There’s no better place for children than in a bookshop or library. Heads in books, imaginations working in overdrive.
On Saturdays, when we’ve finished our chores, helping Dad hang the clothes and Mum mow the lawn we set out on journey, into the beyond, to visit our wonder-what wow-ical secret … the bold little bookshop on Ballarat Street.
What our young readers find in their local bookshop is ‘plentiful magic’. Characters from books fill the pages like the cheeky trolls follow them home but Dad says they’ve got to go! From monsters, giants or pirates, to dragons or wizards or wild things that dance. They can’t wait until Saturday comes so they can go back to that magical-make-believe, troll follow, that-one-please, bold little bookshop on Ballarat Street.
We Know A Place is about the wonders of stories inside the covers of a book. But also the place that keeps these treasures and the joy they provide to those that step through its door. Like young imaginations, Beneba Clarke’s illustrations literally fill the pages so they brim with colour.
The little bookshop is also Maxine’s favourite, and she pays it a beautiful tribute with this book.
She is the ABIA and Indie award-winning author of Carrying the World (2016), Foreign Soil (2017) and The Hate Race (2018). She is the author of five books for children, including the CBCA and Boston Globe/Horn Prize award-winning picture book The Patchwork Bike (2016, illustrated by Van T Rudd), and the critically acclaimed Wide Big World (2018, illustrated by Isobel Knowles).
Maxine is the author-illustrator of two picture books, Fashionista (2019) and When We Say Black Lives Matter (2020). She also illustrated the picture book 11 Words for Love (2022), written by Randa Abdel-Fattah. We Know A Place is the third picture book she has both written and illustrated.
As Captain Thunderbolt emerges from his hideout one morning it’s not long before he checks his pockets only to realise that he is in need of shillings to buy himself a hot meal and a piece of sweet sugar loaf for his horse, Spirit.
He lay in wait behind a boulder until along came a horse and cart with a German band of musicians. As he rushed out on Spirit he shouted, ‘Stop there! I am Thunderbolt! The King of the Bush!’ The players quivered with fear as he waved his gun around. Thunderbolt laughed and insisted they play for him, but to also pay him to listen to them.
This tale is based on a true story. Thunderbolt robbed the band, but he was also known to repay those he robbed so there is a surprising ending.
Jolly has written the characters well and Duthie’s illustrations brings them to life on the page.
Captain Thunderbolt’s Recitalis a fun read that also educates us on a time in history. Great information is squirrelled away at the back of the book to learn more about this story from history.
Reviewed by Jane Stephens Age Guide 4
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I was born in Adelaide in 1957 and raised at Henley Beach (quite often on the beach!) where I attended the local primary and high school. I then went on to Torrens C.A.E. where I spent three years socialising and emerged as a primary school teacher in 1976.
In 1992 I married and now have a 28 year old daughter (and a husband), three adult step-children and six grandchildren. I have now retired after 45 years off being a Primary School classroom teacher.
I have had three children’s picture books published by Limelight Press (Limpopo Lullaby illus. Dee Huxley 2004, Glass Tears illus. Di Wu 2005). Both of these books were listed as Notable Books by the CBCA. Ali the Bold Heart illustrated by Elise Hurst was released on June 1st 2006 .
I have a large organic fruit and veg garden. I love eating the fresh produce from my garden. I also love bottling, drying and pickling it. I love eating. Especially chocolate. If I could grow a chocolate tree I would. I have a theory about eating and that is, that our whole lives revolve around eating. Think about it! The last time you went somewhere or met a friend … what did you do? Eat or drink or both!
I also love my chooks! And their big brown eggs. Which I eat!!
It was a month before Christmas and time for a tree, but where, oh where, could the decorations be?
As the family searches from the attic to the garage to under the house where Dad had to crawl, no-one heard the quiet BEGERK! That night as they tucked up the hens into bed they discovered that one was missing. Gloria. They searched high, they searched low. They noticed up in a tree, right by the chicken coop, was a hunter – a hawk – having a snoop.
The facts were quite clear, the facts were quite grim: that hawk was no longer particularly trim.
The flock of hens is not too fussed that Gloria has gone missing. After all, None of them liked her, they thought her quite strange. She had weird ideas – completely free range.
Where oh where could Gloria be!
Honestly, while writing this review I am hard-pressed not to burst into rhyme. You can’t help but get caught up in the rhythm as the rhyming words swish along.
I giggled my way through reading The Daring Tale of Gloria The Great. When I finished, I read it again. I laughed out loud. Then I read it again, out loud, and my heart was filled with joy. Such hilarious fun, fabulous illustrations. A book you simply have to go and borrow or buy.
Don’t miss it!
Reviewed by Rowena Morcom
Age Guide 3+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jacqueline Harvey worked in schools for many years but has had a passion for storytelling since she was a child.
She is the author of the popular Alice-Miranda, Clementine Rose, Kensy and Max and Willa and Woof series, which have sold almost two million copies in Australia alone. In 2022, she released a picture book, That Cat, illustrated by one of her former students, Kate Isobel Scott. Jacqueline’s books have received numerous shortlistings and awards while her picture book, The Sound of the Sea, was a CBCA Honour Book.
