Featured Reviews from our July Newsletter 2024 mailout:

Author: Deborah Kelly (AU)
Illustrator: Joanna Bartel (AU)
ISBN: 9781922539700
Publisher: EK Books
Release date: 3 July 2024
Reading age: 4 to 7 years

Book Description: A poignant story about a child finding her own inner strength, courage and resilience by drawing inspiration from the generations of women that came before her. Whenever Isla’s mother brings out her small blue doll box, Isla knows she will hear the stories of the women in her family’s past. Touching on themes of immigration, war and the feminist movement, their lives show Isla the incredible things women can achieve, and the strength she has inside herself. Inspired by the author's own family, this book echoes the timeless power of familial bonds and personal histories that instil courage and determination in each new generation. It underscores the belief that sharing family stories can foster a sense of belonging, and provide strength to face life's adversities.

Representations: Contains references to migration, war, and female engineers.

Novel Insight Short Review: Isla's Mum has three dolls in a box. Each one represents a generation of Isla's grandmothers who pushed through their fears and achieved amazing things. The day after learning about her family history, Isla goes to the park. While climbing up a climbing frame, she feels afraid. However, she makes it to the top by drawing on the strength of her grandmothers. A sweet and moving look at five generations of women in a family and their strength throughout history.

Author: Rosanne Hawke (AU)
Illustrator: Jasmine Berry
ISBN: 9781761111624
Publisher: Wombat Books
Series: Pepper Masalah #4
Release date: 3 July 2024
Reading age: 5 to 8 years

Book Description: Pepper Masalah and the Flying Carpet by Rosanne Hawke is a series of five or more chapter story books featuring an adventurous black cat called Pepper Masalah, and her nine-year-old friend, Zamir. Pepper Masalah lives with Zamir and his family on an olive farm in Australia. Zam’s grandmother is from the old country (Kashmir) and she brought with her an ancient carpet. She believes the carpet can fly, and that it will try to find its previous master in Kashmir. It hasn’t flown for hundreds of years so it is shaky at first, and can’t find its bearings. It lands in many countries on the way to Kashmir, where Pepper Masalah and Zamir have dangerous but exciting adventures. In the 4th book, the carpet flies Pepper Masalah and Zamir back in time to find its original owner in Moghul India, who is none other than the ailing Emperor Shah Jahan. They land in Lahore and find the Lahore Fort where a magician is doing a disappearing rope trick. Pepper climbs the rope to escape a bazaar dog and their problems start in earnest. They have arrived in Hindustan at a time of intrigue and Zam is accused of stealing the carpet and is put in the dungeon. How will Pepper and her new friends rescue him? And how can they return home without the carpet? They are lost in time.

Content Insight: Contains brief mentions of violence, killing, death, and war. Pepper stops an assassination attempt on the emperor. Contains a magic carpet that travels in time. Contains a brief mention of a cat being desexed.

Representations: Noori is deaf. Contains a cultural representation of religion in 17th-century Pakistan.

Novel Insight Short Review: Pepper, her human, Zam, and their magic carpet, have been travelling the world (and through time), ever since a storm whisked them away from their farm in Australia. Now, they find themselves in the city of Lahore, only not in their own time period. Little do they know, their carpet has travelled them back in time to find its original owner, who just so happens to be the emperor. Pepper and Zam makes lots of new friends on this new adventure.

Author: Victoria M. Adams
ISBN: 9781839134234
Publisher: Andersen Press
Release date: 3 July 2024
Reading age: 9 to 13 years

Book Description: Saffi discovers her family has a portal to fairyland, and a long, dark past of serving the Fairy Queen. Can she find the courage to break the spell that holds her family in the Queen's thrall? Saffi doesn't want her new life, living with her dad, little brother and old-fashioned grandparents in their B&B by the sea. She is grieving for her mum and longs for things to go back to normal. But this new home is anything but normal: the walls change colour, a face appears in the mirror, and the pantry is suddenly filled with fancy food. When a party of extraordinary visitors arrive at midnight, Saffi begins to realise that her family has a dark, magical secret. It will take all her bravery to discover the truth and find a way into another world ...

