The Black Market

The Black Market by Jed Alexander (New South Publishing) PB RRP $19.99 ISBN 9781454955405

When Martin's great-aunt brings him an unusual pair of shoes, Martin is determined to find the strange marketplace where she bought them the Black Market, a constantly relocating swap meet where the world's strangest and most dangerous items are exchanged by some very suspicious (and disguised) characters. Though his aunt has sworn him to secrecy, he enlists the help of his best friend Jess to find the Black Market on Halloween. Soon, Martin trades his shoes for the legendary Bag of Dirty Tricks and discovers that not all fun is good and harmless.

Author-artist Jed Alexander's debut novel is filled with scares, determined, relatable kids, and uncanny pranks; accompanied by Alexander's classic-style and atmospheric illustrations.

The Fishmonger and the Pastry Chef

The Fishmonger and the Pastry Chef by Sophie Masson and Cheryl Orsini (Little Hare) RRP: $24.99 ISBN 9781761211225

Reviewed by Rebecca Fung

This is a charming little matchmaking tale nestled inside the comforts of friendship, glorious memories and delicious food! This sumptuous picture book, dripping with sweet pink that reminds me of cake icing and macarons, starts with Lucas who introduces us to a seaside town in France where his two favourite people live. His Aunt Violette, a pastry chef, and the fishmonger, Cyprien.

Lucas loves Violette, and he's always happy to see Cyprien. There's a glow to the relationship between the young and old here. But the real stars of the book are the different kinds of French food. Both Masson and Orsini and pour their passion onto the page and Lucas is the embodiment of that.

Readers will look at the pastry shop with the "berets Basques with chocolate tops, tartes aux fraises, glossy with strawberries, and gateaux Russe, resplendent with hazelnut meringue and coffee cream" and lick their lips then turn the page and be bombarded with a buffet of "crusty bread and salty ham, wheels of cheese and spears of asparagus, and bright red peppers, tomatoes and cherries ... silvery shoals of fish, spiky squads of lobsters ..."

Masson doesn't hold back and doesn't simplify her food list. Some children may find certain foodie terms a little challenging, but it's a great chance for them to expand their vocabulary and immerse themselves in French foodie culture. The pictures explain those details are irresistible. Orsini has captured the joy of abundant food - she says that one of her favourite things to draw is charcuterie. This is evident here.

This book is reminiscent of Paul Gallico's Flowers for Mrs Harris where a woman with childish charm plays matchmaker against a French setting. Except instead of using French fashion as the backdrop, here it's French food. Like Gallico's book, this has a gentle charm to it that will leave a smile on your face as Violette and Cyprien discover happiness, and Lucas discovers the joy of bringing happiness to others.

The story is simple and predictable, but that works for a children's picture book. Celebrating this selfless joy is what makes this book so magical, as well as being immersed in the food culture of France.

Escape from Sherwood

Escape from Sherwood by Beattie Alvarez (Christmas Press), RRP $17.99 Junior Fiction ISBN 9-780648-815495

Reviewed by Susan Hancy

Escape from Sherwood is an exciting and fast-paced story about kids trapped inside a computer game, racing time and a power-crazed overlord to escape and return home to Mum. From the get-go it had been thinking of a modern-day junior fiction version of Space Demons and it delivered!

Michael is a 9-year-old gaming aficionado who notices something is odd on his computer screen. He doesn’t have time to investigate because he needs to hurry for school. When he returns home – all the worst for wear with a black eye thanks to the class bully - he learns that Mum has done the unthinkable: allowed his 3-year-old sister, Penny, to play unsupervised in his room. 

Michael races upstairs, but Penny’s nowhere to be seen. She’s trapped inside the computer game of Sherwood and Michael has no choice but to rescue her. But even when he finds her, escape is not simple. Michael and Penny become wound up in a broader plot formed by the housekeeper -- aka Robin Hood -- to overthrow the evil King John. The youngsters have to race through the increasingly more challenging levels of the game to stay ahead of King John’s bow and arrow-wielding avatars. They’re joined by Michael’s best mate and – surprisingly – the class bully, whose game knowledge proves invaluable for their survival. Can Michael and his fellow merrymen outwit King John and survive the impending game flush which will not only restart the levels but wipe them out for good?

