Kampung Boy

by Lat (Mohammad Nor Khalid)

Wilkins Farago. Adult Non-Fiction. Paperback rrp $23.00

Guest Reviewer - Jo Burnell

Searching for information about rubber plantations in Indonesia led me to Kampung Boy. Wilkins Farago, a Melbourne-based publisher specialises in award-winning illustrated books from around the world. Aiming to offer new cultures, perspectives and styles of illustration, they nailed it with this delightful graphic novel. From the first page I was captivated by a world never imagined.

Lat describes his childhood in a tiny Malaysian village in the 1950s. Using black and white cartoons, his world springs to detailed life. I search in vain for heat sources at the words, ‘Mum did her cooking on that table’. How do you cook on a table without burning it down? Being bathed in the kitchen was commonplace in those days too, but knowledge that the river was far away led to questions about water supply. Everywhere I turned, illustrations and prose worked together to inform, but also stimulated more questions. I had to keep turning the page in the hope my curiosity would be sated.

Lat’s way with pictures and words had me snorting with delight and heaving heart-felt sighs, sometimes on the same page. Childhood past-times, baking cakes without an oven and prepubescent circumcision without anaesthetic were among entertaining eye-openers. So much of Kampung Boy’s world is foreign to inhabitants of our technological world.

Educational, religious and family customs mingled with village life and a healthy dash of humour. Although Kampung Boy has been in print for decades, it is now available for the first time in Australia. It boggles me to think that such a graphic novel has been in existence for so long, when we Westerners seem only now to be discovering the unique potential of this format.

If you liked Peanuts or enjoy Leunig, you won’t be able to resist Kampung Boy: a graphic art treat with a non-fiction historical twist.

Blue Noise

by Debra Oswald

Random House Australia. Young Adult, Australian. Paperback rrp $18.95

There’s an electric guitar rock playing boy. There’s a classical pianist girl. And then there’s a blues band. What happens when you throw these three things together? Blue Noise.

Ash isn’t very happy with his home life and spends his time drooling over his dream guitar in the local music shop. Erin is shy and insecure but a hugely talented classical musician. When Ash meets Charlie, a weird kid who loves blues, he is convinced to join Charlie’s band. Erin is headhunted by Charlie as well and she realises that it could be good for her shyness, and besides Ash is in the band.

Both Ash and Erin can see the band is doomed to fail. But Charlie’s love for the blues and his “anything is possible” attitude is contagious. Maybe the blues, and the band, will work after all.

When the band starts to work well, is when the communications start to break down.

For any kid out there wanting to form a band, be in a band, or just play music … I recommend Blue Noise.

http://www.debraoswald.com/

Fifteen Love

by RM Corbet

Allen & Unwin. Australian, Young Adult, Girlfriend Fiction. Paperback rrp $14.99

Will is a 15-year-old who aspires to be a fly on the wall wherever girls are talking. He wants to know what girls talk about because then maybe, he can talk to Mia. But Mia isn’t really interested in boys. She thinks that all they talk about is sport, cars and sex.

Will lies around at school, on his back in his tracksuit, looking at the clouds. Mia spends most of her time listening to her best friends Vanessa and Renata talking about boys and clothes.

Mia plays viola. Will plays tennis. Mia is an only child with a wild puppy. Will has a younger brother who had an accident and as a result, never grew up.

For these two young teenagers what they really need is to find out how to talk to each other. But a lot has to happen first.

Fifteen Love is story about friends, family, misunderstandings and love. A great read for teenage girls who want to know exactly what boys think.

My Life and other Catastrophes (Issue 5), What Supergirl Did Next, Little Bird, are Girlfriend Fiction Series titles previously reviewed in the Reading Stack.

http://www.allenandunwin.com/girlfriendfiction/

Bad Behaviour

by Liz Byrski

Pan Macmillan. Australian, Adult Other. Paperback rrp $32.99

When reminiscing over your past life, do you have regrets? Wish you’d done something differently? Do you discover that “timing” was a big factor in determining your destiny? Zoe, Julia, Richard and Tom all find out that sometimes when you look back, it can help you move forward.

1968 was an important year for these four. Australian Zoe meets English Richard in London. In Paris, Richard’s sister Julia, meets Tom. Zoe and Julia become close friends. Richard and Tom find they have much more in common other than just Julia.

