Fiction Reads

Jaguar Warrior Sandy Fussell (Walker)

Atl is in box, imprisoned and waiting for death. He is the sacrifice chosen by the Serpent-Sun God. Suddenly he is free for the city is under attack and soon the city and temple will be overrun. Atl's task is to race and deliver a message to the people of his birthplace Purepecha, requesting them to send warriors to defeat the Spanish army for if they don't Purepecha will be attacked too. As Atl flees, he is assisted and then accompanied by Lali, who has a mystery of her own. Together they begin their flight. In rapid pursuit is the Captain who wants Atl sacrificed! But who is he and what is his relationship to Lali?
This book, set in Aztec time, was another rivetting read. It is fantastic; face-paced, full of action and suspense with great descriptions. Boys will really love reading this book as they hook on to the character of Atl. Girls will love the heroine Lali. She is strong and not afraid to speak her mind.

Toppling Sally Murphy & Rhian Nest James (Walker Books)
John collects dominoes - he has thousands of them in big crates under his bed and he loves to build spirals and paths and ramps and drops ... just to watch them topple. His best mate is Dominic, and not just because Dominic sounds like domino either. Back at school after holidays, the days begin as normal but soon Dominic falls ill and misses the whole week of school (and tehn more), and when John discovers that Dominic has cancer both their worlds start toppling. Will Dom return to school and what will he be like? How will John cope with his best friend being so ill? Will they have the same relationship?
This verse novel with a delightful ending is a touching story about friends, cancer and bullies.

A Dog, a Seal and Aussie Animal Picture Books

Littledog Katrina Germein & Tamsin Ainslie (Scholastic)

Littledog is a stray. Littledog is found by a family one holiday evening waiting for them at their beach side shack. very soon most of the family Sam, his mother and his bigger sister - but not dad) are besotted with the dog and get more and more attached to him. They put up found posters and advertisements but no one comes to claim him and soon Sam and Littledog are very attached. When the holidays end and the family leave the holiday house will Littledog go too - especially when dad has other ideas?

Littledog is a lovely story and the great beachside holiday illustrations are delightful.

Tatiara Jo Oliver (New Frontier)
A girl wearing a back brace for her spine spends her days at her father's wharf-side cafe, gazing out to sea - she can't swim in the water - at least not yet. She sees a face like a pup come out of the water in the sheltered harbour - and it is Tatiara, an injured seal. Soon the girl and the seal form a bond with eh girl even catching fish (which she didn’t like doing before) for the seal. Eventually the seal's wounds have healed and the girl is also able to swim in the bay.
A story of patience and friendship and healing.

Snug As A Hug: An Australian Lullaby Marcia K. Vaughan & Pamela Lofts (Scholastic)
This is a beautiful lilting bedtime lullaby with simple rhyming words and soft illustrations of sleeping Australian animals.
As night falls, one by one, the animals start to fall asleep, first joey, then koala, turtle, cockatoo, echidna, spider and more Australian animals. Soon all the animals outside are asleep - and even the nocturnal ones! Soon the little child who is hearing this lullaby is also dreaming surrounded by her toy animals snuggled in her room.

Share these lovely Australian picture books.

New Series Books

New titles in popular series that will have readers wanting more ....

Conspiracy 365 : March Gabrielle Lord (Scholastic)
January and February have gone ... here comes March.
Cal is in deep, deep trouble. He is about to shredded by a fast moving train. it will be impossible to survive. He is being chased by criminals as well as the police who have an alert out for him. He can't turn to his family. Things are looking grim for Cal ... he still carries the drawings and he is beginning to piece together some of the clues to the Ormond Riddle but each clue holds more puzzles and more dangers for Cal. Will he survive the year! Cal's friend Boges helps, as does Repro who rescues him from the train but Cal must move alone.
A great riveting title that will have readers hanging out for April!
See the website for online games, downlaods and heaps more!

