story time books

This novel by Chris Crutcher has been around since 2007, but is now available in paperback. Ben is eighteen, small, smart and courageous. When the doctor tells him he has probably only a year to live, courtesy of an aggressive blood cancer, he decides to forgo treatment and doesn’t tell anyone. The story is mostly told by Ben, and if I try to describe it the book will sound overdone, carrying as it does themes of sexual abuse, racism, sport, education, mental illness and a few others apart from the dying teenager bit. However it reads more like an adventure story (in terms of being very readable and page-turnerish)  as Ben plays football, falls in love, fights many battles and wins some of them. Some fantastic relationships with very real imperfect people and a dream-time guide called Hey-Soos. Crutcher has been in trouble with censors in some places for his use of language and sexual themes, and has a bit of fun with a book-burning scene. There’s lots of thinking provoked, and lots of feeling too. Definitely a young adult book, and a very good one.

This is the third volume of Gavin Bishop’s retellings of Maori myths with his own wonderful illustrations. (The first two were Taming the Sun and Riding the Waves.)  This one has two of the best known stories, the creation myth, titled Mother Earth and Father Sky here, and the Rotorua story of Hinemoa and Tutanekai.  Sandwiched between are the story of The Battle of the Birds and Kae and the Whale, less widely known but interesting in their own right, and no doubt just as important to the iwi which tell these stories.  Stunning pictures, full of colour and atmosphere.

New in paperback, this 2004 book is a lovely story, beautifully told by John and Katherine Paterson, and stunningly illustrated by Susan Jeffers. Set in New England during World War II, it’s the story of William who is too young to be contributing to the war effort like the rest of his family. He imagines every evening that he is a brave knight who can deal the decisive blow to end the war, but every morning he is himself again.  Then a real queen moves in down the road, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, and he has a chance to do something that’s not “war work”, more like peace work, but something that might just make a difference. It’s a very beautiful, gentle story, and the bones of it are true. Katherine Paterson is the author of Bridge to Terabithia, for older children, and Susan Jeffers is an artist and the illustrator of more than 35 children’s books

As with many of the good books in the shop, someone told me about this one and suggested I get it in, (after I missed it in the Scholastic April list). It’s a picture book, by Brian Lies, first published in the US last year, (where it was on the NY Times best seller list for 12 weeks and named the #3 picture book of 2008 by Time Magazine)  then this year in paperback by Koala, and it’s another song of praise to the joys of reading (upside down, of course).  The bats are bored, but then news arrives: “Can it be true? Oh, can it be?/ Yes! – Bat night at the library!” The old bats know the drill and settle to reading quickly, but the young ones play shadow games, wing-tip tag and duplicating themselves at the photocopier until storytime starts, “And if we listen, we will hear,/ some distant voices drawing near – / louder, louder, louder still,/ they coax and pull us in, until…/ everyone – old bat or pup – / has been completely swallowed up/ and lives inside a book instead/ of simply hearing something read.” Then light returns to the sky and reluctantly they have to leave the world of books, hoping that one day someone will leave a window open again. Wonderful illustrations, great rhyme, terrific fun.

David Hill’s latest novel is another beauty. Jonno Austin is an astronomy geek who has won a trip to South America to observe a total eclipse of the sun (beautifully described in the book). But as amazing as that experience is, it’s other things that Jonno notices even more. He’s at that age where suddenly human relationships start to be noticed in all their complexity, even within the group of astronomers and their local guides and translators. But he’s also beginning to be aware of politics, and there’s a group within the country protesting about their treatment. Then, on the plane trip towards home, things become even more dramatic than an eclipse, and Jonno is suddenly a  participant in the conflict rather than a detached observer.  Jonno is  a satisfyingly complex teenager as the development of his personality which is happening anyway is accelerated by the situation in which he finds himself.  David Hill has always portrayed that part of the human condition we call adolescence well, but never better than here as the personal and the political collide with Jonno at the collision point. It’s a slim book at under 130 pages, but Jonno and the reader go through so much in that space that it seems much more of a journey than some of the doorstoppers around. A wonderful example of how less can be more, how a novel full of ideas doesn’t need to lack narrative pace, and a great read, with a great cover. If I were still teaching, I’d want a class set.

Keep Petone Beautiful, with the support of Petone Rotary, offers a gift of green (a native tree or shrub) to all babies born to Petone and Korokoro residents during the past year. We have application forms, as do Petone Plunket and Playdays toyshop. If you are in this situation come in and get a form to fill in; if you know someone, let them know. Applications close at the end of this month.

Lynley Dodd will be at Story Time Books for Kids tomorrow at 10 am, reading her new Hairy Maclary, Shoo! book (reviewed below, on the next page) and signing books. All welcome. Come and meet the creator of Hairy Maclary, Slinky Malinki, Schnitzel Von Krumm, and more of picture books’ best-loved characters. (Photo of Lynley Dodd from Mallinson Rendel website: www.mallinsonrendel.co.nz).

By Selina Yoon, this is a clever book of opposites, using snakes, which has flaps that open the book out to twice its normal width, and it’s already in a wide horizontal format.  Dirty snake/clean snake, skinny/plump, quiet/loud, cold/hot, slow/fast and one/many, all demonstrated in very bright colours, in a not-quite board book, but stronger than normal paper format.

Another New Zealand picture book from Ben Brown and Helen Taylor, though this time you wouldn’t know it, as it is full of introduced or overseas birds like peacocks, ravens and pheasants. Sparrow finds as magnificent feather and sets out to find its owner. On the way he encounters many other birds, including hawk, and weasel, but eventually he finds the feather’s owner who is very pleased to have it back. Wonderful illustrations complement the story.

This book by Johnny Ball is part of the same DK series as Show Me the Money, Evolution Revolution, Can You Feel the Force and Body Science, and has the same wonderful combination of  great explanation and wonderful graphics. This book takes an historical approach to measurement, starting with the ancient world, working through the age of discovery, and finishing with modern measuring.  Along the journey there are “puzzles to solve, conundrums to crack and incredible tricks,” explanations of units and measurement in temperature, sound, light, energy, electricity, pressure, time and more. Full of fascinating facts and figures, it’s another great addition to school libraries or home bookshelves, a wonderful way to introduce or extend the ideas behind the maths of measurement. One of the good things about the books in this series is that they have information that’s good for a complete novice, but also interesting details which would impress someone who already knows quite a bit.