Although it is the sexual revolution, both girls are naïve and inexperienced. While Richard and Tom are interested in the political happenings around the world, the women in their lives are more interested in the happenings around their own four walls.

Meanwhile in Western Australia, 12-year-old Justine is coming to terms with being stolen from her Aboriginal mother by the policy of a government ignorant of the consequences of its actions.

Mistakes are made and Zoe and Richard, Julia and Tom seem destined to move on and create new memories with others. Zoe moves back to Perth, marries, has children and “lives happily ever after”. Julia marries into money and finds living the life she always coveted is not the answer.

Thirty years on and half way around the world Zoe and Julia make contact again. Justine has also entered into Zoe’s life. Zoe and Julia find that the consequences of their actions in the past need to be brought back to the surface to help all of these women with their modern lives and problems.

This isn’t a love story. It is a story of human nature and how small things can turn into insurmountable hurdles.

At over 460 pages, mid a busy family life, I read Bad Behaviour in less than 24 hours – that’s the best recommendation I can make. This is a book that I will look forward to reading again.

http://www.lizbyrski.com.au/

Flying Diggers

by Ian Whybrow and Illustrated by David Melling

Hodder Children’s Books (Hachette). Picture Book. Hardcover rrp $28.99

Most little boys love trucks and what could be more perfect for these readers than an exciting imaginative play story about an orange Backhoe Loader and a blue Telescopic Handler.

Granbam made these trucks for Teddy and Ruby. The trucks don’t look different but when Granbam hands over hats and keys, he has some advice as well: They’re a bit spesh.

What makes them special is the games Teddy and Ruby play. Team FD. Calling Team FD…. Hurry to the jungle Team FD. F is for Flying and D is for Diggers. The FD team race to the jungle where a tiger cub needs to be rescued from snapping crocodiles.

There’s lots of fun to be had. Action and adventure. 3-2-1 Dive Bomb. Words that Sploosh and Splash. Wonderful, wonderful illustrations of diggers diving, whooshing and rushing around everywhere.

Flying Diggers is sure to be a favourite with truck-loving boys aged three to six.

http://www.ianwhybrow.com/
http://www.davidmelling.co.uk/home.html

My Private Pectus

by Shane Thamm

Ford Street Publishing. Australian, Young Adult. Paperback rrp $19.95

Jack is a typical seventeen year-old going to high school in Queensland. He surfs, fixes up cars, plays footy with his mates, and is having trouble with girls. Only one problem – Jack’s body has a hole in the middle of his chest – pectus excavatum (PE).

My Private Pectus is the story of Jack, “Sticks” to his mates. Most boys his age have lots of problems but Jack’s problems are compounded because of his abnormality. Only his best friend, Gez, knows about it. Jack’s dad doesn’t care much anymore due to migraines from an accident in the army, although he does want Jack to follow in his footsteps into the military. Jack’s mum moved out years ago. So Jack spends all his time with Gez and Gez’s older brother Ryan.

Then Gez gets a girlfriend and another girl, Sam, seems interested in Jack. But Sam’s past is a problem and Jack fears the reactions of his mates. Jack is becoming increasingly paranoid about his PE and reads too much into everything around him. When his feelings for Sam change and he can’t understand what it all means, he ends up isolating everyone - including Gez and Sam.

This is a comical book that most young adult men will feel a connection to. The rites of passage, body-image issues and peer pressure are all part of Jack’s journey of self realisation. I read this in three hours and laughed, cried and gasped. I have recommended it to my own “sticks”.

The Eternal Kiss

Vampire Tales of Blood and Desire

edited by Trisha Telep

Random House Australia. Mystery, Fantasy, Young Adults. Paperback rrp $18.95

If you are a fan of vampire stories then here is the next book for your reading list. Not only are there thirteen different stories all with vampires but every single story was an excellent read.

If you ask me which story was my favourite – I can’t tell you. They were so different - the only common thread being “vampires”. Some stories were dark and graphic, others quirky and mysterious and many almost too realistic. I am starting to wonder if they really do exist. And if they do I hope it is like All Wounds or All Hallows, where the vampires coexist in our world – mostly for good.

