Bungawitta - Emily Rodda

It hadn’t rained in Bungawitta for a very long time. So long, little Glory-Alice had only seen rain on TV. And as Bungawitta dried up, the birds and animals and then the people started leaving. Every morning the twelve remaining residents of Bungawitta gather at the general store around Aunty Flo’s television set to watch the weather forecast. But it’s always the same. No matter what measures people take, the rains refuse to come. Even leaving the ute windows down all night and putting the best feather quilt and all the cushions in the house out to air doesn’t bring the rain. But not only does Bungawitta need rain, it needs money – to keep going. I the drought ever breaks they’ll need seed, stock, food – and that’s just for starters. Things are getting desperate.

 

Until Glory-Alice’s brother, Jay, has an idea. Money is easier to come by than rain. Why not have a festival and bring in tourists? Even though local lads Socko Riley and Greasy Cooper aren’t convinced, the idea of a Bungawitta Earth Sculpture Festival grabs the town by its bootstraps and whips up more enthusiasm than a dust storm. And so the preparations begin. They plan pony rides, a sausage sizzle, print T-shirts, cook fruit cakes, order portable loos and plough the paddock to be used for the earth sculptures. Old Maisie Macduff announces she’ll play the piano. But will city people trek to Bungawitta where the sun always shines to sleep under the stars and play in the dirt?

 

This is a you-beaut read from Emily Rodda. It’s funny, fair dinkum and showcases true Aussie pluck and tenacity as a couple of children star in a deliciously audacious attempt to save their town from drought. The characters are delightful, imbued with Rodda’s rogue sense of humour and brought to life by her laconic writing and Craig Smith’s superb illustrations.

 

Her first stand-alone junior novel for years, Bungawitta is sure to become a favourite on the bookshelf of many an eight to ten-year-old. Highly recommended.

 

Omnibus Books 2011

 

(A version of this review appears in Magpies Vol 26, Issue 1, March 2011)

The Secret of the Lonely Isles - Joanne van Os

Life has tossed some overwhelming hurdles at thirteen-year-old Jeremy Isherwood in the last few months. He feels doomed. For starters, not only is he the shortest in his family, he is the shortest in his new class. He is also doomed to a life of playing snakes and ladders with Neenie, his nutty and forgetful old grandmother. Jem’s family has had to move to the daggy old Isherwood house. It’s a far cry from living out on the mango farm, sixty kilometres south of Darwin, where life was happy.

 

But when the mango market becomes oversupplied and times get tough, Jem’s Dad must work in the mines, away from home for weeks at a time. A bad mining accident, in which he loses a leg and becomes confined to a wheelchair, has thrown the family into crisis. They’ve sold up the farm and moved in with Neenie, where the family dynamic has reached breaking point. Dad is not coping with his exercises and has lost his joie-de-vivre. Jem’s older sister, Maddy, spends most of her time either sneaking off to see her new boyfriend or slamming doors and arguing with her mother. Thank goodness for Jem’s dog and the horses. At least Jem can escape the tension for a while and ride down to the beach with his younger brother Tyler and Tyler’s friend Zac, from next door.

 

When it seems the family can bear no more, a visitor arrives out of the blue. It is Jem’s great aunt, Ella, who has returned from sailing around the world. When Jem’s Dad must go to Adelaide for two weeks to see his specialist, Ella offers to take Jem, Maddy, Tyler and Zac out on her yacht, Freya. Little do the four know that they are about to embark on an adventure they will never forget, and that in helping Ella solve a curious hundred-year-old mystery, they will fear for their lives.

 

Joanne van Os is a master of the adventure story. With its adroitly crafted plotting and endearing characters, children will find The Secret of the Lonely Isles hard to put down. It indulges the archetypal childhood dream of searching for buried treasure and negotiating with riddle and risk to find it. Packed with intrigue, incident and peril on the high seas, van Os has produced a meticulously researched story that will engage, educate and stimulate the imagination of all who read it. The story’s verisimilitude and accuracy are, no doubt, in part, a result of van Os’s sailing acumen and her first-hand experience of sailing around the top end of Australia and surrounding islands. Highly recommended.

