A massive, shambolic Victorian house made up of old junk is about to spew forth its terrible secrets. The scene is set in a borough of London called Forlichingham. It's 1875. Young Clodius (Clod) Iremonger lives in the sprawling Heap House. The house has belonged to the Iremonger family for generations and is made up of trash collected from the “heaps” surrounding it. The heaps heave and groan with discarded Victorian objects and are a menacing presence. Clod is about to be “trousered”, made to wear trousers, a sign of adulthood. He is also the subject of an arranged marriage, to which he understandably has a great aversion. A sense of dread looms. To add to his disturbed state of mind, Clod can hear objects speak to him. They call out their names. When the orphan Lucy Pennant is pressed into service at Heap House, she makes an unlikely friendship with Clod. Soon they discover that the objects Clod can hear have strange lives of their own. They up and move about, shift shape and morph into something else, revealing a secret history that the Iremonger family have kept hidden. The first in a trilogy of Iremonger novels for children, Heap House is gloriously weird and atmospheric. There is a strong Dickensian touch, with the large cast of eccentric characters and their wonderfully inventive names. The plot is perhaps slow to start, Carey taking care and leisure to build up the bizarre and creepy atmosphere, but once the novel gathers stream it moves quickly to a rollicking finish. Sophisticated young readers will soak up this immersive novel full of unusual sights, smells and textures. A Gothic adventure, rich and strange, with a teasing cliff hanger that will leave the reader gasping for the next book in the series. 9+ Heap House, by Edward Carey. Published by Hotkey. $16.99 Review by Chris Saliba A six hundred year old map found in an attic leads to a terrifying battle between good and evil. Simon, Jane and Barney Drew are holidaying in the Cornish town of Trewissick with their parents and Great Uncle Merry, known to the world as Merriman Lyon, a learned professor. They are renting a big grey house from Great Uncle Merry's friend, Captain Toms, for the duration of their vacation. One day they discover a secret door that leads into the attic and find an old manuscript, complete with a mysterious map. There are lots of odd and strange people in the town of Trewissick, some especially creepy. When Mr Withers and his sister Polly cheerfully invite the children on a boat trip, Jane declines, feeling there is something queer about the couple. Days later, the grey house is ransacked, all the books ripped from their shelves and the framed pictures of maps stolen. The break and enter job, it seems, is the work of the Withers siblings. The children decide it's time to confide in Great Uncle Merry, who is more confidante than authority figure. They show him the map and discover that it was written by a Cornish monk some six hundred years ago. It is in actual fact a copy of an earlier manuscript dating back another three hundred years. The map holds the key to where the Grail, a powerful relic from King Arthur, is hidden. And so begins a quest to recover the Grail, but also escape the gathering forces of evil. Over Sea, Under Stone is the first in a five part sequence of novels called The Dark is Rising by English novelist Susan Cooper. This first instalment has everything you could possibly wish for in a children's novel: a great cast of characters, including the mercurial Great Uncle Merry, a finely balanced plot that unfolds with a sense of wonder and surprise, and finally, a ripping adventure. The core of the novel rests on a battle between the forces of good and evil, and these sequences are written with heart stopping suspense. The final pages of the novel leave enough questions still floating in the air that reading the rest of The Dark is Rising Sequence seems a forgone conclusion. Riveting storytelling, full of fantastical elements, but rooted in an atmospheric Cornish seaside town that will recall youthful holidays spent swimming and trudging through seaweed. 