Picture Books

If you need some great new Aussie picture books then you can't go past these. They are terrific.

My Mum Is the Best Rosie Smith & Bruce Whatley (Scholastic)
I missed this for Mother's Day but mum's deserve celebration every day - as do dad's - and this book is just a lovely celebration of all things mum!
From the kisses and hugs, feeding, transporting to school, and all the other things they do, like singing and playing games and just generally taking care. Of course the mum's in the terrific illustrations are well chosen mum's from the animal kingdom like fish, seals, bears elephants and gorgeous bats who snuggle heir babies to bed each night and each mum is demonstrating a different wonderful activity that mum's do. There is generous space surrounding the text and the illustrations.
A delightful book to share with the very young.
Hooray for mum's everywhere.

Song of the Dove Errol Broome & Sonia Kretschmar (walker Books)
How terrific to find a picture book with some lovely period illustrations that touches on the world of opera.
Vincenzo Bellini (best known opera is probably Norma - at least for me) wrote the music for beautifully flowing operas. Bellini gives music lessons in Naples (before writing is first opera) and one of his students is the beautiful Maddelena. They fall in love. When her parents forbid them to marry they vow that nothing will tear them apart - even when he is called to Milan to continue composing operas.

Alpha Monsters Chris Kennett (Scholastic)
This is a delightful take on the alphabet book with monsters being the alphabet stars. Told in rhyming verse it is the story of a boy and his teddy who go out in the rain and get caught in a thunder storm and land in another world. They land no an island of alphabetical monsters and one of those monsters has lost his teddy. together Freddy and the monster set off to find the monster’s lost teddy. The rhyming text and bright, cartoon style illustrations make this book fun and entertaining.

Button Boy Rebecca Young & Sue DeGennaro (Scholastic)
People collect the most amazing things and Banjo loves collecting the buttons that the folks in his neighbourhood seem to be continually loosing. Even day he would come home with a new button and every day Grandma Woolly would sew the button onto his favourite jumper (that was her idea). Of course having lost the buttons all the neighbourhood knows where to find them and they are soon meeting Banjo for their buttons.
A lovely tale with simple illustrations about lost and found things and of course friendships.

Waiting for Later Tina Matthews (Walker Books)
A delightful story about being told to wait for later that will ring true for nearly every child.
When Nancy asks all her relatives to spend time with her doing different activities, that include rocking backwards and forwards, being tickled, being told a story, they all tell Nancy to wait for later. So Nancy climbs a tree to wait for later. In that tree Nancy find that all the things that she wants to do with her relatives, the tree can do too.
And when later arrives, it’s her family who wonder where Nancy’s got to.
Lovely woodcut and stencil images accompany the text. Great for young readers.

Enjoy sharing these lovely titles.

from Magabala

Two new great titles from Magabala books, Australia's oldest independent Indigenous publishing house.

Stolen Girl Trina Saffioti & Norma MacDonald (Magabala Books)

A young Aboriginal girl is taken by the Child Protector of Aboriginals to live in a new home with other Aboriginal children. At night she whispers to herself her Aboriginal name and she sings songs, imagines and dreams. She remembers her early life and upbringing with her mother and the Elders. She hears of the 'lucky' girls who are taken as domestic help and decides she doesn't want to be that lucky. One day the time has come and she takes her first steps back to her home.

This fictionalised account is a great way to introduce young readers to the Stolen Generation. The story is beautifully and emotionally told and accompanied by lovely water colour illustrations.

Ubby's Underdogs : The Legend of the Phoenix Dragon Brenton E. McKenna (Magabala Boooks)

The cast of Ubby’s Underdogs – a small rag-tag group of misfits who makeup the town’s smallest gang but are often underestimated by the other town gangs includes Ubby, a street-wise Aboriginal girl, Sai Fong, a Chinese girl just off the boat from Shanghai, Fin a cool Irishman and Sel a big friendly giant and a New Zealander descended from Maori warriors called Gabe.

Set in the 1940s in the small pearling settlement of Broome this graphic novel is a heroic tale of fun and adventure, with themes that include courage, bravery and friendship, and the weak and the strong and the battle of the underdogs. It is intertwined with myths and legends.

This is a fun read – especially if readers like graphic novels. It is the first Australian Indigenous novel (and the first in the Ubby's Underdogs trilogy).

First Fiction

Here are some titles that are just perfect for the younger reader who is stepping away from picture books into reading fiction titles. they all have generously spaced text and appropriate font size as well as illustrations on every page. each title also has a number of chapters or stories within the title.

