Looking Up

Looking Up by Sally Murphy, illustrated by Aska (Fremantle Press) PB RRP $14.99

ISBN 9781925164572

Reviewed by Teena Raffa-Mulligan

Award-winning WA author Sally Murphy’s latest junior fiction release about a boy who receives an unexpected birthday surprise is sure to become a read-again favourite with young readers.

Pete is desperately hoping for a telescope for his tenth birthday. There’s nothing he wants more. But when a card arrives in the mail from the granddad Pete didn’t know he had, it changes everything.

There are questions Pete wants answered. Mum won’t explain so he decides to find out for himself who this mysterious grandfather is and see if he can become part of their life.

Murphy writes with insight and warmth about family relationships. All her characters are vividly drawn and come to life on the page. From the opening lines I was seeing events unfold through Pete’s eyes, yet also feeling a strong empathy for Mum and her estranged father.

Readers aged six to eight years will have no difficulty connecting with Pete, who loves stargazing and solving mysteries.

Aska’s full-page mono illustrations accompany each chapter and complement the text beautifully. My favourite is Mum and Pete lying hand in hand on the trampoline, deep in discussion about recent events. 

Murphy’s verse novel Pearl Verses the World won an Indie Book of the Year award in 2009, was made a Children’s Book Council of Australia Honour Book in 2010, and won a Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Award (Best Book for Language Development, Upper Primary) in 2010.

Her book Toppling won a Queensland Premier’s Literary Award and a Western Australian Premier’s Book Award in 2010. It was also shortlisted for a Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Award in 2010 and was made a Children’s Book Council of Australia Notable Book in 2011.

Looking Up deserves to garner the same level of critical acclaim and reader popularity.

Teaching notes are available from www.fremantlepress.com.au 

The Grand, Genius Summer of Henry Hoobler

The Grand, Genius Summer of Henry Hoobler by Lisa Shanahan (Allen and Unwin) PB RRP $14.9   ISBN 9781760293017

Reviewed by Daniela Andrews

Henry Hoobler’s mother suggests he make a little room for his worries by acknowledging them. Henry can’t help but wonder, though …‘Couldn’t he be good at making a tiny bit of room for the worry, without giving it the whole house?’

This heartwarming story is about an anxious boy called Henry, aged 8 or 9, whose worries often prevent him from enjoying himself. The upcoming family camping trip at the beach, for instance, terrifies him. Then he makes a friend who shows him what life can be like when you’re open to adventure, and he winds up having a very different summer to the one he expected.

By the end of the summer, Henry will have learnt how to work through some of his niggling anxieties and fears. He’ll realise that oceans don’t always bring tsunamis, that camping trips don’t necessarily include snakebites and that stingrays (barbless ones named Heathcliff, anyway) can be friendly. He’ll learn about self-confidence, especially in the face of older siblings. He’ll learn how to stand up to people who tease him … and forgive them. He will set out on a daring, nightly expedition to rescue a toy pony. He’ll meet a bold, adventurous girl – Cassie – who’ll inadvertently motivate him to find his courage. And he’ll not only learn to ride his bike without training wheels, he will ride it like she does – freely and fearlessly. No wonder it’s a grand, genius summer!

Lisa Shanahan, the award-winning writer of My Big Birkett, has created a touching novel that will appeal to readers aged 7–11 years. Henry’s family members and their camping holiday dynamics are so believable that it might feel as though you’re observing them all from a neighbouring tent! Their alternating feelings of frustration, sadness and support for Henry’s emotions are very realistic. I particularly liked the way Henry’s anxieties crept up on him, rather than being the central focus of every scene. 

The book covers themes of family relationships, friendships and anxieties. By the end of the story, armed with a new friend, a powerful bike and a firm sense of adventure, Henry adopts Cassie’s philosophy in life: ‘the best things always happen on the way to somewhere else.’