Review: Copycat

Skye and her cat Admiral Mittens, live in Seagulls Nest with her young-at-heart and very active grandmother, Sheila, the town’s head Librarian.

But it is chickens that are the most popular things in the area. 

So are egg sandwiches, a priority at every meal, and in every café, the town having been founded by an egg farmer.

Over three years ago, Skye’s parents left and never returned. The reason is still unknown.

Skye has written a mystery novel. 

She leaves her manuscript overnight on a shelf in the library, in a corner she frequents. 

Returning at opening time the next day, it is gone. Now she must become the sleuth she writes about, to track down the thief.

Her first suspect is Bailey, a volunteer who shelves books in the library.

Review: Solve Your Own Mystery: The Transylvanian Express

Solve Your Own Mystery: The Transylvanian Express is one of four titles in the series, and is a bit like the Choose Your Own Adventure books that were popular in the 1980s.

The idea is to start reading, and at certain points you're asked a question. Your choice of the available responses will direct what happens next. That means there are lots of permutations for the plot, so you can read and re-read the book and get variations on the story each time.

In The Transylvanian Express, as the central character (who has magic powers!), you work with a yeti detective named Klaus. 

Following the delivery of a mysterious letter, you and Klaus are aboard a train travelling to the home of Count Fledermaus, a vampire whose castle will be opened for an annual public event.

Review: Monster Island

There’s a mysterious island off the coast of Australia. No one knows it's there and no one knows how to find it. 

The only people who go there are researchers and scientists working for MeierCorp, because the island is full of… monsters.

Well, not exactly monsters, but certainly monstrous beasts. And also interesting beasts and absolutely whacky beasts that defy all logic — like giant toads, dinosaurs with apposable thumbs and a whole lot of strange fungus.

It’s probably a place you want to avoid, but when Bernie’s mum gets a new job with MeierCorp, it’s exactly where Bernie ends up after following her to the top-secret location.

Review: The Fortune Maker

Twelve-year-old Maud is poverty stricken and lives in a tiny house near the bog with her father. 

It is 1913, when urchins fight for survival in rat-infested surroundings on the streets. 

Seers ply their trade to the poor and rich, who try to manipulate into being, the things they are foretold.

Suffragettes march for women’s rights with frequent arrests, while the split between rich and poor, grows wider.

Maud and her dad save their pennies to realise their dream of escaping out of Silvertown and their present condition.

Their house sinks into the bog and all is lost with the pennies.

Review: Bedtime Stories

If you're looking for some brilliant stories to read aloud at bedtime, or for independent reading, then Bedtime Stories by RA Spratt is a great go-to book.

It's a spin-off from the popular weekly podcast, Bedtime Stories with RA Spratt (check that out here).

In Bedtime Stories the book, you'll find 25+ short stories to enjoy.

There are tales shared by RA Spratt's character Nanny Piggins, and featuring another of her characters, Friday Barnes (in the case of the purloined pudding). 

Re-tellings of myths and legends (Medusa) are mixed with fairy tales (The Ugly Duckling), contemporary stories (A Tall Tale About Bees ... And Alien Invasion), and history (The True History of Marie Curie).

There's also a short pronounciation guide which can be checked before, during or after reading aloud (words like Sheherazade). Plus a map and a couple of recipes.

Review: The Quest for the Galleon of Time

Tobias is eleven years old in 1738, when his father signs him up as cabin boy on a trading galleon, the Merry Maiden. Having no choice, as his wages have already been paid to his father, Tobias accepts his fate.

He learns map reading and navigation while journeying across the Atlantic.

Not far into the journey, the Maiden is attacked by pirates and forced to dock for repairs.

Tobias doesn’t realise that this journey will be a life-changing adventure. 

He proves to be an excellent navigator and while at the helm with his instructor, learns the story of the ghostly galleon, the Majestic Maria, and the family of its captain, Lisbon, who, without Tobias knowing, will play a pivotal role in his future.

Review: Who's The Gang On Our Street?

