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.

The Big Book of Dinosaurs

The Big Book of Dinosaurs by Robert Irwin (Random House Australia Children’s)
PB RRP $19.95
ISBN 9781742750958
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness

Young readers may have already devoured the many books in the Robert Irwin Dinosaur Hunter series where Robert and his best friend Riley time travel back to the age of the dinosaurs. To complement the fictitious story lines, dinosaur fans can find out even more about the most famous and obscure dinosaurs that roamed the earth in The Big Book of Dinosaurs.

Starting with its green, dinosaur-skin-textured cover through to its soft-focus pages with their earthy-frames, there’s interesting information to absorb and enjoy. The layout is impressive and the illustrations are so animated I can almost imagine the horned, armoured, frilled and parrot-beaked Albertaceratops strutting off the page and onto my desk. It’s a book waiting to be dipped into by young, inquisitive minds.

The reader is taken on a prehistoric adventure with Robert through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Robert counts down his 10 favourite dinosaurs with pictures, fact files and dino-paws containing snippets of intriguing info.

Robert gives out Dino Awards for those having the: most teeth, weirdest body, longest claws and most armour. There’s even an award for the best Hollywood dinosaur. He visits the world’s renowned fossil sites and museums of natural history. There’s a good section on the Australian Age of Dinosaurs.

Dino fans might also like to draw their own mighty creatures of the Mesozoic era like Robert has drawn with all their spines, armour, jagged teeth, scales and feathers. And if you’re still not sure of something, there’s a handy glossary for that last minute fact check.

Robert Irwin Dinosaur Hunter – The Big Book of Dinosaurs is a great addition to any young dinosaur fan’s collection. Recommended for 6 and up.

The Saddle Club: Horse Sense/Horse Power

The Saddle Club: Book 2: Horse Sense/Horse Power by Bonnie Bryant (Random House Australia Children’s)
PB RRP $12.95
ISBN 9780857980649
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness

Book 2: Horse Sense/Horse Power continues the stories of the three main characters of The Saddle Club: Carole, Stevie and Lisa. Once again there are two stories per book, so that sense of loss that you feel when you finish a story turns to joy when you have another fully formed tale to read at the flick of a page.

In Horse Sense, each girl has a mission at Pine Hollow Stables. Carole’s is to be at the birth of a foal, Stevie’s is to plan the games for the gymkhana and Lisa has to work out the rules for The Saddle Club.

As usual, the delightful, sensory descriptions of riding and jumping lessons position the reader in the saddle.

There is trouble ahead for The Saddle Club members when a new French girl, Estelle, joins. It takes a while for Carole, Stevie and Lisa to find out that Estelle is the ‘ultimate pretender.’

Meanwhile, the mare Delilah goes into labour. It’s a challenging situation as the three girls are alone at Pine Hollow Stables. Through combining their skills of nurturing, creativity and organisation they rise to the challenge and help the foal to be born.

To buffer the stories, there’s a great article on the logistics of transporting horses to the Olympics. It’s a compelling package of fact and fiction.

In the second story Horse Power, the gymkhana gets underway as Carole, Stevie and Lisa work to create the best horse-riding games. Two new characters are introduced. One is Stevie’s brother Chad, who takes riding lessons to be near Stevie’s best friend Lisa, his latest crush. Will their first date be a dream or disaster? In the layering of the story, the three girls have another problem to solve, why has the champion rider Kate Devine, the latest member of Pine Hollow Stables, lost the joy of riding.

Bonnie Bryant’s writing creates not only multiple plot lines, but her style is so personal that young readers 9 – 12 will feel that they too are part of The Saddle Club going through their ups and down, jokes and squabbles.

The Saddle Club: Horse Crazy/Horse Shy

The Saddle Club: Book 1: Horse Crazy/Horse Shy by Bonnie Bryant (Random House Australia Children’s)
PB RRP $12.95
ISBN 9780857980632
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness

The Saddle Club is a hugely popular series for girls aged 9 – 12. In its new format of two stories per book, young readers will fully immerse themselves in all things horsey.

The series follows the lives of three girls on the cusp of adolescence: Carole (obsessed with horses), Stevie (tom-boy and practical joker) and Lisa (loves school and learning). They make an awesome team as their love of horse riding at their beloved Pine Hollow Stables brings them together to form The Saddle Club.

