Picture books and non Fiction

Here we go with some delightful reads ... and don't forget the stories that are in the illustrations too.

Maudie And Bear Jan Ormerod & Freya Blackwood (Little Hare)

Some books you just don’t want to put down, and you definitely don't want them to end... and this is one of those books. five short stories, lavishly illustrated are bound into this glorious hardcover book, that also includes a ribbon marker.
Maudie and Bear have a very special friendship. their lives are entwined and revolve around each other. Maudie is the youngster who is always occupied, who always has great ideas, who has tantrums. And Bear is patient, trustworthy, and the one with undemanding and never ending love.
In the first story Maudie thinks it would be a great idea for exercise, a bike ride and in the end a bike ride is taken - and it is Bear who completes the exercise. The stories and the illustrations are simple and loving.
A book worthy of every shelf house.

Town Possum, Outback Possum Yvonne Morrison & Heath McKenzie (Little Hare)
Told in rhyming verse, this picture books is the tale of two possum cousins, one for the outback and the other from the city, and when the city cousin comes for a visit to the country she soon is bored by the slower pace of life and three days of bush food and bush views. So an invitation to the outback cousin to accompany her to the city and is accepted. Of course when outback possum arrives in the city the noise and the rush and the frantic pace of life is too much and home he heads to the safety of his tree … or is it!

Wicked Warriors and Evil Emperors, The True Story of the Fight for Ancient China Alison Lloyd & Terry Denton (Penguin)
Now this is fun!
Wicked Warriors tells the history of the unification of early china - when all the waring states were gathered into the fold - how a 12 year old king became the first emperor of china.
Filled with History from a period of time in China we rarely mention or know about. There is information on the building of the Great Wall of China, the burial (and superstitions) of the first emperor, the weapons crafted to defeat the enemy, the waring states, the armies ... and much much more. There are maps, timelines, and wonderfully comical illustrations which add to the telling of this history! and it makes history FUN!

More soon ....

Picture Books and Junior Fiction

It has been a little quiet on the newkidsbooksinoz front for the past bunch of weeks but we are now up and rolling again with some of the great books that I have seen recently.

Leo the Littlest Seahorse Margaret Wild & Terry Denton Terry (Viking)
This is a baby-being-born story with a difference because this time there are 100 babies being born, the father is carrying the babies and the father is (of course) a seahorse. as well the story is about a seahorse who isn't quite like the rest of the sea horse family, Leo has a tail that won’t quite curl and a fin that wont quite flutter and when a hungry groper arrives the questions is pondered ... where is Leo?
This is a lovely picture book tale with many facts written into the narrative and lovely, humorous illustrations.

Samuel's Kisses Karen Collum & Serena Geddes (New Frontier)
Kisses are really special ... especially from the little people. Samuel loves shopping with his mother so when Samuel and his mother shop at the local mall and discovered that the big people didn't smile back to him when he smiled at them young Samuel had to do something about it. When he blew them each a kiss something amazing happened to these people who weren't smiling back.
A cute story with lovely illustrations.

Always Jack Susanne Gervay & Cathy Wilcox (HarperCollins)
Jack is back (for his third book)! He is still joking. he is still inventing. He has some great friends and Nana is still buying purple undies! Everything is going well for Jack, even the move to the new house has been relatively smooth - there is of course the wedding of his mum and soon to be stepdad but that isn’t causing too many issue either, although he doesn't like the idea of wearing the tuxedo! But his mum's latest news is not good news at all. It's scary and frightening and changes Jack's world - and the news is all to do with cancer.
Touching and delightfully written this book is endorsed by the Cancer Council of NSW

Plum Puddings and Paper Moons Glenda Millard & Stephen Michael King (ABC Books)
This is beautiful. Once again the Silk family are here, but this book features Scarlet.
When she meets young Anik she hears of all that he has endured so Scarlet decides to declare PEACE in the valley (black tights make great armbands). Scarlet's small action has a big result and has an impact on all the valley folk culminating in a special celebration - a march for Peace - right on Christmas Eve.
Lookout as well for the other books in the award-winning Kingdom of Silk series:- The Naming of Tishkin Silk; Layla, Queen of Hearts; Perry Angel’s Suitcase; All the Colours of Paradise, and now, Plum Puddings and Paper Moons.
One of my favourite books from last year!
Enjoy the reading!