9+ Over Sea, Under Stone, by Susan Cooper. Published by Puffin. $14.99 Review by Chris Saliba A lost dingo finds sanctuary with some human friends. One day a dingo cub finds himself grabbed by a giant eagle and taken from his family home in the mountains. When he is later dropped in a suburban garden, a kindly human looks after him. But he can't stay there forever and is passed from human to human until he makes friends with Lyn, a worker at a special sanctuary for dingoes. Lyn names the little cub Wandiligong, which means “manifestation of spirit”. Wandi soon makes several friends at the sanctuary, and becomes especially close with a female cub named Hermione. Wandi is adult fiction writer Favel Parrett's first book for children and was inspired by her work at the Dingo Discovery Sanctuary and Research Centre. It's a beautifully written chapter book with delightful illustrations throughout. Children will learn much about the ecological importance of dingoes, how they contribute to controlling pests and their now precarious state as an endangered species. An illuminating author interview is included and an afterward by Kevin D. Newman, Sanctuary Supervisor and friend to the real life Wandi. Children and adults alike will find much to learn and enjoy from this touching story. 7+ Wandi, by Favel Parrett. Published by Lothian Books. $19.99 Review by Chris Saliba When a famous Kandinsky painting is stolen from the Guggenheim Museum, young crime sleuth Ted Spark knows he must solve the mystery. Twelve-year-old Ted Spark has a new mystery to solve. His cousin Salim is now living in New York with his mother, Gloria, who is a curator at the Guggenheim Museum. When Ted and his older sister Kat visit New York with their Mum, they get drawn into a sophisticated art heist. A series of smoke bombs go off at the Guggenheim, causing mass confusion, then a famous painting, Kandinsky's In the Black Circle goes missing. It's a painting that is worth millions of dollars. Most art thefts are inside jobs and the finger is soon pointed at Ted's Aunt Gloria. It's discovered that Aunt Gloria's credit card was used to pay for a removal van that made off with a packing crate, presumably containing the painting. Ted, Kat and Salim don't believe this for a moment. It's obvious she's been framed. But by who, and why? Robin Stevens (renowned for her Murder Most Unladylike Series) was asked to write this second Ted Spark mystery, based on an idea by Siobhan Dowd. Stevens, a supremely skilled mystery writer, is the perfect choice. The story is expertly laid out, with clues, odd behaviours, run ins with shady characters and a roster of suspects who all deny being the thief, the children excitedly getting closer and closer to the solving the crime until all is revealed by Ted in a sudden lightbulb moment. The Guggenheim Mystery doesn’t have the family dramas of the previous mystery, instead concentrating more on the clockwork precision of its story telling. There are more puzzles and moving parts – smoke bombs, credit card fraud, removal vans, packing cases and misplaced pop tarts – all adding to make a mystery that fits together like an intricate jigsaw. Robin Stevens had a lot to live up to taking on this commission and she comes out with flying colours. Wonderful, uplifting fun. 9+ years The Guggenheim Mystery, by Robin Stevens. Published by Puffin. $14.99 Review by Chris Saliba. Published by Puffin. $14.99 What goes up, doesn't come down in this Siobhan Dowd mystery. Twelve-year-old Ted Spark plans to be a meteorologist one day, using his skills to help the world deal with climate change. He has an eye for detail, looking for patterns to make sense of life. By his own admission his brain works on a different operating system from other people's. He sees what others don’t. Despite a razor sharp mind, Ted can be lacking when it comes to his interpersonal skills. He doesn't lie and can be blunt with the truth, egregiously lacking in tact. Ted has a cousin, Salim, whom he hasn't seen in five years. Salim's mother, Auntie Gloria (or Glo for short), has just secured a nice job at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. There has been some friction between Auntie Glo and Ted's mum, Faith. To try and make things up between the sisters, Glo suggests she and Salim stay with the Spark family for a few days before leaving for New York. While the parents settle in together, trying to smooth over problems from the past, the children – Ted, Salim and Ted's older sister, Kat – organise to ride The London Eye, a cantilevered observation wheel on the River Thames. While waiting in line to get on board, they are approached by a young man who has a spare ticket. He says he's suddenly had second thoughts about riding the wheel, as he is claustrophobic, and would they like the ticket? After some discussion, it's decided that Salim should take the free ride. The