For those whose neighbourhood calm is often shattered, whose heads are occasionally clobbered with plummeting missiles, and whose picnic victuals are frequently raided, this book is for you. 

Who’s The Gang On Our Street? by Susanne Gervay and Nancy Bevington attempts to answer the conundrum of exactly who is responsible for this cacophony of cheeky chaos?

It's a joyful new picture book that explores a typical suburban cul-de-sac (I got Neighbour’s vibes but it could be a location found in any Australian city) and the gang of troublemakers that co-exist alongside a troop of neighbourhood kids.

Junior Review: Ghost Book

Ghosts, magic and mystery come to life in this graphic novel by Remy Lai.

July is an odd girl, and she isn’t really noticed by the kids at her school (and sometimes her dad, too). But there’s something special about July. She can see ghosts!

One day, July meets two ghosts called William and Floof. William tries to convince July he’s not really dead, so they go to the library and search for information about him on the computer. 

They discover that when William was a boy his heart stopped for three minutes, and now he’s in a coma. This is why he has a string connecting his ghost body to his real body in Red Hill Hospital.

Review: Honey and the Valley of Horses

Sickness has enveloped the world. To find a safe place, Honey’s family escapes the city in their converted ice-cream van, with enough supplies to last them for some time. 

It is Honey’s fourth birthday. Her brother Rumi is still a baby.

They drive into a rainforest which seems the perfect place to camp. As they fear there is no entrance visible, one is opened by a herd of enchanted horses. 

A bridge magically appears, which they cross into a secret valley, which then closes behind them.

In this valley of horses, the family begins a new, self-sufficient life. 

They learn to forage for food, fish, live day by day in nature, and make do by repurposing everything that is at hand to use as clothing and tools. Lessons and daily chores fill the children's days.

Review: The First Summer of Callie McGee

A L Tait makes an impressive departure from her usual historical/fantasy writing, with this thoroughly engaging contemporary middle-grade novel.

Calliope-Jean Maree McGee is about to start high school. It’s not the selective high school that her mother wanted her to attend, and that’s just fine by this tween who is keen to lose her reputation as the brainy, quiet one, and equally keen to lose her cumbersome name.

 So, this ritual annual family friends’ holiday is going to be her opportunity to become just plain Callie, and be ready to start Birchwood High, with the other kids in the traditional summer group. She’s not helped by her hovering and restrictive mother, but she is determined, and finds an unlikely ally in the newest addition to the pack of kids, Owen.

Review: Timefire

This is a thrilling mystery; a fantastic read with twists filled with adventure and time travel. 

It is based on historical events surrounding the most destructive bushfires our land has experienced. 

It is 2033, Gilbert is branded a firebug. Life is unbearable as everyone shuns him. 

It is thirteen years since the country’s worst fires, for which Gil’s mother was accused of starting. His dad refuses to talk to him about his mother.

But why does Gil always know when there is going to be a fire? His premonitions come on via a pain from a burn mark on his shoulder.

To get Gil away from the constant harassment and accusations from peers and townspeople, his dad decides to send him to boarding school, far away.

Review: Parcel for Koala

Guess who’s getting a parcel next? It’s Koala!

Our cranky bird postman is back, and this time he’s riding a kangaroo into the outback to our friend Koala.

Koala is feeling super sleepy but is finding it hard to get to sleep. What has Turtle sent in the post, and can it help solve Koala’s sleep problem?

Winner: Trilby Moffat Double Book Prize

Our lucky winner is ...

Marissa Saxty, QLD

Congratulations!

You have won a copy of The Dangerous Business of Being Trilby Moffat and The Perilous Promotion of Trilby Moffat by Kate Temple.

Thank you to ALL who entered. The periods of history ranged from ancient Roman times to the Middle Ages to the 1800s. We feel like we've been on our own perilous adventure! 

Review: The 39 Clues - Book 1: The Maze of Bones

The Maze of Bones is the first installment in a thrilling graphic novel adaption of The 39 Clues series by Rick Riordan, which was published in late 2008. Filled with fast-paced action and mystery, it promises to draw the reader into an adventure like no other.

