Fifteen years in the NZ bush

NZ Writer Brian Falkner Shooting Stars Scholastic NZ 2016  $21.00pb 348pp ISBN 978 1 7753 3360 6 Themes: Codes of conduct/ Coromandal Peninsula/ Domestic violence/ Mothers and Sons/ Street kids

Ethan Tucker and his mother have lived in a hidden valley not too far from the Coromandal Peninsula for fifteen years  - the length of Ethan’s life - and that had meant no contact of any sort with all the things we take for granted – like hot water and the internet. One thing in the primitive ‘house’ in which they live, is evidence of a love of literature and while he is waiting for the world to open up in front of him and if he is not out in the bush catching their dinner, Ethan is immersing himself in some of the books – particularly Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. This is a complex story with twists and unexpected turns which I read with admiration and, of course, it is full of the ideas and suggestions which the writer encourages from his enormous audience of young readers. This is the fifteenth novel Brian Falkner has had published internationally.

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

Poverty in Victorian London

UK Writer & Illustrator

Jacqueline Wilson, decorations by Nick Sharratt

Clover Moon

Doubleday 2016   $35.00pb 386pp

ISBN 978 0 8575 3274 9                                                  Themes: Family life/ NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children UK)/ Stepmothers/ Runaways/ Victorian London

Life for poverty stricken families in the grim parts of Victorian London was a nightmare and for Clover, an artistic and bright 12(?) -year- old cast in the role of looking after her six siblings, it all became too much. She ran away and found shelter in a newly set up ‘boarding school’ based on the concepts being developed by National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Like all Jacqueline Wilson’s books (especially those about children in such horrible circumstances) the plot has many byways to explore and a heroine who engages all our attention and sympathy. It will be read with enthusiasm by a wide age range and could be part of a school ‘project’ on family poverty in Victorian London.  

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

Magical London, 1800's

Australian Writer

Karen Foxlee

A Most Magical Girl

Piccadilly Press 2016   $22.99hb 296pp

ISBN 978 1 8481 2574 2                                                  Themes: Family/ Friendship/ London, 1800’s/ Magic/ Wizards and witches

Karen Foxlee - acknowledgements to Sonya Coe

London is under threat as a devastating spell starts to creep over the city and threatens to destroy it completely.  And. It is over to Annabel Grey, a most unlikely saviour (a very PROPER young lady) to pull out all her newly found powers of witchcraft and save the city. Sounds rather far fetched?? Not when it is told by a master story teller like Karen Foxlee whose writing compels you to read late into the night to see how it all works out. All is encased in an equally magical jacket- you can't see the silver stars in the image above.... 

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up




 

A new horse story by Stacy Gregg

NZ Writer

Stacy Gregg

The Diamond Horse

HarperCollins 2016   $25.00hb 265pp

ISBN 978 0 0081 2439 7                                                 

Themes: Adventure stories Circuses/ Horse stories/ Siberia/

Take the wealthy daughter of a Russian count who lives in a snowbound palace, a secret young colt and a pet tiger cub, the frozen tundra of Siberia and a feisty young girl who sees beyond the bright lights of the circus where she works. Then ask Stacy Gregg to form them into an adventure story. What do you get?  You get a hard to put down narrative that will be loved by all Stacy’s many (many) fans. A great read-aloud. I have never been a follower of horse or pony club stories but I must admit Stacy Gregg has me hooked. It may be the very genuine and well researched backgrounds she puts into all her books (she is a world traveller) and the fact of the believable characters for whom the reader cannot help but feel sympathy.

