Review: My Super Uncle

A striking cover and dazzling end papers promote the joy that fills this gorgeous picture book that speaks of love in its many forms.

Imaginative rhyming text accompanies vibrant colour illustrations which spill over every page, always focusing on the two characters - the girl and her super interesting uncle, with backgrounds of family scenes and the natural world.

Review: Inclusion: Handbooks for Little Humans

Inclusion is the second book, in the Handbooks for Little Humans series. It opens again with A Note to Big Humans.

What does inclusion mean? It is when children listen and learn from others who open windows and doors to their lives. Then, knowing more, invite outsiders into their circle and make them feel wanted - regardless of their differences - for there are those who may be afraid or shy and believe they don’t or won’t fit into an existing group of friends.

In Inclusion, there are many examples of what differences there are everywhere, in everything and everyone; how each person is individual – special, someone who has something to offer others.

Review: Bitza: Rules? What Rules?

Bitza: Rules? What Rules? is Book 2 in this interesting series with Bitza the dog as narrator.  

This is not only a tale about a dog that finds a new home, but an opportunity for children to learn about the necessary commitments involved in dog ownership. 

Humorous and highly entertaining, information concerning the habits of canines flow within the storyline, including why marking their territory is as imperative as smelling, and how training builds a closer relationship between dog and owner.

 Bitza has a new permanent home with humans that love him and has finally established his position in the middle of the couch. But Dad is Top Dog.

And there are rules to be learnt. 

What are Rules? There are so many that listening to them puts Bitza to sleep. 

Review: Grave Robbing and Other Curiosities

Thirteen-year-old Alex lives in a room above where the corpses are kept. But don't panic - it's fund in the mortuary and crematorium of Steeple and Son, the family business run by his Mum. 

You can imagine why this accommodation is the cause of the ceaseless bullying and mortician jokes that Alex is subjected to at school - where he's all but an outcast.

Business at the mortuary is going badly. Customers are being stolen by another new and flourishing company.

Noises frighten Alex at night, and checking always puts his mind at ease. This night, they are preparing for the burial of the wealthy Horace Grant. Alex is forced to check the corpse to establish that he is indeed dead and not a cause for concern.

Review: Integrity: Handbooks for Little Human

Integrity, the first book in the brilliant Handbooks for Little Humans series, opens with a warm address to Big Humans. 

In a direct, friendly tone, author Zanni Louise approaches the everyday habits of a child’s life.

Scenes of vibrant colour and a collective audience introduce the word Integrity, presenting instances when the meaning is activated.

Values come under the heading integrity, dressed as a jarful of jellybeans. Delightful child characters experience lessons of the heart and mind when confronted with a value challenge. Following the instinct which lives inside them, they're rewarded with the tremendous feeling of having achieved something wonderful.

Review: Ruby's Perfect Fire Safety Plan

Ruby is a highly intelligent child. An ideas girl. A perfectionist.

She plans everything.

Organisation is her best asset. Always with a clipboard in hand and her computer open to fill in her programs, she records everything.

The most important plan is missing from her list until the local fire-fighter visits her school to talk about fire safety in the home.

When the family is gathered, Ruby brings up the subject. She calls attention to the need for a check list concerning fire hazards in and around their home.

Review: Bitza

Dog-lover Andrew Daddo’s latest contribution, Bitza is the first in a four-book series. 

This heart-warming story draws attention to the evolving forms longings take before they are realized, plaiting them through the humorous situations that occur in the process.  

Jas has wanted a dog for a long time. She has filled her bedroom wall with prints of possible pets until the real thing comes along. 

She walks Freddy, the neighbour’s dog. This temporarily fills her yearning for her own pet, something which her single parent dad fights against with all his will, but in a loving way.

Love is the pivotal point of this story.

On a special day when Freddy and Jas are on their customary walk around the neighbourhood, another dog joins them. 

Review: Mr McGee

The newest edition of the first Mr McGee book is now in board book form. 

Originally published in 1987, Pamela Allen again brings to life her most popular character of eight titles, the adventurous McGee. Someone who is always ready for anything. 

He is unusual, full of life and misadventure, a performer and attention seeker.  

The sprawling apple tree which covers McGee’s table and chairs, and his bed where the cat also sleeps, accommodates his life amidst nature. 

Review: A Light on the Rocks

The SS Admella was shipwrecked off the coast of South Australia in1859. 

It is one of the worst disasters in Australian maritime history.

Building on the facts of this disaster, Helen Edwards presents two brilliant stories, a  century apart,  in two voices and alternate chapters.

Daisy is fourteen years old at the beginning of August 1859, when she travels on the SS Admella.

She is studying her much-loved Botany, intending that to become her future. 

With her parents and little sister Marigold, the family plans a journey to Melbourne by ship.

Daisy is initially reluctant to board another ship as her journey from England to Australia at three years old, was a terrible experience which remains a beacon of fear in her mind.

Review: My Brother Otto

Everything changes for Quinn from the moment she is told her mum is having baby Otto. Ultrasound photos and baby talk irritate her. 

Her stepfather Alex has set up the cot in her room. Now it is hers no longer. Mum is always tired and going to appointments. All the things they use to do, they can’t do anymore. 

