Lily Harford's Last Request by Joanna Buckley

Lily Harford's Last Request by Joanna Buckley

Published February 2022 Harper Collins

Blurb:

Lily Harford is nearing the end of her once joyful life - and for her, it can't come soon enough. Who will have the courage, kindness and love to grant her last request? A compassionate and heartfelt story for readers of Jodi Picoult, Tricia Stringer and Fiona Lowe.

Lily Harford's last request is a big one...help me to die.  And this is how the book starts, with Lily's death.

From the start, we go all the way back to the beginning, exploring Lily's life until she finally ends up in a nursing home.

Three strong women, play a part in this book, Lily, her daughter Pauline, and the carer from the nursing home, Donna,  whose stories are told in alternate chapters, but come together to form the story of Lily's last months. 

The stories of the different characters are woven together beautifully.   While Lily may be at the end of her life, a life well lived, Pauline and Donna look back on their own lives, and look toward the future, learning from Lily that you are in charge of your life...it is what you choose to make of it, so make it a good one.

Throughout the book, the reader is always aware that one of these characters helped Lily to die...but it's (as you can probably guess) not until the end of the book that find out who.

Em and Me by Beth Morrey

Em and Me by Beth Morrey

Published February 2022 Harper Collins

Blurb:

A mother.

A daughter.

A secret waiting to be discovered.

For too long – since the sudden death of her mother as a teenager, since the birth of her daughter, Em, when she was just seventeen – Delphine has been unable to let go of the past, obsessed with protecting Em and clinging to a secret that could ruin everything. She’s been living life in safe shades of grey.

 The day that Delphine finally stands up for herself is the day that changes everything.

 Delphine begins to remember what it’s like to want more: rediscovering her singing voice, opening herself to friendship, and reviving not only her mother’s roots, but her mother’s memories. As her life begins to fill with colour, can she be brave for herself and for Em? And what would happen if she finally told the truth?

 A big-hearted, hopeful novel about finding second chances – and taking them.

Beth Morrey surprised me with her first book, Saving Missy.

In Saving Missy, I wasn't sure how I would connect with the story of a 79 year old character...but I did.

Beth Morrey has a way with characters, and Em and Me does not disappoint..

This book is about Delphine Jones, a young mother who has made sacrifices with her own life to raise her daughter, who she had as a teenager. Through an array of interesting characters, from all walks of life, Delphine starts to believe that now is the time to follow her own dreams.  Great characters, full of heart, love , friendship, secrets, I highly recommend it

It's the kind of book that makes you think about all of your own dreams, big or small, and seeing Delphine take the risk, might just give the reader the push to do the same.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the opportunity to review this title

Social Queue by Kay Kerr

Social Queue by Kay Kerr

Published September 2021 Text Publishing

Blurb:

Zoe Kelly is starting a new phase of her life. High school was a mess of bullying and autistic masking that left her burnt out and shut down. Now, with an internship at an online media company—the first step on the road to her dream writing career—she is ready to reinvent herself. But she didn’t count on returning to her awkward and all-too-recent high-school experiences for her first writing assignment.

When her piece, about her non-existent dating life, goes viral, eighteen-year-old Zoe is overwhelmed and more than a little surprised by the response. But, with a deadline and a list of romantic contenders from the past to reconnect with for her piece on dating, she is hoping one of her old sparks will turn into a new flame.

Social Queue is a funny and heart-warming autistic story about deciphering the confusing signals of attraction and navigating a path to love.

I think that navigating the world of love is hard for anyone.  For Zoe Kelly, a young woman with autism, it's absolutely exhausting.  

Just out of high school, Zoe starts to think about dating and romance, realising that all through high school, maybe she missed the signals, so as part of a writing assignment she decides to write about her experiences, only to have a number of people respond...people who had been interested in her.  Bravely, she decided to reconnect with them, and see what happens.

This book has all of the elements of a great rom com...only so much better.  Zoe lets us into her world, showing us what it is to live with autism, the things that are really hard, and how she deals with them.  We even learn how to talk about autism, as Zoe teaches her colleagues the same.  This book is both entertaining and education, without feeling like we're being beaten over the head with the message..

Thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing for the opportunity to review this title

Shelter by Catherine Jinks

 

Shelter by Catherine Jinks

Published January 2021 Text Publishing

Blurb:

A spine-tingling psychological thriller where everything is not as it seems, from one of Australia's best writers of suspense.

