Review: The Bin Monster

With a warm welcome in the bold and bright end pages, this book could easily have been be inspired by happenings on any street in any suburb. 

The narrator is an unnamed young girl who loves where she lives. 

All the neighbours are her friends, and she plays a meaningful part in each of their surrounding lives, and they in hers.

But their neighbourhood’s almost perfect life, is being shattered by a monster.

An unknown bin monster who comes on bin collection night, tips out and scatters all the bins' contents, creating havoc and a continuing mystery.

Who can this monster be? 

How can it be stopped? 

Time after time, the adults try different ways to foil the monster’s destructive plans by using innovative ideas to hold the bin lids in place.

All to no avail. 

The girl decides to stay awake one night to try and see the culprit. 

All that she sees are dark shadows of unknown shapes and hear echoes of noises without names. 

The mystery thickens. Each bin day the residents are confronted with  the same smelly mess and more questions without answers. 

The girl has an idea. She is determined to catch that noisy, mess-making monster! 

Can she succeed? 

What she discovers is the greatest surprise of all. 

This funny book cleverly conveys a frequent problem experienced by almost everyone at some time or another; the attack on rubbish bins by some unknown source in the dead of night. 

It also shines a light on the fact that all living things must find a way to survive and are created with the intelligence to do so.

This interesting theme can generate great discussions with children about the many ways humans can come to terms with nature’s methods of survival, and perhaps an organic way of recycling left-over food waste.

Title: The Bin Monster
Author/Illustrator: Annabelle Hale
Publisher: Affirm Press, $ 22.99
Publication Date: 29 July 2025
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781923046436
For ages: 3 – 7
Type: Picture Book

Guest Post: Heather Preusser on Using Cartoons As Mentor Texts

How did my predilection for highlighters and praying to 'the salty snack gods' lead to selling my debut chapter book series? 

In 2018, I participated in Marcie Colleen’s Crafting the Chapter Book Class through The Writing Barn. Four years later, Erinn Pascal at Andrews McMeel acquired HEDGEHOG WHODUNIT, my chapter book series about a sleepy hedgehog and tireless rat solving animal antics in City Zoo.

As part of Marcie’s class, she encouraged us to think like cartoonists. (Finally, watching television counted as productivity!) 

Because I was drafting a story set in the zoo, I dove into re-watching one of my all-time favorite cartoons, The Penguins of Madagascar, a spin-off of the Madagascar movies that aired on TV between 2008-2014.

Review: Edie Tells A Lie

Edie Tells A Lie is a tender, compelling story about family, friendship, loneliness, starting over, and the layered consequences of making a mistake.

Told from Edie’s point of view (but not in the first person), Edie Tells A Lie feels very intimate because the reader is privy to her raw thought processes and dreams. 

Like the story itself, the character of Edie is both vulnerable and strong. Ten-year old Edie and her bestie, Bowie, have grown up living next door to each other. 

Each knows the other so well, that even when life throws up challenges their bond cannot be broken. That’s how it has always been.

Until now.

Because Bowie has left town. She’s moved far, far away, and is not responding to any of Edie’s messages. She is obviously having the best time without Edie.

Review: Reach For The Sky

Stories that quietly set your soul soaring are not always abundant. 

To relay a tale based on true life with the perfect balance of sensitivity and fact without sinking into a mire of sentimentality requires a deft narrative voice and strong will, attributes Singaporean author, Evelyn Sue Wong has in spades.

Reach For the Sky records the story of her father and his big sky dream; to fly. 

I am not unfamiliar with notions of ‘dreaming big and flying high’, being well acquainted with a plucky little pigeon (aka Pippa) with similar aspirations. The major difference between Robert Shun Wong and afore mentioned pigeon however is that one has wings and one had to build his own. And build them, he does.

Review: The Pull of the Moon

Coralie, an intelligent and outspoken teenager on the cusp of early adolescence. 

She lives with her parents on the ghostly and remote Christmas Island. 

Located in the Indian Ocean, the area is famous for its red crab migration and the small and threatened bat species, the pipistrelle.

It is also known for its countless arrivals of boat people.

Mum is a bat specialist, currently researching the disappearance of these tiny bats from the previously over-populated area. 

She is dedicated to her work and due to this, her family takes second place in her life, which includes lengthy absences from home. 

These absences have psychological consequences for Coralie, and her dad who runs a small diving business for tourists. 

Meet The Illustrator: Mirka Hokkanen

Name: Mirka Hokkanen

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.
Happy, positive, cute, soft, nature centric and colourful.

What items are an essential part of your creative space?
No interruptions, quiet, writing/drawing tool and something to write on. It could be digital, or it could be pencil and paper. Lastly, some items of inspiration for a jumping off point. That could be an illustration I like, a book, a photo or a memory.

Review: Drift

I’m not sure why but verse novels generate all the feels. Floaty, ethereal emotions that lure you in and linger long after the last word is read. Drift is one of those novels. 

Maybe it’s Pip Harry’s prodigious ability with words. Perhaps it’s Nate and Luna’s blossoming friendship. Perhaps it’s the bittersweet discomfiture of wanting more, missing what was and having to deal with an uncertain tomorrow that makes Drift so appealing.

