Review: Sword Echoes : Pirate Academy 3

Welcome back to the Pirate Academy, Coral Sea Province, with most of the students back in their Barracuda Class. 

Yet again the Pirate Academy is battling against mysterious and evil forces and the students are preparing to face even more obstacles to their survival.

Neo, one of the three central characters in this action-packed adventure series, has left the academy to follow clues his renowned pirate mother left him on her trails, in order to understand his own destiny. With help from Captain December Wilde, aboard her ship Brave as the Waves, Neo follows the coordinates left for him to claim a sword bestowed to him by his mum. But now he needs to know what is the significance of the sword? 

Review: Detective Beans and the Map of Mystery

Detective Beans is back in another full length graphic novel and no doubt his fans will be rejoicing. 

If you haven’t met Detective Beans yet it is time to join him and his sidekick, Biscuits, in their quest to solve a tricky mystery.

Decked out in his trench coat and using his newly acquired walkie talkie, this loveable kitten once again stumbles upon clues that will take him on an exciting treasure hunt and distract him from cleaning his room! 

Beans visits Captain Scuttlebeard, the reluctant pirate, to return a letter mistakenly delivered to his house. Whilst aboard his ship, Captain Scuttlebeard gives him a treasure map and Beans decides to put his detective skills into action. He begins to unravel each clue in the hope of finding a real treasure. 

Review: Danny Go’s Volcano Adventure

Is your young reader ready for a challenge? This interactive picture book will take them into a world of volcanoes, hot lava and avoiding danger at every turn.

Danny Go! is a popular YouTube show that is designed to entertain and activate kindergarten children with songs, stories and movement. One of his most popular videos is The Floor is Lava. This now takes the lava to another level.

Review: Mouse Can't Stop

Take one friendly bear who likes to ‘stop and smell the roses’, pair them with a gung-ho mouse who is always in a hurry, and you have the perfect set up for the humorous story that is Mouse Can’t Stop.

On an ordinary day, Bear and Mouse decide to climb a mountain, an amazing mountain at that. While Mouse races ahead, Bear decides to take his time. The more Bear tries to get Mouse to slow down the more frustrated Mouse becomes, and the more determined he is to make it to the top, as fast as possible.

Review: Bear to the Rescue

This story is inspired by real life events. It’s the true story of Bear, a working dog who longs for a purpose, told through his voice. 

From puppyhood, Bear is passed from one family to another. He is labelled too much of everything due to his excessive energy and no outlet for it.   

Moving from place to place, he is unable to be what he really is, because no one he lives with, can recognize his true nature. 

That is, until a special girl enters his life and identifies his potential. 

Review: The Poisoned King: Impossible Creatures #2

I have raved over Impossible Creatures since I first ate it up greedily and, trust me, I am not the only one. Evidence of that is in the fact that it was the Children’s Book of the Year in the 2024 British Book Awards, while, at the same time, Katherine was named the Author of the Year – the first children’s author to do so. Is it any wonder? Everything she has written is superlative.

So you can probably imagine my unseemly squeal of excitement when I opened this limited edition proof copy of #2. With great restraint, I finished the last 100 pages of the book I was about to review (at record speed!) and dived straight in. 

Over two nights I was deeply back in the world of the Archipelago. My eyes were getting tired, and I would realise I’d read for an hour in what seemed like mere minutes. Does that tell you something?

It has been a year since Christoper first went to the Archipelago, and he misses it fiercely. He also deeply misses Mal, the Immortal. His heart is full, and though he continues with his ordinary life of school, mates and home, he longs to be back in the realm of glimourie.

Review: Where Shall We Go Today?

Summer holidays, a time of endless possibilities and unfettered adventures. Anything and everything are possible because holiday plans and expectations know no boundaries.

It’s precisely this spirit of joie de vivre that a closeknit group of neighbourhood kids invest on their holidays together. 

And just like the sensitively portrayed array of cultures and countries they embrace, so too do their travel aspirations take on an international flair.

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: We Saw What You Started

Creating an instant sense of place. Inviting an immediate connection with someone you’ve never met before. Enticing your nerves to tingle with curiosity. 

These are the elements of the holy trinity that a great story begins with and, I’m delighted to say, qualities Carla Salmon has nailed in her debut YA novel, We Saw What You Started.

Nightmares don’t need passports … lines like this set up a delicious air of intrigue and uncomfortable concern. What is it exactly that US teen, Otto is fleeing from? How does it influence his assimilation into his new Aussie coastal home in Red Sands and how will his past implicate his future?

Salmon deftly sows seeds of secrecy, while plunging the reader headfirst into a dire and dangerous situation; an unchecked bushfire. Now, any Aussie worth their salt knows this is not the sort of calamity to mess around with and yet as we dive deeper into this story, the threat of fire occurs, again and again.

Review: The Sugarcane Kids and the Empty Cage

The Sugarcane Kids have a new mystery to solve in The Sugarcane Kids and the Empty Cage by Charlie Archbold.

In the second book in this great junior fiction series, Gloria the talkative and rare parrot has gone missing. 

Not everyone’s convinced its foul play, but there are a few clues that indicate it could be. That’s enough to put Andy and his pals on the case, and they start investigating.

Then Anna the scrub python who lives at the library disappears too, and the kids just know something sinister is going on. But when you are kids, and you have to go to school and walk the dog and follow all the rules, it isn’t exactly easy to hunt down animal-nappers. 