Holiday Trivia and Drawing Time

Here are few books that are great for holiday time fun!

Monster Book of Drawing Bind-up Marc McBride (Scholastic)
Monster Battles, Dangerous Beasts, Mythical Creatures ... learn to draw all of these with this wonderful book from the master of fantasy illustration, Marc McBride.
With simple and well presented step-by-step instructions drawing monsters in battle, in flight, and creating your own mythical beast has never been this easy.
As well there are examples of lettering styles for the creatures.

Australia and World Records 2011 Morse & Harris (Scholastic)
Beginning with a section dedicated to just Australian records this book is for the readers who has lots of questions .... like

• What is Australia's driest town?
• What is Australia’s wettest town?
• Which AFL player has kicked the most goals?
• What is Australia’s coldest place?
• What is Australia’s hottest town?
• Who scored Australia’s highest test innings?

All of these questions and many more world records are answered in the pages of this full colour book. There is even a section on technology, human endurance, music and movies.

World Cricket Records 2011 (Scholastic Australia)
Cricket is not over yet ... there's more to come so here is the book for the fanatics who want records ...

• Who is Australia’s highest test run scorer?
• Which country has the longest unbeaten streak in test cricket?
• Which Australian bowler has the Australian record for the most ducks?
• Who holds the record for the most test dismissals by a wicketkeeper?
• Who is the only batsman to make three double-centuries in a single test series?

These questions can all be answered in this new edition. Full of cricket trivia and fascinating facts from all formats of the game including test, 20-20 cricket, domestic and women's cricket, and information about some of the stars past and present, this is a must for cricket buffs.

 Enjoy the facts .....

More Picture Book Feasts

And more ...

All Through The Year Jane Godwin & Anna Walker (Penguin)
Gorgeous illustrations and a gorgeous text make this a gorgeous book.
It is the reflection of a very Australian year as seen through the eyes of a girl from an ordinary family. her reflections are about the weather, her family, school, falling leaves, feasts and festivities like Easter egg hunting and Mother's Day preparations (in May of course), end of year school concert nights and much more. Each double page spread is the home of a month and is written in a wonderful rhyme and told with appropriate voice of the child. The illustrations are rich with the characters and the environment changing appropriately, and the book cover is padded - making this even more of a treat. And don't miss the end papers ... they too reflect change.

Plato the Platypus Plumber (Part-Time) Hazel Edwards & John Petropoulos (IP Kidz)
Water and a platypus ... that goes together very well.
Plato the platypus plumber is a quirky new picture book from the prolific Hazel Edwards. This platypus is a part time plumber who fixes all manner of water problems for his human friend Zanzibar whose family is repairing a run down house by the creek. When the shower hose in the bath breaks, or when the toilet gets blocked while dad is sitting on it ... it is Zanzibar who swims to the rescue. He also brings other special tools in his tool-kit like Smile Spray for grumpy people. This story, with its well crafted message about the importance of water, and the small side lines about feral animals, drought, and the environment, is a delight.
Also available is the Teachers' Guide and the Classroom Performance Script as free downloads from the website.

Shake A Leg Boori Monty Pryor & Jan Ormerod (Allen&Unwin)
This is a super book with a wonderful story and illustrations in comic strip frame format that is (as the back cover says) a joyous celebration of food, dance and cultural understanding.
Three hungry young boys stop in at Bertie's Pizzeria in far north Queensland and meet Bertie - an Aboriginal chef who speaks Italian and makes the best pizza in town. And while Bertie makes the boys a pizza he also tells stories, stories of a boy who didn't listen, and boys who went hunting for honey.
Woven in with these stories are the cultural understandings as Bertie reveals Aboriginal culture in the hunting, music, dance and spirituality. As written in the acknowledgement this book most definitely shows the beauty and colour of this ancient culture in a new way!
See the clip here.

