Month: September 2012

The Boy in the Olive Grove by Fleur Beale

/ zackids / Leave a comment

Fleur Beale has written some great novels, both for children and young adults.  My favourite books of hers are the award-winning Juno of Taris series.  Fleur’s latest book, The Boy in the Olive Grove, is a about a girl living in present day New Zealand, whose past lives resurface and turn her life upside down.

On the night of her seventeenth birthday Bess Grey sees images of a witch-burning unfold in front of her as if in a movie. She also sees images from a different time — lovers, and the girl, she’s sure is — was – herself. When she meets Nick she recognises him as the boy. There’s an immediate connection. However when her father nearly dies from a heart attack there’s no time to brood as Bess tries to save her father’s business. She falls in love with Nick but her difficult mother interferes, forcing Bess to make the hardest decision of her life. She must decide whether to lose her mother or the boy she loves.

The Boy in the Olive Grove is a really unique story about a girl who is navigating the minefield of her family life, while trying to deal with the lives she has lived in the past.  In the present Bess has a horrible mother who doesn’t seem to care for her at all, a protective brother who has just up and left her, a father who is ill, and a step-mother who she feels awkward around.  When she has a visions of herself burning a witch at the stake and of a mysterious boy who she has strong feelings for, she gets drunk and nearly kills herself on the road.  This only seems to be the beginning of her troubles, as she gets expelled from her boarding school and sent home to live with her mother.  Her dad falls ill and Bess gets left to look after his struggling furniture business.  She continues to have the visions and her step-mother sends her to a psychiatrist who helps her to understand these and come to terms with what they mean.

I found the story quite unusual (it’s quite different in a way from Fleur Beale’s previous books), but the more I read, the more intrigued I became and wanted to find out how it would end.  Fleur Beale always gets inside her characters heads so we know everything that they’re thinking and feeling.  Bess has so much to deal with, from her visions, to taking over her father’s business, and dealing with her horrible mother, but she deals with everything extremely well.  I know I wouldn’t have been able to handle all that at her age!  I love the relationship that Bess has with the men that work for her dad.  After some initial skepticism they warm to her and she helps to boost their confidence.  I love the way they call her ‘boss.’

The only thing I didn’t really like about the story was the scheming, vindictive bitch that was Bess’ mum.  I don’t think I’ve met a character that I’ve hated quite so much as her, and she didn’t seem to have any redeeming characteristics.  I’d really like to know if there are mothers out there that are really like her, because I couldn’t quite imagine a mother that could be as cruel and uncaring as she was.

If you like contemporary Young Adult fiction that stands out from the crowd, The Boy in the Olive Grove, get a copy now.  If you’re a fan of Fleur Beale then this is one not to be missed.

4 out of 5 stars

You can read an extract of The Boy in the Olive Grove on the Random House New Zealand website.

Books to Treasure: Herman and Rosie by Gus Gordon

/ zackids / Leave a comment

‘This is a tale about a big city.
It’s a tale of hotdogs and music and the summertime subway breeze.
It’s a tale of singing on rooftops and toffees that stick to your teeth.
But most of all, it’s the tale of Herman and Rosie.’

This wonderful little blurb captures the essence of Gus Gordon’s magnificent new picture book, Herman and Rosie.

From the moment I set eyes on the stunning cover of Herman and Rosie, I fell in love with this book.  Every time I see it I want to read it again. You know that this is a story that Gus loved bringing to life because you can see all the love that has gone into the creation of the book.  Each page is so detailed and filled with different characters.  One of things I love to do in Gus’ books is find all the different characters on each page.  For example, on one page, there’s a bear on a scooter, a fox and a mole in suits, and a mother hippo taking her baby for a walk.   One of the things I especially love about the illustrations in Herman and Rosie is the different media that Gus has used on each page. You can see he has used pencil, crayon, water colour paints, photos of objects, coffee cup stains, bits of newspaper and advertisements, and postcards (among various other bits and pieces).  He’s used all of these different types of media in interesting and imaginative ways to achieve different effects on the page.

