Road to Freedom

Road to Freedom by Gabrielle Davis (Hawkeye Publishing) RRP $28.95 ISBN: 9781923105201

Reviewed by Melissa Wray

Issanka has been trained as a spy from a young age. With no family, caste or social standing, she finds ways to blend in with those around her. She is also able to draw from light and shade to really merge with the shadows and be completely unseen by those around her.

After an unexpected deception and a one-sided trial, that would otherwise sentence her to death, Issanka finds her life spared. Instead, she must journey the country with the King’s army and one of the most feared commanders. Along the way she realises things are not always as they seem and that there are very few people she can trust. Also, that she has much to learn and that the alliances around her might be deadly.

Davis has created a magnificent world full of power battles, alliances, and a caste system that stacks everything up against the main character, Issanka. The world building is structured through the caste system, creating a setting for the reader to become completely immersed within. Davis cleverly sets the scene for Issanka using these two strategies, but also gives her a hidden strength that works in her favour: magic drawn from the shadows. This special solitary power is both a blessing and a curse as Issanka soon discovers along her journey.

The situations in the story changed continuously ensuring a fast paced, action-packed storyline. The writing style flowed easily making this a terrific, page turning read. Road to Freedom is a perfect blend of mystery, magic and mayhem. Suitable for a 12+ year readership.

Alba

Alba by Verity Croker (GenZ Publishing) PB RRP $15.00 ISBN: 9798339568339

Reviewed by Melissa Wray

Rebecca is a sixteen-year-old girl who is angry at her mum for leaving them for another family. She is also mourning the tragic death of her boyfriend, Alistair, whose relationship was secret at the time. This makes it difficult for those around her to fully understand the depth of her grief. To complicate matters further, her best friend Callum is Alistair’s brother. Callum is also trying to navigate the loss of his brother which adds another layer to their increasingly complicated friendship.

Together they uncover a diary written by 16-year-old Martha in the 19^th century. Rebecca and Callum agree to work together and decode the diary and try to uncover the secrets exposed. The reader is drawn into the historical world with enough detail and mystery to really care about Martha and what happened to her. Rebecca realises that just like the secrets kept back in the 19^th century that caused hurt and turmoil, so is the secret she is keeping about her and Alistair’s relationship.

Croker has woven a terrific web of connecting characters set in the Scottish Highlands that joins Rebecca’s world with Martha’s world. It has the right blend of a dual storyline whilst also addressing the delicate subject of grief and how those left behind cope. Croker demonstrates great sensitivity when addressing the fall out of broken families by using the, at times, delicate mother/daughter connection.

Alba is an enjoyable tale of mystery and intrigue and is suitable for a 13+ years readership.

My Body, My Brain

My Body, My Brain by Nicki Esler Gill and Inge Daniels (Scholastic) HB RRP $18.99 ISBN: 9781761524622

Reviewed by Kellie Nissen

 … different brains are needed for the world we want to make.

The blurb for My Body, My Brain states that this book is ‘a fun and engaging introduction to neurodiversity’. While I concur with this, I would say that the ideas and messages are for everybody.

As humans, we are so often caught up in social mores, wanting to ‘be like everyone else’ – but the fact is, we aren’t. Childhood is also a time of much confusion when it comes to emotions, learning new skills, communicating needs and wants, and relationships. Author Nicki Esler Gill highlights these challenges and wonderings to a tee with multiple relevant examples that will resonate with any child.

Why can’t I do [insert skill] when all my friends can? Why don’t I like being with large groups of people? Why can’t I sit still? Why can’t everyone be organised like me?

Coupled with fun illustrations by Inge Daniels, the rhyming text by Nicki Esler Gill gives a light touch to serious content, while still acknowledging the concerns children (and many adults) face.

These are complex feelings and topics being dealt with, and Gill’s cake analogy is perfect – likening the need for different ‘ways of doing’ for the world to function to the need for a variety of ingredients, each with a role, to make a cake palatable.  

There are plenty of books out there that talk about differences and similarities, finding your skills and strengths, and the need for variety to make the world go round – but I like this one for its jaunty rhythm, bold illustrations and clearcut message that doesn’t beat around the bush and celebrates everyone.

