Rebecca and the Wicked Witch

The Wingless Fairy Series Book 3: Rebecca and the Wicked Witch by Margaret Pearce (Writers Exchange E-Publishing)
Ebook $2.99
ISBN 978-1-922066-55-8 
Reviewed by Nina Lim

Something strange is happening in Rebecca’s hometown. In the third installment in this fantasy series for mid-graders, Rebecca has now completely settled into mortal life with her human family. Her life as a spoilt and bored fairy princess is now a distant memory. Rebecca loves working and studying like a regular mortal girl. But when the new schoolteacher Miss Baroom arrives in the village Rebecca senses that something is very, very wrong

The happy atmosphere of the old school house is replaced with a tense and foreboding feeling. Something strange has happened to her friend Tam, and he appears to be losing his memory and walks around with a vacant expression on his face. And what about Tam’s sister Janine? Why is she always too sick to go to school? And something is definitely not right with Tam and Janine’s mother. She appears to be looking younger every day, and is never seen without Miss Baroom by her side.

Rebecca knows there is something dangerous about Miss Baroom and her motives for coming to the village. It is up to her and her loyal owl, house goblins and a mythical gryphon to save the village from Miss Baroom’s evil intentions. But how can they banish the powerful witch when Rebecca is merely a mortal girl with no magical powers?  This is a fast paced and gripping read for fantasy lovers. Fans of Rebecca will be happy to read more of her adventures.

Try

Try! by Sharon McGuinness, cover illustration by Tom Jellet (distributed by Palmer Higgs)
RRP eBook $6.95; flipbook $5.00
Reviewed by Vicki Stanton


Jesse is desperate to play rugby league but his mum isn't sure since Jesse is on the small side. He persists, convinces Mum, and wins over his team mates through persistence and training.

Tom Jellet's cover illustration in his trademark style brought a smile to my face as soon as I opened this eBook. The smiles kept coming as I read the story. McGuinness has written a gem of an early chapter book for rugby league and other sport fanatics. I'm not a league fan but I can understand passion for football being a big Aussie rules fan and that's exactly what comes across. I was with Jesse all the way in his quest to play the sport he loves, and it is sure to delight younger readers. The story ends not only with triumph for Jesse but with some all round good sportsmanship.

This book is an extension of a story published previously in The School Magazine and is dedicated to two children who pestered McGuinness, a teacher-librarian, for stories about rugby league. Try! is targeted at a level emerging readers can tackle themselves and its satisfying story will no doubt bolster a love of rugby league and reading.

Kiss Kill

Kiss Kill by Jeni Mawter (Really Blue Books)
Epub, PDF RRP $4.40
ISBN 978-0-9872606-1-1
Reviewed by Vicki Stanton

Sixteen-year-old Mat can't believe his luck when he snags the hot new girl, Elle. She's stunning, witty and his. She's perfect. But then Elle's behaviour changes and she swings between adulation of Mat to humiliation and violence against him. Mat can't understand why things are different now, what he's done wrong, or how to fix things. He detaches from those around him thinking that this will help. He finally realises that he is not at fault. He also realises it is up to him to stop allowing Elle to rule how he behaves and to believe in his own self worth.

Fortunately for Mat, as he rides this roller-coaster of emotions, his best mate Jonno and Jonno's girlfriend Nadia stick by him. It is through their support that Mat comes to realise the toxic nature of his relationship with Elle. Jonno also intervenes by going to the school counsellor - something which Mat would never have considered especially following the talks at school where males are portrayed as abusers and females the abused. For Mat to confess to his abuse is tantamount in his mind to denying his masculinity. The thoughtful manner in which the counsellor deals with the situation allows Mat to begin the process of easing his way out of the relationship.

Kiss Kill presents Mat's story in a unique manner. It is not told as a traditional prose narrative but rather as fragments of prose, lyrics, scripts, social media, comics, texts (displaying the phone screen), drawings, photographs, poems and essays. The story flits from one to another at breakneck speed much like young adults can watch television, listen to music, do their homework and chat on facebook all at once making this format perfect for the intended audience

Author Jeni Mawter has also extended the book into an interactive forum. Mat blogs at http://www.whyidontgetgirls.wordpress.com (the entry with the dogs is hilarious!), there is ongoing utilisation of Youtube and reader feedback is encouraged.

Books such as Kiss Kill are a brave new world where the reader's involvement with the story and characters have been elevated to a whole new level not even imagined until recently. Rather than computers, Youtube and the entertainment of the digital world sounding the death knell for the book, they are the birth of a whole new way of seeing books and young adults will be leading the way. Kiss Kill's publisher Really Blue Books, Australia's first digital only publisher, and Jeni Mawter are to be congratulated for being at the forefront of this evolution of the book.

Kiss Kill can be bought through Really Blue Books, https://reallybluebooks.com/ebooks ($4.40) or through Amazon http://t.co/h3XUTe5t ($5.95).

How It Came About

How It Came About by Bryan Evans, illustrated by Kimberly Moon
ebook $2.99
Reviewed by Vicki Stanton


How It Came About is an original concept that will fascinate young children learning the three 'r's. In a place called Knowledge are little towns each inhabited by particular people. In the town of Alphabet live Letters. In another town live Numbers and among the Numbers lives Zero but 'nobody took any notice of the Number Zero because she didn't amount to anything.'


Disheartened Zero heads out into the world of Knowledge and meets Spot from the town of Punctuation who reminds her that '(e)verybody amounts to something. It's up to each one of us to find out what it is.' When Zero and Spot stumble upon Alphabet, they discover that everyone does indeed have a purpose. Letters can become words, sentences, books and then libraries and that numbers can amount to more than nine. But Spot is the most important of all.


The accompanying illustrations are bright and colourful and add to the quirkiness of the story with the personification of the letters, numbers and punctuation. This book could be a very useful teaching resource and one that will have everyone thinking about how words, numbers and language is formed.


View How It Came About at http://www.epubbud.com/books.php?u=bryanevans