Review: The Strange and Unlikely Tale of Montgomery the Mysterious Bird of Mystery

Boy (that’s how Gramps casually addresses his grandson) goes to see Gramps at the retirement home, every Wednesday after school.   

This is the highlight of the week for both of them. For Gramps claims to have lived many roles in his lifetime. 

These he recalls in minute detail, in an animated, flowing and lighthearted narrative, full of excitement and non-stop action.

But no story compares to the one about the time that he was known as the famous magician, The Astonishing Alfredo. With his white dove, Montgomery, the Mysterious Bird of Mystery, who sang a song at the end of each show, the two brought the house down.

The stories the old man shares with his grandson are so incredible, so imaginative and unlikely, the boy finds it hard to accept them as truth. 

Review: Guinness World records 2025 – The Next Chapter Of Record Breaking 70th Anniversary Edition

One Christmas morning a long, long time ago my big sister unwrapped a shiny green copy of The Guiness Book Of Records and I was SO, SO, SO JELLY!

I got over it though, and then we spent whole days of the summer poring over that miraculous book – marvelling at the unbelievable photos and records, and vowing to one day break a record of our own (which we never did).

In 2025, Guiness World Records is celebrating its 70^th year of publication. 

It contains a chapter celebrating the book’s evolution in terms of design and inclusions over seven decades, and all the special extras that you’d expect and love from such a publication – including items that didn’t make it to print over the years. It’s such a mind-boggling treat to wander through!

Guinness World Records 2025 Gamer's Edition

The Gamer’s Edition of Guinness World Records 2025, is really a record-breaking video game compendium, full of interesting facts and figures that will enhance your gaming experience and quite possibly leave you in a state of awe.

This colourful, dynamic book is laid out in a magazine style similar to it’s older sibling, The Guinness Book of World Records. 

Being a paperback rather than a hardcover, it’s perhaps a little more accessible and definitely easier to hold for long periods! Plus it has popping sub-heads and interesting pictures. 

Described as a ‘must have for gaming afficionados’ this book celebrates the greatest achievements in video gaming. 

Junior Review: The Grandest Game

Jennifer Lynn Barnes has really hit it off with this one! The return of favourite characters and new additions are back in a brand new spin-off series of the Inheritance Games.

This new young adult novel is exploding with dramatic tension and mystery. Secretive characters, challenging rivals, impossible puzzles and many dark secrets are combined to create an addictive novel, The Grandest Game.

In an annual game run by Avery Grambs and the four Hawthorne brothers, seven tickets are on offer for the chance of a lifetime. 

On an island of dreams, romance is simmering between characters and lives are at stake in this deadly game. Daunting choices are made, creating plot twists until the very last page.

Review: Such Charming Liars

This book by bestselling ‘Queen of Teen Crime’ author Karen McManus, is touted as an explosive new YA thriller. And yes, McManus well and truly earns the label – Such Charming Liars gives generously!

It’s told from the perspective of two teenagers, Kat and Liam, who were step-siblings for just 48 hours when they were five and their respective parents briefly married in Vegas.

This story contains all the important elements of a teen thriller: action, thrills, lust, spills, twists, power, fortune, fame. And of course, a little bit of gender-fluid snogging on the side.

With a complex storyline that will reward readers’ attention to detail (I suggest an intensive rather than extended reading period for this work), the book is pacy and well-written. 

Review: Leaf Letters

Leaf Letters is a beautiful junior fiction novel exploring the joys and challenges of friendship in a special and engaging way.

Nine-year-old Hazel hasn’t spoken to her best friend Olivia since Olivia did a bad thing Hazel can’t forgive. These days she keeps to herself, taking her camera into the wild and snapping pictures of interesting things she sees.

Her hobby leads her to Cole, a strange boy who communicates in an unusual way, and a mystery box that contains a range of puzzles that will lead Hazel and Cole to its owner.

Review: Tweet

Jay, and his budgie Clyde, are brothers at heart. Family. They are left with Poppa when their parents, specialists in bird behaviour and habits, go to Africa for research.

Their return is now four weeks overdue, and Jay and Poppa are unable to contact them.

Poppa dies suddenly. Jay and Clyde are left alone, then separated. Jay is put into foster care, but runs away to go in search of Clyde.

He discovers their house emptied of its contents, and all evidence of the family’s existence removed, which includes Clyde’s cage.

A series of sinister happenings begin for which there is no explanation.

Flocks of birds are congregating in masses all over the world. Is there an underlying message to humans in their behaviour?  

