Review: The Ballad Of Darcy & Russell

NY Times bestselling author of six books for teens, Morgan Matson, has struck some wonderful balladic notes of rhythm and narrative (along with the sweet harmony of teen love) to create a compelling read in The Ballad Of Darcy & Russell.

The story begins with Darcy travelling home to LA from a music festival, when the bus breaks down. Both she and Russell find themselves stranded at a fairly remote bus station, where she asks to borrow his phone charger. And so the adventure begins. 

For a narrative set over the course of just 24 hours, a lot goes on. Without giving the storyline away, suffice to say that there are global rock stars, Mexican feasts, swimming pool break-ins and security interrogations … all while our two main characters get to know each other in a funny, intense and very visceral way.

Review: Too Many Acorns

What an absolutely beautiful story this is - about loss, resilience, connection and growth.

Patrick doesn’t know why he collects acorns, he just knows that he feels better when he feels their hard, smooth roundness in his hand. 

The fact that acorns suggest new growth, in that they are a very small nut with the potential to grow into a very large tree, is quietly central to the story. 

Luckily for Patrick and this story, he lives in a town with a lot of oak trees. 

Review: My Dad, My Rock

This wholesome story about the special bond between a father and son, is a complex tapestry of all the good feeling things that family can bring – love, empowerment and belonging.

Told in the young boy’s voice, the clear and engaging text is combined with warm, expansive pictures that contain recurring motifs, to create a rich yet understated sense of magic.

If I could meet my grandpa, this is what I would tell him… When I grow up, I want to be like my dad.

Review: A Small Collection Of Happiness

Hettie is a smallish girl with a biggish imagination. She also has a biggish personality, that much is evident from the first pages of this new very different, somewhat off-beat new Zana Fraillon middle grade novel. 

She lives in a very unprepossessing block of flats, which look out over an equally unprepossessing yard, in an even more unprepossessing part of town. 

The whole town has an unloved, unkempt and barren look and feel about it, despite its ironic name of The Gardens. Yet, within this dreary landscape, there is still life and colour, certainly to Hettie’s mind, and as the narrative unfolds, that life begins to revive and restore the colours and happiness it was once designed to hold.

Review: What My Daddy Loves

This tender, warm-hearted and totally adorable picture book is a delight. 

A celebration of the bond between fathers and children, it explores learning, playing, living and dreaming with humour and joy.

Sharing all the different ways and means that fathers and children can interact, it touches deeply and poignantly on that which is good and wholesome and right in the world.

Guest Post: Ryan Abramowitz on Creating Elegy For An Elephant

Join author illustrator, Ryan Abramowitz as he unpacks the artistic shapes of loss and love through animal allegory with the creating Elegy for an Elephant. We recommend you first read Elizabeth Vercoe's stirring review of this incredible new picture book release. 

How does the passing of my father catalyse the migration of an elephant crossing picture book plains? 

Views of the world outside windows have always framed elements of authoring and illustrating my debut picture book Elegy for an Elephant (EFAE). I was staring at the sad fog outside the courtyard of my Copenhagen dormitory studying abroad when my sister called to tell me our father had ended his life. 

Review: Elegy For An Elephant

Elegy For An Elephant is, quite simply, magnificent. The words. The illustrations. All of it.

‘Those who leave live on through our living…’

We all have questions that need to be answered when someone we know dies, and quite particular questions when that death is from suicide. 

This book asks questions from a child’s perspective and answers them clearly, with a reassuring sense of strength and comfort.

Elegy For An Elephant pays homage to a family who are looking to understand their great loss. It’s powerful, beautiful, visceral and totally appropriate for children over seven years old. Supported and endorsed by child grief professionals, this book fills a vital gap in helping children to understand - and to navigate – their own grief and loss.

Review: Selfie

Tully is more than surprised when popular Instagram personality Dene, approaches her offering friendship. Before Tully realises how little time has passed, they are best buddies.

Dene is magnetising. An Influencer of great skill, propelled ever forward by her exploitive mother.

Tully basks in the glow of Dene’s interest and radiant personality. Never having had a friend with whom to share private things, and still searching for her place in the world, Tully allows this new relationship to swallow her. 

Overwhelmed by the artificial world which Dene lives and breathes, she abandons long-time friend Kira, and allows her own significant artistic ability to become shadowed by all that Dene is, has, and can do.

Finding herself completely under Dene’s influence, Tully becomes outraged when her new best friend withdraws her interest.

Review: Cloudspotting

Early morning rises. Silent steps and gumboots on. The girl has done this many times. 

Dad is waiting and together they share a hot snack. A thermos is prepared, and they set off to greet the dawn. 

Seagulls fly ahead of the car leading the way, which is now, so familiar. Shadows move across the sky as the boat is pushed into the water.

Nets are dropped containing the usual bait as the wind lifts, and light breaks on the horizon. 

Winner: My Dad Thinks He's a Pirate Prize Pack

Our lucky winner is...

Joseph Spagnolo, NSW

Congratulations!

You have won a My Dad Thinks He's ...  Prize Pack by Katrina Gemein and Tom Jellett including, My Dad Thinks He's A Pirate and the side-splitting original, My Dad Thinks He's Funny.

Thank you to ALL who entered.

