Review: My Two Blankets

I'm not one to enter politics, especially Mid-Debacle, but frankly, this beautiful book couldn't be more timely.

A young, cartwheeling girl leaves her war-ravaged homeland and arrives in Australia - we do not know how, but she [miraculously] arrives and begins an achingly slow integration.

Everything is strange here. The people are strange. The food is strange. Even the wind is strange.

She doesn't speak the language, and all around her is a waterfall of bizarre sounds - cold and intimidating and lonesome.

Review: Kiss Kiss Goodnight

Bedtime has never been so delightful! This beautiful board book of rhyming verse with its gorgeous padded cover is a great way to prepare young ones for sleep. Made up of a double spread for each animal, bunnies, kittens, lambs, bear cubs and chicks fill the pages with images of tenderness and love.

Its delicate expression of the mother and child relationship; the protection, caring and warmth that mother and child share, is deeply moving. Cuddles, kisses, wriggles and changing positions all come into play before the final settling down.

Review: Ophelia and the Marvellous Boy

Ophelia Jane Worthington-Whittard is a sensible, practical girl. She trusts science and facts and has no time for stories about ghosts and wizards and magical messengers. She is struggling to adjust after her mother’s death, feeling disconnected from her busy father and distracted sister.

Ophelia and her family travel to a snow-covered city where her father is in charge of arranging a sword collection for an upcoming exhibition. The museum contains many wonders that will challenge Ophelia’s sensible outlook on life, especially the young boy without a name she discovers trapped in a room. He claims to have a message from the wizards for the One Other who will defeat the Snow Queen and Ophelia wonders what trick he is trying to play.

Gradually, she is drawn into the boy’s story and her adventure begins as she tries to rescue him from his prison and help him find the One Other, who will save them all before the Wintertide Clock chimes and the Snow Queen triumphs over them all.

Blog Tour: Karen Foxlee on Kids' Book Villians

Kids’ Book Review is delighted to have author Karen Foxlee stop by on her blog tour for Ophelia and the Marvellous Boy. This wonderful middle fiction novel features an evil Snow Queen in the role of villain. Karen shares with us why she feels this villainous role is so important in children’s books. Make sure you check out the other blog tour links at the end of this post for more informtion about Karen and Ophelia.

Why are there are so many villains in children’s books and what purpose do they serve? I’ve been thinking about this a lot, since one turned up in my own; a snow queen, an icy villain, utterly evil, and intent on destroying the world.When she first arrived in my story I sat for a long time at my desk wondering what to do. She made me feel uneasy. What unsettled me most was my overwhelming desire to make her as terrifying on the page as I could.

In the stories of my childhood there were some terrible villains! There were wicked queens, wicked step-mothers and wicked fairies. Wicked witches were thick on the ground (Lewis’s White Witch, Baum’s Wicked Witch from the West, and Dahl’s Grand High Witch). They did horrible and unfair things, just for the sake of doing them and I was shocked by the injustices they meted out. I was traumatised for years by thoughts of walking the plank thanks to Barrie’s Captain Hook.

And in the stories of my childhood there were some particularly nasty wolves. Don’t even get me started on the wolves! But Andersen’s Snow Queen, she was the worst of all!  She slid up in her sleigh and stole away a small boy.  Nestled in my mother’s arms I can remember having the wind knocked out of me by that.  A beautiful, nice smelling woman, offering warmth from the cold, was about to steal a boy. Surely he wasn’t going to get in that sleigh right?

Review: Busy Wheels series

Four new books have come out together in the Busy Wheels series for pre-school children. This is a terrific collection that showcases specific vehicles, their use, where and when they are needed, and the significant parts they are made up of. They follow the same design, but use different animal characters for each title.

Review: The Cuddliest Hug

Little Baby Kanga has lost her mum. Hopping through the trees, she asks her Aussie animal friends if they can give her a sleepy-time cuddle.

Echidna happily obliges but Kanga finds her too prickly. Platypus is quick to offer, but he's so wet and slippery! Even Koala offers use of her pouch, but Kanga is a teensy bit too large.

Enter Crocodile. He's more than happy to give Kanga an open-mouthed snuggle (yikes!) but Dingo senses danger and wise old Jabiru knows just what to do.

12 Curly Questions with author Meredith Badger

1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you. 
At the moment I live in Germany.

2. What is your nickname? 
‘Meri’ or ‘Mere' are the most common ones.

3. What is your greatest fear?
Forgetting to save my work or not backing it up properly on the computer.

4. Describe your writing style in ten words.
I always end up writing more than I am meant to.

5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer.
That’s a really hard question! Here are five words I would love to hear used about my writing: funny, surprising, interesting, enjoyable, entertaining.

Review: Billie B Mystery #1 and #2

Billie B Brown is growing up. Her adventures are changing and so are her challenges. These first two books in the new Billie B Mystery series might still be early chapter books, but they pack a punch.

Should you scare your friends on purpose, especially when you know what they are most afraid of? And what happens if they do the same thing to you? How far would you go to help out a friend in danger? Could you overcome your fears to help them out?

Review: Boy

There's something about Roald Dahl.

It goes beyond his stories. Or perhaps, more accurately, it lies deeply entwined in his stories ... that laconic yet intense persona, packed with mischief and glee but complemented by the merest sinister twist.

In Boy, Dahl's memoir of his early childhood ('Boy' was what his mother called him and was the moniker he always used to sign his letters home), we learn about the authors earliest years in Wales.

Review: The Tinklers Three: A Very Good Idea

Mila, Marcus and Turtle are three rather unusual children. To start with, their parents are away in the circus, so the three kids live alone, taking care of themselves.

