Hunt for the Nighthawks

Hunt for the Nighthawks by Felice Arena (Penguin Random House) PB RRP $17.99

ISBN 9781761355653

Reviewed by Kylie Buckley

12-year-old Jake is staying with his nan in a small village outside London, after the recent death of his father. One night, Jake hears noises in the paddock outside and goes to investigate. What he uncovers are ‘nighthawks’ digging up bones and artefacts on his nan’s property. The thieves flee after getting caught but not without taking some treasure, attacking Jake, and threatening to come back for his family if he tells anyone.

Soon afterwards, Jake meets Marcus, a friendly but frustrated ghost from ancient Roman times who needs help. Jake is tasked with finding the thieves, retrieving the treasure, and restoring Marcus’s family’s honour. With the support of his new friends, Tilly and ‘Rabbit’, Jake makes it his mission to ‘hunt for the nighthawks’ and to stop the artefacts going onto the black market.

Hunt for the Nighthawks is a middle-grade mystery adventure with a touch of the paranormal. Its themes include history, archaeology, grief, courage and friendship. And, for the readers who are English Premier League fans, there are plenty of football references throughout.

 

The Unstoppable Flying Flanagan

The Unstoppable Flying Flanagan by Felice Arena (Puffin) PB $16.99 ISBN 9781761044366

Reviewed by Kathleen Grace

This latest book from the best-selling series, Specky Magee, covers a wide range of themes including Australian history, relationships, migration, racism, World War 11, the equality movement and more. 

The war seems a long way away to Maggie Flanagan. Her brother is somewhere across the sea, flying to protect England from the Germans and the Italians. But Maggie is more interested in playing football and finding out who’s going to play for St Kilda this season.

However, when Maggie sees what she’s sure is a Japanese spy plane in the Melbourne skies, war becomes very real. The Japanese attack Australia up north, raining bombs on Darwin and Broome, and American soldiers start appearing on the street. Worst of all, it seems the football season will be cancelled.

When Maggie decides to stage an all-girl football game to raise money for the troops, she is breaking all the rules. Who says girls can play football?

This is a moving and inspiring story which is likely to be of interest to young readers from 8 to 11 years.

Poo! And Other Words That Make Me Laugh

Poo! And Other Words That Make Me Laugh by Felice Arena, illustrated by Tom Jellett (ABC Books) HB RRP $19.99 ISBN9780733341427

Reviewed by Dianne Bates

The title really says all this is to say about the content of this picture book. The word ‘Poo!’ in a speech balloon is on both fly pages, and the title page shows a bright brown and black face on a yellow background with the word ‘Poo!’ issuing out of the boy’s mouth. 

Made-up words such as ‘BUMbershoot’ and ‘BUMfuzzle’ compete with words such as ‘bottom’, ‘butty’, and ‘booty’, along with nonsense words such as ‘collywobbles’, ‘gobbles’, ‘doo doo,’ and caca’. Words in different coloured and sized fonts fill each page, along with bold and bright headshots of boys and girls. On the final pages is a glossary which explains what all the words used in the book mean. There is no attempt made to create a story as such. The book is really just random, mostly rude words and bold pictures.

There’s not much else one can say about a book which it seems has been published to attract the attention of naughty children.