queue is very long and besides that, Kat and Ted have ridden the wheel before. Salim boards the wheel at 11.32am. It takes half an hour for the wheel to do a complete cycle, and so Ted and Kat expect to see Salim re-emerge at 12.02. They wait, 12.02 arrives, the pod containing Salim opens and people spill out, but their cousin doesn't. He's disappeared. Completely. Ted and Kat take it upon themselves to discover what happened, sifting through clues and doing their own legwork. While Kat has the bravado and is ready to jump in harm's way to find out more, it is Ted's deductive skills that save the day. Siobhan Dowd writes a consistently compelling mystery story, centred around an ingeniously brain-teasing problem and finishing with a nail-biting cliff-hanger. The story is made all the juicier by its turbulent family dynamics and vibrant personalities, especially the flighty and flamboyant Auntie Glo. Holiday fun, family squabbles and a gut wrenching missing person drama make for a wholly satisfying mix. Siobhan Dowd planned a second Ted Spark mystery, but sadly died before she could write it. 9+ years The London Eye Mystery, by Siobhan Dowd. Published by Puffin. $14.99 Review by Chris Saliba A young witch starts up her own business. Twelve-year-old Kiki is a young witch. Her coming-of-age is upon her and she must start to make her own way in the world. She takes her broom, which she is skilled at flying, and for company brings Jiji, a male cat her own age. The two set off on her broom, fly over some mountains, and settle upon the port town of Koriko. There they meet a baker named Osono, who asks Kiki to perform a delivery errand on her broom. This sparks an idea: why not start a delivery service. The baker offers a corner in her store room as an office and so Kiki's Delivery Service is born. Kiki's delivery work involves her in many an adventure, transporting all sorts of weird and wonderful objects. The novel basically is episodic, with no real plot structure. A moment of personal transformation arrives, when she goes home for to her parents and discovers where her heart now truly lies. Cute, charming and sweet. Ages 7+ Kiki's Delivery Service, by Eiko Kadono. Published by Puffin. $22.99 Review by Chris Saliba When rival groups Pig City and Monkey Town go to war, things get hilariously out of hand. When sixth grader Laura Sibbie finds a quirky cap at a junk sale, with the words Pig City written across it, she decides to start up her own club. To join Pig City, a totally secret club, you must offer insurance. What this usually entails is doing something you would never want anyone to find out about. One of the girls in the group, Allison, gives a nude bathtub photo of herself at age three. Another girl, Kristin, must supply a pair of underpants. If any of the girls should tell anyone about Pig City, then the insurance is paid out and made public, with humiliation sure to follow. When Gabriel, a boy Laura both loves and hates, finds out about Pig City, he wants to join. Due to a series of misunderstandings, Laura refuses his membership application and Gabriel creates his own rival club, Monkey Town. Soon enough the two groups are at war. Can the two groups patch up their differences, and will Laura and Garbriel ever kiss, despite the fact that she “mustardised him”? Originally published in 1987 as Sixth Grade Secrets, this Bloomsbury edition renames Louis Sachar's brilliant comedy with the more funky, Pig City. You won't be disappointed. Sachar's punchy prose is perfectly timed and his cast of characters enormously enjoyable. Laura is a treat as the sassy leader who's always finding herself in a pickle. Not one for taking a step back, she makes her fair share of mistakes, but plows ahead nonetheless, coming out wiser for all her schoolyard battles. A story with a superb sense of fun that hasn't dated one bit since it was first published over thirty years ago. Don't miss it! Ages 9+ Pig City, by Louis Sachar. Published by Bloomsbury. $14.99 Review by Chris Saliba New boy George is not all he seems in this sweet and funny story about what it means to be human. George is the new boy at Darwin Avenue Primary Academy. Everyone is eager for him to fit in and regular boy Daniel is picked out as a good candidate to show George the ropes. Things are progressing swimmingly, but then the students start to notice weird things about George. Firstly, did fellow classmate Louise really see George’s ear drop off? Why does a school visitor named Miss Crystal