 

Random House 2011

 

(A version of this review appears in Magpies Vol 26, Issue 1, March 2011)

Surface Tension - Meg McKinlay

Sometimes things are not as they seem. Underneath what appears bright and shiny on the surface may lurk something unforseen. And just as water plays tricks with the light, so that a submerged rod seems twisted and broken, sometimes a different version of the truth can apply a filter over history. Until someone breaks the surface.

 

Casssie won’t ever have the chance to see the house her brother and sister played in as children, the house her parents left behind when she was born. She won’t even be able to visit Old Lower Grange, the town where they lived. Because on the day she was born – eight weeks early – Mayor Finkle pulled the handle that sent mega litres of water coursing down the hill to drown the town and convert it into a dam. Twelve years on, the residents of New Lower Grange are preparing to celebrate the centenary of the town, and to commemorate the pulling of the lever at the same time. But Cassie’s focus is not on the small-town preparations, nor on the six laps she must swim every day at the local pool on account of her compromised lung function; her focus lies somewhere else.

 

For as long as she can remember, Cassie has been fascinated with the town under the dam. She has studied old maps and newspaper clippings, she has listened at the back of her mother’s history class at the local high school, and she has quizzed her sister, Hannah, who works at the council. More than this, however, Cassie has a knowing. It’s unexplainable and it’s about something not even she can identify.

 

So one day she decides to ignore the No Entry and Trespassers Prosecuted signs on the other side of the dam. Here she can swim her laps in peace, with no used bandaids floating around and no one to jump on her head. But more than that, she can swim in the knowledge that underneath her, beneath the dark water, lies her Atlantis. And even when her private swimming place is discovered by Liam, who ends up sharing it with her, the summer holidays settle into a happy routine.

Until the dam gives up a shocking secret.

 

This is a book that is impossible to put down. Meg McKinlay infuses the text with an air of foreboding, and with some adroit foreshadowing, cleverly sets down clues for the reader to grapple with as the story unfolds. Cassie is a strong character that children will relate to. She does not accept the status quo. She knows that something has been glossed over, that there is more to the story of the flooding of Old Lower Grange than is being told. She is not afraid to ask questions, to follow her instinct, to delve into the depths of a mystery that beckons to be solved. She is compassionate, she is persistent and she has a sense of humour. She has an inner strength and hunger for truth that invites the reader to search for within themselves.

 

A thoroughly engaging read. Highly recommended.

 

Walker Books 2011

 

(A version of this review appears in Magpies Vol 26, Issue 2, May 2011)

 

 

The Ivory Rose - Belinda Murrell

Jemma finds herself a regular visitor to Rosethorne, one of the famous Witches’ Houses of Annandale, as she works at her first babysitting job – minding Sammy. Jemma loves spending time with Sammy and visiting Rosethorne, except she’s been witness to some strange happenings there that she can’t explain. Sammy says that someone she calls Georgie is in the room, but Jemma can’t see anyone. Does Sammy have a wild imagination? Or are the rumours true? Could Rosethorne really be haunted?

When Jemma and Sammy are playing hide-and-seek one day, Jemma finds a beautiful rose charm made of ivory. But when she puts it around her neck it sets off a terrifying chain of events that end in her falling down the stairs and knocking herself unconscious. When she comes to, she finds she has time-travelled to the year 1895. Poor Jemma has no idea how she arrived here or how to return home, nor that she will be involved in a life and death quest to save the life of the pale and sickly Georgiana, young heiress of Rosethorne.

Fans of Belinda Murrell’s time slip tales will not be disappointed with her latest addition to the series. The Ivory Rose explores the late nineteenth century world of Annandale, Sydney, in the midst of a devastating depression. Through the eyes of thirteen-year-old Jemma we see the life of the times at grassroots level; through Jemma’s friendships, her disappointments and frustrations, her shocking discoveries about the hardship of the working class, Murrell leads us into a thrilling and intimate journey into history. This is a thoroughly engaging story. It will appeal to upper primary through to early teenage girls who will relate to all the challenges Jemma must face both at home in her own time and in her stint in the nineteen eighties. Murrell’s artful and thoroughly researched crafting of setting, her cast of believable characters, and her bent for interesting plot twists will keep this book securely in the hands of the reader until it is finished. She deals deftly with themes of bullying, friendship, resilience and hope, and as always supplies a history fact file at the back of the book. The Ivory Rose would make a great addition to any classroom. Recommended.