Review: Wolf Girl #11: Hide and Seek

Wolf Girl -11: Hide and Seek, finds Gwen and her pack of dogs – her family, leave Moon City, chased by the Braxans, who are determined to catch her. 

The group find refuge in an underground tunnel before they come upon a shopping centre reclaimed by nature.

At the Mall, a new adventure begins. The dogs sniff out a Pet Shop. Dog’s delight!

But this is not the sanctuary they imagine. 

Others are using the space for housing and security. The group again encounter threats, danger and choices.

But who are the family living there, also hiding from their pursuers.

Nothing comes easy for either group. 

When the soldiers catch up with them, its them against the dogs.

Review: Laughter Is The Best Ending

Out of tragedy comes beauty. Hardship and discomfort often result in sublime enlightenment. 

Award-winning Maryam Master’s beautiful midgrade fictions reflect these simple truths; sentiments with which she boldly begins her latest novel.  

You’re not supposed to laugh at funerals.

This sharp opening line sets the scene for slight absurdity, questionable motives and tenuous friendships in a novel that zings with wit and winsomeness. Ziba, more commonly addressed as Zee, is a curious outsider. 

Her frames of reference revolve around her literary heroes like Oscar Wilde. She shuns human contact and all of its trivialities. 

She doesn’t mince words or waste meaning on thoughtless conversation combining her linguist acumen with thirteen-year-old sass that renders her more catus than kitten to cuddle up to. In short, she is a loner with no friends at least none that still breathe.

Review: Superheroes for a Day

Say hello to Memory Kid, Jigsaw Girl, and Story Boy. 

When the key to the school sports shed goes missing, most of the students are upset because they will have to do extra maths instead of playing sport. 

Max, Daniel and Natalie don't mind. They prefer maths over sport, and are a bit different to the others at school, because they have autism. 

Max says they have superpowers. Not like super strength or super speed. They've got other strengths.

Max, for example, has an amazing memory. He can read and remember things better than anyone else.

And Natalie is great at solving puzzles, identifying and fitting patterns together.

Superheroes for a Day is a short, fast-paced story, about how Max, Natalie and Daniel save the day, and shows how their strengths are as valuable as everyone else's.

Junior Review: Two Sides To Every Murder

A thrilling page-turner, with plot twists so good you won’t see them coming. Two Sides to Every Murder is perfect for fans of Karen McManus, Holly Jackson, and Cynthia Murphey.

From two teenage girls' point of views, the novel Two Sides to Every Murder is impossible to put down, utilising alternating timelines between 2008 and the present day; it contains plot twists around every corner that keep you hooked.

In 2008 at Camp Lost Lake, two adults were murdered and one disappeared. Reagan’s mother, Lori Knight is deemed guilty of the murders, leaving her with the name ‘The Witch of Lost Lake’ due to the mask she wore whilst murdering her victims with a notorious bow and arrow. 

Review: Billy and the Epic Escape

Billy and the Epic Escape is the sequel to Jamie Oliver's fantastic debut novel, Billy and the Giant Adventure. And what another epic adventure it is!

Autumn, who finds reading difficult, convinces her dad to continue the story of Billy and his friends Andy, Anna and Jimmy, after leaving the story of Waterfall Woods unfinished. 

He agrees and picks up where he left off.

Each of the friends owns a special ability which they call upon when necessary,  and a code name which they use over their walkie-talkies. 

They love to explore, discover, and help anyone in need.

It is Jimmy’s birthday. He wants an animal themed party.

Review: One Of Us Is Back

The last in a trilogy of YA books by bestselling, can-do-no-wrong author Karen M McManus, this novel is compelling in every way. And bonus - it works as a standalone title, too.

In essence, this is a murder mystery with teenagers front and centre. Oh sure, there are some adults lurking around the edges but they tend to just make the lunches or drink too much. Most of the time, at the heart of this book are the ‘Bayview Crew’ teens and their people.

The characters are well drawn with believable backstories and identifiable quirks. The narrative is told progressively from multiple points of view, which works really well to both build tension and keep the reader informed of important plot twists and turns. 

Review: Her Majesty's League Of Remarkable Young Ladies

Move over MacGyver, there’s a new Queen of Improv in town and her name is Miss Weatherby; that’s Winnie to you and I. 