continually follow George around with a clipboard writing notes? Events take a sinister turn when the smug Mr Eden Marsh turns up in a big, black van. He seems to be George’s minder. Suddenly it’s announced George will no longer be attending Darwin Avenue Primary Academy. What could have happened? Daniel and his school mates decide that enough is enough and take drastic measures to save George Brand New Boy is a warm, funny and sweet story about belonging and what it means to be human. As George slips from the children’s grasp, the values of friendship and togetherness come to the fore. A quirky tale, expertly told, with an eclectic and realistically drawn cast. This is crowd-pleasing children's fiction at its best. 8+ years old Brand New Boy, by David Almond. Published by Walker Books. $24.99 Review by Chris Saliba A way-out looking menial worker catches the attention of a young school boy. A young boy is obsessed with a woman who works the sandwich bar at a local supermarket. She wears ice-blue eye shadow and handles the sandwiches – putting them into their little plastic bags – with mesmerising dexterity. The boy calls her “Ms Ice Sandwich” and goes almost everyday to buy the cheapest sandwich, an egg one. Ms Ice-Sandwich never looks the boy in the eye, making her almost a deity in his eyes. At school, the boy has a friend, named Tutti. She’s a bit offbeat herself. When she invites him around to watch a movie, she likes to play over and over her favourite battle scenes and even act them out. When she finds out that her friend is obsessed with Ms Ice Sandwich, she gives him an ultimatum: he must introduce himself. Tutti has a personal philosophy behind this. She believes even the most fleeting relationships should be deepened where possible. But when the boy returns to the supermarket sandwich bar, he discovers that Ms Ice-Sandwich has quit. Has he left things too late? While ostensibly Ms Ice Sandwich is an adult novel, it can easily be read as children’s fiction. The story is sweet and quirky, while also dealing in a subtle way with themes of death. Both main characters have lost a parent. The boy’s grandmother is also dying. Tutti emphasises the need to make human connections and cherish people – from those closest to us, to even transient acquaintances. A gentle, somewhat eccentric, but ultimately life affirming story that will leave you with a spring in your step. Ms Ice Sandwich, by Mieko Kawakami. Published by Pushkin Press. $19.99 Three young children flee Russian tanks as Hitler loses the Second World War It's 1945 and the Wolf family is apprehensive, like many of their fellow Prussians. Russian soldiers are advancing; the German army is losing the war. So bad is the German position they are sending out the elderly and under-aged to fight. Eleven-year old Liesl, seven-year-old Otto and toddler Mia have said goodbye to their physically disabled father, as he has been drafted into the war. The family keeps telling themselves everything will be alright, despite the soldiers advancing. Liesl steadfastly believes in the goodness of Hitler, while Otto has had enough and curses the Fuhrer. When the tanks and bombs start rolling in, there's nothing left to do but flee. They grab as much as they can carry and run with their mother (Mama) and grandparents (Oma and Opa). It's a life of immediate hardships and they soon have to leave Oma and Opa by the roadside. As they traverse rivers covered in ice and wade through forests, they lose sight of their Mama and the three children must fend for themselves. They feel constant hunger, suffer cold and lose energy. Their hunger means they are often reduced to eating slugs and killing wildlife. From time to time they are lucky and find a barn to sleep in and a cow to milk. Often they rely on the rare kindness of strangers. All during this period Liesl undergoes a conversion, from believer in the essential goodness of Hitler, to the realisation that he is responsible for the most hideous war crimes. Katrina Nannestad has written an engrossing, nicely paced and plotted children's book that carefully balances its themes of war, hunger and extreme hardship against more uplifting and optimistic notes. We Are Wolves is quite an achievement: ambitious subject matter, smartly worked into a children's adventure story, with instructive lessons on war, politics and the importance of resilience. We Are Wolves, by Katrina Nannestad. Published by ABC Books. $19.99 |
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