Review: Poppy Cat

I'm a huge fan of Sara Acton's. Recent books of hers include Esther's Rainbow (with Kim Kane) and Hold on Tight, both gorgeous examples of her delicate, whimsical touch with illustration. So I was tremendously excited when Poppy Cat arrived in my mailbox — and fortunately, it doesn't disappoint.

This is the simple story of a young girl and her cat. Whatever she does, her cat does too; after all, 'Poppy Cat is a copy cat.' The beauty of the book is in the way Sara Acton has so precisely observed the behaviour of both child and cat, finding parallels that will make parents smile to themselves and kids giggle out loud.

KBR Short Story: Grandma and the Tiger Hunt

by Jenny Eddy

Jimmy and Grandma stood on the footpath and waved as his mum drove away.

‘What do you want to do today, Jimmy?’

‘Can we go on an adventure?'

Grandma tapped on her chin, thinking. ‘How about a tiger hunt?’

‘Wow, a tiger!  Where could we find one?’

‘I think there might be one hiding in my backyard.’

‘But, Grandma, don’t you know that tigers have sharp teeth and big claws.’

‘That’s right, Jimmy, we’ll have to be very brave.’

With a little effort, Grandma crouched down on her knees, pulled apart the long grass and peered around. Jimmy stood on tippy toes and looked over her shoulder.

‘Can you see any tigers?’ He whispered.

‘Coast is clear,’ she replied looking into her homemade binoculars. The ones they had made earlier from two old toilet rolls taped together with sticky tape. They hung around her neck on a piece of string. She pointed. ‘Look, near the tree ferns.’

Jimmy looked through his own binoculars. ‘I can’t see anything.’

‘Come on, let’s investigate.’ Grandma held out a hand and Jimmy helped her up. ‘Be careful where you walk. Remember, we’re looking for tiger tracks.’

When they got to the tree ferns, Grandma jumped up and down, as much as grandma’s can, and clapped her hands. ‘Look, paw prints!’

Jimmy looked closely. Yes, they were paw prints. But that was all they found.

‘Where shall we look now?’ asked Grandma.

‘Let’s go this way.’ He pointed towards the sand pit.

‘Oh dear, no tiger here either,’ Grandma said making funny sniffing sounds. ‘But I can smell them.’

Jimmy sniffed too. But all he could smell was compost and Grandma’s old sneakers and neither of them smelt very good.

Grandma stopped still and her eyes popped wide. ‘Did you hear that?’

‘What… what?’ Jimmy listened hard.

‘That noise, was it a growl?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Jimmy in a small voice.

‘It came from over there near the pergola,’ Grandma put her finger to her lips. ‘Let’s go quietly.’

In single file, with Grandma leading, they edged along the side of the house. With Grandma standing tall and Jimmy hugging her waist they peeped around the corner.

‘Paws,’ whispered Grandma. ‘Real tiger paws.’

‘I see them too and tiger stripes as well. Grandma, we have really found a tiger! ’

‘Let’s sneak up from behind and we’ll jump on top and hold him down.’

‘What if he bites us?’ he said as they crawled closer and closer along the deck. Jimmy was sure the tiger would turn his head and see them. And that’s exactly what happened.

Jimmy froze as he and the tiger came face to face. The tiger opened his mouth wide and his long pink tongue slipped out and slobbered a big wet lick down Jimmy’s cheek. Only the tiger wasn’t a tiger at all, it was Grandma’s old Labrador dog, Piper, but someone, probably Grandma, had dressed him in a tiger onesie.    


Jenny Eddy became a first time Nana to grandson, Sully last year and is planning lots of backyard adventures with him in the future.


KBR Short Stories are a way to get your work ‘out there’—and to delight our KBR readers. Stories are set to a monthly theme and entries are due in the 25th of each month. Find out more here. 