Neurodiverse or neurotypical, every child will see themselves in My Body, My Brain and every child will also see their friends, peers and family members in the other characters depicted. If this leads to a greater understanding of self and others, and a greater tolerance, then it’s a job well done.

My Body, My Brain is targeted at younger readers, aged 3–7. It would also sit well in the Foundation–Year 1 classroom when students are exploring identity.   

Fox Goes North

Fox Goes North by Jeremy Strong and Heegyum Kim (Scholastic) HB RRP $24.99 ISBN: 9780702338267

Reviewed by Kellie Nissen

Every author dreams of writing a legacy novel and, for the late Jeremy Strong, Fox Goes North is just that.

On the surface, this story follows an unlikely band of animal friends – Bear, Moose, and Toucan – who are soon joined by Fox, Young Llama, and Little Owl as they travel in their caravan house across the land to see The Northern Lights.

Each animal has a specific talent or two, allowing them to function as a whole. Bear’s is leadership, Moose has strength, Toucan is the navigator, Fox cooks for them all, Young Llama keeps them entertained and Little Owl has a feisty power. Along their way, they face challenges including fire and flood, and while the going is fraught at times, their combined talents – and occasional help from other creatures, including Wolf, Snow Leopard, and Beaver(s) – are always timely.

However, Fox Goes North is more than an anthropomorphised tale of a fun journey. It is even more than a ‘children’s fable’ (as described in the blurb). It is, for me, a commentary on life; a series of ‘lessons’ intertwined with a gentle and heartwarming story, which the reader can choose to take at face value or reflect on the deeper meaning.

For example, when all the animals are laughing at Llama having mistaken a falling tree for a monster, it is Bear who takes her aside and provides the advice: “What we have to do at times like this is to try to work out what monsters exist only in our heads.” This calms Llama – and serves as a gentle rebuke to the other animals – but what ‘monsters’ may Bear be referring to at a deeper level?

Later, Fox (whose skills and wisdom run well beyond the kitchen), observes: “… as we get older, we face many paths, like we do in a maze. We can take wrong turns and lose our way. Even so, we keep trying and hopefully we do get to the centre.”

Some of these lessons may go over the heads of younger readers, resonating more with older readers and adults, and within that lies the beauty of Fox Goes North and other books that seamlessly span multiple age groups, allowing readers to take what they need from the story and its messages. This adaptability is even touched on when the animals are observing an arrangement of leaves, with each having their own interpretation of the meaning: Bear feels it is a farewell from a friend; Toucan suggests it is advice on how to live one’s life; while Little Owl thinks it is ‘just something beautiful to look at’. None of them are completely correct, and none are incorrect either.

The ending is, as possibly expected, bittersweet – and I encourage you to move on to read ‘A Note from the Author’ after the story finishes. This short note from Jeremy Strong is poignant and speaks to Fox Goes North being a true legacy. I challenge you not to be moved by his words.

Fox Goes North is stunningly illustrated by Heegyum Kim and the blue inks used fit perfectly with both the setting and the tone of the story, adding a whimsical and somehow nostalgic touch. While pitched at a Junior Fiction audience from ages 7–9, the content will clearly resonate with older readers, through to adult, as well.

Highly recommended for its beautiful storytelling, but also as the perfect book to broach conversations about the power of friendship and coping with death. 

We Do No Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord

We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord by Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin) PB RRP $17.99 ISBN: 9781761180491

Reviewed by Kellie Nissen

Something about Garth Nix’s new mid-grade fantasy grabbed me right from the beginning.

The cover? It is very striking, and Maeve Norton has managed to create a glorious blend of ominousness and beauty.

The title? We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord is unusually long with an immediate ‘what-the?’ overtone and so many questions: How can an overlord be ten? Why aren’t they welcome? Who is ‘we’?

The opening paragraph? Not only does the sun ‘go out’ but only one scientist was ‘paying attention’, while all the other scientists (who presumably weren’t paying attention) said she was wrong and that it was a computer glitch.