Mr Tripp Smells a Rat (Walker Stories) Sandy McKay & Ruth Paul (Walker Books)
This is a collection of three stories about Room 5 and their teacher Mr. Tripp, who loves telling jokes.  The first is about a class rat that has escaped from its cage; another about a birthday party for Mr. Tripp who just happens to be on a seafood diet which makes party food hard); and lastly the number one problem of all early school years - the dreaded Nits. These are lovely stories appropriately told for the early reader.




Our Gags (Walker Stories) Catriona Hoy & Annabelle Josse (Walker Books)
There is a new baby in the house and so mum is very consumed with feeding and change smelly nappies and burping and little vomits … luckily there is a gag's machine on hand to lend assistance and keep it all  running smoothly. Gag's of course is grandmother and the three stories in this book delightfully tell tales about Gags and her adventures with the family, getting things in order in the house, playing in the park, and going on family holidays - again perfect stories for the early reader.





The Deep End (Aussie Nibbles) Ursula Dubosarsky & Mitch Vane (Puffin)
The Deep End is Ursula's latest instalment for the Aussie Nibbles series - and this time Becky who has appeared in earlier nibbles titles - is learning to swim. She loves swimming lessons at the local pool but now it is time for her group to move up. Now she is moving into the deep end of the pool and Becky doesn't know if she is quite ready for the that part of the pool yet.
A wonderful examination of a young child's discovery of learning to swim in the deep end of the pool.
This title is shortlisted for the Younger Reader Book of the Year award.

New Junior Reader Series Titles

Great new series titles for younger readers have been hitting the shelves.
here are some of the ones I really like.

Camp Croc Trudie Trewin (Walker Books)
Another title in Walker's Lightning Strikes series that are great for readers who want a good solid read that is fast paced with plenty of action.
School camp has never been like this. Daks and his mates have been waiting all their school lives to go to camp - school camp at Camp Trib is legendary and the boys have arrived. WHen they set out  on the first activity and come across the sign at the boundary fence it doesn't take too much to entice the boys further intuit eh jungle. and that is where the unsexpected adventure begins as they discover two wildlife smugglers in the process of increasing their illegal collection. Now the boys have to decide exactly what to do and who they are afraid of - the muggers or the wildlife!

Out of This World, EJ12 Girl Hero : Book 9 Susannah McFarlane (Scholastic)
another delightful Emma Jack title. These books are just the thing for young girls who want adventure with a girl who is the hero.
EJ is at school when she receive the call from SHINE and she soon becomes a Special Agent. This adventure finds the evil SHADOW agency with a mission to destroy SHINE's top-secret spy satellite, that contains all of SHINE's secrets. EJ has to decipher coded riddles to defeat the SHADOW scientists and she has to fly a rocket into space - even to the moon to find the solution.
Even though EJ can become a super spy she still has trouble with her school assignments and especially this one on space but he SHINE adventure might just have given her the assignment solution!

Pearlie and the Silver Fern Fairy Wendy Harmer & Gypsy Taylor (Random House)
With their simple tex, vivid illustrations and appropriate size, the Pealie books are great reads - especially for the younger readers who are transitioning from picture books.
Pearlie is back and her latest trip to the lush New Zealand forest where she is meeting the park fairy Omaka is as sparkling and exciting as ever! Omaka is planning a surprise birthday party for her forest friend, the 150 years old tuatara and Pearlie assists by delivering the invitations. unfortunately for Pearlie she gets lost among the ancient trees and starts to worry … but all is not lost as she meets many amazing creatures and one, which eventually shows her the way back.

Boys Vs Beast: Flamatoraq Battle of the Mutants #10 Mac Park (Scholastic)
This series is just right for young boys moving from picture books who want short titles with lots of action and adventure. Large font size and illustrations scattered throughout make this easy to read.
Kai Masters is a high tech border guard and beast battler and this time he has to battle new and bigger beasts - mutants - and his battle is against a fire-air-water beast. He has new combo gear and an ice chopper but will he be victorious?
also see Boy Vs Beast: Terraserpix







Aussie Dog (Mates series) Eleanor Nilsson & Beth Norling (Scholastic)
Mates are a series of titles for younger readers, illustrated in full colour and in an easy to read chapter book for
mat.
It was June and already Sophie was putting in her Christmas order - she wants a dog - a good australian kelpie. And because they are expensive to keep (her father told her so she would even have it as birthday present nest february. still pestering her parents weeks later a dog comes across her path … but it's not the dog she hopes for.
A lovely tale that wishes can come true - although not quite the way we might expect.