Samurai vs Ninja: The Battle for the Golden Egg

Samurai vs Ninja: The Battle for the Golden Egg by Nick Falk, illustrated by Tony Flowers (Random House)

PB RRP $9.00

ISBN 9780857986054

Reviewed by Jaquelyn Muller

If only the Samurai vs Ninja book series was around 30 years ago, then my brother may have spent more time reading about clumsy, fighting, farting ancient Japanese warriors and less time pretending to be one, and practicing the aforementioned unsavoury behaviour on me.

Nick Falk and Tony Flowers have created a striking, fast-paced, snort-inducing book series for early readers, six and up. Beginning with The Battle for the Golden Egg, readers are introduced to samurai leader, Kingyo-Sama and the head of the ninja, Buta-Sama, who are constantly battling each other in the most ridiculous and smelliest of ways. They also happen to be brothers, which will have an instant appeal to young readers who have spent many a day duelling with siblings over the last piece of pizza or the front seat of the car.

With a highly visual tone, Nick Falk has cleverly downplayed the battle sequences using unusual and hilarious ways to convey the frustration and competition between the two main characters. Paths of wasabi planted in underpants, stinky seafood careering over walls in moments of attack and tickling feet as a form of torture go hand in hand with nonsense name calling.

What this over-exaggerated phrasing creates is a wonderful procession of alliteration and tongue-twisters which is such a valuable reading tool for younger audiences. The use of Japanese terms and glossary at the back of the book also enrich the variety of the text and opportunities for learning.

Descriptions of the era, costumes, architecture and armour are cleverly enhanced by Tony Flowers’ comic styled illustrations that maintain the interest of the reader, in the way I remember The Adventures of Asterix. 

Nick Falk is the author of the Saurus Street and Billy is a Dragon book series’ and the picture book, Troggle the Troll. As a specialist in Japanese influenced illustration, Tony Flowers was awarded a prize from the Oshima Picture Book Museum in Toyama, Japan, for his hand made pop-up book Gaijin Holiday. He has also illustrated six books in the Nick Falk Saurus Street series.

The series continues with The Race for the Shogun’s Treasure and two more instalments are due for release in July 2015.

Billy is a Dragon: Werewolves Beware

Billy is a Dragon: Werewolves Beware by Nick Falk, illustrated by Tony Flowers (Random House Australia Children’s)

PB RRP $12.99

ISBN 9780857983077

Also available as an ebook

ISBN 9780857983084

Reviewed by Marian McGuinness

Billy is at it again. In the first book of the series Billy finds out he is a were-dragon, meaning he can shape-shift from a nine-year-old boy into a green, scaly dragon. It’s a very handy talent, especially when confronted by Bludger, who bullies anyone ‘smaller’ than him.

One morning Billy wakes up feeling weird. He’s just found out that his mortal enemy, a werewolf, is chasing him. Billy’s a pretty useless ‘shifter’ and worse still, the soccer trials are on and Bludger the bully is the try-out captain.

Bertha the bulldog and Polly the parrot watch as Billy practises shapeshifting. Polly constantly interrupts his concentration by blurting out ‘Big Blue Bottom’ and ‘Bogie Brain.’ Then, with a ‘RRRRRIP …’ Billy’s tail shoots through the back of his underpants and out the bedroom window.

Billy calls on his best friend Jeannie to help him as his big sister thinks something’s very fishy. Billy and Jeannie escape from his house incognito – dressed in vegetable costumes. Hilarious situations arise when they get to school.

There’s a huge problem for Billy. When he most needs to shape-shift, he goes ‘squiffy.’ He’s so filled with anxiety that his nerves get the better of him. I really like Falk’s ideas here. There are lots of kids who are affected by nerves. Falk doesn’t underplay this fear. He treats it as normal and then injects the situation with humour. Billy ends up enlisting the help of Benny (the pet shop owner and were-hamster) who gives him a crash course in shapeshifting.

Falk is great at charging the plot with ‘what-ifs’. It works hilariously and takes you by surprise. The twist at the end comes from left field. I won’t spoil it for you other than saying the werewolf wasn’t after Billy.

Nick Falk and internationally acclaimed illustrator and artist, Tony Flowers, are a great team. The black and white illustrations add extra dollops of visual humour and perfectly complement the written narrative. A rollicking read for 6+.

