Stella Lees
Making sense of the randomness of human existence, stories present an adult perspective as to how best we can conduct ourselves. Nearly all children’s books carry the message that society must be accommodated and that there is a way of behaving that will allow that to happen. These seven picture books tell a story and supply visual images to reinforce the telling. (Bruce Whatley’s is slightly different, a lesson in natural history that follows a successful hatchling to its adult destination.) In four of them, the pictures are expressionistic revelations of the emotions informing the text. The other three present a more complex visual vocabulary, from the dark painterly scenes of Whatley’s Galapagos to the stark childish representations of the two Dreaming narratives.
... (read more)Stella Lees
Philip Reeves’s Infernal Devices (Scholastic) is the third part of a quartet about cities on wheels trundling about a future Earth. It has action, irony, intertextuality and flawed characters – some with dark agendas – and displays an original and startling imagination. Number four will complete the best fantasy since Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. On a smaller scale, and closer to home, Runner (Penguin), by Robert Newton, brings Depression-era Richmond alive. Young Charlie is employed by Squizzy Taylor, until the boy realises he’s doing the devil’s work. Newton’s wit lightens a tough tale with the inventive and laconic speech of Australian battlers, so that, when you’re not blinking back a tear, you’re laughing aloud.
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Sherryl Clark
Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants (Scholastic), by Louise Rennison. With all the serious young adult books around everyone needs a dose of Georgia Nicolson’s confessions. Between the Sex God, the troublesome cat and life at school, Georgia’s diary is full of deep meaningosity – not! Life on a small farm in 1906 is beautifully portrayed in Jennifer Donnelly’s A Gathering Light (Bloomsbury). Mattie longs to be a writer, but it seems impossible when her father won’t even let her work at the Glenmore Hotel over summer. Everyone wants Mattie to do things their way and the strength of the story lies in her quiet persistence and honesty. Historical description creates a believable world without ‘teaching’. Dragonkeeper (black dog books), by Carole Wilkinson, deservedly won a CBC Award this year. Ping’s travels with a dragon follow the idea of the quest, but the setting and detail bring ancient China to life for readers of all ages.
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As Eric Hobsbawn points out in his autobiography, Interesting Times: A Twentieth Century Life (2002), ‘the world needs historians more than ever, especially skeptical ones’. History, however, is not a popular subject in today’s schools. Three of these four books make attempts, variously successful, to engage young readers in a sense of the past. The other is a bizarre compilation of odd details, and could be considered an account of the history of certain sciences; it almost fits into the historical ambit.
... (read more)How to Play Netball by Jodie Clark and Kristen Moore & How to Play Cricket by Garrie Hutchinson
My Name is Will Thompson by Robert Newton & Camel Face by Moya Simons
Sacked! by Rachel Flynn, illustrated by Craig Smith & Footy Shorts by Margaret Clark