Quinn doesn’t want a baby brother. Experiencing the behaviour of her friend Mem’s baby brother, has her believing babies are destructive and bothersome. 

Quinn’s only interest now is her determination to win the Grade Five story competition consisting of three rounds.

When Mum goes to hospital to give birth prematurely, Quinn mulls over the changes that have occurred in her life, and the ones that will  come with Otto’s entrance into the family. 

Review: Our Marvelous Memory

No memory is an exact copy of the original event. It is always slightly distorted. 

What is memory? It is a storage place for all the things which form an individual – memory, body and genes.

This informative book about the brain and memory will excite readers as it answers questions that may have been a floating fog in their mind. 

Suitable for all ages, it consists of animated illustrations, and  entertaining prose in a light-hearted tone.

Where do memories go? In Our Marvelous Memory, we can solve these complex queries surrounding the brain and its functions.

Review: Up, Up and Away: The History of Aviation

Those interested in the history, mythology and legends surrounding aviation will be impressed by this publication; this journey through aviation. 

 Presented in immense detail, the contents will delight and fascinate both children and older people. 

Stunning front, end papers depict the sizes of the flying machines, featured together with their length and wingspan, beginning from the largest to the smallest.

Review: The Observologist

Observology: the process of carefully watching and analysing the world around you. 

This is a Handbook for Mounting Very Small Scientific Expeditions. That means, setting out to find hidden creatures in places not previously thought of, and learning how to identify them. 

Boring is a word often repeated by children. But it is one that can be silenced simply by looking down to discover a fascinating, alive world at one’s feet.  

Observology encourages children to explore the natural world through short excursions to find not only what is above

Review: The 113th Assistant Librarian #2 - Lost in a Book

Oliver Wormwood is Assistant Librarian in the magic library where nine cats keep watch and characters in books, mainly animals, come to life.

The cats are the alter personalities of Oliver’s best friend and co-worker, Agatha, the result of a spell cast on her which has shortened her life span. 

Oliver receives a request from a law firm managing the affairs of the deceased, Phillip Thomas, to examine an immense collection of books, and choose those appropriate for the Library. 

While searching through the editions and comparing their condition with the old library copies, Agatha discovers discrepancies in several historical titles regarding the borders of their Kingdom, Hallarum, a fault, if discovered, could endanger their safety.

Review: This is Us - Essential Australian Poems for Young People

There is music in everything around us. The music of poetry reflects the music of Life itself. 

That's how it is in This is Us: Essential Poems for Younger Readers, a celebration of life. 

An outstanding collection of poetry chosen by Libby Hathorn and Jude Fell, it contains 61 poems chosen from states all over Australia. 

At times, full of nonsense and laughter, they include the sky and Earth, and everything in between. 

Lots of free verse is mixed in with rhyming and rhythmic poems - about Nitz, mosquitoes, swans in their majestic beauty, wombats and lyrebirds.  

Tender and deeply moving ones such as 

Review: No One is Home

Leo wants to spend the day with Kimbo, his best friend. He sets out to buy him his favourite pastries but encounters a traffic jam and decides to walk. 

At the cake shop, Ladybug and Beetle are squabbling about what they are going to choose, and Leo waits in line, frustrated at the delay.

He leaves without a purchase. 

Leo lists all the extraordinary things he’d like to buy for Kimbo, but also all the reasons they are inaccessible.

Leo decides a poem from the heart would be the most appropriate present for his friend. He writes a rhyming verse but at the end he can’t rhyme the last line.

Review: The Friendship Book

The collaboration of two brilliant creators brings us the visually expressive, The Friendship Book. It explores the human need of friendship - regardless of age, and its many components. 

Zannie Louise's rhythmic, rhyming text is minimal and precise, allowing the illustrations to share the focus and create a perfect pairing. 

Movement, activity and joy are present in every scene of Nicky Johnston's delightful translation. 

Delicate, fine-lined images, showcase children enjoying the natural surroundings, welcoming the emergence of friendliness that play  initiates. 

Review: The Girl and the Ghost Bk 2: Family Secrets

The Girl and the Ghost – Family Secrets, is the second installment in this wonderfully absorbing series by Australian author, Jacqueline Harvey.http://www.kids-bookreview.com/2025/07/review-girl-and-ghost.html

It is a work of historical fiction mixed with a considerable amount of historical fact! 

It isn't long since Josephine (called Jet), and her family made the move from Australia to an old chateau in France. 

Her dad Matt and step-mother Ellie, fulfilled Jet's longing to live in the country where her deceased mother was born. 

She is eager to explore and learn what she can about her. 

The renovations have progressed, and the chateau is almost totally refurbished. So no diary entries or story writing has been undertaken by Jet for a

Review: The Stuff That Stuff Is Made Of

The Stuff that Stuff is made of - Things we make with Plants, is an extraordinary book full of valuable and surprising information about plants and their incredible contribution to humanity.

The cover illustrations draw readers into a beautiful world full of wonder and knowledge. 

The artwork by Raxenne Maniquiz and Jiatong Liu, is stunning. So is their innovative design and use of colour. 

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.