There’s nothing ordinary about Falk’s writing style – it’s Falk-less. I’m ready for Book Number 3.

Billy is a Dragon: First Bite

Billy is a Dragon: First Bite by Nick Falk, illustrated by Tony Flowers (Random House Australia Children’s)

PB RRP $12.99

ISBN 9780857983053

Also available as an ebook

ISBN 9780857983060

Reviewed by Marian McGuinness

Ta-da! From the exceptional author/illustrator team of Falk and Flowers (Saurus Street series) comes another hilarious series perfect for beginning readers aged six and up.

Nine-year-old Billy has a ‘hurty finger’; it’s been bitten by an odd-looking lizard at Benny’s Pet shop. Billy’s dad peers through his thick-lensed glasses at Billy’s finger. ‘Alien invaders,’ he says as the bacteria charges about inside his wound.

Closer to the truth would be … bitten by a DragON lizard, which mysteriously starts to transform Billy’s body into that of a dragon.

With two allies – Bertha the bulldog and his best friend Jeannie, and one enemy, Bludger the bully, Billy (yes, lots of ‘B’ words), uses his new-found ability to change form as a weapon against the school bully.

The transformation at school is hilarious. ‘My mouth’s turning into a snout. My teeth are enormous. And my eyes have … turned bright red.’ Billy can fly. He can breathe fire. But there’s one thing missing; he can’t be with his family and that’s no fun at all.

After some shenanigans in the family home, Billy is wrestled, netted and taken in the back of the family car to the zoo, where he tries his own version of The Great Escape.

Billy has to find out how to undo the DragON spell. Back at the pet shop where it all began, Benny, the ‘tufty ginger moustached and sticking out front teethed’ owner (hmm … looks a little like a hamster) says, ‘Did you think you were the only shapeshifter in town?’

With short, active sentences, present tense and 1st person, Billy is a Dragon is a sit-down-and-read-me-till-you’re-finished book. The use of descriptive words that are accented in unusual, almost onomatopoeic fonts, such as: weird, sprint, bursting, dissect et al will help new readers to enjoy and immerse themselves in the action. It’s all part of the humour of reading.

Tony Flowers’ quirky illustrations and comically labelled drawings add to the joy and accomplishment of reading. Falk and Flowers are a dynamic duo of creativity. Book 2 – Billy is a Dragon – Werewolves Beware! is the next instalment.

Saurus Street

Saurus Street by Nick Falk and Tony Flowers (Random House Australia)
PB RRP $12.95
Saurus Street 5: A Plesiosaur Broke My Bathtub
ISBN 9780857981820
Also available as an ebook
ISBN 9780857980540

Saurus Street 6: A Diplodocus Trampled My Teepee
ISBN 9780857981844
Also available as an ebook
ISBN 9780857981851
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness


After reviewing the first two Saurus Street books a short while ago, what fun it is to read the next set of adventures.

With a great opening sentence ‘There are three reasons I’m scared of Granny and Grandad’s outdoor loo …’, I was hooked. Suddenly, visions of dark nights, scary sounds and creepy crawlies brought back childhood memories. Some things never change.

In Book 5, A Plesiosaur Broke My Bathtub, we’re creeping around with 9 year-old Thomas as he gathers the courage to go to the outside loo in the middle of the night. Granny and Grandad’s ‘creaky old cabin’ is built over a sinkhole in a swamp that’s connected to Saurus Lake, so a bottomless outdoor toilet is a spooky place to go.

Thomas has a powerful imagination. One dismal, windy night he falls down the toilet into its ‘murky darkness below.’ The only thing Thomas can do is swim through the yuck, through a tunnel and into Lake Saurus. His rollicking adventure begins when he is hooked on a fishing line by a red-haired girl called Molly. She thinks he is ‘as mad as a box of frogs.’

Molly is fishing for squid to feed Ellie, the Loch Saurus Monster (a plesiosaur).

As readers of Nick Falk’s Saurus Street books handle a single plot, Falk weaves in a riotous sub-plot. The Reverend Parsnip and his wife, Priscilla, are planning on taking over the lake and building a hideous fishing lodge.

