Kids' Book Review: Jo Antareau

Showing posts with label Jo Antareau. Show all posts

Friday, 4 February 2022

Review: Cranky Chicken

This is Katherine Battersby's eighth illustrated story book and the first in a new series of graphic stories for junior readers.

Everybody needs someone like Speedy the worm in their lives.

Even Cranky, the super cranky chicken who gets cranky from things such as bright sunshine and dirty dirt.

Speedy's cheerful and funny and just wants to be friends with Cranky.

But does Cranky actually need a friend? Cranky is fine, fine, fine just fine on her own.

Well, kids will see that answer to that pretty much straight away, and will have fun waiting for the penny to drop.

In the three stories told in this beautiful book, Cranky and Speedy go on a journey and learn what it means to have a friend and to be a friend, and to push the boundaries of your fears.

Battersby's illustrations are simply gorgeous and gorgeously simple. She can even make eyebrows look natural on a chicken. I especially loved her little nod to the Very Hungry Caterpillar in the third story. Battersby's books have been shortlisted for many awards, and I hope this will be the one that cracks it for her.

Title:Cranky Chicken
Author:Katherine Battersby
Illustrator: Katherine Battersby
Publisher: Hachette, $14.95
Publication Date: September, 2021
Format: Paperback
ISBN:9780734420954
For ages: 4-6
Type: Junior Fiction

Monday, 24 January 2022

Review: Read This Book and Never Fart Again

The Fart Monster is back.

In this book he seems to have had a change of heart away from ongoing flatulence.

Or has he?

A poor (unnamed) child had been embarrassed when he farted in class and his peers used it as an opportunity to tease him.

In desperation, he turns to the Fart Monster, who puts his efforts into teaching him the various ways to abstain from tootin' trumpets and bottom bazookas forever.

The Fart Monster takes him through a series of exercises, each guaranteed to eliminate under-thunder and roars from the rear.

Maybe.

Review: How We Fall Apart

Ah, elite high achievers. Don’t we love reading about them? We especially love the loud splat they make when they ignominiously plummet to a hard, humiliating landing.

This is a Young Adult thriller, set in a super elite New York prep school. The characters are intriguing, four ultra competitive teenage “Crazy Rich Asians” plus Nancy, the main protagonist, the scholarship girl with a cleaning lady mother.

Review: Skin Deep

Scarlett lives in her privileged world, not realizing how fragile the bubble that we all live in is.

The story starts some time after Scarlett has survived a horrific accident. She is a survivor, but does not see it that way.

Her survival came at a cost, Scarlett not only has to manage her ongoing pain and post traumatic stress disorder, but the change in her status as a person who now has a very obvious and severe disfigurement.

Scarlett has always been the pretty one, and took the benefits of her prettiness for granted.

Now, she is struggling to reinvent herself and to understand her new identity in a world of social media "likes".

Review: Get Back In Your Books.

There's mayhem in the library. Just the way I like it, as it happens.

Characters jumping out of the page? Yep, all of our favourite characters will do that.

But maybe not literally...

Except in this case - they are.

The book characters are taking over the library.

Three little pigs, bears, pirates, grinning cats, wizards... McGowan's bright and cheerful illustrations capture the fun perfectly.

Our intrepid hero knows what he needs to do.

He has to round them up and wrangle them all back to where they belong. Back into their pages.

And solve the mystery of how they escaped the books in the first place.

Luckily, there are clues for the reader to figure out what is going on.

A shorter picture book, but brimming with fun. A celebration of the joy of books and reading.

Title: Get Back in your Books
Author: Rory H. Mather
Illustrator: Shane McGowan.
Publisher: Scholastic , $17.99
Publication Date: 1 July, 2021
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781761120800
For ages: 3 years +
Type: Picture Book

Wednesday, 11 August 2021

Review: Just One Bee

This is a beautifully crafted book, written by Margrete Lamond and Anthony Bertini, with haunting and whimsical illustrations by Christopher Nielsen.

It tells the story of One- Bee, alone in a desolate landscape, lonely and forgotten. Nielsen's illustrations sensitively depict the bleak state the land is in, underscoring the enormity of One-Bee's task.

But she nevertheless dreams of how beautiful it could be, of a field bursting with flowers where there is only heat and dust.

She knows it is attainable. But how?

Review: The Travelling Bookshop: Mim and the Baffling Bully

We all know that the best adventures start in bookshops.

Mim's family bookshop is a bit different - it travels the world courtesy of their beloved Flossy, a flying horse, and takes the family to where their books are needed the most.

On this journey, Mim, her Dad, brother and their assorted pets end up in the Netherlands.

Mim makes friends with the shy Willemina, whose life is quite miserable due to the nasty treatment being meted out by a bullying peer, Gerda.

The bookstore has an unerring knack of matching the customer with the book that they need the most at the time - even if they don't know it.