Giveaway: My Dad Thinks He's A Pirate: Katrina Germein Prize Pack

Captain Dad and his crew are having a day at the beach, and of course Dad is bringing his treasure trove of jokes. Whether it’s a ship he bought on sail or an earring that costs one buccaneer, a day with Dad is shore to be hilarious! At least he seems to think so.

You’ll be hooked on this addition to the 'My Dad…' series by Aussie author, Katrina Germein and illustrator, Tom Jellett. Sail the seven seas with Dad with more jokes to make you laugh (and cringe!) – arrr arrr arrr! 

And thanks to our maties at Walker Books Australia, we have a copy of this hilarious new title to giveaway, along with a copy of the original, My Dad Thinks He's Funny.

For your chance to win this side-splitting prize pack, tell us in 25 words or less what a day at the beach looks like to you?

Review: The Comet

The Comet is an incredible book with phenomenal illustrations about home and belonging.

Nyla and her father live a gorgeous life near the sea ‘where the trees tower tall and you can count a hundred stars.’ 

Nyla and her dad spend lots of time together and do fun things like cook delicious feasts, make up stories, and spend plenty of time in nature.  

Then one day, her dad has to get a new job, and they move to a new place, one where Nyla can’t hear the sea. There is lots of grey tall buildings and Nyla can only count seven stars. Nyla does not like this place at all, she feels alone and lost. This is not her home. 

Review: Moonlight: Celebrating Forty Years

Another timeless and wordless picture book that, along with companion book Sunshine, top and tail-ends the day for a little girl and her family. 

This fortieth anniversary edition has a heartfelt foreword by illustrator Margaret Wild and like its partner is also a classic, beautiful book.

It’s evening, and the reader sees a little girl who is eating dinner with her parents before getting ready for bed. Opening onto a bright and cheerful dinner table, the follow-up activities of dish-washing and bath-time are colourful and fresh, yet contain the sense of taking us into a gentler, more quiet realm.

Review: Sunshine: Celebrating Forty Years

A timeless and wordless picture book that nonetheless says so much as it sparkles with delight and surprise. Very appropriate for today. 

This fortieth anniversary edition, with the most beautiful forward by illustrator Freya Blackwood, is a classic in every sense of that word.

It’s morning, and the reader travels with a little girl who wakes up as the sunlight streams in through her window. She reads her book for a while before clambering out of bed to wake her sleepy-head parents.

Sticky McStickStick

Beloved children’s author Michael Rosen (We’re Going On A Bear Hunt and other treasures), spent 6 weeks in an induced coma courtesy of Covid. 

And of course he wrote a picture book about it, because what else do you do with experiences that are both unbelievable and transformational at the same time?

As he learned to walk again and bat a balloon about between two parallel bars (which is what happens in hospital gyms the world over), Rosen’s physios and carers laughed at the name he gave to his walking stick – and Sticky McStickstick was born.

Review: Go To Sleep, Jessie!

What on earth do you do when your baby sister won’t sleep? You head downstairs to get mum. Mum sings baby Jessie a song and tucks her back into bed. But as soon as mum leaves, the baby wakes and cries again.

So, you go downstairs and get dad. Dad drives baby Jessie around the block while you watch out the window from your too-quiet bedroom. Then he creeps upstairs and pops the sleeping bundle back into her cot. And as soon as dad tiptoes away, the baby wakes again. And cries.

As big sister, it’s up to you now. So you do what any clear-thinking person would do under the circumstances. You climb into bed with the baby and both snuggle down to sleep together.

Review: The Bench

The launch of this picture book follows the tradition of other famous members of the Royal family in publishing books that carry a message close to their heart.

Written by Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex and illustrated by Caldecott-winning and bestselling artist Christian Robinson – this story celebrates the bond between father and son.

The simple but elegant illustrations are softened by the use of watercolours. The illustrations convey a sense of reflection - much like having children in our lives. It changes how adults look at the world and their lives.

Depicted from the eyes of the mother, this story was first written as a poem. 

Review: The Most Magnificent Thing

What are the most important things that children remember about their parents all their life? 

I believe it is time together and all that transpires during that time.

Memories of sharing and togetherness are the most magnificent things to every child.

That’s what this book is about.

Every page is a notable activity between parent and child in words and images; a gesture that brings joy. A collection to look back on.

Review: Happy Hoppy Home

Happy Hoppy Home is the story of a family of hares, called the Cottontails.

Their home is a small and crowded one.

There rarely seems to be enough room for the youngsters to play games, or practice ballet in the burrow.

And it's far too noisy for naps.

So what do you do when your burrow is too small? You find a bigger one.

However, Papa Hare and his family find that their new house doesn't quite feel like home.

Perhaps there is another way for them to make the perfect Happy Hoppy Home.

Review: Dinosaur Dads

Dinosaur Dads is a fun rhyming story about a bunch of dinosaurs.

The junior dinosaurs are bored and grumpy until the the dad dinosaurs return in all their stomping and roaring glory.

Then the kids begin a race with their dads in which they run and  tramp and stomp through a swamp.

That's followed by a giant mud fight, a swim, a ride on the dads' backs, and finally a nap.

Lesley Gibbes has created a fast-paced story, filled with words that not only rhyme, but also showcase adjectives and adverbs. 

There is also lots of onomatopoeia. Think: splash, splat, and whoosh!