Or perhaps I was invested because the story is set in the mid-1970s (my childhood era) with a setting based loosely on Canberra (where I grew up – as did the author). Although, we’ll forget about the Dungeons and Dragons bit because that was not my thing.

Whatever it was, I was hooked from the start through to the end.

Despite this story being of the fantasy genre, the main characters – Kim and his younger and unquestionably smarter sister Eila – along with Kim’s D&D friends, Bennie (and her sister Madir), Theo and Tamara, are all patently believable characters who you might expect to see in your own neighbourhood. The exception, of course, is the weird glowing orb Eila pulled out of the lake and soon starts speaking to, referring to it as Aster.

Aster is here to learn and, according to Eila, to save the world – but Kim and Bennie aren’t so sure. For starters, there is the creepy voice Kim hears when he touches ‘Aster’, the electric shocks and the sensation that something is trying to probe its way into his mind. Kim is used to Eila lording it over him, but this is next level.

With Bennie somewhat reluctantly in tow, Kim sets out to discover what Eila is up to with Aster. After a series of mishaps and near misses, they are joined by Tamara and Theo, and it becomes a case of trying to outwit a glowing orb and two ten-year-olds.

Mind-control, aliens, sibling rivalry, D&D – Garth Nix has it all wrapped up in this exciting-yet-menacing story with its plot that could well be entirely plausible.

Whether or not you’re a sci-fi or fantasy fan – and even if you’ve never played D&D – We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord is a great read and will capture the imaginations of readers 10 years and older.

First Colours

First Colours by Jess Racklyeft (Affirm Press) HB Board Book RRP $14.95 ISBN 9781923135468

Here is a concept rhyming board book for babies and toddlers, the format of which is larger than most board books. Its focus is on Australian animals, plants, and insects: it is beautifully designed, drawn and coloured.

After the first impressive fly pages of flying insects in a background of yellow landscape, the text begins: ‘From the deepest blue sea to the centre’s red sand, can you find a rainbow across this wild land?’   The book then proceeds with the colour red, with pictures of insects such as a redback spider, a Mount Kaputar pink slug, and animals such as a crimson rosella and a flame robin. Also, there’s a Christmas Island red crab, and a Sturt’s desert pea, not to mention a red-bellied black snake. All twelve red objects on the first double page are named (for example, a scarlet banksia, and a flame bottletree).

Other colours which the reader can learn about are orange (such as an orange chat and a mountain frog), yellow (yellow-bellied glider), green, blue, purple (surprise -- there’s even a purple-necked wallaby), and grey. Children might know some of the animals – such as a grey koala, a green-backed gulf snapping turtle, and a blue soldier crab.

At the end of the book, the words read, ‘You have found a rainbow, flame red to forest green. Even in the night, sometimes colours can be seen!’

From red rosellas to purple sea daisies, here in this concept board book is an introduction to the wildlife of Australia for the littlest nature lovers.

First Numbers

First Numbers by Jess Racklyeft (Affirm Press) HB Board Book RRP $14.95 ISBN 9781923135468

Here is a concept rhyming board book for babies and toddlers, the format of which is larger than most board books. Its focus is on Australian flora and fauna, and it is beautifully designed, drawn, and coloured.

After the first impressive fly pages of butterflies against a background of leaves, the text begins: ‘Let’s count through this country… there is so much to see! Can you count the turtles or the fish in the sea?’ It then proceeds with a hairy wombat (‘let’s start our count with one’) followed by two snakes in a tangle, and three bats having fun.

There are four birds (which include a buff-breasted kingfisher, a scarlet honeyeater, a sulphur-crested cockatoo, and an Australian ringneck), then five different types of frogs, six marsupials, seven kinds of insects, and so on until finally the reader is invited to spot ten types of sea life. All the insects and animals are named alongside coloured pictures of the subjects.

At the end of the book, the child (if old enough) can follow the strips of insects and animals by counting backward from ten to one. The final double-page spread shows Uluru and some bouncing kangaroos, with the final words, ‘…remember – there’s only ONE of you!)