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| BiP staff review by Karen |
Dory Fantasmagory
Abby Hanlon
Jan 2015 | Dial | $19.99hb
Dory is the youngest of three children. She loves to play with her older siblings but they think she is a little rascal! Never mind, Dory has plenty of imaginary friends to play with. This is a fantastic romp with hilarious illustrations throughout and laugh- out- loud moments. It is perfect to read aloud to children aged 5 plus for young independent readers.
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| Recommended for 8+ |
Jory John, Mac Barnett & Kevin Cornell
Feb 2015 | Abrams | $12.99pb
Miles is unhappy to be moving to Yawnee Valley, a sleepy town that’s famous for one thing and one thing only: cows. In his old school, he was a legendary prankster, but Miles quickly discovers that the new school already has a prankster, a boy called Niles, and he's a pretty damned good one at that! If Miles is going to take the title he is going to have to raise his game. There's an epic war of hilarious trickery until the boys decide that two brains are definitely better than one. Joining forces, they aim to pull off the biggest prank ever seen...Mac Barnett and Jory John have created the first book in what will be a series that has its roots in classic younger reader books like Diary of A Wimpy Kid and Tom Gates, yet The Terrible Two manages to feel fresh and new. Fun illustrations make this perfect for readers of 8 and up.
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| BiP staff review by Lucinda |
Sue Saliba
Feb 2015 | Penguin | $17.99pb
Nella is fourteen. She lives in North Fitzroy with her older brother Matthew and her mother who, for various reasons, is largely absent from her life. It is Nella's beloved father who used to hold things together, but he left them two years ago to start a new life on Philip Island. Gentle and thoughtful, Nella feels her loneliness keenly but wears it lightly, and thinks if she can just bring her father home everything will be alright. She is hopeful that he will, like the swallows she watches, find his way back to them. But life is rarely that simple. Running away from the city Nella lands at her father's island home where things are not exactly as she remembers them. Nella finds solace - as she often does in the urban environment - in the nature surrounding her and it is in these moments that Nella begins to realise that love and change are interlinked. Quietly unfolding through sparse, beautifully written sentences, is a friendship between two like-minded girls who dive deep into the natural world. Birds and forests, loss and love. It's one of those novels where 'not much happens' and yet so much does. The title - For The Forest of A Bird - is taken from Judith Wright's poem "The Birds" and it was the carefully chosen name that drew me to this book. Looking at the jacket once finished, I couldn't help but feel this is a novel that is as precious and rare as the birds and native forests Nella and her new friend Isobel explore. Highly recommended for keen, sensitive readers of 12 and up.