Monkey Red Monkey Blue Nicki Greenberg (Allen&Unwin)
Bold strong colours and photographic images with a simple and quirky text make this a fun book to share with the very young.
Like many children Monkey Red and Monkey Blue don’t want to go bed. Instead they want to stay up so their friend chameleon suggest having a midnight feast ... and that’s when the chaos begins as the two monkey, with a little help from chameleon gather the food, popcorn, spaghetti, pancakes, sauce and more and put it all together with a cherry on top. Of course the end result is a mess when chameleon gets just a little too enthusiastic!

Chill Carol Thompson (Little Hare)
Dolly and Jack are best friends. Some days they are quiet together and other days they totally chaotic ... and make them laugh. One day the two friends decide to paint picture of each other - except that neither friend is impressed with each other’s portrait. The best friends are no longer friends any more and each of them gets MAD ... and then each of them gets Sad. But with a bit of deep breathing and counting to ten the fallen out friends are soon best friends again.
Lovely story and illustrations.

Princess and Fairy: Twinkly Ballerinas Anna Pignataro (Scholastic)
Another gorgeous Princess and Fairy "Look and Find" book that will be adored by all the little fairy and ballerina girls - especially with all the pink glitter on the cover and the final pages of the book!!
Princess and Fairy - two cute bunnies - have been invited to attend the Ballet Frou-Frou. First they have to travel through different lands to find the tiems on their list, hidden in the illustrations. The book includes a pullout invitation and list of ballet related items to be found on the pages throughout this book.
Written in rhyming verse, and with each double page spread overflowing with delicate illustrations, this is another that will be read and poured over time and time again.

More coming soon.....

A Picture Book feast!

So many gorgeous new picture books ... here are some:

Our World; Bardi-Jaawi Life at Ardiyooloon One Arm Point Remote Community School (Magabala Books)

If you want to see inside the life of a remote aboriginal community then Our World - Bardi-Jaawi Life at Ardiyooloon is the perfect book to investigate.

Full of colour and wonderful words it looks at the children of this aboriginal community and celebrates the connection of the BARDI-JAAWI people to the land and the sea. there are wonderful photographs of the children and other people in the community as well as artwork by the children and delightfully written text. there are explanations and a pronunciation guide for some of the bardi words included as well as explanation of some of the camping, fishing and hunting activities, a Bardi kinship chart and many more insights into this community. Ardiyooloon is at the top of the Dampier Peninsula, 200km north of Broome in the north-west of Western Australia. This is a book to be explored and enjoyed.

The Legend of The Golden Snail Graeme Base (Penguin)

A Graeme Base book is always a feast of reading and exploration of the intricate artwork and this one continues that long tradition for there will be continued re-reading and continued re-examination of the so richly created artwork.

The Legend of the Golden Snail is Wilbur's favourite book. he loves hearing it read to him. It fills his mind with endless possibilities and imaginations so much so that Wilbur decides to set out on a mission to free The Golden Snail for it has been banished to the ends of the earth only to be released if a new master is found. Along the way Wilbur makes friends with a cat, a monstrous sea creature, a bush of blossoming butterflies, and lantern-fish.

Of course there are also hidden snail 'n' crossbones images to find in every picture that will surely encourage a closer look!

And dont forget to check out the clip.

Feathers for Phoebe Rod Clement (HarperCollins)
Like all of Rods books this one is a joy wit hilarious text and rich vibrant illustrations.

A small, grey and not often noticed little bird wants very much to be noticed, to stand out in the crowd ... just like Zelda and Zelda is only tooo happy to transform Phoebe for she runs the most popular beauty salon in the forest. so the transformation beings, starting at the top and working right through her 'look' with feather extensions and added crests, moves, songs and colours and more. unfortunately for Phoebe each added transformation leaves phoebe unnoticed and it also makes it a little more difficult to walk and fly and just get around until eventually the all the added extras are just to much for little phoebe.