Young teen, Winnie rocks as an inventeress. Yes, the gender specification is acceptable because the time period Winifred rocks in is the late 1800s as in the latter part of Queen Victoria’s reign, which adds a delicious extra layer of richness to Alison Stegert’s first middle grade fiction, Her Majesty’s League of Remarkable Young Ladies.

This astoundingly long-titled novel is an extravaganza of remarkable indeed. An exciting mash-up of Nancy Drew come Famous Five sporting the Victorian era qualities of A Little Princess. Somehow, Stegert sews it all seamlessly together in a gripping tale of espionage, mystery and for want of a better word, MacGyverness.

Review: Death at the Lighthouse

This brilliant whodunnit is the second title in the Montgomery Bonbon series by comedian, Alasdair Beckett-King. A new voice in children’s writing, his previous title, Murder at the Museum, was a huge success as this one is sure to be.

Clever dialogue and outstanding characters form a read you can’t put down till the last word.

Ten-year old Bonnie and her alter ego, detective Montgomery Bonbon, lead the show, with all the secondary players perfectly positioned.

Now that they aren’t investigating one thing or another, Bonnie decides it’s time to go on a holiday to Odde Causeway, as Gramps Banks longs to see the last working clockwork lighthouse in the world.

They set out in Bessie, Gramps' old, converted ice-cream truck, for their B & B & B & B.

Review: Absolutely Everything!

This chatty, funny, fast-paced and intelligent book is one for all ages - although technically it’s for 10 - 14 year-olds. It’s exactly the kind of book that adults wish they’d had when they were a kid.

With a welcome mix of remarkable true stories and facts, the revised and expanded version of Absolutely Everything contains a wealth of information to leave you spell-bound. 

A feast for the eyes and brain, this book gets in your ear about random and interesting things - like the interconnections between science, history and the nature of planet earth. And all are broached in the most wonderful, accessible ways.

Video: The Hedgewitch Books

The Hedgewitch Books are perfect for fans of Harry Potter, The Worst Witch, and similar stories. Written by Australian-born author Skye McKenna, they're packed with mystery, magic and adventure.

When Cassie runs away from her dreary boarding school, in search of her missing mother, she ends up in the magical village of Hedgely and discovers she comes from a family of witches - women who protect Britain from the denizens of Faerie, who are all too real and far more frightening than the story books suggest.

Cassie is desperate to find her mother, but will she succeed? Perhaps Montague the talking cat, and a flying broomstick will help!

Title: Hedgewitch / Woodwitch
Author: Skye McKenna
Illustrator: Tomislav Tomic
Publisher: Welbeck Childrens, $ 16.99 / $ 22.99
Publication Date: 2023
Format: Paperback / Hardcover
ISBN: 9781801300681 / 9781801300414
For ages: 9+
Type: Middle Grade Fiction

Review: Britannica's Encyclopedia Infographica

Encyclopedia Infographcia is one for all bookshelves. It contains astonishing information on outer space, mother earth, natural and man-made wonders, animals, humans, technology… you name an idea, and it will almost certainly be addressed in some way within the pages of this tome. 

And a bonus – unlike my previous sentence, it’s not particularly wordy!

Encyclopedia Infographica allows us to take a look at what happens every single second across our world. To ask just what are the ‘wonders of wee’ and how long does a fox live for? 

Review: Alice-Miranda and the Christmas Mystery

Jacqueline Harvey, author of the bestselling Alice-Miranda books, has a new story in the series perfect for the festive season.  

Alice-Miranda and the Christmas Mystery starts with a surprisingly serious prologue, set in the past. 

When the story returns to the present day, plans are afoot to celebrate the holidays.

Alice-Miranda has invited some of her friends to stay at Highton Hall. 

Decorations being hung all over the house, making it very festive. 

The bannister challenge is an exciting idea, but has unfortunate consequences.

There are strange goings on in the district, too. Why would someone be stealing Christmas decorations?

Another mystery involves two sisters, Delia and Maggie. Maggie ran away when she was fifteen, and after the passing of many years, has died. Why did she leave and what happened to her?

Review: Solomon Macaroni and the Vampire Vacation

Solomon Macaroni and his mischievous cousins are off to Paris in book 2 of this great middle grade series.

And even though Uncle Dracula planned the whole trip and so many fun activities across the city, he seems distracted and a little bit sad.

Solomon and his cousins decide to cheer him up by gifting him a very special piece of art – the Mona Lisa. But stealing art has consequences, and stealing this particular piece of art has DIRE ones, not just for Solomon and his cousins, but for Uncle Dracula, the people of Paris and also the entire world.