story time books

This is a new Australian teenage/young adult novel by Sean Condon. It has comment on the celebrity cult, falling in love, differences between Australian and American cultures, and quite a lot more, all with a smart narrator and a great story about friendship and courage. Michael Sweeney is an ordinary boy in a wealthy school, keeping his head down to stay out of trouble. When he and his friend Dud make friends with a new American student, things start happening for Michael. Some of it is very funny, other parts very real and sad. Apparently Sean Condon is a comic writer, and this is his first foray into young adult story telling. He’s managed to keep the comedy in its place, at the service of the story, and it is a very good read. It’s also one of those books where telling to much of the plot would spoil surprises for the reader.

Julia Donaldson in combination with another illustrator, David Roberts. A duckbill dinosaur egg ends up in a T Rex nest, hatches, and the baby feels somewhat out of place. Eventually he runs away from the Tyrannosaurs and finds his own kind, and becomes a hero when he saves them from the big carnivores with whom he has grown up. Another rhyming text, the usual dose of shattered expectations and humour. Only in hardback at this stage, so more expensive, but some will find it too much to wait for the paperback and have to have it this year.

Another by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, the combination who brought us The Gruffalo and other modern classics. This has all the qualities to be another. It’s the story of Tiddler: “He wasn’t much to look at with his plain grey scales./ But Tiddler was a fish with a big imagination./ He blew small bubbles but he told tall tales.” Tiddler is always late for school and always has a tale to tell to explain his lateness. And eventually, when he is caught in a net, then thrown back because he’s only a tiddler, it’s the passing on of his stories that enables him to find his way home in time for the end of the school day. Another wonderful story from this pair. New in hardback only at this stage.

Powerful stuff from Ken Catran, with three separate stories, each about an old person with memories of the Second World War interacting with a modern teenager in New Zealand. Each story is very different, involving the memories of a bomber pilot’s first mission, a nurses experience of the fall of Singapore, and a German soldier’s memories of tank battles and concentration camps. The younger characters are 15 – 18 and the stories are gruesomely realistic, so this book is for young adults. Brilliantly written.

Not a new book, having been published last year, but I’ve just read it on someone’s recommendation and it’s a very funny, very true and wonderful read which I’ll now be recommending to anyone wanting a good book for any boy from about 12 up. Ishmael is an amazing character, a tongue-in-cheek naive narrator who tells his own story. It’s about bullying, friendship, family, strengths and weaknesses, courage and all the other aspects of growing up. It’s also hilariously funny at times. Gerard Michael Bauer, author of the very good The Running Man has written another classic. I defy anyone to read it without laughing aloud.

Another new novel from Huia, this time with Fijian and Chinese main characters who have to battle the school bully, but find they have some ancestral spirits to help, in Josefa’s case a Vu, and in Ming’s a dragon. Great fantasy, and congratulations to Huia and the author for broadening the scope of heroes and heroines in NZ fiction. Will appeal to 9 – 12-year-olds, boys and girls. Very exciting stuff, with cliffs and bush fires, helicopter rescues and lovely family dynamics as both Fijian and Chinese families try to hold on to cultural values while fitting in to a country where the majority culture is not their own.

This one has been on the shelf for a couple of months, but I’ve only just made it to reading it. By J. V. Hart, illustrated by Brett Helquist, this is the story of the lad who was to become the notorious Captain Hook, and his years at Eton. Then we follow as he goes to sea for the first time and becomes the pirate immortalised by J.M Barrie. It’s a strange but satisfying combination of psychological explanation of how a clever boy’s hounding by those who consider themselves his superiors when they are not leads him to excel in nastiness, with a slight fantasy element such as the boy having yellow blood and having a spider spin a sword-proof vest. Not for the faint-hearted, and a teenage read. Fantastic ending that makes Hook look like a good guy before he became a bad one.

Into the Woods, by Lyn Gardner, with atmospheric illustrations throughout by Mini Grey, is a clever book which uses references to several fairy tales which even young children will recognise. But at over 400 pages it’s not a read for young children, but for enthusiastic 9-year-olds and older. If adults are willing, this would make a wonderful read-aloud for children too young to read it themselves. The Pied Piper, Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood, are all referred to, and the stupidity and laziness of the parents and some lovely characters from heroines to villains make it a great rollicking read. Good scary fun.

A first foray into writing for teenagers by Isabel Waiti-Mulholland, and it’s an exciting New Zealand fantasy. Leanne is 13, a bit of a loner, when Inna Furey, a new girl arrives at her school. Soon Inna goes missing, and Leanne is the only one who knows what has happened to her, and it’s too strange for her to be able to tell anyone else. Atmospheric, exciting writing, and according to Huia, the publishers, the first of five books featuring Inna. I predict that they’ll be very popular. Fantasy has been very popular especially since the Harry Potter phenomenon, and it’s great to have some more with a New Zealand setting.

I don’t know how long this has been around, but the paperback version is dated 2007, so it’s fairly new. The Letterland concept is used by several schools in the area, and seems to be very successful, if the comments customers have made is anything to go by. The letters are associated with shapes and sounds, so it’s part memory aid and part phonics approach. There are lots of resources available, but we have the ABC book and a set of magnetic letters. The approach is fun and uses lots of repetition to get the ideas across. If you have a child who is struggling with the sound of letters, or just recognising letters, this could be good.