The Seriously Epic Holiday of Lottie Brooks

The Seriously Epic Holiday of Lottie Brooks by Katie Kirby (Puffin Books) RRP: $16.99 ISBN 9780241803455

Reviewed by Rebecca Fung

The Seriously Epic Holiday of Lottie Brooks is the ninth book in the Lottie Brooks series, an epistolary series that, in its format and illustration style, looks like Diary of a Wimpy Kid for girls.

If you haven't read previous Lottie stories - and I hadn't - I found Lottie's age a bit difficult to place at first in this story. She's 12-13 years old, and she acts and speaks like a tween. The stick-figure drawings seem to appeal to a younger audience. Yet the story also refers a lot to boyfriends, kissing, wearing heels, bras, and so forth, with such familiarity that Lottie seems much older. She doesn't sound like a child who is only just discovering such areas of her life.

I don't think the content should worry adults, but they might find it a bit too grown-up. While Lottie has not only a boyfriend but also an ex-boyfriend, and her friends seem to have had a dating history, this isn't about explicit details. It's more about some silly fun with girls fighting over the cutest boy.

Lottie has the chance to go on a ski holiday with her friend, Amber. She's never skied before. The holiday is complicated when another family, including a snobby girl and her high-maintenance mother, joins them. Hilarity ensues not only on the ski slopes but with mean girl fights at the chalet and romantic misunderstandings and tussles.

The pretty simple cartoons do a good job of supporting the text and adding a little humour, though they are only basic, attempting to capture the flavour of a child's diary.

I wasn't completely taken by the prose style in which Lottie would "break the fourth wall" and acknowledge that the reader was reading her diary. To me, this felt a little strange, as if she might write her diary differently because it was being read, and one of the wonderful things about a diary is you feel the author is spilling their guts privately.

I suppose this leads to the next point - Lottie's diary is fun and entertaining. The hijinks with her friends read more like a description of a TV show, with slapstick or visual comedy and plenty of misunderstandings, than a diary at times. But I didn't feel like she was spilling herself to me. I felt the story lacked the secrets, emotions, and perspective that make a diary story so special. The intimacy was lacking.

However, I'm sure many readers - especially girls - will find a lot to enjoy in Lottie's adventures. It's very readable. Family, friends and enemies, competitiveness, fitting in, trying to keep up your image and are very relatable tween (and human) issues.

The Last Word

The Last Word Written by A.L. Tait (Scholastic Australia) Tween Romance RRP AU$17.99 ISBN 9 781761 646874

Reviewed by Robyn Gillies

Matilda Bell starts Year 8 without her best friend Gemma, her only real friend since kindy. Matilda knows that her classmates think she is an almighty nerd, but without Gemma by her side to laugh or complain with, the year is not looking good. Without Gemma, there may also be no debating team, her other love. And then there is the ‘Cat Pack’ to deal with, a group of girls who have taunted and bullied Matilda and Gemma ever since they hadn’t turned up to Matilda’s eighth birthday party. Surely, it couldn’t get worse.

Enter Will O’Connor, the new boy at the school. Cool, good-looking, disruptive, and annoyingly clever without effort. He gets under Matilda’s skin in a way that no one else ever has. Then, he’s put on the debating team! It just got worse.

Can they find a way to work together so they win as a team, or will they end up hating each other?

From the very first chapter, the story moves along at a cracking pace, and the reader quickly develops a strong sense of the key character, Matilda Bell, a perfectionist who loves learning, which draws unwanted attention. But Matilda has learnt through the years to deal with it – focus, then focus some more. She is also thoughtful, caring and resilient, and she reads others with a high level of maturity, but can she read herself?

Alison Tait taps into a sophisticated understanding of how young people experience the often-difficult years of becoming teenagers, school life, friendships, bullies, love, and romance, and creates a compelling, multilayered story.

The language is clear and simple, but effective. The story is tight, with every word moving the story along. The title is clever and apt.

Alison Tait is a gifted writer in this genre, and she has delivered a wonderful book that captures the sometimes awkward time of first love, when strong feelings can be difficult to understand.

This is book #3 by Alison Tait in the Two Hearts series of standalone romance novels for tween readers 10+ years, and it’s also a great read for those who are young at heart.

