story time books

A new picture book writen by Sue Eves and illustrated by Ailie Busby, this tells a story of mistaken identity. The pair of the title set out for a walk, through a noisy town to a quiet park. There they meet a couple with the opposite character traits, a noisy woman and a quiet dog. When the dogs have played they are so muddy that the women take home the wrong dogs, who behave in the opposite way to their normal. When they are reunited with their proper companions, all four of them behave uncharacteristically because they are too tired to behave in their normal ways. Great fun, with lovely child-like illustrations (but with much more expression than most children’s art.)

This is a new paperback edition of a 1997 book by Emma Chichester Clark. If you thought you knew the story of this Little Miss you are mistaken (unless you’ve read an earlier edition of this book.) Exhuberant rhyme and wonderfully chaotic but gently coloured illustrations make this another counting book to be appreciated. There’s so much to look at as the animals accumulate, from the solitary spider to ten crocodiles with a large box, at which point all the others (except the spider) mysteriously disappear. Miss Muffet wonders if the box is to take her as a snack, but she waits to see what they say: “There was cheering and prancing,/ And whooping and dancing – / And what did the crocodiles say?/ ‘You have made a mistake;/ We have brought you a cake!/ Don’t you know?/ It’s your birthday today!’” Great fun!!

This picture book by Jo Readman, illustrated by Ley Honor Roberts, tells the story of a day when George can’t go out because his sister Flora has spots all over. I’m not sure if George’s own spots are freckles or meant to suggest that he’s next.  His grandfather tells him he’ll bring the world to George, and proceeds to tell him about where his rice, and orange juice, and paper, and doormat, and rubber, and a whole lot of other things in his everyday life come from. The endpapers have a world map showing the places Grandpa tells him about, and it’s a lovely way of introducing a child to the interconnectedness of our world. Great collage-like illustrations add to the sense of fun and imagination that the clever grandpa introduces to George and Flora’s day, and in a lovely real touch, by suppertime hard-working Grandpa is asleep on the couch. Published 2004 by the Eden Project, so not technically new, but perhaps new here.

This alphabet and counting picture book by Nick Bruel has a few touches that make it rather different from the ordinary. It tells a story, about poor puppy who wants to play with Kitty, but Kitty doesn’t want to play, so he finds substitutes, ranging from one airplane to 26 zoo animals. Then, tired out, he takes a nap and dreams his way through the alphabet again, this time on a geographical tour, checkers in Canada, jumprope in Japan, quoits in Qatar. The book is a followup to Bad Kitty which has a similar but different format, without the counting aspect, and both are now available in paperback. Great fun and ideal for the child just getting the idea of letters (and numbers).

First-time young adult writer (though she has written a novel for adults) Gabrielle Williams makes it look easy. Beatle (real name John Lennon) is an interesting character:  a teenager who has a twin born six weeks after him in a different year; a teenager who has a limp caused by something which is revealed only later in the story, so I’m not giving it away; who has a mother who believes in astrology, numbers, coincidence, fate etc.  So when Beatle (who doesn’t necessarily believe his mother’s stuff) meets Destiny, whose surname happens to be McCartney, on Friday 13, and they find they get on rather well immediately, itjust might be his destiny. Except that Beatle has a girlfriend already, his twin’s best friend, so that life is a trifle complicated. And that is the simple part, because Beatle and Destiny are both involved in other people’s lives. There’s brilliant dialogue, great characters, lots of teenagers doing what teenagers are meant to do, learning by making mistakes, all carefully balanced by a clever, juggling author who makes this a very good read. It’s a book about growing up, finding out what makes another attractive, about family and friendship, all set just across the ditch in Melbourne. According to the author, it’s about “change, chance, and everyone doing the wrong thing.”  Another great read for teenagers or anyone who remembers what it’s like to be one.