The story is all about the two characters of the title and Gus really brings them to life.  I think the reason I love the story so much is because both Herman and Rosie are interesting and quirky characters.  I really like the way that Gus describes them and their likes.  Herman likes ‘pot plants, playing the oboe, wild boysenberry yoghurt, the smell of hotdogs in the winter and watching films about the ocean,’ and Rosie likes ‘pancakes, listening to old jazz records, the summertime subway breeze, toffees that stuck to her teeth, singing on the fire escape…and watching films about the ocean.’  By telling us their likes, we figure out that they’ve got something in common.  It’s a story filled with hope and it and leaves you feeling incredibly happy.  It’s guaranteed to cheer anyone up and put a spring in their step.

Teachers or school librarians who are looking for great picture books for older readers should add Herman and Rosie to their collection.  Older readers will enjoy the story and they’ll love the intricate illustrations.

Herman and Rosie truly is a book to treasure and to read over and over again. It will make your toes tingle and make you feel like you have ‘eaten honey straight from the jar.’

5 out of 5 stars

 

Happy Roald Dahl Day!

/ zackids / 1 Comment

Today is Roald Dahl Day, a day to celebrate the splendiferous Roald Dahl and his wonderful books.  He wrote some of the funniest, most memorable stories for kids.  There are all sorts of ways that you can celebrate, like:

  • Wear something yellow – Roald Dahl’s favourite colour
  • Kalt sdrawkcab
  • Tell a silly joke – Roald Dahl loved swapping these with his kids
  • Write your own Revolting Rhyme
  • Read a Roald Dahl book that you’ve never read before – and if you’ve read them all, read your favourite again!
  • Make yourself a pair of gigantic BFG ears – and waggle them.

Check out these other Scrumdiddlyumptious Ways to Celebrate Roald Dahl Day.  There are heaps of other activity ideas, including quizzes about Roald Dahl and his characters that you can download on the Roald Dahl Day website.

If you love Roald Dahl and have read all his books, here’s some great books by other authors that you might like:

What is your favourite Roald Dahl book?

Big Nate: Here Goes Nothing by Lincoln Peirce

/ zackids / Leave a comment

I’m sure you will know children who are crazy about the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books by Jeff Kinney.  Boys in particular love the funny adventures of Greg Heffley, which are a mix of text and comic-style illustrations.  There are quite a few series now that are similar in style to these books, including the very popular Big Nate series by Lincoln Peirce.  So far there are 8 books featuring Big Nate, including two activity books and two books of original Big Nate comic strips.  The latest Big Nate book is Here Goes Nothing, and it’s chock-full of Big Nate comic strips.

In Big Nate: Here Goes Nothing, Nate and his friends get up to all sorts of mischief as usual, like pulling pranks at school, trying to make money by selling photocopies of his artwork, trying to convince his dad to get a dog, blogging about his teacher, and painting his grandparent’s house.  Lincoln Peirce read a lot of Peanuts and Dennis the Menace comic strips growing up and you can see these influences in Big Nate.  My favourite comic strip in the book is the one where Nate and Teddy hear the ice cream truck music, only to run outside and find out it’s the mobile library.  I don’t know why no one has thought of trying that before!

If you know a kid that’s wants to read a book like Diary of a Wimpy Kid or they just like comics, the Big Nate series is perfect.  Big Nate: Here Goes Nothing is available in libraries and book shops in New Zealand now.

Check out this video of Lincoln Peirce talking about Big Nate and drawing his character.

Eve and Adam book trailer

/ zackids / 1 Comment

Eve and Adam is one of my most anticipated books of the year.  It’s written by two amazing authors (and husband and wife) Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate.  They’re both amazing authors in their own right, but I’m looking forward to seeing how their imaginations come together in the same story.