Nate is in his mid-teens, an ex-pat child of Singapore, recently rehomed along with his physically challenged mother in Australia which he finds as alien and isolating as being on the moon. Luna, his neighbour appears a sensitive and understanding ally however is nursing her own darkness.

When over 20,000 swarming bees decide Nate’s home is the place to be, he and Luna unite to save them along with local surfy and ace beekeeper, Tyler. 

12 Curly Questions with children's author Olivia Muscat

1.Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you.

That I really Hate Mars Bars and I hate Mars Bar slice even more.

2. What is your nickname?
My close family and friends call me Oli or Ol … and many variations of those. To my sister, and only my sister, I’m known as Polly.

Review: Leo and Ralph

Just because you couldn’t see something, didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

This is the noteworthy phrase in Peter Carnavas’ latest multi awarded middle grade novel, Leo and Ralph. It sums up a multitude of wisdoms and ironically my theory that the more brilliant the writing, the more difficult it is to articulate an appraisal of it.  

Carnavas has created another one of those conundrums for me as this story is suffused with so many fine and memorable moving moments, I hardly know where to begin. 

Leo and Ralph possess a little more clarity. They both know exactly how it all started. With a white balloon, a shift in time and space, a shimmer of imagination and the realisation of a wish come true.

Ralph’s arrival is less perturbing for Leo than one might imagine for despite his alien appearance and raspy voice, his penchant for play matches Leo’s own. 

Review: The Giant

The magnificent simplicity of this latest picture book by Sophie Masson and Lorena Carrington belies its profound complexities. 

Which is exactly what you want in a picture book for kids that conveys some pretty big notions.

It begins in a cave, ostensibly the giant’s where he has been hibernating for some time. As he re-emerges into the world, the world reacts with alarm and fear. 

The giant heads out, dutifully announcing his return and greeting every one he encounters as graciously as a giant with an overgrown beard and foreboding appearance can.  

Review: Wombat Dreaming

What a gorgeous book this is. As well as a purring rhythmic narrative from master crafter Caz Goodwin, the illustrations from emerging artist Zoe Bennett are to die for. 

Well, maybe we don’t need to be that dramatic but you know what I mean.

Lil desperately wanted

to join in the class.

But each time she tried,

She’d land PLONK on the grass.

Review: The Silken Thread

The Silken Thread by Garielle Wang, Australian Children’s Laureate, 2022 -2023, is an outstanding story of family unity, love, kindness and courage.

The setting is Melbourne, 1932. 

The Depression has imposed poverty on most of the population. But 12-year-old Moonie’s family have a comfortable income. 

Their thriving fruit and vegetable business also supports De Di’s generosity to door knockers and the homeless. 

Right at the beginning of the book, Ma Mi is sent away to recover from an unnamed illness. 

The children are not told where she is so are unable to communicate with her.

 Moonie, with her mother's gift for sewing, believes if she makes her a dress in time for her birthday, it will bring her home.  

Review: Hedgehog Or Echidna? Animals Who Are The Same … But Different!

Dozens of cuter than cute echidnas troop across the endpapers of Ashleigh Barton’s latest picture book with one adorbs noticeable exception. No spoilers here but the clue to this character is in the title. 

Without further preamble, the two spiky critters meet, head-to-head in the first spread of this curious clash of comparisons.

One is surrounded by flowering gums and kookaburras. Clearly an Aussie original. The other is nestled in a forest of fungi and European song birds. 

They look alarmingly similar yet obviously different. Does this stand in their way of friendship? Most definitely not!

Review: Wind Atlas: Everything You Need To Know About The Wind

As a kid, the wind unnerved me. Wild, unpredictable, displacing. As an adult, the wind is still my least favourite weather phenomena but along the way to learning to sail and gaining a better understanding of meteorology, my appreciation of ‘wind’ is now more discriminating.

Wind Atlas, the third in the amazing weather series by Thames & Hudson, consolidates that appreciation and then some. 

Like its predecessors, Wave Atlas and Cloud Atlas, this guide into the world’s fascinating zones of pressure and air movements is both refreshingly informative while simultaneously easy to assimilate.

Guest Post: Aaron Uscilla on Equipping Kids with Critical Lenses: A Look at the Sayings We Use

We all do it. We pepper our conversations with little nuggets of wisdom, those common sayings passed down through generations. 

Curiosity killed the cat, we might warn a too inquisitive child. Or, Blood is thicker than water, we say to emphasize family loyalty. 

These phrases are catchy, memorable, and roll off the tongue so easily. They seem to wrap up big ideas in neat little packages.

But what if these familiar lines are only part of the story? What if the wisdom we think we are sharing is, well, a bit incomplete? 

Review: My Name Is Jemima - A Tale Of A Guide Dog Superstar

There is so much to love about this delightful book featuring a guide dog and her person – written by Jemima the guide-dog’s real-life handler!

Meet Jemima, a loveable Labrador with a very important job!

Jemima is a very good dog who loves all the usual doggy things such as going to the park, playing games, a good old tummy scratch and of course, dinner.

But she’s also got a very, very important job to do – being the eyes and ears for her blind handler, who she loves more than anything in the world.

From busy street crossings to cosy moments at home, Jemima balances her fun-loving nature with the focus and dedication needed to be an extraordinary guide dog.