Monthly Archives: July 2012

Some may feel that, in an earlier post, I may have implied that Jackie French doesn’t earn her spot in the shortlist year after year, that would be true. But let me say now that French’s writing is consistently good … Continue reading →

What a strange book. A bus called heaven starts before the imprint and continues on in a strange, chaotic sort of way.  Ostensibly this is the story of a ghostly pale girl who claims an abandoned bus for the community … Continue reading →

As teachers we have the ability to abuse our role in indulgent ways. Forcing our students to perform the text of Isabella’s garden  in rounds is one such indulgence. If you haven’t partaken, get on it. For all creatures mines … Continue reading →

Sonya Hartnett has written some terrific stuff over the years and it is easy to see how she has the following that she does (and is shortlisted as often as she is). Come down, cat! shows her versatility in being … Continue reading →

It took me a while to shake off the cravings from my Brotherband experience. For the first few chapters of Ishmael I just found myself wishing they would take to the sea in some inventively designed boat and fight some pirates. The … Continue reading →

Not what I expected from Nick Bland and Freya Blackwood. The runaway hug is an extremely cute book about a girl who is given her mother’s very last hug. Nick Bland of The very cranky bear franchise usually writes funny … Continue reading →

Postmodernism in picture story books is such a common thing that it even has its own wikipedia page. According to the page, No bears fits into the category of ‘books that are aware of themselves’. While some books that are … Continue reading →

Like Mills and Boon (I hear), John Flanagan writes really addictive stuff. I don’t mean can’t-stop-digging-into-the-leftover-cheesecake-in-the-fridge type addiction, I mean put-on-a-high-vis-vest, drop-by-the-local-retirement-home, borrow-their-flatsceen-and-haul-it-down-to-Cash-Converters-so-that-you-can-pick-up-his-latest-novel-from-the-enterprising-self-starter-on-the-cnr-of-Russell-and-Bourke-streets. Also like Mills and Boon, we aren’t reading it for the quality of the writing. Outcasts is … Continue reading →

Macquarie Island has had a bit of a rubbish time of late. First the sealers came and killed all the seals, then, when they ran out of seals, they introduced rabbits so that they would have something to eat while … Continue reading →

To get a good relationship between text and illustrations they don’t have to be done by the same person but it helps. Emma Quay has done a great of of capturing the bathtime to bedtime ritual in a way that … Continue reading →