Eve and Adam is due out in NZ on 1st October.

Guest Author: Cristy Burne on her Top 5 demons

/ zackids / 2 Comments

Today I’m joined by the wonderful Cristy Burne, author of the fantastic spooky, adventure series, Takeshita Demons.  Cristy tells us about her Top 5 demons from her series so far.

Demons. I love them. I also love monsters, mythical creatures, spooky feelings and freaky things that go bump in the night. Woah. I get shivers just thinking about them.

My Takeshita Demons books are overflowing with spooky monsters and demons from Japanese folklore, called yōkai. Anyone who’s heard of Pokemon, played with Yu-Gi-Oh, read manga or even bought a lotto ticket has probably encountered a yōkai. (Remember that lucky cat with the beckoning paw?) There are hundreds of yōkai and they’ve been popular in Japan for hundreds of years. Some are hugely famous, like the nine-tailed fox or the shape-shifting tanuki, but others are obscure and strange. My books feature lots of different demons, but here are my top five from the series so far:

1. Akaname (The Filth Licker) 垢嘗

The demon you really want for a friend. He’s loyal and funny and he loves to clean, so you don’t have to. In traditional tales, he comes out at night to lick dirty bathrooms till they sparkle… In my books, he also cleans laundries, kitchens, dirty faces, you name it. Plus his super-sensitive tongue can taste out clues. He’s like a detective in a frog’s skin.

2. Sagari (Hanging horse-head) 下がり

This demon gets a prize for Weird Monster of the Year: It’s basically a horse’s head that floats around upside-down, has electric nose hairs, sharp teeth, and a habit of dropping on you unexpectedly. St-range! And dangerous!

3. Kodama (Tree spirit) 木魂

I love big, old trees, and in Japanese culture, these ancient trees are often home to kodama (http://hyakumonogatari.com/category/magical-tree-stories/), spirits who mimic the sounds of the forest and cause echoes to bounce through the woods. A kodama’s tree trunk is tied with a sacred rope, called a shimenawa. If you cut down such a tree, you’re in for some very bad luck.

4. Noppera-bō (Faceless ghost) のっぺら坊

This shape-shifting yōkai can wipe features from its face like words from a whiteboard. The noppera-bō can take the shape of any person: it could be your best friend, your mum, your teacher… There’s no way to tell unless you look in a mirror: a noppera-bō’s reflection will have no face! So, is the person sitting next to you really who you think they are?

5. Betobeto-san (Mr Footsteps) べとべとさん

Almost everyone has had the feeling they’re being followed. Well, there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is…you ARE being followed. The good news is, you’re being followed by Betobeto-san, a sort of oversized, invisible marshmallow on legs. He eats the sound of your footsteps, but don’t worry: he’s quite shy and not at all dangerous (unless you’re allergic to marshmallows?).

Thanks Cristy for your wonderful post about your Top 5 demons!  I highly recommend Cristy’s Takeshita Demons series, especially if you like spooky, adventure stories.  You can learn more about Cristy and her books on her blog at http://cristyburne.wordpress.com.  Here are some links to some of the cool stuff on her blog:

Monster Matsuri: http://cristyburne.wordpress.com/monster-matsuri/
Takeshita Demons series:
http://cristyburne.wordpress.com/takeshita-demons-series/
Free activities http://cristyburne.wordpress.com/free-stuff/
Monster memory game http://cristyburne.com/game/game.html

Don’t forget to enter our Takeshita Demons Monster Prize Competition for your chance to win a $50 book pack from Walker Books Australia.

Metawars – whose side are you on?

/ zackids / Leave a comment

In an unforgiving future, two warring factions – the MILLENNIALS and the GUARDIANS – are locked in a brutal battle over control of an online virtual world called the Metasphere.

Jonah Delacroix has always known which side he’s on – the same side as his dead father. But when he assumes his father’s avatar, he learns that things aren’t as black and white as he once believed. He’s catapulted into a full-throttle race through both worlds – but can he find the truth?