 

Mystery of the Missing Turtles

Mystery of the Missing Turtles written by Deborah S. Bower, Ricky-John Spencer, Michael B. Thompson, James U. Van Dyke and Elizabeth Hale, illustrated by James O’Hanlon (CSIRO Publishing) HB RRP $26.99 ISBN: 9781486320288

Reviewed by Kellie Nissen

If turtles aren’t already your favourite animal, they will be after reading this book.

Brooke lives on a farm and loves nothing more than exploring the creek where she spends her days watching the skinks, water dragons, rakali and all the other animals and birdlife. But the ones she loves the most are the different types of freshwater turtles.

One day she notices there are plenty of big, old turtles but no babies.

Determined to discover why, she goes exploring, only to discover plenty of nests that all contain broken egg shells. With her father’s help, Brooke sets up a trail camera to try and find out who the thief is.

That night, the camera captures the image of a red fox and Brooke realises she’ll need to do something if she doesn’t want the turtle population to die out.

Inspired by the work of Kamilaroi Indigenous scientist, Dr Brooke Kennedy, Mystery of the Missing Turtles not only brings awareness to the often-unnoticed fate of our wildlife but also shows children that there are things they can do to help – even if it’s only on a small scale at first.

A collaborative effort between researchers, scientists, universities and government departments, this picture book is part of the 1 Million Turtles Program. Beautifully illustrated by James O’Hanlon, the story is both compelling and packed with information, including a detailed backmatter section with everything want to know about Australian turtles (including the fun stuff) and a comprehensive glossary.

CSIRO Publishing has identified Mystery of the Missing Turtles for readers aged 5–9 years (and has comprehensive teaching notes on their website) but I personally think this book is the perfect read for people of all ages who love turtles and care about sustainability and the longevity of Australia’s wildlife.

Calm Your Farm

Calm Your Farm written and illustrated by Dale Baker (Little Big Sky Books) HB RRP $24.99 ISBN: 9781923514256

Reviewed by Kellie Nissen

Has anyone ever told you to ‘calm your farm’? Settle down? Stress less? Just be quiet?

Despite the crow of a rooster in the morning, the moo of cows, the cluckety-cluck of chickens and the occasional grunt of a pig, farms are not exactly known to be noisy and chaotic places. Busy, yes. Needing to be told to ‘calm down!’, no.

Welcome to Dale Baker’s farm.

A farm where the animals have, to put it simply, gone berserk.

Imagine the chaos caused by ducks with water guns, egg-throwing chickens and tractor-driving cows (who probably shouldn’t be behind the wheel). All the animals are running amok … except one little fella, and he just doesn’t know what to do … until it all gets too much!

The question is ‘why?’ What has caused this farm to lose its calm?

Dale Baker’s lively illustrations capture the pandemonium of farm life when things go just a little (or a lot) awry.

Children aged 4 – 8 years will delight in Calm Your Farm – the rollicking story of a farmer and one sensible duck who just want everyone to do their job.

I Love to Draw

I Love to Draw written and illustrated by Dale Baker (Little Big Sky Books) HB RRP $24.99 ISBN: 9781923514263

Reviewed by Kellie Nissen

Do you love to draw?

Or maybe you love to write?

What if you could hone your skills in both – like Dale Baker demonstrates in I Love to Draw?

This fun concept book is part expository text aimed to convince readers how much fun drawing is, and part instruction manual with some fun (and easy-looking) drawing activities. The simple narrative, told by an unseen narrator who clearly wants to share his love of drawing, explores what is possible when you pick up a piece of paper and a pencil.

Are you sure that what you’re looking at is a penguin? Look at it another way, and maybe it’s a giraffe. What can you do with an ‘H’, a ‘U’ and an upside-down ‘7’?  What might a simple line drawing turn into if you let your imagination run wild?

With fun, encouraging text and simple yet engaging illustrations, children aged 4 – 8 years will surely want to pick up their own pencils and see what they can create after exploring this charming picture book.  

My Super Uncle

My Super Uncle by Dannica Patterson, illustrated by Seantelle Walsh (Ford Street 2026) HB RRP $27.95 IBSN 9781922696540

Reviewed by Sylvia Forbes

My friends all love my uncle

when he jokes and fools around.