Thirteen interesting stories, thirteen perspectives on one subject matter. And all endings kept me wanting more. I hope some of these short stories are taken further into novels. While the target readership appeal is for young adults, any adult who loves a good vampire story will equally enjoy. More please!

After

by Sue Lawson


black dog books. Australian, Young Adult. Paperback rrp $18.99

What happens when you can’t live with before?

I very rarely get emotional when reading a book but late last night, while everyone was asleep, the tears flowed freely down my cheeks! Wow! What a book!

After is about Callum James Alexander, or CJ to his friends. When he did have friends. Callum has been banished by his mother to his grandparents’ farm in the country, away from his inner city school, friends, computer, mobile and his mother and her partner. Callum is angry, upset, confused and comes to the grandparents, whom he has never met, with a lot of emotional baggage.

What could he have possibly done to deserve this punishment? That was the question I kept asking all the way through to the end.

Callum’s grandmother dislikes him. His grandfather tries to help but Callum doesn’t want help. He doesn’t think he needs any. Everything is all his fault anyway. Everything!

Callum ends up going to the local school, a combined primary and high school, a small country school. He doesn’t want to fit in. He wants to be left alone. But the local footy hero, Jack, and the boy who isn’t quite right, Luke, won’t let that happen. Jack wants to antagonise and Luke to befriend.

Callum just wants to forget. Will the move to the country really help? And why is it everyone in the small town knows more about Callum and his family than Calllum does?

After is a book to be read in one sitting. I just HAD to find out about Callum’s past and about the town’s past. Keep the stories coming!

Lawson’s Finding Darcy was reviewed in Issue 9 of the Reading Stack.

http://www.suelawson.com.au/

40 Super Human Body Tricks

by The Surfing Scientist, Ruben Meerman

ABC Books. Australian, Junior, Young Adult, Children’s Non-Fiction. Paperback rrp $12.99

Here is a book that children will pour over and adults will peek into - only to discover they are “testing” out some of the tricks. Exactly that happened in our household!

I am not going to tell you anything about the tricks inside this book but they are amazing! And when you read about the Iron in your breakfast cereal … the manufacturers may just be telling the truth!

Every body trick has step by step instructions with photos to demonstrate and explanations to the reasoning behind them. There are recipes and fun facts as well as some cool things to help you look ‘good’ on Halloween night!

This is a fun book that every child and parent will enjoy – I can recommend the spinning around! All tricks are simple and require very few additional props. Meerman is a surfer with a physics degree and a graduate diploma in science communication. He appears on ABC’s Rollercoaster and Catalyst and performs hundreds of live science shows in schools around Australia. 40 Super Human Body Tricks introduces science to kids in such a way they will quickly be yelling for more.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/surfingscientist/whois.htm

outside IN

by Chrissie Keighery

Hardie Grant Egmont. Australian, Young Adult. Paperback rrp $16.95

This is a book that I didn’t want to end. Unfortunately the last pages came very quickly and I was left wanting more.

outside IN is the story of six friends. They are the “cool” kids - beautiful Jordan, faithful Lee, funny Meredith, talented Cecilia, awkward Sam and popular stud Jack. These four girls and two boys look out for each other but never really seeing each other’s problems and difficulties.

Each chapter of outside IN is narrated by one of the six. The simple story of teenagers growing up is viewed differently by each character but their life has a certain sameness, gliding along smoothly, with just a few bumps along the way.

Jordan is struggling with her parent’s divorce. Lee is always coming off second best to Jordan. Meredith covers up her past by continually being the clown. Cecilia is a dedicated and talented ballerina but no-one sees the secret she keeps. Sam is the awkward boy who follows behind Jack but wants to step out on his own. Jack has never really thought about all the girls he gets and hurts … until now.

But there is one more narrator. Interspersed between the other chapters is the “no name person” perspective where the anonymous narrator shares her thoughts about the popular six, gradually revealing more of herself to the reader at the same time.

You try to settle in your shadow life
Don’t know where you end, or begin
But you wonder, sometimes, if they feel it too?
Inside out and outside in.

A wonderful book for both boys and girls alike – one which will encourage them to open their eyes to the surroundings of their own lives. This is a universal story. All seven characters could easily be found in any high school in Australia. outside IN is definitely destined for schools reading lists!