Throughout the series, readers follow these three girls, plus many extra characters, through adventures, rivalry, gymkhanas, friendship problems and family dramas. There are some tough issues and personal obstacles, but through teamwork and loyalty, the girls’ bond of friendship grows even stronger.

At the conjunction of both stories, there’s an interesting segue into the reality of the horse world, with a short piece about how horses took part in the Olympics 2700 years ago, as well as interesting facts about show jumping and dressage.

Book 1: Horse Crazy/Horse Shy

Stevie has a problem. Her parents won’t pay her fees to attend the Mountain Trail Overnight Camp unless her grades improve. Studying seems too hard for Stevie so she decides instead to do odd jobs and earn the money herself. That is until things start to go wrong. It is Lisa who comes up with the compromise that has been in front of their eyes all along. Meanwhile, Lisa, who is new to the stables, has parent problems. She’s doesn’t want to be a rider, it’s her mother’s ambition, but ‘Lisa knew that once again, she would just do what her parents wanted her to do.’ All Lisa really wants is to ‘escape into her homework.’ When Carole’s favourite horse, Cobalt, has to be put down, she retreats into herself as her own story of the loss of her mother weaves through. Carole becomes horse shy and doesn’t want to ride any more, until she gains her emotional strength from her best friends.

The joy of these stories is that you don’t have to own a horse, or even go horse riding. Through the descriptions and horse vocabulary such as: tack rooms, bridles, grooming, saddle soap, breeches and phrases like ‘rise and sit with the beat of the horse’s hooves’ young readers can connect to the world of The Saddle Club.  And if the opportunity to go horse riding comes about; readers will be off with a flying start.

Stories for Boys

Stories for Boys a selection of stories by Australian authors, illustrated by Tony Flowers (Random House Australia Children’s)
PB RRP $14.95
ISBN 9780857980885
Ebook ISBN: 9780857980892
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness

Keeping up the pace and excitement, but this time for six to eight year old boys, is this fine and funny anthology from another twelve fabulous Aussie authors. And they know the stuff that will engage our boys with fabulous adventures featuring: ghosts, robots, jellyfish, lice and terror-dactyls.

As well as some of the authors from the ‘girls’ series, there are offerings from: Bill Condon, Tristan Bancks, Nick Falk, Aleesah Darlison, Celeste Walters and Sophie Masson.

Some stories are written in past tense, some present tense. There are short, accessible sentences with simple words, others with doozies thrown in for good measure, like ‘follicle’ and ‘realm’. There are great similes, ‘rain hammers on the roof like bullets’ and ear-wrenching onomatopoeia where ‘lightning crackles … doors creeeeak and thunder rumbles’. Each story uses a wealth of literary techniques to subliminally encourage readers to create and colour their own stories.

Plot and character are the main focus and there are plenty to choose from. There’s Tom who visits his pop in a nursing home. The thing is, his pop hates kids. Tom has a problem.

What happens when Jack wishes that his mum were an octopus – a riotous romp of tentacle fun ensues. Or perhaps you’d prefer the story set on a space station where giant jellyfish roam, or something closer to home, Sophie Masson’s romp in the Possum in the Roof.

And then there’s the hilarious story of Ferdie the frog who goes to market in a box of lettuces. Celeste Walters delights with her rhythmic and imagery-filled writing when ‘fat hands and thin hands and bodies with trolleys were pushing and shoving and pawing and pouncing’ as Ferdie goes on his adventure around the supermarket. The end result is that all readers will want a frog like Ferdie.

With the animated, boyish illustrations by internationally acclaimed artist, Tony Flowers (illustrator of the Saurus Street series), along with the perfect-sized font and plenty of white space in format, Stories for Boys, is a great addition to the bedside table.

Stories for Girls

Stories for Girls a selection of stories by Australian authors, illustrated by J. Yi (Random House Australia Children’s)
PB RRP $14.95
ISBN 9780857980861
Ebook ISBN: 9780857980878
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness

Who’s up for a story, or 12? This anthology of short stories is perfect for so many people. Young readers aged six to eight will laugh out loud, parents will rejoice at bedtime with the witty selection they can share with their children and teachers will be pestered by their students to read another story.

Jacqueline Harvey, Dianne Bates, Janeen Brian, Tania Cox, Claire Saxby – it’s a galaxy of writers presenting a stellar smorgasbord of stories about ghosts, glamour and games.