 

Random House 2011

 

(A version of this review appears in Magpies Vol 26, Issue 2, May 2011)

Violet Mackerel's Remarkable Recovery - Anna Branford

In Violet Mackerel’s Remarkable Recovery Violet comes up with her ‘theory of giving small things’: if someone has a problem and you give them something small, like a stone or a feather, that small thing might have a special way of helping them. Which is just as well. Violet must have a tonsillectomy. When the doctor suggests her voice might sound a little different after the operation, Violet decides she will have the voice of an opera singer and she will sing on the radio. So when Dr Singh gives her a small purple lozenge to help her sore throat, Violet decides it might contain a little bit of his singing name which will be very helpful for her opera voice. And when Violet befriends an old lady called Iris MacDonald in the hospital waiting room, her theory of giving small things takes on a perspective even Violet could not have predicted.

 

The books in this series are absolutely delightful. Anna Branford has created an endearing character, in Violet, whose out-of-the-box thinking is as refreshing as it is amusing. Violet’s mix of creativity and pragmatism make for the types of plots young readers will immediately relate to. And they will love the practical activities and suggestions at the back of the book.

 

Sarah Davis’s winsome illustrations are an exquisite match for the text. This heart-warming series is sure to be a hit. Highly recommended.

 

Walker Books 2010

 

(A version of this review appears in Magpies Vol 26, Issue 2, May 2011)

Violet Mackerel's Brilliant Plot - Anna Branford

Violet Mackerel is a collector of small things. She has a theory that when you have a very important and brilliant idea, you’ll probably find something small and special on the ground at that very moment. So when she finds a small red button at the Saturday market while Mum is busy with her knitting stall, Violet has a very important idea. She’d like to own the small china bird she has seen on a stall near her mum’s. Except there’s a problem. It costs ten dollars. And the man who owns the china bird stall never says hello to Violet, even though he smiles at her. Which is a bit of a puzzle. Fortunately Violet is good at thinking outside the square when it comes to problem solving, because she needs to come up with a brilliant plot if she’s going to buy that china bird. But when her brilliant plot involves turning the back garden into an archaeological dig, Violet is not prepared for the family’s reaction.

The books in this series are absolutely delightful. Anna Branford has created an endearing character, in Violet, whose out-of-the-box thinking is as refreshing as it is amusing. Violet’s mix of creativity and pragmatism make for the types of plots young readers will immediately relate to. And they will love the practical activities and suggestions at the back of the book.

Sarah Davis’s winsome illustrations are an exquisite match for the text. This heart-warming series is sure to be a hit. Highly recommended.

Walker Books 2010

(A version of this review appears in Magpies Vol 26, Issue 2, May 2011)

Rufus the Numbat - David Miller

Life goes on as usual in an ordinary street in an ordinary town – until Rufus the numbat decides to pass through. Then there is disruption on a grand scale. All it takes is one person to be tipped off-balance – well, off their bike, actually – to set in motion a sequence of catastrophes. And does Rufus care? Is he even aware of the trail of discombobulation he’s left behind him? Of course not. For after all, Rufus the numbat loves a quiet life, the songs of birds, the rustle of leaves. He’s only interested in what lies ahead, and maybe a few termites along the way.

As always, David Miller has created another masterpiece with his famous paper sculptures set against pen and ink backgrounds. The whole book has a three-dimensional feel, and Rufus is – exquisite. Make that – adorable.

 

The droll minimalist text works cleverly with the detail of Miller’s illustrations to get the message across. This is a story of slapstick proportions; but it bears a serious message. There is a role reversal here. What would happen if animals infringed on the lives of humans? It makes for lively discussion on the issue of protecting animal habitats and minimising the human footprint on them.

 

Rufus the Numbat is a delightfully endearing book that packs a punch. Recommended.

 

Ford Street Publishing 2010

 

(A version of this review appears in Magpies Vol 25, Issue 4, September 2010)