Beyond the Knock-Knock Door

by Scott Monk

Random House Australia. Australian, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Junior. Paperback rrp $16.95

Here is a book that will keep a child’s imagination captive from the beginning to the end.

The 12-year-old Bowman triplets discover a door that takes them to another world. Here there are no birds but there wouldn’t be any room in the sky because the fish swim in there! Duck when a flying whale and shark gets too close! Lands “hover” around the atmosphere and some have metal seeking bases.

And the people are strange too – some with facial scarring and others with jewels encrusted into their cheeks. There doesn’t seem to be anyone who is old.

When Michael, Luke and Samantha enter this other world their fancy dress costumes become real and Michael is mistaken for The Gold Knight from the Hall of Heroes, Luke a space man and Samantha a pirate.

The triplets set out to save Pacifico, a floating nation, from a fearful monster. Even though people go missing, the politicians and the Royal Marines refuse to believe the monster is real. But what is real and what is not is where everything goes belly up!

This is an excellent mystery, science fiction story for readers who don’t like predictable endings. Good fun and definitely very, very unusual.

The Demon’s Lexicon

by Sarah Rees Brennan

Simon & Schuster Pty Limited. Science Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult. Paperback rrp $16.99

I didn’t know what age category to put The Demon’s Lexicon in. As an adult, I loved it and was the story’s captive from the first page. Teenagers who like gothic stories with black humour will also gravitate to it!

Nick and Alan are brothers. Nick is dark, has no compassion, is four years younger than Alan and continually battles to hold back his anger. He only trusts one person – his brother Alan. Alan, on the other hand, is light haired, blue eyed and would give his life to save another – especially if it is Nick.

Nick is a teenager with a lot of angst. Fighting demons your whole life, losing your father when you were young, and every day facing his mothers accusing eyes - what is a boy meant to do?

The boys’ mother, Olivia, stole a powerful amulet from a great magician and now the family is constantly on the run. They try to stay in one place but the magicians and demons always find them. They kill a few. And then they have to move again. Nick sometimes wonders about just giving back what was taken so they could stop running and live a normal life.

When Jamie, a boy from Nick’s school, is marked by a demon, he comes with his sister to Nick and Alan for assistance. Nick wants to abandon them but Alan agrees to help. In helping Jamie, Alan is inadvertently marked by a demon. Once a human is marked it isn’t long before the demons work their way into their body and take over. Nick can’t let his brother die and Alan won’t let Jamie die.

The only way to save both Alan and Jamie is to kill a magician. But it has to be the right one. What Nick doesn’t know is that maybe the ones you trust are the ones who will hurt you the most.

A great book and I can’t wait to see this on the big screen. I’ll be in the front row gripping the chair!

http://www.sarabreesbrennan.com/

Daniel X: Watch the Skies

by James Patterson and Ned Rust

Random House Australia. Junior, Young Adult, Science Fiction. Paperback rrp $29.95

Guest Reviewer – Ian Brown

Kids who like the Men in Black movies will love the Daniel X Series of books.

In Watch the Skies aliens land in a small American town with plans to take over the planet. But Daniel, teenage alien hunter, has other plans.

It’s worth checking out the other books in this series to read how Daniel fights the aliens and returns for new adventures. Lots of excitement all round. Highly recommended for children who are love science fiction and alien action.

http://www.jamespatterson.com/

The Earth Hums in B Flat

by Mari Strachan

Text Publishing. Adult Other. Paperback, rrp $32.95

Guest Reviewer - Anastasia Gonis

Gwenni is good and kind; a curious but oddly innocent child. She has Out of Body Experiences and flies only at night now. That’s when she hears the song of the Earth. She leaves her everyday world with its complexities and sometimes incomprehensible happenings behind along with her difficult sister Bethan, who always succeeds in making Gwenni’s life miserable.
Gwenni prefers the natural world (which has become a second skin to her) to the adult world she views. For adults say and do things she can’t translate in her child’s mind. Things she constantly questions, but never receives satisfactory answers to. She is absolute about protecting all life; a calling which frequently gets her into trouble.

Her closest friend, Alwenna, is far more mature than Gwenni. When Alwenna suddenly grows out of the friendship, Gwenni is left to decipher the reasons for the sudden and drastic change between them.