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

Winner of the David Fickling Books (UK) Master of the Inkpot Competition 2015

NZ Writer  Leonie Agnew  The Impossible Boy  Puffin 2016   $19.99pb 203pp  ISBN 978 0 1433 0906 2  Themes: Children in wartime/ Imaginary friends/ Survival/ War zones

Ben is only six years old, has already survived a train crash, and now is living in an orphanage in the middle of a war zone and has, of necessity had to create an imaginary friend who he calls Vincent just to see him through. It is Vincent who tells the story… Clear precise writing helps the reader enter in to a narrative that is as unusual as it is addictive – a story you really cannot help thinking about. Although it is basically upsetting, traces of the well-known ‘Agnew humour’ do break through and at times I almost expected Conrad from Conrad Cooper’s Last Stand to come through the orphanage door.

The book was officially launched yesterday afternoon at St. Heliers Community Library Auckland  - I wish I could have been there!

Year 6/ Age 10 up    

Leonie reads from her new book at the launch yesterday afternoon. Image acknowledgements to Clare Scott

A new series begins

Australian Writer

Mardi McConnochie

Escape To The Moon Islands

Quest of the Sunfish Book One

Allen & Unwin 2016 $16.99pb 345pp

ISBN 978 1 7602 9091 7

Themes: Adventure stories/ Corruption/ Fathers/ Good read alouds/ Pirates/ Sea stories/ Series/

Annalie’s and Will’s father disappears and the adventure begins when they set off for the Moon Islands in the sailing ship, Sunfish, to find him. Readers who enjoy real adventure will be drawn in at once by the enticing jacket which puts them in the centre of the action and will not be disappointed by what is contained within… For me it was unputdownable.

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

Bacha Posh - girl into boy

USA Writer

Nadia Hashimi

One Half From the East

HarperCollins 2016   $16.99pb 256pp

ISBN 978 0 0625 7219 6

Themes: Afghanistan/ Bacha Posh/ Family life/ School life

Set in modern day Afghanistan this is a poignant and involving tale. Obayda is only young and enjoys the things most small girls do but when her father loses his leg in a bomb explosion she is forced to be strong and her family has to move to a small village in order to survive. Obayda becomes Obayd and is part of the old Afghan custom of bacha posh. This is when a girl is ‘turned’ into a boy to change the fortunes of a family or household.  See below. This is the first novel for young people written by Nadia Hashimi  (she has written many for adults) and she will be reading from it in Christchurch this Saturday August 27^th at The Word Festival – Google for details.

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

Bacha posh is a cultural practice in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan in which some families without sons will pick a daughter to live and behave as a boy.

A New Title by Stacy Gregg - Now Available

NZ Writer

Stacy Gregg

The Girl Who Rode the Wind

HarperCollins 2015 $24.99hb  329pp

ISBN 978 0 0081 2430 4

Themes: Family pride/ Horse stories/Jockeys/ Palio Horse Race, Siena, Italy / World War II

Mystery, emotion, horses and adventure stretching from World War II to the present day in Siena, Italy is the heady mixture for this latest exciting and impressive book by Stacy Gregg.  Sometimes ‘horse stories’ are just lumped together and dismissed as a genre but this writer takes real happenings in the realm of horses and writes about them with passion and integrity. This time the story is based on the dangerous world of the Palio Horse Race which has been run annually in July and August in Siena since medieval times. 

Stacy Gregg won the Children’s Choice section of the NZ Post Book awards with the Princess and the Foal in 2014. Her follow up novel, The Island of Lost Horses is a finalist in this years New Zealand Book Awards for Children & Young Adults to be announced on August 13^th.

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up 

Nominated for two Awards in this years New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young People

Fiction - 10 and up

Australian Writer

Ananda Braxton-Smith  Plenty

Black Dog Books 2014  $16.99pb 137pp

ISBN 978 1 7420 3242 9

Themes: Choices/ Homesickness/ Moving Home/ Refugee

When her mum and dad make Maddy move away from her home in the city, far, far away to a place in the country called Plenty, she is sure she will not survive. She is sure too that nobody will ever understand her as her friends at her old school did – that is, no one except Grace Wek who was born in a refugee camp in Kenya.