The Floods 9: Who Wants To Be A Billionaire Colin Thompson (Random House)
The Floods are back and this time Wall Street is their target - and solving the global financial crisis too.
Setting up Summer School in a block of luxury apartments in Manhattan in New York city is where the Floods begin. When New York children wake up one morning with a mystery disease - a red mask-shaped pattern on their bottoms it can only mean that witch Betty's spell turned out not quite the way it should. When Winchfalt and Aubergine invade the nearly empty stock market buying and selling they make millions instantly and when they decide to corner the market with a machine that transports all the toilet paper in the world to a secret location people have to think laterally to find something to replace the missing toilet paper ... and there are many other hilarious happenings throughout the pages of this book. And readers will love the footnotes!

Mates: You Turkeys! Michael Gerard Bauer & Nahum Ziersch (Scholastic)
This title features a crazy dad who loves his garden and will protect it at all costs from the two scrub-turkeys who want to call his backyard home.
Lots of humour as the turkeys go round scratching and establishing nests that dad has to pull down and then come up with scrub-turkey deterrents! And in the end Dad gets a very special award!
This full colour junior novel series is great for young readers.




Watch out for new titles following these!!!

Fiction for the Younger Readers.

Here are books for the reluctant reader and also for the younger reader. They are all books in new or near new series ....

Dance of the Deadly Dinosaurs Jackie French (HarperCollins)

Oh this book is FUN!

Boojum Bark is a werewolf puppy, and a student at the School for Heroes. His mother has also been kidnapped so with his friends (that include a zombie, a warrior mouse and other ‘beings’ who are all trainee heroes) he sets out to find her. but to do this he has to go into the Ghastly Otherwhen ... and strange things start to happen here. There are dinosaurs, and bogeys, and a strange hypnotic spell that causes chaos.
Following on from the previous School for Heroes book comes this new title which will have readers giggling all the way through at the craziness and silliness and the 'weirdness' within these pages.
This series is designed for reluctant readers ... but with lots of pages to develop their reading confidence. And this series should do that!

EJ12 #1: Hot and Cold Susannah McFarlane (Scholastic)

This new series stars Emma Jack but Emma Jack the school girl is also known as EJ12 Special Agent. She is a member of SHINE, a secret agency that protects the world from evil-doers. EJ12 cracks codes and foils plans all over the world while at the same time coping with all the issues of going to school like mean girls, and best friends. This is a fun book for the younger readers - especially girls who want a girl superhero.

In EJ12 #1 someone is melting the polar cap. There is a furious scientist who is creating chaos and wants to sell her invention to the highest bidder. there are secret agent tools for EJ to use to get the job done and when she does, she still has to go back to school and cope with the not so nice girls and the Ice Queen of Mean!

See: ej12girlhero.com and drop in here to see a message from the author.

And especially for beginning readers comes the new series Pen Pals Forever ...

Pen Pals Forever 1: Summer Days Lenny Pelling (Random House)

In this first title, Polly and Jez are the closest of friends but wile Polly begins an adventure around Australia during the school holidays Jez is stuck at home so to keep in touch Polly sends postcards form all the places she visits. As Polly reads each postcard her imagination is let loose and her summer days aren't quite so lonely without Polly there.
With large print, simple storylines and generous illustrations this is a series for the beginning readers that should be enjoyed. This title also includes Pen pal tips at the back.

Picture Book Delights

Picture Books are always special. Here are some delightful new ones.

Hunting for Dragons Bruce Whatley (Scholastic)

One of the very best Australian illustrators is Bruce Whatley and he has the most fun story about one of my favourite animals - dragons. This book is such a joy to devour - both in the simple storyline and the illustrations.

This is the story of a child (complete with dragon discovering armour) who spends most weekends hunting for dragons, and dragons are found in the most amazing places around the home and the yard. Of course when a 'real' dragon is discovered and announced, not everyone is a believer.