Review: Exit Through the Gift Shop

Ok, colour me impressed. This is one heck of a novel. And it's the author's debut, too. Maryam Master tackles the most controversial and sensitive topic there is - death - and does it very well too.Straight from page one, we know that twelve-and-a-half-year-old girl Ana has non Hodgkins lymphoma, which means that she is dying.

Although not a graphic novel, it is heavily illustrated, probably to underscore the humour that runs through and lighten the heavier parts.

We join Ana some time after she has received the diagnosis - Master avoids the melodrama of the big reveal. We meet Ana when she has digested this news and is dealing with the reality of her illness.

Review: Leilong the Library Bus

Who doesn't love a good story?

We all want to be intrigued and captivated by a fun and engaging tale, and Leilong the Brontosaurus is no exception.

Lelong's friends, Mo, Maggie and Max are excited to introduce Lielong to the wonders of story time at the local library.

He enthusiastically carries his friends to the library, leaving chaos in his wake.

Review: A Weekend with Oscar

Looking after a younger brother with additional needs for a weekend doesn't sound like an easy gig for a sixteen year old kid.

Nor is it.

Jamie is a smart kid, in the accelerated class at school, who tries to live as straightforward a life as possible while grieving the loss of his dad and coping with the demands of Oscar, his gorgeous brother with Downs Syndrome.

When his mother needs to make a sudden interstate trip to support her own sister’s crisis, Jamie steps up and offers to look after Oscar for a few days.

The weekend passes with a few hiccups along the way, but Jamie rises to the challenges and manages to get Oscar to his various appointments and activities despite relying on the bus.

He looks forward to life returning to normal.

But his mother never returns.

At first, he assumes that a wild storm in Perth which has grounded all flights is the reason.

But as the storm passes and he hears nothing from either his mother or aunt about a revised ETA, his disquiet steadily grows.

And he can’t call on help from the authorities, as this would risk Oscar being removed from the family home, something that Jamie promised his parents would never happen.

He needs to dig deep to solve this mystery with no adult help.

I liked that Bavati portrayed the affection between the brothers, and that Oscar was depicted as being more than just his disability.

Bavarti gave Oscar the agency to come up with a strategy that Jamie hadn’t thought about. I also liked how she showed the reader the isolation that families with children with additional needs face daily as their social options quietly dry up.

However, the school bully was never given a motivation to be so rude about Oscar to Jamie’s face and I felt this was a left as a loose end. Plus, having worked for social welfare agencies myself, I wanted to yell at Jamie that his fears would be unlikely to be realised as siblings are only separated as a last resort.

Otherwise, it was well written and left me guessing. Jamie and Oscar were both relateable, and Jamie's budding relationship with Zoe was also done well.

This is author Robyn Bavati’s fourth book for young adults, and I’m sure it’s not going to be her last.

Title: A Weekend with Oscar
Author: Robyn Bavarti
Publisher: Walker, $19.99
Publication Date: 7 July, 2021
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781760653002
For ages: 12 years +
Type: Young Adult Fiction

Wednesday, 14 July 2021

Review: Earth's Aquarium.

This over-sized book is a joy to look at.

With richly detailed illustrations of the various aquatic environments, children will be fascinated and want to linger over each double-page spread.

This book explores a number of different wetland, river and ocean ecosystems found across the globe.

From the arctic to the tropical oceans, from the Amazon to the Wadden sea, each is described and illustrated in rich detail.

As each single page is A3 sized, interacting with an open page would feel like an immersive experience for a smaller child.

Review: Echo in the Memory

What an enjoyable read.

This is a very original story, told in two separate viewpoints, both teenage boys called William, separated by 200 years of history.

The contemporary boy, Will Richards is a fifteen-year-old boy just trying to do his best in the face of neglect.

He lives with his sister and mother, but his mum sometimes locks herself up in her room for days on end, leaving Will to care for himself and his sister Rosie.

His dad has other priorities.

Nunn handles the next part of this delicately – Will’s mother is hospitalised, but the reader is not explicitly told why.

Review: Maria's Island

With its full colour illustrations and detail in the chapter beginnings and ending, this book is a joy to look at.

Gill Smith’s illustrations depict the rich landscape of the village of Plaka in Crete, where this novel is set.

This tells the story of the young girl, Maria, who has a carefree life in her 1940’s fishing village.

Her mother is the schoolteacher and her father a fisherman.

But an island off the coast of her village is a dark place, a place surrounded by mystery and fear.

Review: Milo's Little Secret

Awww, with those big eyes and furry belly, who could possibly resist a cutie like Milo?

Not his neighbourhood humans, that's for sure.

Everybody in town, it seems, has a soft spot and a bowl full of yummies for that little rascal.

Not that Milo objects, of course!

But his scheme to con fine food and other luxuries from the besotted fan club lead to an unexpected complication...

Review: Ernest the Elephant

Anthony Browne is a British author- illustrator who has produced over fifty books for children.