 Ananda Braxton-Smith wrote this story partly because she was uprooted as a child from her home in England and brought to Australia and partly because of the many news items she had seen showing children from the Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia (and other places, of course) who had been similarly uprooted. No one had asked them if they wanted to go. She writes in a note at the end of the book – When I see their faces I think how homesickness feels the same for everyone.

A simply written story, easily read and with much to think about at the end. A good read-aloud.

(This book actually arrived in my PO Box some weeks ago but it must have got silted under others – I read it at a sitting last night).

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

Fiction - Ten years and up

Elena - source unknown

NZ Writer

Elena de Roo The Name at the End of the Ladder Walker Books 2014  $16.99pb 268pp

ISBN 978 1 9222 4447 5

Themes: Board games/ Dystopian stories/ Family life

 

September is just about to turn 12 and like all children of her age she is obliged to go for an appointment at the Name Bank to choose the name by which she will be known for the rest of her life.  Feisty and independent, she is determined not to choose a flowery name like so many of her contemporaries but to her dismay when she arrives at the Bank she finds she has little choice after all. Then she discovers an ancient board game which may just be a way out – but with it comes real danger and a scary new world opens up. Told with just the right amount of excitement and frissons of fear, this is a book readers looking for a real adventure story with overtones of fantasy will appreciate. They will also be looking anxiously for the next book by this writer and poet who has already written several stories for a younger age (see this Blog in the next week) and a wonderfully onomatopoeic picture book, The Rain Train illustrated by Brian Lovelock.

 

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

Fiction Age 10 up

UK Writers and Illustrator

Lucy and Stephen Hawking, illustrated by Garry Parsons George and the Unbreakable Code Doubleday  2014  $29.99pb 314pp

ISBN 978 0 8575 3326 5

Themes:  Computers/ Out of this world stories/ Outer space/ Series/ Staying safe on line/ The Universe

Something very unusual is happening to the world’s computers. Check-outs don’t work so supermarkets can’t charge for their food, aircraft are unable to take off and banks are actually handing out free money. George and his friend Annie (heroes of the three earlier books by the same writers) realise that some serious hacking has been going on and decide they must travel far into deep space to rectify the problems. This is far from a simple adventure story and is packed with amazing facts and theories about the beginnings of life on earth/ time in space/ mathematical laws and all written as an easy to follow and exciting story. This is not surprising when you realise the writers are Lucy Hawking and her father, Stephen Hawking who is Director of Research at the Institute of Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. He is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Einstein.  

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

Fiction Age 10 up

NZ Writer 

Leonie Agnew

Conrad Cooper’s Last Stand

Puffin Books   2014  $19.99pb  223pp

ISBN 978 0 1435 7119 3

Themes: Bastion Point Occupation, 1978/ Family problems/ Search for God/ Stepfathers/ Tane, God of the Forests  

Conrad thinks he believes in Tane as he talks and shares his worries with him. But, he is not too sure if a Maori god would really want to listen to a Pakeha kid. However, he needs to persevere as Tane is the only adult ‘voice’ that seems to be listening as Conrad struggles with his search for a faith in God and with increasing problems with his family on the home front.  Written against the  background of the Bastion Point Occupation in Auckland in 1978  with a sense of humour to which children will really relate makes for an amazing and totally original story.  

Recommended. 

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

Fiction Age 10 up

UK Writer

Emma Shevah

Dream On Amber

Chicken House 2014 $16.99pn 266pp

ISBN 978 1 9084 3564 4

Themes: Bullying/ Family life/ High school life/ one parent families/ Sisters

Amber, whose full name is Amber Alessandra Leola Kimiko Miyamoto is part Japanese and part Italian and lives in London with her mother and younger sister. She has always missed not having a father  (he had walked out of their lives when she was very young) and now that she is starting High School she misses him even more. There are no happy endings in this realistic story but anyone who has grown up in a family where one parent is missing should feel satisfied with the resolution to the problems. This is a story with many funny moments, which should appeal mainly to younger girls. Not, I think, a book for the read-aloud list.