Thomas and Molly join forces and imaginations. They devise a plan to ‘pull the plug’ to save not only the lake, but also its shy inhabitant, Ellie the Plesiosaur.

Nick Falk is a whizz with words. He uses lots of vibrant verbs: twist, warble, squiggle, spike and each takes the font shape of its sound, which not only reads well, but adds a visual dimension and extra context to the sentences.

Chapter headings are fun as well. Who wouldn’t want to read Meet the Parsnips or Something Alive Down There …

There’s plenty of white space on each page and Tony Flowers’ hilarious illustrations reinforce key elements as you read. The facial expressions and body language connect you directly to the story.

And we’re left with the question, how do Granny’s VOLCANIC ginger snap biscuits save the day?


Book 6, A Diplodocus Trampled My Teepee, continues the high jinks in Saurus Street. This time, Toby and Jack are camping at Camp Saurus. They play ‘Imagineering’ and make up outrageous stories about the things they find.

They find a marble that is really the magic eyeball of Captain Saurus, a legendary pirate whose ship was made from dinosaur bones. The eyeball unleashes a curse that brings dinosaurs back to life.

While there’s curious scratching noises from their teepee a huge head rises over the treetops. It’s a diplodocus and pandemonium breaks out. The boys have to find a way to reverse the curse. Jack’s ‘scary sister’ Saffi joins them. The boys don’t know which is more fearsome, the dinosaurs or Saffi.

Toby places the magic eyeball over his own eye, like a pirate patch. Amazingly, he sees like a pirate. There’s a map tucked away in the eyeball. To reverse the curse, they have to find where X marks the spot!

There are dinosaurs on the loose everywhere. Jack, Toby and Saffi end up riding a dinosaur, rodeo-style, to escape the stampede. They fall through a crack in the earth and end up at the bottom of a canyon guarded by ‘one-eyed Rex’, the most terrifying of Captain Saurus’ dinosaur crew.

They find where X marks the spot and have to work out how to reverse the dinosaur curse. There’s lots of frantic, clever puzzle solving done just in the nick of time as they’re about to become snacks for a raging tyrannosaurus rex.

These Saurus Street books are an imagination starter. That’s what I love about them. Not only are you romping around in such a creative stories, you’re using your imagination as you go. With the winning partnership of Falk and Flowers, readers 6+ will devour these books with dinosaur appetites.

Troggle the Troll

Troggle the Troll by Nick Falk and Tony Lowe (Random House Australia)
PB RRP $12.95
ISBN 9781742756011
Also available as an ebook
ISBN 9781742748269
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness

Tony Lowe’s dedication at the beginning of this humorous and colourful picture book for children aged 2+ hooks me in at the start. ‘While deceiving your parents is bad, eating people is definitely worse!’

The premise is enticing. Trolls! Eating people! Read on.

Troggle the Troll lives with his family ‘under a bridge in a hole in the ground.’ Unlike his fellow story character in the Three Billy Goats Gruff, Troggle and his family are different. They’re not scary. They’re just always hungry. Troggle doesn’t like dinner, ‘because they always had the same thing. Every single night. They had people.’ On Mondays they ate Postman Pie. On Tuesdays it was Teacher Tart and on Thursdays, they lapped up Pilot Pudding.

When Daddy Troll falls ill, it’s up to Troggle to fetch dinner. He is under strict instructions. ‘Something tender, something sweet, something with arms and legs and feet!’ But … ‘No vegegubbles!’

With this delightful dilemma, creators, Nick Falk and Tony Lowe devise a crazy second half of the book. Troggle meets a boy called Tom. Troggle should bring Tom home to be their dinner, but Troggle confesses that he doesn’t really like eating people.

‘Carrots, cabbage and cauliflower?’ said Tom.
‘Yum!’ said Troggle.

So, off to the vegetable patch they go.

Troggle returns home to howls of ‘What’s for dinner?’
‘Something special, something new, something tasty just for you.’

The troll family hoes into the vegetable person Troggle has made by snagging an arm, grabbing a leg and nabbing a nose. They heartily agreed, ‘It’s the tastiest person we ever did eat!’

Troggle is very happy proving that a little troll can make a big difference.

As with the quotes I’ve used, you can see that there is playful use of prose and poetry in this picture book. There are made-up words, visual puns, such as ‘Hole Sweet Hole’, luscious alliteration and lots of onomatopoeic words that capture movement and sound. The words are simple for little ones to read and repeat, and different fonts are used when words need stressing.