He is also a former British Children's laureate.

In his latest book, Ernest the Elephant, the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous, brimming with colour and detail.

Review: Oddity

I really enjoyed this quirky alternate-history fantasy novel.

Set in the US in 1800's, where America is at war with Bonaparte's France, the story follows the adventures of thirteen-year-old Clover Elkins.

It has beautifully detailed line drawings by Karin Rytter that capture the historical vibe perfectly.

Clover knows very little about her dead mother, other than she was a collector of "Oddities": regular looking objects that contain supernatural powers, such as a wineglass that flows with a never ending stream of wine (and drowns all onlookers).

As these Oddities could be used as weapons in the war, there is a bounty on them.

Clover is fascinated by the possibilities, but her father forbids Clover from seeking Oddities, knowing that they cannot be fully controlled and that ruthless forces are hunting them.

Review: Skulduggery Pleasant: Dead or Alive

Bestselling author, Derek Landy, returns with the fourteenth book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series.

Reader beware!

At around 600 pages, tackling this book is an undertaking.

Then again, the length of the previous books has not put off Landy’s legions of fans.

Initially published as a series of three trilogies, the story arc was rounded off in the ninth book in 2014, with the evil Darquesse finally being vanquished by our heroes, Valkyrie Cain and the sharply dressed skeleton detective, Skulduggery Pleasant.

However, a new series was launched in 2017 featuring the old favourites, the old antagonists plus some new characters.

This is the fourth in the series of five.

Review: Wonder Earth. Exploring our Living Home.

This is a non fiction picture book that invites children to explore the world around them and to understand the wonders that surround us in the natural world.

Rather than being didactic, this is a celebration of the beauty of the planet around us.

The authors invite children to feel, to listen and to imagine.

This is a collaboration between veteran author Zanni Louise and environmental educator and first time author, Tiff Bollhorn.

Review: Heroes of the Secret Underground

This is a fast-paced time-slip adventure. Louie lives with her brothers, Ted and Bert, in the Majestic hotel run by their elegant, elderly grandparents in Sydney in the year 2000.

Louie meets a ghostly girl, Naomi who guides her to an old rose gold locket, seemingly abandoned on the street.

It's a beautiful piece, decorated with mysterious symbols, and Louie recognises it as precious, but she is accused of stealing it by the anti-Semitic Mrs Tulip.

The locket draws her and the boys to Budapest, 1944, during winter in World War 2.

The children meet Naomi in person, as well as other people whose stories they know from photographs in their grandparents' collection.

They also meet their own grandparents as children, living in fear of the Nazis who are consolidating their hold on the hapless Jewish population.

The locket links the two time streams.

The children witness the locket getting snatched from their child-grandmother's neck by a Nazi lieutenant who has taken a fancy to it. Louie decides to risk her life by tracking the locket down and reclaiming this valuable family heirloom.

Louie, Bert and Teddy, with the help of Naomi, face dangers and become separated in the war-torn city. But they also meet brave people who risk their lives to save those of others.

The children need to dig deep into their resourcefulness and courage in order to right one wrong, and learn about the courage and resourcefulness of those who came before them.

A child of refugees herself, the author Susanne Gervay was inspired by family history in wartime Budapest to bring this story to life. A poignant and vibrant story.

Title: Heroes of the Secret Underground
Author: Susanne Gervay
Publisher: Harper Collins, $16.99
Publication Date: 7th April, 2021
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781460758335
For ages: 9+
Type: Middle Grade Fiction

Thursday, 8 April 2021

Review: The True Colour of a Little White Lie

Nelson has a problem that most fourteen-year-old boys would dream about: two attractive girls who don't know each other are interested in him.

This is a sudden change from his reality as a small-town loser where his crush firmly turned down his advances.

Thanks to Nelson's parents scoring a job running a ski lodge every weekend over the winter, Nelson's second life in a mountain resort where nobody knows him gives him the opportunity to reinvent himself.

This is a sharp contrast to his lonely life during weekdays at school. Nelson's best friend has recently moved away and the bullies consider him a soft target.

On the mountain, he is free to ski all day and mingle with guests in the evenings.

Two families regularly stay at the lodge. As it happens, each visit alternate weekends, and each has an attractive daughter about Nelson's age.

Pages

Friday, 4 February 2022

Monday, 24 January 2022

Tuesday, 11 January 2022

Saturday, 4 September 2021

Wednesday, 18 August 2021

Wednesday, 11 August 2021

Thursday, 5 August 2021

Tuesday, 27 July 2021

Monday, 26 July 2021

Monday, 19 July 2021

Wednesday, 14 July 2021

Wednesday, 7 July 2021

Thursday, 17 June 2021

Monday, 14 June 2021

Friday, 4 June 2021

Saturday, 29 May 2021

Thursday, 20 May 2021

Thursday, 13 May 2021

Friday, 9 April 2021

Thursday, 8 April 2021