The theme is right on point for the current generation of JF-aged kids, many of whom would rather be glued to a screen than reading a book. The clever weaving of technology terms into the vivid description of the game is guaranteed to score bonus points with the most avid of gamers. Case in point: my 8-year-old son was hooked into the story from chapter one, and with the cliffhanger chapter endings, he couldn’t put it down. For me as a parent, this story was a winner!

The Disappearing Circus

The Disappearing Circus by Kate Gordon and Helen Edwards (Riveted Press) PB RRP $17.99 ISBN 9781763526099

Reviewed by Kylie Buckley

Ivy and Emme are runaways, both heading north from their respective villages. Both girls are running from sadness, broken families, and broken hearts. Initially unknown to each other, the pair find themselves captured inside a scarlet red circus tent in the Midmoors.

 

The pair soon discover that this circus is a far cry from any ordinary circus. The Disappearing Circus is ‘all about the past and the never-was’. It is a captivating blend of ghosts, myths, extinct creatures, and children of the ‘real and now’, thanks to Ivy and Emme’s arrival.

Ivy and Emme are soon tasked with the overwhelming challenge of showcasing their talents to save the circus. However, both girls believe they have no distinguishing talents to attract the large crowds required. The girls learn and grow together by sharing their stories, facing their past, and keeping memories alive.

The Disappearing Circus is an imaginative and multi-layered middle grade novel seamlessly co-authored by Kate Gordon and Helen Edwards. The multiple themes include family, friendship, belonging, grief, courage, self-belief, hope, magic, and possibility.

Handbooks for Little Humans: Confidence

Handbooks for Little Humans: Confidence by Zanni Louise (Affirm Press), RRP $19.99 Picture Book ISBN 9-781923-293182

Reviewed by Susan Hancy

Do you have to be the loudest person to be confident?

Absolutely not!

Confidence – the second in the series of Handbooks for Little Humans from Zanni Louise and Affirm Press – is equally engaging and educational as its predecessor, Compassion. Trying the big slide, wearing your wacky socks or saying hello to a new person are just some of the examples that this book gives for feeling comfortable being yourself and helping others to also feel comfortable.

At just 24 pages with popping colours and fun illustrations, this book is the perfect length for conveying its key messages and not losing the reader. It’s a conversation to a child, reassuring them of their uniqueness and special place in the world. And my son’s favourite part? The relatable cartoon in the centre spread where Monkey helps Lion to find his roar.

Suitable for little humans aged 3 to 8 years.

When the Mountain Wakes

When the Mountain Wakes by Matt Shanks (Affirm Press 20225) HB RRP $29.99 ISBN: 9781923419056

Reviewed by Sylvia Forbes

Somewhere, towards the beginning of time, a mountain rose from the ocean and came to rest above the clouds.

Life sang a lullaby, and the mountain slept for many millions of years.

Until one day, when the world became too silent for sleep ...

Elegance and majesty run through every page of this outstanding and heartfelt picture book - created by internationally published and critically acclaimed author/illustrator - Matt Shanks. 

An impossibly sweet-faced mountain is sleeping blissfully through aeons of time whilst life sings its lullaby. Over several wordless page turns, the passing of time is depicted through a series of tiny, framed illustrations. 

Each image features the mountain, whilst around and on top of it you see the ever-shifting evolutional events and changes taking place (both natural and man-made). From cavemen to dinosaurs - through to the arrival of industry and technology. 

Uncomfortable in the quiet, the mountain grew restless and lonely.

Over more wordless page turns, the mountain extracts itself from the earth and stands, shaking off sleep and rubble and goes searching for a song. 

After a thousand years of searching, the mountain became tired.

It decided to return to the place from where it came. 

But on its way back ... 

something stopped the mountain. It was beautiful. 

The mountain lowers itself with a face full of yearning and gazes intently at a tiny pop of periwinkle-blue - a single flower - bursting out from the parched desolate earth. Concerned for its safety, the mountain gently removes the flowering plant from the earth and places it tenderly into a crevice on its shoulder - protecting it from the harsh, wind-torn terrain as they travel together. The flower becomes a symbol of great hope - and a promise - for the lullaby's return. Encouraged, the mountain keeps moving forwards ... until finally returning to the place from where it first awoke ... 