The blurb to this Meg Rosoff novel  says she “writes novels about seemingly unimportant events that become the defining moments of life.” True enough, but it’s not only what she writes about that defines her novels, it’s the writing itself, which as always is beautifully poetic, musical, resonant, so that I found myself stopping reading for the story and listening to the sound of the words. The blurb also says “Her characters grapple with the big questions: how to live, how to love, how to achieve authenticity.” Correct again. The characters in her novels, however unusual, are always believable, and the themes, as the blurb suggests, are large, but carried lightly by character-driven narrative and beautiful prose. Pell Ridley is the daughter of a preacher (who knows too well the temptations of the flesh and the bottle) and his put-upon wife. Having watched her mother’s decline, Pell escapes before dawn on her wedding day to avoid the same fate. She has many skills and incredible resilience, and the story follows her attempt to make a new life, including an on-again-off-again love story. Wonderful stuff from an author who can be relied on to do something new and different every time but with consistently excellent quality. The image doesn’t do justice to the lovely subtle cover. Recommended for young adults and adults alike.

The sequel to Spud, by John van de Ruit, which is apparently the fastest-selling book in South African history. The characters are mostly the same, though there are now first years for the Crazy Eight to terrorise, as they were terrorised the previous year. Some things don’t change in boys’ boarding schools. The teachers are still the same mix of sots and sadists, intellectuals and jocks, and Spud’s family is as much of an embarrassment as ever. It has the same laugh-out-loud teenage boy humour as the first book, the same puberty jokes, the same incompetent attempts to maintain the relationship with the Mermaid. Spud, whose diaries we are reading, is the only really rounded character, the others are mostly comic fodder and caricatures, but it won’t matter to the target audience who will be laughing too hard to notice.

I’ve finally finished Fifi Colston’s Glory, after its reading got interrupted by other books and other things, and it was stuck in the pocket of my backpack for a week, so that my interrupted reading probably didn’t do it justice. I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t be considered the target demographic either, being male and over twenty, but I enjoyed reading it, and particularly enjoyed the character of Florence, whose mother warns her not to get her expectations up: “‘Awards aren’t given to people like us, Florence Bright,’ Mum would say, one had on her hip and the other waving an index finger about, ‘We are bog-standard average; middle of the road.’” But Florence knows that’s not completely true;  she’s a bit of a computer whiz, even the boys admit that, so when the Year 8 Prize for Information Technology is announced she’s almost out of her seat when Emma Harrison’s name is read out.  Emma is already unpopular with Flo and her friend Natasha, who tries her heart out at ballet and gets to be half of an archway while Emma gets the principal role. So Florence decides to avenge the injustice. To say that nothing quite goes according to plan would be a major understatement, and suddenly Flo is suspected when Emma disappears. The novel moves along with great pace and great humour and I’d recommend it for upper primary, intermediate and junior secondary students. Oamaru probably hasn’t been the scene of many New Zealand novels but has a major part here. Fifi is a Jill of many trades, with art, craft and tv presenter credentials as well as her writing, but this reads as well as many a novel by a single-minded writer.

Louis is one of three children living in France with a French mother and an English father. He loves dance, and is surprised when his father takes them on holiday during term, just before an important competition. Then things become even stranger as his father becomes secretive and obsessive, and won’t let them call their mother. Any more information will give too much away, though the prologue tells the reader enough that what happens is not a total surprise, but it’s a gripping read and Louis is a great character as he struggles with things that he knows that his siblings don’t. And when Louis feels obliged to make a choice the writer has prepared the reader well enough, by showing, not telling, that it seems natural. Tabitha Suzuma’s previous books, A Voice in the Distance and From Where I Stand have both been young adult reads but this could be read and enjoyed by anyone from intermediate age upwards.

This year being the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, there have been quite a few books for children telling the story. This one, by Brian Floca, aimed at 4-7-year-olds, is one of the best, with simple text telling the story in short lines like a poem and picture-book type illustrations.The balance for this age group is hard to achieve in information-rich books, but this one does an impressive job of providing enough information without making it too complex, but without simplifying it so that it is meaningless. The endpapers give more detailed imformation so that there’s another level there. Impressive, and a lovely hardback book at only $27.