In Jess Black’s A Pony for Alice, there’s a wonderful unicorn connection. Maisie Dubosarsky’s short story tells of young Grace who wished so hard for long hair that it grew out the window. Just as well Mrs Finn, the violin teacher, had a great solution.

George Ivanoff is up to his usual funny stuff in his story of Ug the troll who wants to make a fairy pie as he ‘really, really liked eating … even people, when he could catch them.’

For dance enthusiasts, there’s Grace Atwood’s story of Arabella the ballet-dancing giraffe. Her perfect manners forbade her to show her long, blue tongue in company … ‘If she couldn’t reach the leaf with her lips, it was not the leaf for her.’

Challenges abound in David Harding’s Monkey Man. It’s the day of the Dad and Daughter school picnic and the permission note sternly states ‘No animals!’

In Deborah Kelly’s story about a pet rat, secrets abound– with a delightful twist on the theme of sibling rivalry.

There’s even a twist on fairy tales, as Martin Chatterton weaves his magic in The Tale of Handle and Kettle.

There’s so much to recommend this collection of short stories for girls. The stories are a great segue into chapter books with plenty of white space, large type and scatterings of illustrations by the quirky J. Yi (illustrator of the Alice-Miranda, Clementine Rose and Ghost Club series). There’s even a bio on each author at the end of the book with plenty of author goss.

The Bouncing Ball

The Bouncing Ball by Deborah Kelly, illustrated by Georgia Perry (Random House Australia Children’s)
HB RRP $19.95
ISBN 9780857980045
Also available as an ebook
ISBN 9780857980052
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness

It’s one of those great moments of co-ordination when you are little and can finally bounce a ball. When ‘a small boy found a small ball’ on Kelly’s opening page of her picture book, there’s great excitement in the simple use of language to: pick up, bounce, throw and catch the ball. The boy has control over the red ball until it bounces away. Thus begins the first adventure in the story as the ball bounces ‘between two cars … into the gutter … down the drain,’ and ‘out to sea.’

The next turning point in the plot is when the ball is found on a beach by a ‘small girl’ who then uses different actions while having fun, as the ball is ‘skimmed … buried’ and ‘brushed.’

A third turning in the plot occurs when the girl loses the ball as it bounces through the window of a truck.

Kelly uses the conjunction ‘until’ as a page-turner taking the reader on the tangent of other adventures … ‘until’ the ball bounces ‘down a slope off a rock and into a river … never to be seen again.’ The very last page has one word beneath the vivid illustration of a child in a wooden boat following a floating ball along a river bathed in sunset. ‘Until …’, thus allowing the reader to create their own versions of ‘until’ and continue the ball’s journey with their own scenarios.

Illustrator, Georgia Perry’s background in illustration, animation, photography and installation combine in this beautifully designed, evocative and textured picture book. Her bold and bright illustrations not only enhance the rhythm of Kelly’s words; they also add humour to the ball’s various journeys.

What’s also great is the picture book’s wide appeal. Children of all cultures and socio-economic backgrounds can connect with the experience and joy of playing with a ball.

The endpapers are filled with different coloured balls; enough for everyone’s imaginative adventures.

Colour for Curlews

Colour for Curlews written and illustrated by Renée Treml (Random House Australia Children’s)
HB RRP $19.95
ISBN 9781742759210
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness

Having reviewed Renée Treml’s first picture book One Very Tired Wombat (shortlisted for the CBCA’s 2013 Crichton Award), I was looking forward to seeing her interpretation of the rather plainly feathered, Aussie curlew.

Two cheeky curlews wander into an artist’s studio, and like two little kids, find delight in squeezing paint tubes and dabbing themselves ‘with golden eyes that glimmer in the sun.’

Other birds come to play as well. Bowerbird naturally seizes the tube of blue, Brolga selects red for ‘some colour near her face’, three quails slide across the yellow and red blobs and create orange. Lorikeet stirs blue into yellow and wallows around in a green puddle.

Treml uses a plethora of Australian birds to mix and match the artist’s primary coloured palette until there is a rainbow as, ‘splashes fly and birds all laugh as colours go here and there!’

Not only will pre-schoolers and young readers love the colour fun, they’ll delight in seeing One Very Tired Wombat waddle across the page, lie down in the pool of paint, roll around, stretch and scratch until all the colours mix into brown as ‘wombat closes both his eyes to sleep the day away.’