To me, he's super special

'cause he never lets me down.

I don't need X-ray vision

to see the way he cares.

I don't need super senses

to know he'll be right there.

My Super Uncle reads like a sweet little love song - narrated in the first person by a young girl - dedicated to her 'superhero' uncle. Dannica Patterson's warm, playful text is written in rhyming couplets with a metre that flows across the pages like the rhythmic accompaniment to that song. It tells the story of a child's love for her uncle - her mentor, her guide, and her all-around best buddy. 

Whether they're playing dress-up, hide-and-seek, or sports. Or at the beach or family gatherings, reading bedtime stories or dancing together, she knows that he will always be there to guide and support her, and keep her safe, and that he will never let her down. 

This picture book showcases the importance of role models and chosen family in a child's life - these super people are like sunshine and water to growing children. The benefits of receiving such care and devotion will flourish within them for life and be passed down to the next generation ... 

CBCA-shortlisted illustrator and Noongar artist, Seantelle Patterson's vibrant, energetic illustrations bring to life the pure joyfulness of the text. Delightful details add layers of social, emotional and cultural meaning for children to explore and decode. And the references to her culture, delicately woven into some of her illustrations, lend her work an aura of transience and wonder. 

I love the non-primary colours she has used - and how the figures are defined against washy tones and dreamy backgrounds with edges that often just fade into nothingness ... 

Alongside its ephemeral quality, her style has a strong sense of realism that allows the reader to feel the connection between the girl and her uncle. She has captured their body language and facial expressions so believably that at times the emotionality is almost palpable. Like when the young girl gazes adoringly into the smiling face of her uncle as he sings to her and plays his guitar ... 

Then there's the illustration of the family photo album, which I admit made me look twice - because I wondered for a second - are some of these actual photos?  I love the baby footprints image - and the endpapers with those child-drawn family figures and house are adorable.

My Super Uncle presents a feel-good story that will appeal to children and families of all kinds. It celebrates undiluted love, family bonds and everyday heroes. 

Books like this are important for fostering empathy, acceptance and respect, for gaining a wider, more inclusive vision of what a family 'should' look like - and for ensuring that all family structures get represented in literature - so that all children get to see their own family reflected in the pages of storybooks. 

At its heart, the message is - whatever the configuration - every family unit is as valid and vital as any other. We are all a bit different, but mostly we are very much the same. Love is love. We love who we love.

And love transcends differences. 

Highly recommended and suitable for children aged around 4-9 years.

What’s That? Australian sharks, rays and skates

What’s That? Australian sharks, rays and skates Illustrated by Myke Mollard (Woodslane Press)  , ISBN 9781923350151  , RRP $24.99 (Hardcover)

Reviewed by Jude Mullen

Have you ever heard of a guitarfish or a greeneye spurdog? Did you know that goblin sharks have electroreceptors that help them to detect the heartbeats of their prey? Or that whale sharks swallow around 38 000 litres of seawater each day?

There are oceans of intriguing things to learn about the cartilaginous fish inhabiting the waters around us, and these are just a few of the amazing facts in What’s That? Australian sharks, rays and Skates by children’s illustrator, author educator and designer Myke Mollard.

This superbly illustrated book will fill young readers with awe and amazement as they discover astonishing details about the feeding habits, physical characteristics and quirky behaviours of these incredible creatures. It also delivers a message about the protection and conservation of the natural world - “Let’s listen to what nature is telling us.”

The layout of the book is inviting and easy to read. It is divided into three sections – sharks, rays and skates – and contains the definitions and differences for each species.  Each spread is filled with diagrams, maps, headings and subheadings as well as short paragraphs and snippets of texts scattered across the pages. The glossy hardcover and high-quality paper make it both visually appealing and durable for young readers to flip through.

What’s That? Australian sharks, rays and Skates is one of a series of non-fiction books about Australian animals published by Woodslane Press featuring illustrations by Myke Mollard. Other titles in this series include books about Australian reptiles, birds, insects, frogs, spiders and whales. ‘

Perfect for curious children aged from 6-12 years, this book will also appeal to classroom teachers looking for a great resource for developing children’s knowledge and understanding of the natural world.