When Grace Cahill, grandmother and guardian of Amy and Dan dies, the shocking news that she has changed her Will at the last moment, becomes a magnet that draws together the countless branches of a lineage that boasts many famous and powerful people, including Benjamin Franklin.

A seismic shift occurs in the sibling’s lives. They no longer have a home or protector, but are now at the mercy of greedy, privileged relatives that will stop at nothing to get their hands on more money.

Review: Super Sloth Episode 1: The Shar-Wolf of New York City

Humans and animals living side by side, solving mysteries and fighting crime.

Romeo Fortez is a very special pygmy sloth. He’s not like any sloth you’ve ever met. He’s super speedy and super strong. 

Born on a tiny island in the Atlantic ocean, Romeo does his best to fit in with the other sloths in his community. But Romeo itches for more. He’s smart and curious and island life just isn’t enough.

So…. Romeo heads to New York. The city that never sleeps. The city where anything can happen. Including… a giant shark wolf wreaking havoc through the streets.

Review: Honour Among Ghosts

An out-of-this-world mystery, unlikely allies and a winter that just won’t quit.

Brush up on your sleuthing skills, because you’re going to need them! 

Penny’s dad has been accused of a crime he didn’t commit. He’s been thrown in jail, and Penny has lost her job as maid in the Magistrate’s house. 

With her best friend Colm (who also happens to be the Magistrate’s son), the town scribe’s apprentice, Mab, and Niclas the traveller, she starts to investigate the situation. If her dad didn’t steal the Magistrate’s gold cup, she needs to find out who did.

But when the clues lead nowhere and then more people are accused of crimes they swear they didn’t commit, Penny and her new sleuth crew just don’t know what to do.

Review: Riz Chester: The Counterfeit Bust

Riz is a 10-year-old primary schooler with a penchant for noticing the unnoticeable. 

She is reticent to share this phenomenon with others even her closest friends for fear of seeming odder than she already feels. 

Instead, Riz records her observations in her ‘Weird Stuff Log’ with enough detail and smattering of sass to make Miss Marple grin. 

And grin young readers will for Riz’s abilities are about to be stretched to the limit after she notices some faulty banknotes on a shopping expedition with her mum.

Suspicions are raised. Police are engaged and for Riz, doubts set in. Has she done something wrong just because she has identified an anomaly? Why is she being questioned? 

Review: The Mud Puddlers

I find the most interesting and educating novels are those created from threads of history. This is one of those. 

Nina is a twelve-year-old who has come from Australia to London to stay with her Aunty Bee for a year, while her parents travel to Antarctica. She is angry and resentful at their sending her away and is determined not to be happy. 

Bee lives on a barge and takes walking tour groups around London where mudlarks used to be. The elderly and impoverished Molly’s dilapidated barge is stationed next to Bee’s. Molly is a mudlark who for years has lived off her findings. 

When Molly first sees Nina, she recognises her as one of us, people who can see things and others who have passed on, that in the past, scavenged for a living. She also has a ghost living with her. 

Review: The Key To Rome

Sophie Masson’s latest book, The Key to Rome, is an exciting, fast-paced adventure set in AD 84, and based on historical facts.

Twelve-year-old Livia’s father is dying. He entrusts to her something that was entrusted to him – a key which she promises to carry in secret to her uncle Marcus, who lives a day away on horseback. She is to stay and live with him and continue her father’s profession as an oculist, to which Livia has been well-trained. 

She sets out on this quest. But her uncle is an elusive entity. Everyone remains tight-lipped on his whereabouts and suspicion of a girl alone, brings scorn and disapproval.

She agrees to take Mato, a servant boy wanting to reach his dying mother, along as her assistant. Both headed in the same direction, it is safer, and Mato can take her where her uncle is said to be found.

Review: Parcel for Gorilla

In Parcel for Penguin, Penguin received a fun parcel from his good friend Gorilla and we all got to guess what it was. In Parcel for Gorilla, it’s Gorilla’s turn to get something in the mail, delivered by elephant to the jungle (because what other way do parcels get delivered to the jungle?).