Make sure you look closely at the illustrations ... it is amazing how many wonderful dragons appear here and where they are!

My Country Dorothea Mackellar & Andrew McLean (Scholastic)

Australia is a beautiful country and this is the classic poem about the landscape of our country written by Dorothy Mackellar when she was feeling homesick for Australia. It is accompanied by classic pictures of the Australian landscape - in its many wild and beautiful ways.

The poem describes our beautiful country including the bushfires, and deserts to the storms, moon-lit forest, floods and droughts.

With such delightful illustrations this book is a lovely image of the Australian landscape. And this is the complete poem too.

Zoobots Bruce & Ben Whatley (Angus&Robertson)

Zoobots, created by Bruce and his son Ben, is lovely and kids all over will be making their own Zoobot characters from any bits of junk, and more, that is left lying around once they have discovered this book.

This is the story of three junk yard best friends and their quest to 'create' another best friend ... but things don't quite go according to plan,

The book is illustrated very differently from most of Whatley's other titles with the illustrations using cinematic 3D type imagery which makes it quite amazing.
This book celebrates friendship and recycling!!!

Have fun sharing these.

Fiction for Older Readers

Destination Abudai Prue Mason (Penguin)
This is a terrific read - especially for teenage boys.
Jaz who has lived in a small Aussie town all his life is suddenly living in the land of his Arabian father who he did not know existed. He now has a luxurious palace for home, and travels from the airport by private helicopter. There are people to assist Jaz whenever he needs. His father, who is a very powerful man, has welcomed Jazirut into the family, as his half sister and other family members, although Jaz wonders what is his real motive for bringing him here. Unfortunately his cousin, who also lives in the palace is not so accommodating and causes Jaz to be very suspicious, so suspicious, that Jaz, aided by his half sister, attempts to go back home to be with his dying grandfather. But Jaz's father has other plans in store.
Characters are wonderfully created and the story is full of action.

Mostly Sunny, with the Chance of Storms Marion Roberts (Allen&Unwin)

This is the second book about Sunny Hathaway who comes from a very blended family.
Her father has remarried and Sunny now has a baby half-sister and her step-mother is not coping too well. Her mother and partner, soon to be husband, are moving with his children, (soon to be step-siblings Sunny calls the precookeds) to the house that her recently deceased grandmother lived in. And that's only the start of the events that are about to cause consternation for Sunny.
Who will live in the turret bedroom (sunny of course using her powers of reverse psychology?
Who are her imaginary friends Bruce and Terry?
Who is the boy who knits who breeds homing pigeons, who she meets on the bus and does not use computer or a telephone for keeping in touch - he sends Sunny letters instead.
Who is the old gardener that lives on the grounds and what does he want to do with the pigeons? This is a fun read that warmly touches on some serious issues.

These are top reads.

Hilarious reads for Younger Readers

Ready for laughter and giggles .....

The Pony Patch Collection Bernadette Kelly & Liz Alger (blackdogbooks)
Here they are bound up in one book - the four books of the Pony Patch collection and readers - especially girls who love horses and horse adventures, will love these.

The stories are about a very mischievous horse called Norton and all the tricks. Of course his owner Molly thinks that he is the most wonderful pony.
As well as the hilarious storylines there are extremely amusing illustrations that often tell a different story!
Also includes sections on looking after your pony and pony facts.
Short chapters and large print make this a great rad for young pony lovers looking for chapter books.


Big Stories from Little Lunch Danny Katz & Mitch Vane (blackdogbooks)
The five Little Lunch books are here in one BIG collection.
Lots of people would think that not much can happen in the fifteen minutes of little lunch but they would be wrong. This books is filled with all the shenanigans and commotion and real action of the little lunch playground ... and some naughty things (but oh so nice things like big bottoms, and lunch boxes and school loos) that happen there too.
Kids love these books and giggle and snigger for hours.

With bigger print and generous spaces these young reader chapter books are delightful and easy to read.