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up  (I don’t know about you but I have always found that children like to read about characters at least 2 years older than themselves).

 

Fiction - Age 10 and up

Australian Writer

Zana Fraillon

No Stars to Wish On

Allen & Unwin 2014  $19.99hb   167pp

ISBN 978 1 7433 1514 9

Themes:  Forgotten Children/ Nuns/ Orphanages and institutions/ Riddles and jokes

 

Jack, who tells the story, lives in an orphanage run by nuns but he knows he doesn’t belong there because he has his own loving family, his room and his well-worn book of jokes. All he wants to do is to go home. This is a haunting story based on the experiences of children(indigenous, non indigenous and migrants) who were institutionalised during the 20^th century. This happened for a number of reasons including poverty and family breakdown at a time when there was no help for families in crisis. Jack’s story which in places reads like a fable, is haunting because it must have happened to so many bewildered children. His spirit however, shines through the blackness and  the terrible trickery making this a story not easy to forget.

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

In 2009 an official Australian government apology by the then Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, was made to people who had grown up in the institutional system, including former child migrants to Australia.

Fiction - Age 10 up

WINNER TOM FITZGIBBON AWARD 2013

NZ Writer

Juliet Jacka

Night of the Perigee Moon

Scholastic NZ     $19.50pb         2014

ISBN 978 1 7754 3203 6

Themes:         Enchantments/ Families/ Fantasy/ Magic/ Survival

Tilly Angelica is about to turn thirteen which means a big family party will be held, wonderful food will be prepared and Tilly’s special talents will be made known. But all Tilly really wants is to spend the day hanging out with her friends and being ‘normal’. However, the Angelica family who are coming to the party from all over the country are not normal. They are all slightly mad; they are magical and it seems likely they are all about to be enchanted by a discontented cousin who wants Tilly’s family home.      

This is a perfectly paced story, full of humour, believable characters and one that would be a pleasure to read aloud to a group. I can well see why it was given the Tom  

Fitzgibbon Award for 2013.  Recommended.

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

 

Juliet Jacka  2013

 image Barbara Murison

Night of the Perigee Moon will be officially launched at the Margaret Mahy Day and AGM of Storylines on Saturday 29 March 2014 at Kings School, Remuera, Auckland. And at the Children’s Book Shop Kilbirnie, Wellington on Wednesday 19^th March 2014 at 6pm. Google Scholastic New Zealand for more details.  

Fiction - Age 10 and up

NZ Writer

Desna Wallace

Canterbury Quake Christchurch 2010-2011

Scholastic NZ 2014  18.50pb  174pp

My New Zealand Story series

ISBN 978 1 7754 3182 4

Published February 1^st 2014

Themes:         Christchurch earthquakes/ Diaries/ Human resilience

  

      A cell phone would keep Maddy, who is just turning 11, in touch with all her friends and this is all she wants for her birthday and practically all she can think about. Her parents are adamant she will not have one until she is 13 just like her older sister. The old adage says ‘be careful what you wish for’ because Maddy IS about get a cell phone – but not for chattering to friends – it is for keeping in touch with family and receiving instructions about what to do and where to go after the devastation wrought by the two big earthquakes in Christchurch. This is a story of true human resilience and could only have been written by someone like Desna who has lived through the whole chilling experience as well as being a librarian in a Christchurch school working with the age group portrayed in the story. The reality of life in Christchurch at this time is written in such a way as to sometimes make it almost unbearably real. One of the most telling moments for me was when Maddy saw, just after the second big quake, that her teacher and some of the parents were crying in terror.

This is a great addition to the My New Zealand Story series and one that will be picked up not only for its historical value but because it is such a readable story about 11 and 12-year-olds and because Maddy is such an appealing heroine. There are some moments of real humour in the story too!