Meg lives alone- a little place in the bush outside town. A perfect place to hide. That's one of the reasons she offers to shelter Nerine, who's escaping a violent ex. The other is that Meg knows what it's like to live with an abusive partner. 

Nerine is jumpy and her two little girls are frightened. It tells Meg all she needs to know about where they've come from, and she's not all that surprised when Nerine asks her to get hold of a gun. But she knows it's unnecessary. They're safe now.

 Then she starts to wonder about some little things. A disturbed flyscreen. A tune playing on her windchimes. Has Nerine's ex tracked them down? Has Meg's husband turned up to torment her some more?

By the time she finds out, it'll be too late to do anything but run for her life.

One for the grown ups.

What a read! This is a psychological thriller at its best.

Meg, a woman who has suffered her own fair share of mental abuse from an ex husband, opens her home to a mother, Nerine,  and her her two young children.  They are escaping a violent husband/father, and Meg's place is their first step  to freedom and a new life.  

The story is mainly set in present day, but we have flashbacks to Megs life with her husband, so we can see the abuse she dealt with, that has ultimately led her to where she is now, and the life that she leads.

There is a slow burn in this one, suspense building on every page as Nerine's behaviour becomes more and more erratic, and we begin to realise not is all what it had seemed.

An absolute page turner, and a hard one to put down.

Thanks to NetGalley and Text publishing for giving me the opportunity to review this title.

Cryptosight by Nean McKenzie

Cryptosight by Nean McKenzie
October 2019 Midnight Sun Publishing

Blurb:

What if you could see what is hidden?

Rafferty Kaminski is a 13-year-old who believes in facts. Not like his Cryptozoologist father, who searches for creatures not proven to exist.

When their father disappears in the Flinders Ranges, strange things start happening to Raff and his younger sister Zara. They learn that their father belongs to a secret organisation and they are suddenly being pursued by bunyip hunters.

Raff is drawn into the weird world of Cryptozoology as he and Zara follow 'sightings' of creatures around country Victoria. 

Will they find their father? And what is the ancient voice that only Raff can hear as they approach the Wombat State Forest?

This is a book about 13 year old Rafferty Kaminski and his younger sister Zara. It is a rollicking adventure, full of twists and turns…but it is also a story about something very old, something that has been hidden…something connected to Raff.

Let me start by saying, that I am a person who believes. 

I would like to believe that there may still be Tasmanian Tigers in existence.

I would like to believe that the gastric brooding frog is still living underground waiting for the right conditions to re- emerge.

Part of me would love to find out that yeti’s do exist, and that the loch ness monster is real…because I think there are plenty of things out there on the world that we don’t really see, and if we do get a glimpse, we can’t quite explain them.

So a book about a Cryptozoologist had immediate appeal to me.

Let’s start with Cryptozoology – a definition at the start of Chapter 1 says it’s the study of hidden things.

According to Wikipedia :

Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that aims to prove the existence of entities from the folklore record, such as Bigfoot, the

chup-a-cabra, or Mokele-m-bembe. Cryptozoologists refer to these entities as cryptids, a term coined by the subculture. Because it does not follow the scientific method, cryptozoology is considered a pseudoscience by the academic world:

And for those of us that need to know what pseudoscience is, according to Wikipedia again, it is, Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that are claimed to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method.

Now that we have that explained, let’s get onto the book.

Cryptosight, the title of the book, refers to the ability to see these hidden things.

At the start of the book we meet Raff 13, and his sister Zara 11.  They are camping with their Dad in the Flinders Ranges, their Dad, who just so happens to be a cryptozoologist.

Their Dad is not a normal Dad, and this is no normal camping trip.  Part of the reason for their trip was so that Raff and Zara could start some Cryptozoology training.  On day three of their training, their Dad takes them on a hike, to the middle of nowhere, and leaves them there. They have to find their way back to the campsite.

He leaves them with the five rules of survival, and its these rules that they fall back on more than once during the book.  

The five rules are:

Number 1: Always take a torch

Number 2: Always protect your family

Number 3: Wear clothes with lots of pockets

Number 4: Really looking for things is the only way to find them

Number 5: In case of emergency, leave back up in a safe place.

The siblings do make it safely back to their campsite, only to find that their Dad has gone, his bags are gone, all of his clothes,  everything.  Gone.