Content Insight: Contains magic, a magic portal into the fairy world and fairies. Milo thinks that the strange things happening in the house are caused by ghosts, but it is actually fairies. Contains kidnapping. Milo is taken by the fairies as part of their deal with the True family. Saffi rescues him by the end of the story.

Representations: Contains English and Iranian culture. Contains friendships across different genders and social classes. Contains children who have lost a parent and a single parent. Shows a grieving family.

Novel Insight Short Review: When Saffi's and Milo's mother dies, their father moves them to his parents' decrepit old B&B at Breakwell. But Fortune House holds a dark secret. Henry True, the children's great great grandfather, struck a deal with the fairies many years ago. They gave him all he ever wanted in exchange for family members who mysteriously vanished. The fairies have come to call on Fortune House again, to ask Saffi and her father what they will choose as their Gifts. But Saffi doesn't want a part in Henry True's bargain. The fairies have met their match as she plays them at their own game so that she can save her family. A complex and gripping story with an excellent message about courage for young readers.

Author: Kate Gordon
ISBN: 9780645869347
Publisher: Riveted Press
Release date: 3 July 2024
Reading age: 12 to 15 years

Book Description: Finch and Wren were as close as a brother and sister can be. When he vanished, when they were nine years old, her world cracked in two. Finch was never found. On the same day that Finch disappeared, another girl was lost, too. Her name was Ava. Her parents were rich tourists, from Sydney. Ava’s story got all the media attention. And Finch was forgotten. But not by Wren. Never by Wren. Three years on, Finch is still with her, whispering in her ear, guiding her through life. As Wren begins high school and forms a new, bewildering friendship with a mysterious girl called Freddie, Finch is there, urging her on. To go bolder. To go braver. To grab life with two hands. When another girl goes missing – a strange girl called Johanna – Wren feels compelled to search for her. To her surprise, Freddie does, too. The two of them try and piece together who Johanna is and why she ran away. Or did she run away? Was the truth more awful? And was it all tied together with what happened to Finch and Ava? My Brother, Finch, is a story of family, of loss, of friendship and of grief, and of what it truly means to let go and move on.

Content Insight: Maya overhears a girl arguing for free tampon machines in the school as a human rights issue. Wren doesn’t have her period yet, and wonders if Maya does (p.121). Johanna is neglected by her mother and stepfather. No details are given for the disappearance of either Finch or Ava, but most characters believe they were taken by someone bad, and at the end of the book it is inferred that Ava’s remains have been found.

Representations: Maya’s family is Punjabi and Freddie’s mum is Finnish. When Finch was three years old, he made his family call him Merida. Until he disappeared, he loved for Wren to paint his fingernails with colourful designs. When he was six, he climbed into bed with Wren one night dressed in her old nighty (so his legs could run free in the nighttime) and his fingernails painted with the Zodiac symbols to ask her, “Am I normal?” He loved playing dress up in Wren’s clothes, which their Mum said was him “expressing his identity.” Wren’s Dad is on medication for depression, even before Finch’s disappearance.

Novel Insight Short Review: Three years ago, Wren’s younger brother, Finch, disappeared during a family outing to the coal mines. On the same day, another girl vanished from the same place. The media focused on Ava because she was beautiful, blond, and the daughter of millionaires. Still, neither child has been found. Wren’s mum is always searching, and her Dad is suffering from depression. Wren thinks she’s mad because she still talks to Finch and sees him. Wren is nervous about starting high school because all her friendships fell apart after Finch’s disappearance. Thankfully, on Wren’s first day, she meets Frederique, who goes by Freddie. They bond over books and creative interests. Freddie and Wren decide to do an art assignment together, focusing on Wren’s love of poetry and photography and Freddie’s interest in taxidermy. Together, they notice another girl on her own, who is skinny and pale. One night, Wren sees the girl outside her window. Urged on by Finch’s voice, she sneaks out to look for her, but the girl disappears. Wren and Freddie decide to help the mysterious girl if they can find out who she is. A thought-provoking story about the grief and unique struggles of families when a loved one goes missing.

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