Review: EJ Spy School Early Readers

These very earliest of chapter books, with extra extra large print, tick plenty of early reader must-have boxes. Believable characters and a simple story arc with an obstacle in the way of the goal to be achieved are all in place. Don’t look too close or you’ll see little irregularities: just hop on and enjoy the fun of the ride.

Review: Side Effects May Vary

Julie Murphy’s stunning debut novel is rich in language and strong in storyline, with powerful characters that are placed in complex relationship issues. It is about living with dying, then re-learning to live. Its crowning glory is unconditional love and how it survives all the bombings it receives. Beautifully told, this moving story with its many layers it will be read in one sitting.

The story is told in a then-and-now sequence by the two main characters - Alice, and Harvey her best friend since childhood, who loves her more than life itself.

Event: Laureates in Conversation and Silent Auction

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Review: Well, I Can Top That!

Brad likes to brag. And not just a little bit. If one of his friends says they fell out a tree and broke their arm, then Brad tells them how he fell out of a tree and broke both arms and a leg — in SIX places!

If someone wins the local hot-dog eating contest by eating 14 hot dogs in 11 minutes, then Brad won the World's Fair hot-dog eating contest in Zimbabwe by eating 24 hot dogs in 6 minutes — and got a gold medal!

Review: Felted Friends - Create Your Own Soft, Fuzzy Animals

Felted Friends: Create Your Own Soft, Fuzzy Animals is a 50+ page book and kit containing all the materials necessary to create five felted animals.  It’s a fun and easy introduction to needle felting.

The book is carefully designed, starting with an introduction to felting, tips for using a felting tool, and how to make basic shapes. Following that are step-by-step instructions to make a mouse, cat, rabbit, squirrel and fox - and how to turn the mouse into a hedgehog. Actual-sized photos and diagrams are provided to help determine whether or not you’re on the right track.

Review: Boa's Bad Birthday

We've all been on the receiving end of a bad birthday present, but few of us have probably had to put up with quite as many inappropriate presents as poor Boa.

First up is Orang-utan's gift — a piano. Generous but not much use to a snake with no fingers. The sunglasses from Monkey might be cool, but how can Boa get them to stay on his head when he's got no ears or nose? Mittens, a hairbrush, a football … all completely useless.

Review: Funky Chicken - A Bushy Tale of Crocks and Chooks

This beautifully presented, highly entertaining and clever children’s picture book is set in the Australian bush. Eight bush animals compete to find who is the most unique amongst them. Funky Chicken, a strange, dazzling coloured and unique bird wins. But the glory goes to his head.

All the animals agree that he’s vain and loud and long to see the back of the boastful bird.

Croc has his eye on the chook, determined to enjoy a gourmet meal. Dingo has similar thoughts.

Can Funky Chicken escape the plate?

Review: The Fairy Who Wouldn't Fly

As adults, Australian classics sit at the heart of our childhood--and while new classics are being published all the time, there is some kind of deep emotional satisfaction in offering the books we loved as children, to our own children.

Pixie O'Harris was born in Wales and emigrated to Australia where she worked as an artist, cartoonist and illustrator for newspapers, magazine and books. A true Renaissance woman, she was also an author, broadcaster, and designer of items such as sheet music covers, stationery and book plates. She loved to paint murals in children's hospital wards, and in 1977, became patron of the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children.

12 Curly Questions with author Sophie Masson

1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you. 

My parents thought of calling me Virginie.

2. What is your nickname? 

Soph.

3. What is your greatest fear? 

Flying in small planes (don't like planes generally but put up with the big ones as I love to travel!)

4. Describe your writing style in ten words. 

Unique gifts of marvelous storytelling, high drama, and poetic intensity.
(that quote wasn't me boasting; it was what the late, great Lloyd Alexander said about my work-- )

5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer. 

I love being a writer!

6. What book character would you be, and why? 

Jane Eyre, because I was a quietly defiant child and--well, because of Mr Rochester!