Jacqueline speaks to thousands of young people at schools and festivals around the world, and says the characters in her books are often made up of the best bits of children she’s met over the years. While she is not a twin, like Kensy and Max she does have excellent powers of observation and has always thought she’d make a great spy.
Jacqueline lives between Sydney, Australia, and Queenstown, New Zealand, and is currently working on more Willa and Woof adventures, several picture book projects and an exciting new middle-grade story.
So where will the sleepy sheep sleep? Will she sleep on top of a wild windy hill? Oh no, it’s far too wild and windy! What about where the foxes hunt and the dingoes howl? Uh uh, that’s far too dangerous for our sleepy sheep. What about in the long, wet, spikey grass? Brrr, that far too cold and uncomfortable for our sleepy sheep.
This fun story has our sleepy sheep desperate to find somewhere to sleep, her eyes getting decidedly droopier as she searches for that special place. A happy ending is assured as she finds a very special place to sleep that is warm, safe and dry, softly, snugly to let those eyes finally close in bliss. Can you guess where that is?
As a child, David Metzenthen was a nature boy; he loved fishing and farm work, exploring the bush, and being outdoors under the stars. He also lived very much inside his own head; feeling that the world was a place of unlimited adventure. He harboured dreams of becoming a cowboy, a fisherman, a farmer, a sailor, or a writer. Instead he left home at 18, with a copy of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road for company, and hitch-hiked his way around New Zealand. Returning to Australia, David worked as a builder’s labourer and advertising copy writer before finding success as a writer of books for children and young adults.
David Metzenthen now lives with his wife and two children in Melbourne and is one of Australia’s top writers for young people. He has received many awards for excellence, including the 2000 CBCA Book of the Year Award: Older Readers for Stony Heart Country, a 2003 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Wildlight, and a 2003 Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for Boys of Blood and Bone.
In 2004, Boys of Blood and Bone also won a NSW Premier’s Literary Award and was an Honour Book in the CBCA Book of the Year Awards: Older Readers. His novel Black Water was an Honour Book in the 2008 CBCA Book of the Year Awards: Older Readers, and Jarvis 24 won the CBCA Award for Book of the Year: Older Readers in 2010, as well as being shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award, WA Premier’s Literary Award, Inky Awards and SA Festival Awards for Literature.
This story is told by 12-year-old Mirra, who has just moved to Djaara Country, Western Victoria. Wingo is Mirra’s neighbour and she loves to be with him and his extended family as they have a menagerie of wildlife that they care for.
Wingo has placed some loose boards from the fence between their houses up in the big tree. It’s the perfect place to watch the sunrise and wait for everyone to get up. They name the place Leaf-Light.
One day the Ranger arrives at Wingo’s house with an orphaned emu egg. He asks Wingo’s family to care for it until it hatches. They will need to keep it warm. They keep it for quite a while safe and sound until one day they all huddle round to watch the chick slowly, slowly chip its way out of its shell.
There is much to read and see in between this main tale. Slowly the fence palings between the two houses are taken down and repurposed. We learn about cultural practices and Djarra language. We can learn the names of flora and fauna while we see the family caring for each other and the land around them.
This graphic novel is in a picture book format so there is lots to look at. But it is easy to read and as you linger, even for a moment, on the pages the story springs to life. The pitch-perfect illustrations and words are so cleverly put together that from the moment I opened this book I was absorbed by Mirra’s world.
Leaf-Light is a companion book to Landing with Wings, but also stands very well on its own. It’s wonderful. Spellbinding. Worth every moment.
Reviewed by Rowena Morcom
Age Guide 8+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Trace lives on Djaara Country, South Eastern Australia. Her ancestors come from Hungary, England and France – from them she has inherited a love of dance and artistic creativity. Trace loves to rise at dawn, especially in late winter when it’s frosty, and walk up hills above the fog line to marvel at the dawn light and early spring flowers. She creates graphic novels and children’s books about connecting with Country and community. A self-described ‘story catcher,’ she finds inspiration in nature and incorporates local plant and animal species into her detailed, cartoon-style drawings.
When you’re a boy you are told how to be like the white-roaring oceans.
But I’ve learned the fierceness of flowers, the glory of colour and the beauty of dreaming.
When you’re a boy you might be told how to be like the sure-standing mountains, the cruel-clawing wilds or the white-roaring ocean. This book shows us there is another side to being. There is the falsehood of fighting, the strong shield of slowly, or the strength of contentment, the courage of patience.
When You’re A Boy is a beautifully told story. There is simplicity but with depth of emotion. Every spread of pages will have you feeling the emotions expressed from the joy of dancing, the pleasure of contentment to understanding the wisdom of waiting.
Nuto’s illustrations work perfectly hand in hand with his story, lifting this book high up into the stratosphere. A very special book that would make a treasured gift. But this one is a keeper for me.
Reviewed by Merle Morcom
Age Guide 3+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Blake Nuto is an award winning writer living in lutruwita (Tasmania), Australia with his wife and three children. He is a trained teacher with a deep love of literature and a desire to integrate philosophy and mindfulness into education.
He currently lives and works in Tasmania.
His books, A Day That’s Ours and Child of Galaxies are currently available through Flying Eye Books. When You’re A Boy is published by Affirm Press.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE AUTHOR