whose small, pale yellow flowers feed a variety of insects, birds and mammals. Then there is Christmas Bells, a grass-like plant that can create bell-shaped flowers much sought after by nectar-loving birds, Wallum Sedge Frog who only grows to three cm, and, finally, Antechinus, who loves to eat insects, small animals and nectar from flowers.
As a controlled fire is lit, the bush is ready. The smoke reminds plants that it’s time for new growth and for animals to find somewhere safe. Old Eucalypt is safe as the fire creeps around its base. Wallum Banksia is reminded to release its seeds held safe inside for so long. After the fire, Christmas Bells will burst into the most beautiful flowers. Wallum Sedge Frog has heard the call and is hiding to survive the fire. Antechinus is burrowing deep in her hollow. Once the fire passes, a new world is born. Time shows us the splendid recovery. This is what happens when people work together to listen to the bush.
Alight is firmly in CSIRO’s publishing wheelhouse. An educational story about how fire can, and does, help the bush renew. Great for reading at home or in the school library, this is another good learning resource from the CSIRO stable.
Reviewed by Jane Stephens
Age Guide 6+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR
Dr Sam Lloyd is a scientist, fire ecologist and writer with a passion for the Australian bush and children’s literature. Through storytelling, art and a love of books, Sam strives to engage children in the world of science and nature. Sam lives in Brisbane with her husband, children, dog and some chooks.
Samantha Metcalfe is a Natural History Illustrator who finds inspiration in the unique biodiversity of the Australian bush. Working primarily in colour pencil, her realistic and detailed illustrations often focus on capturing Australia’s native flora and fauna. Samantha has illustrated several children’s picture books including The Voyage of Whale and Calf, and she was also shortlisted for the 2019 Children’s Book Council of Australia Award for New Illustrator.
Pearly and Pig and the Lost City of Mu Savan is the follow-up adventure of Pearly and her pet Pig after Pearly and Pig and the Great Hairy Beast. This time, the Woe family is navigating the Mekong River looking for the village of Ban Noa, where Grandpa Woe spent several years. They are going to use it as a base while they search for the lost city of Mu Savan.
However, when they pull up where the village should have been, there are only ruins, and Pig’s snout is telling him and Pearly that there is trouble. Sure enough, they soon find themselves prisoners of the king’s brother, who has staged a coup and taken over. The true king is nowhere to be seen and Pig’s mother, The Living Divine Sow, is being poisoned.
If all this sounds a bit over the top, it is – but the action is fast paced, the story well written and Pearly is still her insecure, indecisive self. Will she ever become a fully-fledged member of the Adventurologists’ Guild? Young readers who are happy to suspend disbelief may well enjoy this rollicking tale.
Katherine Rundell grew up in London, Zimbabwe and Belgium. Her books for children include Rooftoppers, The Wolf Wilder, The Explorer, One Christmas Wish and The Good Thieves. She has also written a book for adults Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old And Wise and Impossible Creatures.
Bethany Clark worked for a number of years making books, promoting books and talking about books with many of Australia’s best authors, booksellers, publishers and librarians before she found herself as the manager of snacks for a small child. She lives in Adelaide with her husband and son where she can still be found making and talking about books in between catering continuous picnics and endless degustation menus for a myriad of small folk. 
Sara Acton is an award-winning author and illustrator. Sara grew up in the Cotswolds in England and always loved drawing, especially people and other strange creatures. She studied BA Hons Fine Art and trained as an Art Teacher in London. After teaching and practicing art in England and New Zealand Sara moved with her family to Australia.
Julie Anne Thorndyke graduated with merit from the Master of Creative Writing program at the University of Sydney. She has published poems and stories in many literary journals. A winner in the US based Tanka Splendor competition in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, she was also awarded an honourable mention in 6th International Tanka Festival Competition 2009 (Japan).