I Don't Believe In Dragons Anna Walker (Scholastic)

"I can see a dragon," says miss may. Everyone in kindergarten can see a dragon ... everyone except jack. Jack doesn't believe in dragons. While all the children ask questions or ponders dragon possibilities when a feather or apple skin is found or a strange sound is heard, jack provides a real-world reason for the possibility even though reading the story we can see that there is a dragon present until jack makes a discovery.

A delightful story and pictures with a beautiful, lovely, friendly dragon that dragon-lovers everywhere will adore.

More to follow.

More Junior Fiction Series titles.

Two more junior reads. Both books have well spaced text, ample illustrations, and short fun chapters or entries. Both will be especially appealing to girls.

Harriet Bright Holiday Hullabaloo Craig Claire & Melanie Feddersen (Penguin)

The Harriet Bright books are fun to read and this continues the tradition with four delightful holiday-time stories.

Harriet Bright loves poetry and she is going to have the best holiday ever and Christmas is very nearly here! But there are 6480 seconds (Harriet knows because she calculated it) before she is allowed to get out of bed. She promise, promise, promised, her mother that she wouldn't get out of bed until 7 am so she takes out her notebook and writes down some good ideas to pass the time.

Other stories include the 'being bored' story, and the summer holiday friend that comes by (who causes a whole heaps of trouble for Harriet), and the best holiday story ever - starring Harriet Bright and her best friend Melly ... and a camel, and a pyramid and more.

The three Harriet Bright books, all have short stories with light illustrations, highlighted text ... and of course there are poems scattered throughout! Delightful reads. See the website for more including a Christmas competition and poetry entries.

Musical Mayhem - The Fabulous Diary of Persephone Pinchgut Aleesah Darlison & Serena Geddes (New Frontier)

This new series stars Persephone Pinchgut and her sister Portia, identical twins who are opposites in so many ways, but, as regularly happens with twins who are also often compared. Persephone is sensible and shy, Portia is glam and good a most everything (including losing her strawberry lip gloss) so Persephone writes this personal secret diary with her innermost secrets to have something of her very own. In Musical Mayhem the dreaded school musical has been announced - at least Persephone thinks it is a disaster. Portia though cant wait for she will take the lead of the Princess - so she hopes. Throughout the story Persephone writes about her 'twin troubles' and especially of her twin's teasing but in the end the two girls move from 'twin troubles' to 'totally together twins'.

Written in diary form with well spaced text and lovely simple line illustrations scattered throughout the Totally Twins series will be enjoyed by young girls.

Also available is Model Mayhem.
These are fun reads. Enjoy!

More Junior Fiction

More titles in new or exisitng series for yougner readers. These are just terrific reads.

Tiger Trouble Justin D'Ath (Penguin)
The Extreme Adventures titles have been a great series and this is the latest instalment.

Sam Fox and his family are in New Delhi and one moment he is watching a cricket match and then the next Sam is chasing a pick pocket who has stolen his backpack which had been sitting at his feet in the stand. In this backpack was a cricket ball - autographed by the whole Australian cricket team and Sam couldn't let it go! And it doesn't take long before Sam is caught up in an international animal smuggling ring with wild tiger cubs as trade. Soon Sam is confronting a maharaja, a king cobra, adult wild tigers, guns and a whole lot of trouble.

Violet Mackerel's Brilliant Plot Anna Branford & Sarah Davis (Walker Books)

This is a beautiful early reader book for young girls with short chapters, generously spaced words and with lovely illustrations that are on nearly every page.

Violet Mackerel is a girl with a theory that she calls the Theory of Finding Small Things because whenever you are thinking of something very important and brilliant you will find something small and special on the ground! She also believes that when you want something really, really important, then ordinary plans are no good - you need a brilliant plot. When Violet decides that she would like to get the blue china bird that costs a lot of money that she sees at the markets her family attends every Saturday, she spies a little red button on the ground. Now she knows that a brilliant plot is called for.
This is a lovely story, delightfully told, with sweet illustrations.
See the Violet Mackerel website for the newsletter, lots of activities and a holiday competition.