Guto Wern is another of Gwenni’s friends with whom she spends a lot of time. He’s was dropped by his mother as a baby and is ‘funny in the head’. A fact totally lost on the child. She also adores Mrs Evans, the teacher whose two daughters she frequently minds. But she fears Mr Evans, who is plagued by the black dog.

So much is learnt about the villagers’ lives: their superstitions, the secret happenings, and the sacrifices made to protect the innocent. All this information seeps out through Gwenni’s observations, and the other children’s dialogue. So do the terrifying, underlying events that are unspoken but remain there between the lines for the reader to recognise, and to catch their breath as each secret is unravelled.

This is a finely crafted book with fantastic characters and a murder mystery set in the Welsh countryside. It addresses many confronting issues such as family abuse, alcoholism, mental illness, and childhood innocence.

http://www.maristrachan.info/

A True History of The Hula Hoop

by Judith Lanigan

Pan Macmillan Australia. Australian, Adult Other. Paperback rrp $29.99

At first glance this book appears to be about the history of the Hula Hoop. But in small print to the side are two words that give a different clue - “A NOVEL”. However, A True History of the Hula Hoop is not just a novel. It is a study in the history of street performers and the women who are part of that colourful life.

This book is about Catherine and Columbina. Both are performers. One performs with hoops, the other is a clown. Catherine’s story starts in Australia in 1993. Columbina’s story’s starts in Italy in 1572. Although centuries apart, through the wonderful telling of Lanigan, the two women’s lives are woven together to create a tapestry of performances and intrigue.

Catherine travels around Europe and Australia performing her acrobatic feats with hula hoops. As she gets older, and prone to injuries and loneliness, she takes stock of her life - how she has come to where she is and where she, a single woman, should be heading.

Columbina is travelling with an Italian commedia dell’arte troupe to perform for the King of France. But in the 1500’s it is unheard of for a woman to do such things. The troupe pass through towns who have never seen a woman perform and trouble soon finds Columbina. In one town she is deemed a witch and hunted through the streets only to be rescued by a man who has his own agenda. Soon Columbina and the troupe have to use their skills as performers to escape so they can continue on to France.

Throughout A True History of the Hula Hoop Lanigan has embedded snippets of facts about street performers, Hula Hoops and commedia troupes. Did you know that the Hula Hoop was first invented in Australia? This is a brilliant book and there is one fact about Hula Hoops I am determined to try for myself – I have just ordered my gold Hula Hoop online and am ready to “swing those hips”. For those who want to know more read Page 209!

http://www.thehulahoop.com.au/

Your Mother Would be Proud

edited by Tamara Sheward and Jenny Valentish

Allen & Unwin. Australian, Adult Non-Fiction. Paperback rrp $32.99

Your Mother Would Be Proud is a book that has been in my household for over 2 months but I have never seen it. Until now! Why? Because the two older males in my home took, read it, and now, have finally reported back to me.

The seventeen year old said

“I didn’t know half the people but I liked The Chaser and Julia Zemiro.” And he did read it all the way through – a positive comment in itself.

The “seventeen x 3” year old actually wrote down his quote…

“Stories from some famous and not so famous Australians: Some very funny and revealing stories from their early years. From streaking at a rugby match to interviewing rock stars, to touring Europe in a band. A lot of the fun is due to large amounts of alcohol. There are some stories that your mother would be best she never found out about. This is a very entertaining book.”

With Christmas looming ever so quickly, here is a book that will suit anyone who likes a good laugh and a bit of goss!

Poppy Fields Series

Mondays are for Murder

Dead Funny

by Tanya Landman

Walker Books. Crime, Mystery, Junior, Young Adult. Paperback rrp $12.95 each

Guest Reviewer - Jo Burnell

I'm a sucker for a short easy read, but I made a huge mistake with the Poppy Fields Series. The brightly coloured covers made me think ‘light’ and ‘humorous’, but the first page of each quickly shattered any misconceptions. The contents of both are dead serious, no pun intended. Anyone who likes a bit of blood pumping suspense will enjoy these, but you need to be able to stomach a bit of the gruesome.

Poppy Fields is an ordinary girl whose hobby is slightly unusual. She loves piecing together clues from people’s clothing and behaviour to develop theories about their character. She never imagined how useful (or dangerous) this past time would be.