But...he did leave a note:

Dearest Raff and Zara,

I’m sorry to leave you so quickly, but time is of the essence.  A friend is coming very soon.  Please wait until he arrives.  I will be back before you know it.  Please keep going with your training.  This is very important.  I have to ask you not to ring your mother,  I can’t tell you why just now, you have to trust me.  I’ll see you in a couple of days.

Love always, Dad  (page 14-15)

This is where the adventure really starts for the siblings, where things start to get quite bizarre and at times, unbelievable, starting  when Zara realises she has left something behind on their hike, something that her Dad gave her, …he said it was very important, so now the pair have to go back and find it.  It’s here we start to learn a bit more about Raff and Zara, we learn that Raff is the more serious responsible one. He doesn’t believe in cryptology. Zara is forgetful, always losing things, but she believes everything her Dad believes in.

This important thing that Zara had to go back and find, is a rock, probably volcanic in origin, but seemingly ordinary.  What is very far from ordinary is that on this journey to find the left behind rock, a big black raven that stands in their way.   This, in itself, is not that weird or odd, the weird and odd part, is that Zara understands that the ravenn has a message for them, and that Zara can understand what the raven is saying

‘Beware of the three, beware.

One, face like the moon, looking for shine

Two, like a brolga, without the dance

Hands of three, the colour of setting sun.

Beware, beware, of the three.

Beware beware, Beware…’

Page 22

From here on it’s non stop action for the Raff and Zara.

They escape a ranger, that’s not really a ranger, but one of the Three.

Stowaway on a bus full of kids retuning home after a camp, get held in a police station and go home with virtual strangers who believe they have a river serpent on their property....could it be a real live cryptid?

But Raff and Zara do finally make it back home, only to be faced with one of the Three breaking into their house, so they make their escape, and stow away on a truck heading in the general direction of their grandfathers house,  a grandfather they haven’t seen for many many years.

All of the time getting more and more clues as to what has happened to their Dad…and also start to figure out that their Mum is not the laboratory scientist that she claims to be.

We do find out how important the 'ordinary' stone is, it’s a Sark, which helps cryptozooloigists keep track of each other, identifies someone who has seen a cryptid and when there is danger nearby.  The Sark, it the one thing that might save them, and answer some questions.

As I said at the start, this is also a story about something very old, something hidden.

Throughout the story there are paragraphs, told from a different voice, the voice of this something, passages from the point of a view of a creature. A creature that has been living underground. It has been asleep for a long time, but it has woken…it’s something that should not even exist.

Obviously I am not going to tell you what this creature is, or what other cryptids the siblings might come across in this book, where’s the fun in that.  You have to read the book to find that out…read the book and see if you just might be a believer too?

The Resilience Project by Hugh Van Cuylenburg

The Resilience Project by Hugh Van Cuylenburg
Published November 2019
Penguin

Blurb:

Hugh van Cuylenburg was a primary school teacher volunteering in northern India when he had a life-changing realisation: despite the underprivileged community the children were from, they were remarkably positive. By contrast, back in Australia Hugh knew that all too many children struggled with depression, social anxieties and mental illness. His own little sister had been ravaged by anorexia nervosa. How was it that young people he knew at home, who had food, shelter, friends and a loving family, struggled with their mental health, while these kids seemed so contented and resilient? He set about finding the answer and in time came to recognise the key traits and behaviours these children possessed were gratitude, empathy and mindfulness. In the ensuing years Hugh worked tirelessly to study and share this revelation with the world. He launched The Resilience Project, which has become part of the curriculum in many schools and he tours Australia talking to parents, educators, corporations, CEOs and sporting elite. Now, with the same blend of humour, poignancy and clear-eyed insight that The Resilience Project has become renowned for, Hugh explains how we can all get the necessary tools to live a happier, more contented and fulfilling life.

I have just ‘read’ (listened to) the book The Resilience Project by Hugh Van Cuylenberg. In the book he is described by someone as being a cult leader, and the Resilience Project as a cult. The funny thing is, while I don’t think that at all, I do get it. Because after I read this book, I couldn’t stop talking about it and wanted to make sure everyone I knew read it. I even joined up a ‘non library using’ friend (I know!) to the library online, so they could listed to the audiobook themselves. 

I read it because someone mentioned it, but only in passing, saying her daughter had read it and couldn’t stop talking about it. That’s the kind of book it is. It’s not a long read, only 4 hours 40 listening time with the audiobook, and 288 pages in the physical book. It’s really a collection of stories, shared by Hugh about his journey to what has become the Resilience Project. And while I could go on and re-tell Hugh’s own stories, I won’t, because you will read all about them when you read the book 😉. 

