Scorpion Falls

Scorpion Falls by Martin Chatterton (Ford Street Publishing) PB RRP $18.95 ISBN 9781922696090

Reviewed by Kylie Buckley

Fourteen-year-old Theo is having a hard time reconciling the peculiar happenings in his hometown lately. He admits that nothing noteworthy usually happens in the small mining town of Scorpion Falls, but things have recently changed. Theo is convinced that he has witnessed the disappearance of two teenagers, which has him most unsettled. In addition, a creepy man is staying at the local motel where Theo works after school, not to mention Theo keeps seeing a mysterious white van around town. Theo and his girlfriend Ari are on a mission to piece it all together.

Scorpion Falls is an intriguing young adult novel narrated in the first person by the teenage protagonist, Theo Sumner. It is suitable for readers who enjoy spine-chilling stories with mystery and suspense.

The Tell

The Tell by Martin Chatterton (Puffin Books) PB RRP $16.99 ISBN 9781760895945

Reviewed by B J Hatton

Described by the publisher as ‘an action-packed coming-of-age story in the vein of Two Wolves or a young Boy Swallows Universe,’ this latest book by Chatterton sizzles with energy and action. Never for a moment does it slacken pace, right to the last page.

Rey ‘Raze’ Tanic is unlike other 14-year-old boys in that his father is a mafia boss who is in prison. Raze, meanwhile, along with his besties Candy, a girl he fancies, and African Ids, is a graffiti artist at night and a grammar school student by day. He’s determined not to get into crime like his father, but after a dramatic prison escape by his father, Raze nose-dives into a series of near-death situations, each more unexpected and brutal than the last. Not only are Raze's nerves shredded beyond recognition but so too are ours as his home and life is systematically destroyed. On the run, homeless and confused as to why his dad has suddenly abandoned the family, it's Raze's close affiliation with corruption that hones his instincts for survival.

It might sound completely implausible that a trio of 14-year-olds could riddle and dodge their way through a seething mess of iniquitous deception but Chatterton's razor-sharp narrative style and cutting teen voice flip unlikely into, 'Can I come too?'As Raze is sucked into a sinister vortex of nastiness, he and his friends each face their own baptism of fire; for Candy, being the daughter of the head of police is not as idealistic as it seems. Chatterton loops brutal reality and disconsolate yearnings into complex character patterns. It's thrilling getting to watch these kids unravel and then find themselves again.

The pace of The Tell is frantic, the plot lines just as absorbing. This can’t-put-it-down novel is sure to be eagerly devoured by teenagers aged 12+ years.

Mortified: Lost in the Sands of Time

Mortified: Lost in the Sands of Time by Martin Chatterton (Random House Australia Children’s)
PB RRP $14.95
ISBN 9781742758886
Also available as an ebook
ISBN 9781742758893
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness

Imagine being a ‘frever’ where every 1000 years equals one human year. Mort and his sister Agnetha are ‘frevers’. Mort might look 10, but he’s actually 10 000 years old and his sister is only a little bit younger.

Sound great? Not if every time you touch down somewhere in history in your Retro 2.0 time machine, you have to go to school!

Mortified is the third book in the Mort chapter-book series and Mort and Agnetha think they have seen it all. They’ve already encountered Mongolian warlords, sabre-toothed tigers, rampaging Vikings and bloodthirsty dinosaurs. So, when the dastardly Trish Molyneux, Assistant Chief Education Inspector, is after them to go to school in our century, Mort and Agnetha escape in their time machine, aided by an odd assortment of historical characters.

They zap back to 1889, to Swaffham, an idyllic, but dull-looking English town. Who should they bump into but Arthur Conan Doyle (of Sherlock Holmes fame) who is running around with a chicken jammed on his head. They also bump into a boy, Howard Carter (later discoverer of Tutankhamun’s tomb), and Queen Victoria, who is travelling on a steam train that’s on a collision course with the Retro 2.0.

After a calamitous meeting, they all end up inside the Retro 2.0 and take off time-travelling. The Retro 2.0’s switchboard jams and the mishmashed group is ‘bounced from one famous historical disaster to another.’

From sailing on the Titanic to sparking off the Great Fire of London, they lurch through history finally landing in ancient Egypt where they’re imprisoned. They’re deemed to make tasty morsels for the Nile River crocodiles, especially One Gulp Gus.

They escape through a poo-filled sewer where they’re chased by zombie-mummies.

Is Trish Molyneux, Assistant Chief Education Inspector successful in reining the time-travelling siblings back to school? I can’t give too much away.

Numerously awarded author, Martin Chatterton, lets his wild imagination loose as he takes readers on a rollicking, hysterical ride through history. His clever and playfully-creepy drawings will further entice 8 – 10 year old boys to read more. And if you’ve missed the first two books in the series, there’s a tantalising entrée to Chatterton’s first instalment at the back of the book.

Mort: the 10 000 year old boy

Mort: the 10 000 year old boy by Martin Chatterton (Random House Australia)

PB RRP $14.95

ISBN 9781742753157

Reviewed by Vicki Stanton

What a cracking read? Kids are bound to love this adventure with Mort and his family who by some strange quirk of nature age only one year for every 1 000 lived. This book has everything – mad scientists, cloned geniuses (Da Vinci, Oppenheimer, H.G. Wells to name but a few) and cloned madmen (Genghis Khan), a mutant vampire Goldilocks, a sabre-toothed tiger, a time machine and one very unflustered truancy officer!

Mort flies along at breakneck speed with a new twist around every corner. Chatterton makes this totally outrageous story very believable. His black-and-white illustrations which pepper the story add to its humour. The ending very obviously leads into the sequel but rather than feel cheated, as I have done on other occasions when that technique has been used, I’m merely hanging out for the next instalment where Mort, Khan and others have been transported back to 1941 and landed in the clutches of Nazi soldiers.

Included in the back is a brief run-down on some of the historical figures that Mort and sister Agnetha had cloned for those that need the heads-up.

I highly recommend Mort for younger independent readers who enjoy action, adventure and a good laugh.