Review: Anomaly

The world has ended. It’s done. It’s all over.

A virus has infected everyone. Killed almost everyone.

Expect for Piper Manning.

Piper got sick the day after she buried her aunt, but she didn’t die. She woke up again, and she woke up different. 

With a strange power she can’t control, she has no intention of leaving her aunt’s mountain hideout. But when her dwindling food supplies force her to leave and she discovers an injured boy, she learns that the virus is the least of the world’s problems.

Review: Aisle Nine

It’s the end of the world. Bloodthirsty demons from your worst nightmares have broken through portals and the world will never be safe again.

But don’t fret too much. The Vanguard Corporation has taken control of the situation. They have a huge military. They patrol the danger zones and fight the monsters. And they keep everyone safe. 

State of the art apps alert you when a demon breaks free. You get points for following the rules and clicking the links Vanguard wants you to. Life has pretty much gone back to normal. 

As long as you don’t ask too many questions.

Guest Post: Shaye Wardrop on the Pull of Dystopian Stories

Across books, movies and art, the dystopian story holds a strange grip on our imaginations.

The Hunger Games, The City of Ember, The Obernewtyn Chronicles. They all paint a rather gloomy vision of the future, but they draw us in. They are thrilling, fascinating and addictive.

But why?

I believe one strong pull is curiosity about the unknown and the uncertain. The dystopian tale transports us to worlds very different from our own. It gives us a glimpse into possible futures shaped by environmental disaster, technology gone wrong and leaders who seek control. It invites us to explore our own values and fears, and to think deeply about the consequences of the actions we (and others) take.

Review: Mookie Vs the Big Scary

Mooki is a cute, brave and adventurous alien from the Moon. He’s good friends with Cindy (a human girl) and Ralph (Cindy’s pet doggy who sometimes accidently wees on things).

In Mookie Vs The Big Scary, Mookie arrives on Earth in his spaceship, ready for action. 

He wants to climb an EPIC mountain, but Cindy’s not sure. She heard there’s a big scary on the mountain and doesn’t think they should go.

But Mookie is brave and daring. And with a little convincing, he persuades Cindy and Ralph to face the unknown.

Fluff: Mess up!

Gilbert and Fluff are back in another hilarious instalment in Matt Stanton’s Fluff series. 

This time Gilbert and Fluff have made a huge mess after "accidently" getting in a food fight. It happens, right?

Mum isn't pleased and tasks them with spending Saturday cleaning the family’s caravan. 

Of course, this isn’t exactly how Gilbert and Fluff want to spend their Saturday. They’d much rather be sipping on banana smoothies.

Review: City Knife

The Chimera are on the move. They’re going to push beyond the city limits and attack the world’s remaining survivors. Bayat feels the weight of that threat on his shoulders for the part his own mother played in their creation. Pandora thinks there’s a way the Chimera can be cured. They’re running towards different versions of the future, but still they run together to the city with hope in their hearts — even if that hope is fading fast.

In another place, Emmeline battles the sickness that is slowly turning her into a Chimera, and Fatima gets ready to battle the creatures Emmeline is destined to become. Can Emmaline fight the sickness? Does she even want to? Fatima has believed the Chimera to be the enemy this whole time. But with Emmaline standing beside her, have things changed?

Review: Boy Vs Beast: Water Beast

Kai Masters is a Border Guard, training to be a Border Master. 

His job is to protect the Earth from the mega-beasts who once shared the world with humans.

Now the beasts want to rule, and they’ll stop at nothing to get what they want. 

With his faithful robot dog, BC, and a whole swag of cool gadgets, Kai risks his life to battle the giant beasts.

In Boy Vs Beast: Water Beast, Kai and BC take on the Serpegatan, a mammoth-size snake-like water creature intent on taking him (and the whole world) down.

Review: Allen The Alien

A unique, funny and joyful offering from Stephanie Ward and Aleck Morton, Allen The Alien is a book that celebrates difference. 

It’s a multi-layered adventure story to remind us that this world (and others!) can accommodate diversity of all persuasions. Especially when we are understanding and accepting.

In this story we see Allen and his pet, Byte, crash-land from another planet into the aisle of a supermarket on earth, where adults are horrified and children are delighted. From here, the chaotic adventure ensues!

Review: The Very Polite Knight

Finn is a polite knight. He’s not like Walter the sneaky knight nor Boris the fierce knight nor Ethel the tough knight. 

He’s very different from the other knights. He’s…. more polite. He’s kind and caring and that’s how he approaches everything he does.

The other knights don’t see the benefit of being polite. They’d rather fight and steal and be scary. Be tough and fierce and sneaky. But when the king falls ill and needs a rare flower to cure him, the knights’ approaches are all put to the test.

Review: Forbidden Journal Of Rufus Rumble #1: Worst Space Crew Ever

This funny, clever and exasperating journal of 11-year old Rufus Rumble’s outer-space travels, will entice both reluctant and voracious readers.

Stamped on the front with shiny gold bits that emphatically state ‘Must Not Be Talked About,’ this book - with its hand-written feel and engaging line drawings - will definitely be talked about.

Rufus Rumble lives more than a hundred years in the future, and this alone is enough to pique reader interest and intrigue.  Also, Rufus has a ticket to SPACE. And if that’s not enough, he’s also on a quest to find his mother who simply vanished one morning, leaving Rufus to live with his grumpy old Grandad.