Marcus's older sister, Mila, is full of ideas. In fact, every time she sneezes, she gets a new idea — some of them good (the best food for breakfast is chocolate ice cream), some of them not so good (a bird's nest makes a good hat).

Younger sister Turtle likes to eat lettuce and growls a lot. Logical really, given that she thinks she's a turtle, but a bit confusing for those who just see a little girl.

Review: Changeling (Order of Darkness #1)

The Year is 1453 and all signs point to it being the end of the world…

Well known author Philippa Gregory brings her impeccably researched, character driven historical drama to the young adult genre, introducing teen readers to Italy in the 15th century. In a time of religious instability and superstition, 17-year-old Luca Vero is expelled from his monastery for asking too many questions – a quality that makes him perfect to take on a role with the Order of Darkness, a group commissioned by the Pope to investigate reports of events and fears that point to the End Times.

Guest Post: A Horsey Chinese New Year with Author Sarah Brennan

KBR warmly welcomes dynamic Hong Kong-based author Sarah Brennan with this fabulous peek at the next book in her Chinese Calendar Tales series--along with a delicious Chinese culture lesson!

Hong Kong is still celebrating Chinese New Year as I write; the holiday officially lasts 15 days which can be great fun or a bit annoying, depending on how much work you want to get done!

It starts when the moon is at its thinnest sliver and ends when it is at its fullest - hence a different start date each year to keep us all on our toes, and to make it perennially tricky for those born in January or February to determine to which Zodiac species they belong! My brother labored under the delusion that he was a fiery Dragon for years before I finally informed him that in fact he was a fluffy Rabbit. Poor chap.

Review: Diary of a Super Swimmer

9-year-old Marcus Atkinson isn’t really all that interested in sport. Unfortunately, his self-help guru dad is convinced that Marcus is a sporting star – he just hasn’t found the right sport yet.

Young readers will be laughing out loud as Marcus tries to convince his Dad that he will never be a Super Swimmer. He tries his best, but he just doesn't seem to be able to do anything well - diving, polo, backstroke, butterfly or freestyle. Will he ever be able to achieve anything in the pool?

12 Curly Questions with author/illustrator Peter Carnavas

1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you.
I’ve bought so many random coffee cups from op-shops that they don’t fit in the cupboard anymore.  So now I use some of them for my painting. 

2. What is your nickname? 
I’m trying to get everyone to call me Pedro but it’s not really catching.  Some of my family call me Peteyboy, including my daughters.

3. What is your greatest fear?
I’m not great with heights or water.  So I guess I can rule out cliff diving for my next holiday.

4. Describe your writing style in ten words. 
Little stories about big ideas, accompanied by some quiet animals.

5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer.
Productive, despite all the day-dreaming.  (Is that five or six words?)

Librarian's Shelf: Find Ten Minutes A Day

Albert Einstein was quoted as saying: “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” I believe what Einstein was really getting at, is that reading something that engages the imagination, expands the mind. It might be a fairy tale but it might also be a brand new picture book or a silly poem.

Reading to your child for ten minutes a day can make all the difference in their life. It’s not so much about what you read, but that you read at all. Whatever you read, it will help broaden your child’s vocabulary and create a bond between you.

There are lots of ways to make reading to children a routine part of life, and to help kids as they learn to read and progress along their reading journey. Three Australian authors who clearly know something about books, and what children like to read, have shared some of what they’ve learnt by writing books for parents, too.

Mem Fox, Jackie French and Paul Jennings can help you discover ways to make reading for ten minutes a day a rewarding experience. You should be able to find each of these books at your local public library:

· Reading Magic by Mem Fox

· Rocket Your Child Into Reading by Jackie French

· The Reading Bug and How You Can Help Your Child To Catch It by Paul Jennings

Read more on Reading to Children with the new Australian Children's Laureate, Jackie French.

Sarah Steed is our Consultant Librarian and reviewer. A former Children's and Young Adult Librarian, she has more than 18 years' experience working in public libraries. Sarah comes from a family of readers and has shelves full to bursting with books. 

Speechie's Couch: Amazing Aliteration

When tapping out syllables is fun and predicting rhyming words is a wonderworld of discovery, pre-schoolers are finally ready for the first giant leap into pre-literacy. It is at this time that something quite magical happens in the developing pre-schooler brain. Children begin to notice that the first sound in words can be different.

Now sound-awareness games can begin.

This is the time when long car trips can be filled with loads of wordy fun. Call out a word, any word, and see who will be the first to find the sound it begins with. ‘I Spy with My Little Eye’ will be a winner, too, but watch out - children at this pre-reading stage don’t really care about letter names. They are focussed on how a word and its parts sound.

When I was about five, I had my entire family flummoxed. My ‘I Spy’ clue was ‘something beginning with ch’. My answer was ‘tree’. It sounds like it starts with ‘ch’, doesn’t it? You should have heard my older brothers and sisters groan.

And so it is with children at this critical sound-awareness stage. It’s all about letter sounds, not letter names. So, don’t bother with alphabet books at this stage. Instead, it’s time to embrace tales where the first sound in a word is featured.

Alliteration stories like Six Sleepy Sheep (Jeffie Ross Gordon and John O’Brien) and Don’t you Dare, Dragon! (Annie Kubler) are perfect for this stage. Can you hear all the words that start with the same sound?

Look-and-find books will also provide hours of fun. Who can find the most things that start with a particular sound?

Words are everywhere and so are the sounds they start with, so get ready to enjoy the ride as your pre-schooler explores words in a totally different way.

 

Jo Burnell is KBR's Development Editor and resident paediatric speech pathologist. A reviewer of children’s and YA books and shortlisting judge for Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year, Jo is familiar with effective writing for Upper Primary and Secondary students.