This is an enjoyable children’s story with charming illustrations. It is a story with unexpected outcomes, with themes of realizing there is good and bad in everyone. Situations can turn around, there is always a way to progress despite how circumstances look. If you work and try hard and never give up, you will succeed. Teamwork, forgiveness and goodness/kindness triumphing are also important underlying themes. Everyone deserves a chance. The story offers hope and inspiration to all. The children are having afternoon classes so that they can work on their education. They have them in a forest ... View Full Review
A rhyming journey through the A-Z of cat life. This is a bright and fun picture book for anyone that loves cats. Whether you have your own feline friend or love animals in general this book delivers on catitude. The soft colourful illustrations and rhyming phrasing are perfect for younger readers to enjoy with family or as a class, and the author has included other items corresponding to each letter onto the page for readers to spot. I think that this book works as a gently flowing bedtime book for younger readers. The alphabet words may be perhaps more advanced ... View Full Review
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Innocents, Immortals, and Amoral Gods by Harry Dehrian is an imaginative space opera that follows a range of characters as they navigate a technologically advanced world. Although the setting is futuristic, the key themes of mystery, power, ambition and destiny are universal.
This is an epic sci-fi read weighing in at around 700 pages, containing in essence 5 parallel narratives. The structure reminds me of A Song of Ice and Fire in that there’s enough detail and action that they could probably be a story in their own right but could also all intertwine further down the ... View Full Review
A dystopian adventure for young readers that celebrates stories. 12 year old Ceres is a keen and imaginative storyteller able to project her creations to her friends through her left eye. But in a world where the Council is banning books, the ever invasive Vine of brainless gossip latches on to everyone and Ceres starts having trouble with her special gift, it seems like storytelling is about to be destroyed for good. Can Ceres fix the humming in her head and bring her stories to life again? This is an unusual chapter book with lots of whimsy and peculiarities. Ceres’ ... View Full Review
A search for a lost kitten that taps into many children’s keen desire for a pet. For anyone that knows a child that desperately wants a pet, 11 year-old Tempest and her 8 year-old brother Wallace will be easily identifiable characters. Told no by their parents but still determined, Tempest hears a kitten stuck up in a tree and decides secretly keeping him is the answer to showing her parents that they’re responsible for a cat. But when the cat gets out, the mystery of his whereabouts begins. This story is both filled with information that is important ... View Full Review
Immerse yourself in bottle-flipping fever as young Billy gets supernatural assistance to improve his technique. For the setting of Hog’s Head Stew, cast your minds back to 2016, when chucking a bottle and getting it to land upright in a flukey position or location was sweeping the internet and schoolyards far and wide. Billy is at the bottom of their school’s bottle flipping league, discovering the attic is the best place to practise without his parents asking him to stop with the repetitive noise. But the delivery of an old wardrobe might scupper his plans and comes ... View Full Review
A warmly illustrated picture book about loss and overcoming obstacles to make a kite. Melia misses the friendship she had with her dog Ginger and wants to join in with other children playing with their kites. After they turn her away, she has to find out for herself how to build a kite, and even though the other kids laugh when she does, Melia finds joy when the kite soars. This is a gently told story that could be shared as a story about overcoming obstacles (with Melia building her kite) or as a gentle introduction to loss (with the ... View Full Review
This is a wonderful 21-page children’s book. Each page has 2 lines of rhyming text and a lovely, cheerful illustration. I love how the author brings in all the relevant topics that young children need to learn at school. All the topics are brought into the story so cleverly and the flow of the book is seamless. Some of the learning points include our 5 senses, shapes, interacting with friends, drawing, painting, glueing, using glitter to make creative pictures, music, and moving around. I love the piano keys decorating the top of one of the pages. Smiling, laughing, and sharing ... View Full Review
I like this book’s title. It has a positive slant and lets us know that this book is going to encourage its readers to learn and grow. The author skilfully deals with the important topics of resilience, perseverance, friendship, and connecting successfully with others. This helpful book has 42 pages and about 8 lines of text on each page. The illustrations are simple and effective. I love how they show children from different cultures. Zinna’s friends are all busy doing what they enjoy. She is disappointed that they don’t want to do what she wants to ... View Full Review
A heartfelt picture book highlighting the importance of picking up litter and helping the environment. The Lamb Gang Save the Loch Ness Monster is a rhyming tale that’s perfect for reading out loud, especially for any parents that excel at doing accents. On the shore of Loch Ness is a herd of sheep, and the Loch Ness Monster Nessie loves to watch over their lambs each year. But this year the litter on the loch leads to Nessie choking and the Lamb Gang need to save her. There’s repetition at the start of each day and ... View Full Review
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I loved this special children's story. The illustrations are so cute and expressive. The book delivers its important message simply and effectively. Rain spoils Ellie's plans to go to the park. Her friend Patrick Pig suggests they try indoor activities instead. He wants to do gymnastics. Ellie is very unsure because she has never done gymnastics before. Gertrude Gorilla tries to reassure her. Ellie motivates herself to try and promises to be brave. Slowly she walks across the balance bar. When she falls, she laughs and realizes that it is ok not to be perfect at something. ... View Full Review
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Jack seems like an average 12 year-old boy, navigating school life with his clever best friend Reg and the school bullies and navigating his home life with his neat mother and annoying younger sister and her friends. When Reg pulls Jack into one of his experiments without him knowing, it sets them on a path that might prove dangerous. Unsure whether or not to go along with his friend’s plan, their actions have unexpected consequences. The voice of Jack is very entertaining, his exasperation at his family made me laugh and I’m sure ... View Full Review
