Review: Partypooper (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #20)

Partypooper is book 20 in the super popular, bestselling Diary of a Wimpy Kid series (hundreds of millions of copies of books in the series have been sold).

What better way to celebrate the milestone of 20 books in a series than to write a story about a birthday, Greg Heffley's birthday.

Greg's sure his family is planning a surprise party for him. Unfortunately, although he's excited about it, he's also a bit nervous, too.

What could go wrong? Well, his family forgetting his birthday is what.

How can that happen? Well Greg soon finds out what led to it, then in true Heffley style his family decides to make it up to him and plan a super dooper party.

That means decisions for Greg, or so he'd like to think. 

Like whether to have a family party at a restaurant, or friend party somewhere like the trampoline park or an escape room or the museum.

Review: Robot Time! (HotDog #18)

Anh Do's HotDog! series is extremely popular and Robot Time! is number 18.

A quick recap. HotDog is a sausage dog. His friends include a Lizzie the lizard and Kev, a cat. 

They join HotDog on adventures like rescuing a baby bird, joining the circus, auditioning to become movie stars, and playing soccer.

In Robot Time! HotDog and his friends are excited to go to the grand opening of the robot museum. 

Their imaginations run wild as they think about robots. Funny robots, cooking robots, and robots with super long arms. 

They discover the robot museum is full of robots of all shapes and sizes. 

There's a dinosaur robot, a homework bot, and even giant talking gorilla bots.

Review: One Wise Sheep

One Wise Sheep is a Christmas story – the Christmas story – with a difference.

A short, illustrated chapter book, this is the nativity story from the perspective of the sheep on the sidelines, a flock made up of a unique characters.

They include a sheep who wears a bobble hat, one who has a special side part, one with an eye patch, and others. There's also one who has has been separated from the rest of the flock because it has a cold.

Now just imagine if when their shepherds disappear, one of the sheep reports seeing a bright light, which they believe to be a UFO.

Eventually another sheep discovers a different story from a nearby goat. It wasn’t a UFO. There were winged messengers spreading the word that a special baby has been born. 

Review: The O.D.D. Squad: Rise of Invisidog

The O.D.D. Squad: Rise of Invisidog is the story of animals fighting crime! 

Enter emerging superhero Invisidog, motorbike-riding Captain Quack, and water-based Detective Octopus.

The trouble with these crime fighters is they've each got a weakness. 

Invisidog discovers that being invisible isn't always helpful for superheroes.

He can't be seen, which can be an advantage but sometimes it's also a disadvantage.

Meanwhile Captain Quack and Detective Octopus have problems of their own, like the fact Octopus is water bound - or is he?

The super villains they're fighting are the Trouble Gang led by Captain Bad, a bearded, tattooed part-robot.

Can three very different crime fighters work together to defeat Captain Bad and the Trouble Gang?

Guest Post: Independent Publishing Q&A with Kristy Nita Brown

A couple of years ago, Kristy Nita Brown released her first junior novel with resounding success. She did it all herself. 

Today we delve a little deeper into her independent publishing journey and her second junior novel, Mavey and Beth's Double Act. Welcome back, Kristy!

What is independent publishing?
With independent publishing, the author takes on the duties of the publishing company – printing, distributing, marketing, and everything in between. 

An author who independently publishes has full control over their work and their rights. They set the recommended retail price and earn a more substantial slice of the sales pie. 

On the flip side, it’s a hefty responsibility. 

Review: Coco and the Christmas Beetle

Coco the cat is looking forward to Christmas in her hometown. A Christmas carol concert, the lighting of the Christmas tree, and other celebratory activities.

Then Coco discovers that Christmas won't be the same this year, and takes herself off to mope. 

When shimmering, green and gold Christmas beetles suddenly appear, Coco's fascinated. She's never seen Christmas beetles before.

Christmas beetles used to be ubiquitous during Australian summers, but it's become rare to see them in such numbers as we used to.

Review: Cub And Brown

Cub is a boy scout on camp - a young lad full of tips and hints for outdoor survival. He knows all about the sensible and necessary things in life like tying shoe-laces, wearing a hat and carrying a shovel. 

As with all good boy scouts, his motto is Be Prepared. And so, he is prepared for anything. Anything that is, except for meeting a bear in the woods.

Brown is a bear in the woods, who lives in a very messy (human) house, is scared of rabbits and wears shoes with laces that he can’t quite do up.