There is much humour in the cute and colourful illustrations. There are obvious things to find on each page as well as quirky detail to discover with a closer look.

Nick Falk brings into play his life as a practising psychologist and Tony Lowe’s passion for drawing since he was a child shines through. He also illustrated The Boy who Ate Himself. Hmm, there seems to be a theme here!

Saurus Street

Saurus Street by Nick Falk and Tony Flowers (Random House Australia)
PB RRP $12.95

Saurus Street 1: Tyrannosaurus in the Veggie Patch
ISBN 9781742756554
Also available as an ebook
ISBN 9781742749211

Saurus Street 2: A Pterodactyl Stole my Homework
ISBN 9781742756561
Also available as an ebook
ISBN 9781742749228

Reviewed by Marian McGuinness

There’s a new kid on the block. That should read; there’s a new dinosaur on the block. The block is Saurus Street and the dinosaur is a ginormous green tyrannosaurus, or is it a bright blue pterodactyl?

These are the first two books in the action-packed new series for 5 – 8 year olds, especially dinosaur-crazy boys. Once they start reading, they won’t want to put the books down, unless they’re whisked by mistake back to the Cretaceous Period.

In Book 1, Tyrannosaurus in the Veggie Patch, Jack wishes for his own Tyrannosaurus. When he goes searching for his dog Charlie, he finds a great, green T-rex straddled in the veggie patch. His ‘mum’s gonna boil’ when she sees what it’s done. The ‘cauliflowers are crushed, the tomatoes are toast and the cabbages are KAPUT.’

Jack convinces his best friend Toby to help build a time machine to send the T-rex back to the dinosaur era. They collect all the clocks they can find, including the ‘supercool glow-in-the-dark clock’ from his scary sister’s bedroom.

The only trouble is, Jack, Toby and Charlie get caught up with the T-rex and end up whizzing back to ‘dinosaur world’.

There’s a great dinosaur chase as the boys work out how to reverse the time machine. When all is back to normal, Jack sees a shooting star and makes a wish … Yep! For another dinosaur!

Book 2, A Pterodactyl Stole my Homework, continues the high jinks in Saurus Street. This time it’s with Jack’s neighbour, eight-year-old Sam and his older brother, Nathan. Together they’re known as ‘Team Dinosaur’ because they ‘build dinosaurs, draw dinosaurs and play dinosaurs.’

Sam’s homework keeps getting stolen and his teacher, Miss Potts with ‘twisted yellow teeth’ has given him an ultimatum. Tomorrow … or else! Trouble is, a pterodactyl has flown into his room and stolen it again. This time, Sam is going to follow the flying creature. With the help of his brother, they build a hot air balloon filled by the hot-air snores of their neighbour.

They fly high to the top of Saurus Hill. Everything is creepy, ‘the insects are gigantic’ and ‘there are spider webs everywhere.’ Sam falls into a giant nest made of children’s homework. The pterodactyl returns and feeds Sam a regurgitated lizard. He ends up with a giant pterodactyl egg and has to keep it safe from the oviraptor, the dinosaur egg thief. It’s all too funny!

These books are a breath of fresh air. What I also love is the spontaneity and interaction of each page. There is plenty of white space and there are oodles of illustrations. The font is reader-friendly and its shape changes for special words that connect to the emotions even more. Sometimes it’s hairy, twirly, ENORMOUS and even quivery.

The stories are told in first person, which connects young readers to the action. It makes it immediate. Made-up words make the sentences aural, like: THUNK! KER-SPLASH! WHAP! and FLOOMP! Suspense is often built by the font size increasing.

It’s laugh as you learn, as there are facts of the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods interspersed with the action. Young minds will surely soak these up.

Nick Falk has been writing since he was seven and he so much remembers what excites young readers. Tony Flowers’ humour jumps out from his drawings. He’s also a master of 3-D chalk-art – imagine a dinosaur clawing its way out of the school playground! To me, this creative team works like Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake, the perfect humorous mix of the written and the visual.

Look out in April for the next two books in the Saurus Street series: The Very Naughty Velociraptor and An Allosaurus Ate my Uncle.