Mondays are Murder sees Poppy heading for a free holiday on a remote Scottish Island. The new resort there wants to test its activities and services on a group of teenagers before opening its doors to paying customers. After the series of sudden deaths that this small bunch witness, it’s anyone’s guess whether there will be anyone left alive to run the resort. Will the kids be targets too? What is the link between these weird homicides? Is it possible that a ghost could wreak such havoc? Poppy doesn’t think so.

Dead Funny - After surviving the terrors of being cut off from the world in Scotland, Poppy heads for America with her Mum. The excitement of being commissioned to create an authentic English garden on a famous star’s estate is short-lived. So is Baby Sugarcandy – short-lived, that is.

Only Poppy and her faithful sidekick Graham see anything suspicious in the star’s fatal fall. Is it the wet hair on an otherwise immaculately dressed victim or the smell of bleach? The deaths that follow get weirder, as must be the mind behind them.

If you like murder mysteries, then you’ll love the Poppy Fields short reads. Although offered for 9 to 12 year olds, the fatal themes tend to suggest a slightly older readership (13+) or those with stronger stomachs. I’m glad I was lured by the bright covers.

Isabella's Garden

by Glenda Millard, illustrated by Rebecca Cool

Walker Books. Australian, Picture. Hardcover rrp $27.95

Guest Reviewer - Anastasia Gonis

Writer’s ideas come from a great many sources. The inspiration for this book came from the real Isabelle (Millard) who is and continues to be, an inspiration to the author of this book. Her magnificent garden, from which clippings have travelled all over her area via a great many hands, will live on and on, regardless of the passage of time.

This, the eighteenth book by Glenda Millard, begins with minimal words, and illustrations that are large upon the full-colour page, and builds in volume and pace, in both words and illustrations. Alliteration and assonance is used to accentuate the movement of the rhyming text which portrays the cycle of plant life.

But there is a much deeper, underlying meaning that surfaces with every additional reading. It is the cycle of life of every living thing and the acknowledgement that everything lives on through each rebirth. Children’s participation in planting and watching things blossom and bloom – watching life form, is also central to the story’s intention.

This is a beautifully produced book with the end pages replicas of the covers of the book. The vibrant colours used by the illustrator, Rebecca Cool, are the rich colours of nature and life; of the earth and the air with green the dominant colour. She has made the pictures leap from the pages in unison with the activity of the children.

This book should be read aloud to achieve maximum pleasure from the sounds of the rhythmic text.

Millard’s Applesauce and the Christmas Miracle was reviewed in Issue 14 of the Reading Stack.

The Sisters Antipodes - A Memoir

by Jane Alison

Allen and Unwin. Adult Non-Fiction, Biographical. Paperback rrp $32.99

Guest Reviewer - Anastasia Gonis

This is a spellbinding, painful dissection of self; a compelling and courageous memoir. It is related by Jane, one of the elder daughters of two families who inflicted unspeakable damage on their children through adult betrayal.

They all began as close friends and the two families were identical in many ways. Both had two daughters each, of which the eldest, Jane and Jenny, were very similar in looks and shared the same birthday. The fathers had powerful, diplomatic positions that demanded extensive travel and a lifestyle of luxury and privilege. Later, with their new partners, both had a son, almost at the same time.

The shift in the family structure meant that the fathers swapped wives and replaced their own daughters with the others’ children, leaving their own girls in shock, ‘a silent, numb shock, like a crack inside stone, not enough to split it but inside, quietly fissuring’, thus to war a lifetime with feelings of displacement and loss of identity, deep resentment and worthlessness; unable to love or be loved.

The most shocking thing appears to be that both sets of parents seemed oblivious or indifferent to the desolation and the wreckage they left behind; that the fathers too easily accepted the exchange of children. This is reflected by the infrequent correspondence and personal visits with their own daughters over the years, and the overall lack of interest shown in their biological children.

Jane holds nothing back and the writing is exquisite, so that the reader is caught between the beauty and eloquence of the writing and the simultaneous caustic yet cleansing nature of the narration. So much so, that by the end of the book, the reader wants to run out and search for everything else this author has created.

This is a not-to-be-missed memoir of high standard. Make time to read it in one sitting if possible. It will be hard to put down.


http://www.janealison.com/