What are the chances that these two will meet – and in the woods, no less?! You guessed it correctly! About one hundred percent.

Review: Jawsome: Jawsome 1

Jawsome is a new series, written and illustrated by RJ Timmis, about a bunch of shark kids who are just regular sharks by day, and a famous rock band by night.

In Jawsome 1 you'll get two cool stories in the one book: Stage Bite and Finvestigated.

There are sharks and adventure, word play and music. 

The starring character in Jawsome, and the band's lead guitarist, is Finley the reef shark whose alter ego is Felix Frenzy. 

Finley's friends and bandmates are a tiger shark (Hunter), pointer shark aka great white (Gnash), and a lemon shark (Gilleon).

When lead singer, Ann Chovi leaves the band in the lurch, it looks like Finley will be called on to take her spot. The only problem is that he gets stage fright. Perhaps auditions for a new singer will find someone to help?

That's the driver for Stage Bite, the first story in the book.

Review: When Dad's Hair Took Off

This early to middle-grade chapter book is an absolute corker.

Translated from master children’s author and illustrator Jorg Muhle’s native German, both its punny, funny words and full colour illustrations are perfect. The words have been cleverly adapted for an Australian audience (complete with hair jokes and wordplay!).

Dad poses in front of the bathroom mirror, brush in hand, celebrating his luxurious and rather elegant mop of hair when all of a sudden – it up and leaves! Yes! In an instant that hair of his jumps straight off his head and into all the recesses of his bathroom.

Before you could say ‘hairsta-la-vista, baby,’ it was gone!

Review: When Dad's Hair Took Off

When Dad's Hair Took Off. It's a fun, visual title for a book and that's what this book is all about.

German-born author and illustrator Jörg Mühle has combined words and pictures to create a clever kind of wild goose chase. 

Dad wakes one morning and sees his hair jump off his head and run away. Silliness ensues as Dad takes off after it.

He follows it all over the house, then out the door and into town where it enters a restaurant, as well as a pet shop, department store, the zoo, and other places.

Dad's hair camouflages itself, including on a bear, cactii, and in the grass. Another clever visual element used, is the hair looking like the line markings on the road.

Dad tries to catch his hair with a net, and a vacuum cleaner, but has no luck. His hair eventually reaches the sea and he gives up.

Review: A Case with a Bang

A Case with a Bang is part of the Detective Gordon series of books (number five), able to be read as a stand-alone story.

A simple, gentle, slightly quirky mystery novel for younger readers, it features two animal friends who are both detectives. 

Detective Gordon is a toad, and an older and more experienced police officer. He's also retired, currently spending time reading books about trolls. Detective Buffy is a mouse. Both of them love cake.

Detective Buffy is trying to uncover who has been making the noise that's keeping Badger awake. Ironically, Badger is hard of hearing and takes some convincing when Buffy arrives to investigate.

Meanwhile, Detective Gordon is meeting with Helmer, an enthusiastic young squirrel who is interested in being a police officer.

Meet The Illustrator: Annely So

Name: Annely So

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.
Whimsical illustrations made using an assortment of techniques.

What items are an essential part of your creative space?
Natural light, a nice table, and several types of seating (big ball, wobble stool, chair with wobble cushion…)as I constantly need to move and change positions.

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?
I love so many, it would be hard to choose one favourite. A recent favourite is Procreate with an iPad and Apple Pencil. But I really love so many mediums including collage, acrylic, watercolour, gouache, photography, sewing, and fibre arts.

Meet The Illustrator: Briony Dixon

Name: Briony Dixon

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.
Quirky, shape driven, collage, textural, colourful, playful, unconventional

What items are an essential part of your creative space?
I couldn’t do without my scissors or tweezers. I use Fiskars sewing scissors and the tweezers are from some diamond art my daughter was doing a while back. Paint and glue and I guess I should include my Wacom cintiq.

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?
Collage definitely. Because my style is shape rather than line driven, it is a perfect medium for me. I also see collage more like making than drawing which suits me best. As a child I felt more comfortable making things rather than drawing. I think there has always been a fear around drawing for me, I can ‘draw’ much better with a pair of scissors than a pencil!

Meet The Illustrator: Janneke Ipenburg

Name: Janneke Ipenburg

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.
Colourful, humorous, sometimes poetic, with a love for painting animals.

What items are an essential part of your creative space?
When I don’t have to concentrate too much, lately I prefer listening podcasts while painting. Additional, I have my paint (acrylics, gouache, watercolours), my coloured pencils and a scanner for editing.