Metawars is a great new futuristic Young Adult novel by Jeff Norton.  It’s a very cool, action-packed story, kind of like Alex Rider meets The Matrix.  Metawars is out now in NZ from Hachette NZ.

Check out these great videos from the two factions of the story.

Picture Book Nook: Clumsy giraffes and mid-air mayhem

/ zackids / Leave a comment

The latest bunch of picture books from Scholastic New Zealand feature a clumsy giraffe and mid-air mayhem in hot-air balloons.

Great Galloping Galoot is the first picture book by New Zealand author and illustrator, Stephanie Thatcher.  It’s about a clumsy giraffe, called Galoot, who is always tripping over things and bumping into things.  Whenever he does something silly, the other animals call out, ‘You great galoot!’  His parents always say to him, ‘when walking, walk tall. When running, run fast.  Galoot, always be your best.’  When he comes across some other animals who can’t cross the river , he offers to help, but they tell him he can’t because he’s a great galoot.  But Galoot remembers his parents’ words and knows just what to do.  Great Galloping Galoot is a cute story about being different, with a character that children will love.  I must admit, I got a bit confused when I first read the story (Why are they calling him a great galoot when he’s called Galoot?), but when I read it again I realised that children wouldn’t pick up on that.  Galoot’s parents’ words of advice are repeated throughout the story, so children will be able to join in.  Stephanie’s illustrations are quite cute, especially her googly-eyed Galoot, and I love the determination on his face as he rushes down the hill to save the day.

3 out of 5 stars

Madison Moon and the Hot-Air Balloon by Chris Gurney and illustrated by Catherine Foreman, is the story of Madison Moon who has a great idea.  Madison is sick and tired of being stuck in traffic in her little red car, so she decides to buy a hot-air balloon.  She soars up, up and away, ‘high in the cottonwood clouds,’ while everyone else battles the traffic.  Soon everybody wants to go for a ride in her balloon, including the butcher, the baker and the lollipop maker, and they all decide they want their own hot-air balloon.  As everyone starts to use their balloon instead of their car, the sky becomes very crowded, and suddenly Madison doesn’t find it fun anymore to be up in the sky.  Chris Gurney’s text is fun to read, with lots of whooshing, swooshing and blabbety-blabbing.  You get caught up in the rhythm as you read and get taken on a wild ride through the air.  Catherine Foreman’s illustrations are bright and colourful, and filled with lots of different patterns and shapes, especially the balloons.  Madison Moon and the Hot-Air Balloon will really appeal to children, because it’s taking something ordinary (traveling from one place to another) and making it extraordinary.  They’re sure to enjoy the cyclic ending, and could imagine what might happen after you close the book (Will everyone else join Madison?  Will she get sick and tired of the traffic and try something else?  What might she try next?).

4 out of 5 stars

Guest Author: Glenn Wood talks about The Brain Sucker

/ zackids / Leave a comment

When I first came up with the idea for ‘The Brain Sucker’ it was quite different.  For a start it wasn’t called “The Brain Sucker’, it was called ‘The Manners Thief’.  This was an idea I’d been mulling over ever since I’d seen a really badly behaved kid running riot at my local supermarket (‘The frozen pea thrower’ was another working title).   It was as if the child had no manners at all and I wondered if someone had stolen them.  Then I started to notice more badly behaved children and decided there was definitely a manners thief on the loose.

From there I had to work out just how the manners were stolen and I came up with the idea of a villain who sucked the manners straight out of children’s heads for his own nefarious purposes.  Clearly he needed a machine that would do this and the brain sucking machine was born.

Now I had an idea and a villain with an evil plan.  Next I needed someone to stop him and I knew that would need to be someone who was really polite and not scared of a challenge.  Callum formed quickly as did his disability because it automatically made him a kid used to adversity with plenty of guts and determination.  Once I knew Callum would be in a wheelchair it opened up lots of possibilities for his friend Sophie to exercise her crazy inventive mind to ‘trick it out’.