In a symphony of words and pictures, this 64-page picture book presents like a graphic novel - with the sublime aesthetic of Studio Ghibli. The restrained palette, the tiny details, the intricate textures, where even the bleakest most desolate of environments - a land without life - is illustratively beautiful in colours of sand, stone, camel and beige.

There is so much to love and admire in When the Mountain Wakes - and with every page-turn, with every read, you find another layer to immerse deeper into.

I love the mountain as a character - there is something so instantly endearing about it that draws you in. Could be the juxtaposition between its large, boulder-like figure and its gentle child-like demeanour. As reader I empathised with its plight, I adored seeing the miniscule flower resting on its massive shoulder and admired the unquestioning dedication and time given in its search for life's lullaby. (Taking the metaphor - to move mountains - to a whole new level!)

I also love how the mountain became uncomfortable and woke due to the quiet. You could argue that the the arrival of man with all his machinery and technology would be the thing that woke the mountain - that it would be uncomfortable in all the noise - not the quiet.  

But no. This is about the mountains connection to earth's life force having been broken. The lullaby had ceased because nature - the environment - was in trouble. So how could the mountain sleep when that vital hum of life (more powerful than any man-made noise could ever be), was suddenly gone? It's the equivalent of a baby sleeping in its mother’s arms - where the surrounding noise doesn't wake it - but the sudden loss of its mother’s arms does.

When you live in tune with nature - you feel it. And miss it dreadfully in its absence.

When the Mountain Wakes is a sweeping tale about hope and healing. It is a testament to the resilience of nature. But it also serves as a warning. For things to change and be restored - hope must be actioned. 

Even the smallest actions can make a difference and have a lasting impact, contributing not only to the ongoing health and harmony of the planet (beyond our own lifetimes) but to our own intrinsic connection to it - to nature - and to the continuum of life's lullaby.

I think this quote neatly sums it up ... and I think Matt Shanks would agree ...

'May we be people who plant seeds, 

that grow trees,

in whose shade we may never sit under.' 

This ambitious and profound picture book with its stunning illustrations and economic text, delivers not just a story, but an important and timely message which children (of all ages) will appreciate and enjoy.

It is a 'forever' book.

Highly recommended for readers aged 5 - 99 years.

 

The Wondrous Tale of Lavender Wolfe

The Wondrous Tale of Lavender Wolfe by Karen Foxlee. Allen and Unwin 2025. Middle-Grade hardback RRP $24.99. ISBN 9781761182020

Reviewed by Debra Williams

The year is 1719. Lavender Wolfe is a “clapperdudgeon” and “pickpurse”, trained by her mother. She is alone on a wharf when she is snatched by a woman known as Big Agatha and thrown into the galley of a pirate ship, The Good Marchioness.

Lavender is disguised as a boy because only boys can live and work in the galley. She is renamed Hans Whitby and has to make her home among the “kitchen rats.” The problem is that The Good Marchioness is no ordinary ship. It is captained by the strange and fierce Odyessia Pleasant, who sports a wing instead of an arm. The crew are on a desperate voyage: to find and return stolen treasure before all who sail on the cursed pirate ship are to sand, including Lavender.

She is quick-witted and sharp. Captain Pleasant soon realises that Lavender can read the winds, thereby assisting the ship to find the ghost ship they seek to break the curse on the Captain and the Good Marchioness.

This novel involves much adventure; however, it also contains some heavy themes for the target readership. Lavender appears to have been abandoned by her mother, who is spending her time in a local pub, whilst Lavender awaits her return, something that never happens.  *Sensitivity warning*: this story is a pirate’s tale, and, as such, involves scenes of severe drunkenness, looting and murder. Some of Lavender’s kitchen rat friends die, and this is a harsh blow to an 11-year-old. Certain terms, such as describing the captain as “three sheets to the wind” (a description of severe drunkenness), would not be known or understood by the MG age group (some adults have recently mentioned they have never heard of the expression either). It also features supernatural themes, including an attempt to reverse a curse with unexpected results. Lavender desperately hopes that the reversal will bring back her deceased mates, which is also something that doesn’t happen.

It is intended for readers 9-12 years of age.