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?
I am into acrylics these days, often combined with coloured pencils. But in the end, it depends on the story what medium fits best to depict the narrative.

Meet The Illustrator: Natasha Hagarty

Name: Natasha Hagarty

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.
Lots of wobbly, loose lines and gentle, whimsical characters

What items are an essential part of your creative space?
A jug of water and more than one of every art tool and piece of stationary because I’m perpetually losing everything!

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?
Most of my previous work is done in watercolour, but I am slowly venturing into a mix of watercolour, charcoal, ink, acrylic, collage and digital!

Name three artists whose work inspires you.
It changes on a daily basis! But today it’s Matt Ottley, Suzy Lee and Kim Minji 

Giveaway: The Astronaughties: Moon Mayhem

You may be asking yourself how three naughty kids, one pet octopug and their handsome robot minder accidentally got strapped inside a 400 megaton thermonuclear rocket on a one-way collision course to the moon?

It's 101 years in the future and the Moon has been transformed into the ultimate super-cool intergalactic amusement park. The Astronaughties, the children of some of the park’s designers, get a chance to visit the Lunar Park before it officially opens. 

But when they arrive, they discover their parents are missing. Now their mission is to find them, defeat the baddies and free a trapped alien. Hold on tight, this is going to be one wild rocket ride!

For the chance to win a copy of this out-of-this-world middle grade novel courtesy of Walker Books Australia, tell us in 25 words or less where would you go if you could travel to space, and what you would like to find there?

Meet The Illustrator: Kate Isobel Scott

Name: Kate Isobel Scott 

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.
Friendly, a little naive, innocent, entertaining, colourful and cheerful

What items are an essential part of your creative space?
A good window to look out of. Some headphones lots of paper and sharp pencils. Plasticine a Wacom and a computer.

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?
Simple pencil and paper, I also really enjoyed working with plasticine. 

Winner: Graphic Novel Double Prize Pack

Our lucky winner is...

Joseph Spagnolo. NSW

Congratulations!

You have won a copy each of Kayla Miller's graphic novel series, Click and Camp. 

Enjoy!

Thank you to ALL who entered. 

Giveaway: Graphic Novel Double Prize Pack

Looking for a book for your young tween that covers universal, age-appropriate topics like friendship, belonging and identity with a fresh, fun perspective? Well we have found not just the perfect one but TWO for you! These colourful, fast paced graphic novels by New York Times best selling author, Kayla Miller are our first fabulous giveaways of 2022 courtesy of our friends at Walker Books Australia.

Olive 'clicks' with everyone in the fifth grade –until one day she doesn’t. When a school variety show leaves Olive stranded without an act to join, she begins to panic, wondering why all her friends have already formed their own groups . . . without her. With the performance drawing closer by the minute, will Olive be able to find her own place in the show before the curtain comes up? A heartfelt and insightful story about navigating friendships, leaning on family, and learning to take the stage in the most important role of all.

Olive is sure she’ll have the best time at camp with her friend Willow – but while Olive makes quick friends with the other campers, Willow struggles to form connections and latches on to the only person she knows – Olive. The stress of being Willow's living security blanket begins to wear on Olive and before long, the girls aren’t just fighting, they may not even be friends by the time camp is over. Will the two be able to patch things up before the final lights out? The second book in the New York Times best-selling graphic novel series by Kayla Miller.

Read Dimity's KBR review of, Click posted last Wednesday to find out more. 

For the chance to win this fantastic double graphic novel prize pack, tell us in 25 words or less what your favourite thing to do at Camp would be and why?

Review: The Boy with Wings

Sir Lenny Henry, is a British comedian, award-winning actor, singer, television presenter and writer. In his first children’s book, The Boy with Wings, he shows how talented and versatile he continues to be.

An extremely clever, imaginative adventure story unfolds like a fan; humorous, powerful and gripping, with prose that promises the read of the year.

Tunde always felt like a stone in somebody’s shoe.

It is his twelfth birthday. He was adopted as a baby by Ruth and Ron who work in The Facility, a laboratory and testing site for the creation of genetically modified fruit and vegies. A happy, well -adjusted boy, his eclectic friends had taken a long time to find. They were like him; stand-out different.

His dark skin and beaky nose make him a magnet to bullies like the biggest one in class,the disgusting Quinn Patterson.