A New Novel by Jacqueline Wilson

Available NOW

UK Writer  Jacqueline Wilson  Rent a Bridesmaid

Penguin Random House NZ 2016  $35.00pb 361pp

ISBN 978 0 8575 3271 8

Themes: Friendship/ Gay marriage/ Marriage in old age/ Single parent families

Tilly has a dream of being a bridesmaid in a pink frilly dress and of walking down the aisle behind a beautiful bride, radiant in white – and all the better if the bride and groom were her own parents. In some ways the story sounds just like the mixture as before (and of course in many ways it is which is what makes Jacqueline Wilson one of the most popular writers of today.) However, like all her books which are often light and frothy and totally readable  on the top there are the more serious elements floating just below the surface – how it feels to have your mother walk away from the family/ the difficulties (and delights) of a gay marriage/ the agonies of having a best friend who suddenly seems to like someone else better than you/ getting married at 75/ what happens when your dad falls in love with your teacher…. Tilly, the catalyst for the story and who has the brilliant plan of hiring herself out as a bridesmaid, is an endearing heroine and may well take her place with the other Jacqueline Wilson superstars  -- Hetty Feather/ Tracy Beaker/ Sapphire Battersea / Opal Plumstead…

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up (but much younger children will insist on reading it of course)

A new title from Louis Sachar the writer of Holes

Available from  August 3^rd 2015

USA Writer

Louis Sachar

Fuzzy Mud

Bloomsbury 2015 $22.99hb 183pp

ISBN 978 1 4088 6474 6

Themes: Bullying/ Bush (woods)/ Communities/ Enviroment/ Epidemics/Friendship/Fuel/  School Stories

Everyone knows you should never go into the bush on your own especially when a relentless bully is in there as well. However the bully, Chad, Tamaya a well-behaved but determined girl who is at school on a scholarship and Marshall, the victim of Chad’s bullying find themselves there, deep in the bush in a situation not many people would have dreamed of.. Of course Louis Sachar being the original and imaginative writer he is, HAS dreamed of it all and has created a story that is truly scary, in fact quite sinister in places, but with moments of humour as well. It would read aloud well to a mixed group of ten to eleven year olds.   

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

Fiction 10 Years and Up

To be published early March 2015

NZ Writer
James Norcliffe

The Pirates and the Nightmaker

Longacre, 2015   $19.99pb 303pp

ISBN 978 1 7755 3769 4

Themes: Caribbean Ocean – 1740/ Loblolly Boy/ Magic

The hub of this story is a magic astrolabe which must be guarded at all costs from the sinister Mr Wicker. Add castaways, a ghost ship, pirates and an invisible boy with emerald green wings and a meticulously written and devised story emerges that will be hard to put down whether or not the reader has already met the Loblolly Boy and wondered about his origins. The reader feels safe in the hands of a master storyteller and totally satisfied with the ending that comes as a great surprise.  Don’t spoilt it for yourself by looking at the last few pages!!  

  

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

Please Google the writer's name for information. 
As well as writing for them himself, James Norcliffe is a total supporter and advocate of young peoples' writing 

Fiction - Age 10 and up

NZ Writer and Illustrator

Barbara Else, illustrated by Sam Broad

The Volume of Possible Endings

Gecko Press 2014  $24.99pb 336pp

ISBN 978 1 9272 7137 7

Themes: Adventure stories/ Brothers/ Fantasy/ Standalone series

To be the only child in a town full of adults and to be living with your very demanding and totally unusual brothers might be a handicap for some 12-year-olds.  Dorrity though, whose tale (in five parts) this is, is gifted with a creative imagination (like the writer) and leads us, her readers, off into possibly the best adventure yet in the Tales of Fontania series. You only have to look at the jacket of the book, created by Sam Broad, to realise this is not your ordinary adventure story. Could this be Dorrity strapped to the back of a fast moving motorcycle? Who is the young boy, similarly captured? and look at the leading figure on a much larger cycle – definitely sinister, maybe a little menacing and certainly not out for a Sunday Club Ride. Although this is a standalone story, as are all the books in the Fontania series, familiar characters appear before us – just more mature. It was good to catch up with Sibilla - remember her as a very vulnerable baby in The Travelling Restaurant? She is now a tall young woman wearing boots up to her knees and down to her knees she had a green skirt so stiff it looked like a lampshade. Descriptors like this are never overdone – but they are just enough to let us see the action or the character.

  The Volume of Possible Endings will not be published in The States until next year but already it has received enthusiastic reviewing space from the prestigious Kirkus Reviews. This was the magazine that gave the first book in the series The Travelling Restaurant its highest accolade of a Starred Review.

There are few books that I ever have time to read two times but this was one of them and I was left with this feeling - MORE PLEASE! And, if you go to Barbara’s Blog

at http://talesoffontania.com/ you will find this is already happening!

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

Barbara in her beautiful and sometimes even quirky garden, in Wellington NZ.

 Image Barbara Murison