This multi-coloured picture book combines Treml’s love of mixing colours with her passion for native birds, so it’s a double-whammy for readers. Her artwork is crisp, yet subtly detailed and her splashes of colour bring joy to every page.

Starting with her alliterative title, Treml combines rhyme, vivid verbs and changing font to engage her audience. Her endpapers provide extra information about the quirkiness of our native birds for potential bird watchers, big and small.

The River Charm

The River Charm by Belinda Murrell (Random House Australia Children’s)
PB RRP $15.95
ISBN 9781742757124
Also available as an ebook
ISBN 9781742757131
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness

As a child I loved Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women and Ethel Turner’s Seven Little Australians. Both were written in the 19th century and both were written with finesse and emotion, with the grittiness of life’s adventures at their cores.

Murrell’s evocative book, The River Charm, had the same captivating effect. I was transported into the lives of Murrell’s own forebears, the Atkinson’s of Oldbury, near Berrima in the southern highlands of NSW. It was a time of bushrangers, home schooling, aboriginal chiefs and life on the land. Koalas were called native bears; children caught yabbies in creeks and even had the rare privilege of attending corroborees.

The story is introduced through the eyes of 21st century Millie as she and her family holiday with great aunt Jessamine who is looking after the Oldbury estate. Jessamine is wearing a charm bracelet that holds the history of their family in the charms. One charm is a river pebble. As Jessamine tells Millie its history, Millie sees a girl dressed in white flit across the lawn, the story then timeslips to1839.

Based on Murrell’s family tales of Charlotte Atkinson, we start the story with the troubles facing the family after the death of Charlotte’s father. Her mamma is left with four children to raise. She unwisely marries a man who soon shatters their lives by his brutality and abusive behaviour.

Mamma’s strength of character shines through as she gathers her children and leaves the family home in the depths of night. Charlotte’s brother James carves his initials into the fireplace before he leaves, ‘I wanted to leave my name as a record that we belong here and Oldbury belongs to us.’ They ride their horses on a perilous journey south, through rugged bush and treacherous terrain to the safety of a shepherds’ hut on the Shoalhaven.

Towards the end of the book, Charlotte, now 15, attends her first ball in Sydney. She falls in love with the handsome Will Cummings. This is sure to fire the imagination of readers as we turn the pages to see what happens.

The River Charm would be a wonderful asset to any junior high school English program. The ties with Australian history, the drama of the narrative and the quality of the writing are testimony to this.

As with Murrell’s forebear, Charlotte Waring Atkinson, the author of the first children’s book published in Australia, Murrell shares the family genes of storytelling. A riveting read for girls aged 10 – 14.

TO GET TO ME

TO GET TO ME by Eleanor Kerr, illustrated by Judith Rossell (Random House Australia Children’s)
HB RRP $19.95
ISBN 9781742758831
Also available as an ebook
ISBN 9781742758855
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness

Peter and Ahmed are best friends. Peter wants Ahmed to join him at Taronga Zoo, but there’s one problem. Ahmed lives far, far away, in Africa.

This beautifully crafted picture book for toddlers and early readers is a joyous journey. It’s a child’s version of planes, trains and automobiles (plus a camel, a ferry and a chairlift), as Peter works out all the different forms of transport Ahmed must use to meet him.

As Ahmed leaves his home in what appears to be Morocco, Kerr juxtaposes the various transports with clever word play, using onomatopoeia, alliteration, repetition and rhythm that new readers will be able to enjoy and repeat.

TO GET TO ME a tale of long distance friendship, adventure and culture.

There are landscapes for Ahmed to manoeuvre, such as deserts, sand dunes and mountains, and cityscapes to discover, with airports, train stations and ferry terminals until finally he rises, up … up … up … in the chairlift at the zoo to be reunited with Peter who is surrounded by a colourful array of animals.

Rossell’s illustrations are in the brightest of colours and reflect the two vivid settings of the Moroccan desertscape and Sydney’s urban landscape. There are iconic pictures of each other’s countries on the boys’ walls and young children will have fun identifying all the exotic animals. The two boys have so much in common but are kind of mirror images of each other. One has gum trees out his window; the other has palm trees. Rossell is a veteran illustrator, having more than 80 books to her name. As well as being informative, her illustrations are a lot of fun. Readers and listeners will delight in examining all the forms of transport.