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

Fiction - age 10 up

UK Writer

Rohan Gavin

Knightley and Son

Bloomsbury, 2014  $18.99pb 331pp

ISBN 978 1 4088 3891 4

Themes:         Adventure/ Conspiracy/ New age books/ Fathers & Sons/

While his once famous detective father is slowly coming out of a long coma in a London nursing home, his son, thirteen-year-old Darkus decides to read through all his father’s old case histories. This is just as well as with his father making a spectacular recovery, the pair are thrown headfirst into a maelstrom of conspiracy, danger and adventure that Darkus’s new knowledge helps to resolve. The book, the first in a planned series, is written with wit and humour but will probably appeal more to ‘hungry’ readers than to those who need a bit of persuading to start something new.  For the opinions of the story from some young readers (mainly I think from the UK) go to Good Reads http://www.goodreads.com/book

The cover does not do the story justice. 

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

Fiction - 10-12 year olds

NZ Writer

Linley Jones

On The Edge

AM Publishing New Zealand 2013  $20.00pb 164pp

ISBN 978 0 9922 6283 9

Themes:  Bullying/ Batophobia (Fear of heights)/ Father-son relationships/ Flute playing/ Rock climbing/ Sailing/ Smuggling/ Tramping

 
Brady is nearly 13, is being bullied at school, has a deep fear of heights and is resentful of his father who is spending more and more time overseas. Using her own understanding of her grandchildren and children, her experiences sailing around the Pacific, tramping in the New Zealand forests and her love of travel, Linley Jones has created an adventure story young readers will relate to because it is based on truths they will recognize. There are no simple answers for Brady and, apart from the issue of bullying, not everything is resolved but, as so often happens, he develops strategies for dealing with his demons.     

Year 6-8/ Ages 10-12

Available from the author: lesjones@xtra.co.nz

Fiction - 10 up

Australian Writer

Lian Tanner

Ice Breaker

Book One in The Hidden series

Allen & Unwin 2013  $23.99pb 313pp

ISBN 978 1 7433 1434 0

Themes:  Adventure/ Fantasy/ Series

On an ancient and rusting icebreaker that has been circling the southern icecap for the past three hundred years are three warring tribes -the Cooks, the Officers and the Engineers. All the knowledge in the world is now kept on the ship. Everyone belongs to one tribe or another – that is everyone except 12- year-old Petrel whose parents committed such a terrible crime for which they were thrown overboard that she has been totally ostracised. She is a complete loner until one day a boy is discovered, frozen half to death on an iceberg and is brought on board. This is an absorbing and exciting fantasy/adventure story that readers who loved The Keepers series should find equally enthralling. The Hidden series, Part 2 is due to be published in October 2014.

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up

Lian Tanner, who lives in southern Tasmania, has had many career paths to follow. She has been a professional actor, an editor, a community arts worker, a tourist bus driver, a freelance journalist and a teacher. 

Image of Lian Tanner acknowledgements to Matt Thompson, Mercury Newspaper, Tasmania

Fiction - 10 and up

NZ Writer

Philippa Werry

Lighthouse Family – Coastal New Zealand 1941-42

My New Zealand Story series

Scholastic 2013  $18.99pb         240pp

ISBN 978 1 7754 3147 3

Themes:         Deafness in children/ Lighthouse life/ World War Two

Living in New Zealand in the early 1940s was a scary business for children and even more so for the adults who tried to keep the worry of the of threat of a Japanese invasion away from us. However for Frances, who lives in a lighthouse on an island where she is the only girl, has much more to worry about – including her young brother Stephen who is deaf and it seems she is the only person who can make him laugh. Writing a book far into a series that already has at least 26 titles is not easy but there is a freshness and interest about Lighthouse Family that I found particularly addictive and the attitudes and the prejudices of the time blend neatly into the story. Frances can be added to the writer’s growing list of appealing and likeable heroines. The extra fact pages, photos and timelines make it a useful resource for any study on Living in a Lighthouse.

Year 6 up/ Age 10 up