Jinx was a character I’d been thinking about for some time.  I love the idea of the world’s unluckiest boy and he is based on me as a kid (and many would argue, as an adult).  I’ve always been accident prone and susceptible to bad luck.  He was easy to write!

Once the story was written my very smart publisher and editor asked if we could have the machine sucking more than just manners out of the kids – it would be much more evil if Lester sucked the goodness out of them.  I agreed and ‘the Brain Sucker’ started to take shape.

Writing Lester and his dumb but dangerous henchmen Darryl and Parson was lots of fun.  Lester is clearly insane but he’s also a twisted genius, my favourite kind of villain!  His plans are grandiose and a bit far farfetched, but I love evil doers who think on a grand scale, which is why I have always loved the villains in James Bond films!

My top five kid’s villains in no particular order would be:

  • Voldemort (of course)
  • Scar (The Lion King)
  • Megamind (best comic villain)
  • Principal Agatha Trunchbull (Roald Dahl’s Matilda)
  • Count Olaf

You can win a signed copy of Glenn’s fantastic book, The Brain Sucker, right here on the blog.  Check out the competition post and tell me about your world domination plan to get in the draw.

Ivy + Bean: No News is Good News by Annie Barrows

/ zackids / Leave a comment

Working in a library you see the hundreds of fairy/princess/ballerina books that fill the shelves and that young girls borrow by the handful.  They’re all very much the same story, with different characters so kids fly through them.  It’s great when you discover a series for young girls that’s original and features quirky, memorable characters.  If you know girls who want a story that will make them laugh, about girls just like them, then the Ivy + Bean stories, written by Annie Barrows and illustrated by Sophie Blackall, are perfect.  No News is Good News is the latest book in the series.

Ivy and Bean need some money.  Ten dollars to be exact.  Never mind what for.  Don’t even ask.  Okay.  It’s for cheese.  Two bags of low fat Belldeloon cheese in a special just-for-you serving size.  Don’t ask why.

But ten dollars is a lot of money.  How are Bean and Ivy going to make ten dollars?  Should they wash the car?  They’re not allowed to touch the car.  No.  Should they write a newspaper about their neighbours and sell it?  Great idea – and easy too!  Yes.  All Ivy and Bean have to do is snoop around Pancake Court and get some news.  It’s very interesting what you can find out if you look in your neighbours’ windows.  It’s even more interesting when the neighbours read about it in the newspaper.

No News is Good News is the 8th Ivy + Bean book, but the first one that I’ve read.  I loved it and I’m going to hunt down the other books in the series from my library!  If, like me, you haven’t met Ivy and Bean before, let me introduce them.  They’re two unlikely friends.  Bean is loud, wild and goofy and Ivy is quiet and full of ideas.  They’re complete opposites but they make a great team.  In their latest adventure, they need money to get their favourite cheese (or the wax on the outside of the cheese) so they have to come up with a scheme to get it.  After a very unsuccessful attempt to sell their flying potion, Bean’s dad suggests they make a newspaper.  That’s when all the trouble starts.  Little do their neighbours know that their secrets (and their bottoms) will feature in Ivy and Bean’s newspaper.

Ivy and Bean are quirky, funny, and mischievous.  They’re the sort of characters that girls will want to be like and will wish were their friends.  Like Ivy and Bean, Annie Barrows and Sophie Blackall make a great team.  Sophie’s quirky illustrations go perfectly with Annie’s text and will really appeal to girls.

Get Ivy + Bean: No News is Good News from your library or bookshop now.  Once you’ve read one, you’ll be hooked!

Recommended for 7+

International Ivy + Bean Day is being celebrated around the world on Saturday 13 October.  We’re celebrating it at Christchurch City Libraries, and you can ask your library or bookshop to see if they are too.