Bookish Places: Super Cool Library Spaces for Kids

Last week was Library and Information Week, so to acknowledge this great initiative and the wonderful work of librarians, we decided to highlight some of the creative and exciting library spaces you can find around the world.

These are places designed especially for kids. We couldn’t possibly list all the libraries we’d like to, so here are just five favourites.

Let us know if you’ve ever visited any of them and what you thought. Show your kids and ask them for their impressions, too.

The DOK Library in Delft, a city in the Netherlands, is considered one of Europe’s most innovative. It takes a really modern and flexible approach to services and facilities, offering so much there’s something likely to appeal to just about everyone ...

The City of Brentwood Children’s Library in Tennessee, has a gorgeous Story Book Room bound to fire up young imaginations ...

Review: Loyal Creatures

Loyal Creatures is poignant and deeply moving tale of friendship, loyalty and courage, and the bravest act of love.

Sixteen-year-old Frank and his horse Daisy, leave with Frank’s dad and his horse to join the Australian Light Horse when WW1 breaks out. Frank hopes to come back honoured and win the girl he loves. But father and son are separated. Dad is sent to the Dardanelles where he is soon killed, and Frank and Daisy end up in Egypt. This is the story of their shared experiences, and the deep permanent bond forged between man and his horse during that time.

Guest Post: Sophie Masson - Writing Emilio

Kids' Book Review is delighted to welcome prolific author Sophie Masson to share her experiences researching and writing her latest novel, Emilio. 

The idea for Emilio came from the fact that I was invited by series editor Lyn White to contribute to the fantastic Through My Eyes series. And my very first thought was that I wanted to write about Mexico. That’s because I’m interested in Mexican culture, and also my son Xavier has spent quite a lot of time there—but also because I’d been reading for quite a while about the horrifying events of the drug war there.

On the surface, things seem fine in Mexico; lots of tourists go there every year. But the war there is nevertheless as cruel, dangerous and destructive as any other war. Unlike the wars which are the settings for the other Through My Eyes books, which are often the result of tribal conflict or an invasion by foreign forces, the Mexican drug war is an underground war. It is a civil war, in that it is fought within the one country, but it is also fed by foreign elements, in this case the market for drugs, particularly in the United States. It is both a conflict between rival cartels/gangs battling for supremacy, and a war between them and Mexican government forces, with many innocent people caught in the middle.

The Mexican drug war has claimed more than 60 000 lives since 2006 (indeed, some put the figure as high as 100 000). It shows no sign of letting up, despite varying attempts to control the violence, and it has caused deep trauma to the Mexican population. Many children and young people have been directly caught up in this terrible war, both as victims and as perpetrators.

Skyping with Xavier over the months he spent in Mexico (and praying he would stay safe!) , I came to a better understanding of what was happening there, and just how the drug war affects family life and people's everyday dealings in all walks of life. Nothing is guaranteed. Nothing can be taken for granted. It is that feeling which underlies Emilio; the feeling of what happens when a nightmare that's always hovered at the edge of your vision suddenly becomes a lived reality. When 13-year-old Emilio's mother is kidnapped by a drug gang, the underground war that for the middle-class boy had always been a sinister rumble in the background, suddenly erupts in the middle of his life and his family.

Review: Good Dog Hank

The formidable new creative team, Jackie French and Nina Rycroft, are back with this glorious, galloping book about a dog named Hank, who's a really, really good boy.

You see, Hank would never, ever eat from the dinner table. He would never climb on the bed for a goodnight snuggle. He wouldn't even dream of begging at the breakfast table or chewing socks or chasing cats, no no.

Review: Let's Play

Oh, joy. It's Alborozo. And if you've already delighted in the works of this talented author/illustrator, you'll be nodding in appreciation right now.

Here is a fellow who writes and draws with such creative effulgence, little ones will stand up from their seats and move.

In his latest picture book, Let's Play, a clutch of little poppets are taught all about the orchestra, by a tuxedo-wearing, bespectacled gentlemen with a clear love of the magic of music.