What I will tell you, is that the idea of the Resilience Project is all about how we can implement more gratitude, empathy and mindfulness into our lives, and how that will, in turn, make us happier. I highly recommend the audiobook version of this, because the book lends itself so well to the stories being 'told', and Hugh narrates the audio version, so it's the next best thing to being able to see him in person.

Bringing all of these ideas around to my world of children’s literature, there was one book I kept thinking of the whole time I was listening to this, and that’s the book Pookie Aleera Is Not My Boyfriend by Steven Herrick. So many of Herrick’s books have an underlying theme of kindness, but this is the one that stands out to me, and is one of my all-time favourites, a book that will make your heart swell, and make you laugh out loud!

There’s a particular scene in the book, that really shows how making someone happy, can affect our own happiness, and I think about it all of the time: 

Three by Stephen Michael King

Three by Stephen Michael King
Published November 2019 Scholastic

Blurb:

One, two, three . . . Every day was a hop and a skip for Three. He was happy to walk from here to there, wherever his nose led, or wherever his legs took him . . . all the way to new friends.

I really don't have to write anything do I?  It's a new Stephen Michael King picture book. All I need to do is post the picture and I'm done...because we know that this is going to be a book that touches your heart.

This is the kind of book that makes me want to try and be a better person. Well maybe not a better person, but to be more thankful for all of the good things. As humans, living in the world, it is easy to focus on the things that aren’t going our way instead of being grateful for the things that are good. 

Three, so named, due to the fact that he only has three legs, is thankful for everything. In every illustration in this book Three is smiling. He has no home, he doesn’t always have food, but he is thankful for everything, even happy for others. He’s happy that the six legs had homes underground, far away from busy feet, and the eight legs have a home high above the traffic where they are safe. 

Three may only have three legs, but he’s Thankful he doesn’t have four legs, because if he had four legs he might be a chair, and people sit on chairs…Three’s legs take him wherever he wants to go…and he is thankful for that. 

Three’s three legs take him from the city, to the country... to Fern, and she had a home to share and room in her heart. Fern is thankful for Three.  Three is thankful for everything.

Fauna by Tania McCartney

Fauna by Tania McCartney
Published November 2019 National Library of Australia

Blurb:

Did you know that platypus have retractable webbing on their hind feet to enable an easy transition from swimming to digging? That kangaroos can’t sweat and that the cassowary has no tongue? In Fauna - Australia’s Most Curious Creatures, readers are constantly introduced to facts that delight, amaze and induce sheer wonder at the clever design and adaptability of our much-loved native fauna. 

The information on each individual species is presented in small ‘bites’ to hold the interest of younger readers, while the information taken in total gives a comprehensive summary of each species, including breeding and feeding habits, physical characteristics, habitat and other unique and quirky features. Fauna also has a strong conservation message with an ‘extinction roll call’ and a rating for the vulnerability of endangered species. 

The stylised illustrations in Fauna are lively, colourful and informative, highlighting facts that lend themselves more to pictures than words e.g. the actual size of crocodile teeth, or the mechanics of the echidna’s beak. There is also humour in the illustrations – is that kangaroo with dark glasses actually from a different kind of mob? Readers young and old will be delighted and informed by Fauna.

I love Tania McCartney's work, so I was pretty sure I would love this...

Now it has arrived and I absolutely love it.  It's just my kind of information book.  Beautiful to look at, with bite sized facts across each double page spread.  The information includes the straight forward facts that you would expect what the animals look like, where you can find them, what they eat.   Then there's the quirky facts, like, the Western Grey Kangaroo smells like curry. Or that echidnas can carry the world's longest flea, which can get to 4mm long.

Kids love anything that shows the 'actual size' and that's in here too...actual size of joeys and puggles, actual size of an echidna's spines and the actual size of a crocodile egg to name just a few.  

I personally have a thing for collective nouns, I love them...and guess what they're here too. There's a collective noun for each of the featured animals. I did not know that a group of echidnas is called a flock...now I do.

There is a more serious content included, and  we can see the current conservation status of each animal, from those that are extinct EX to those that are of Least Concern LC.  There's also a list of extinct, critically endangered and recent extinctions in the back.  

And finally...though I could go on, at the back there's a double page of Early Curiosities, with paintings that show early impressions of our unique fauna, along with some initial misconceptions, it also talks about how, to indigenous Australians,  these creatures were not so odd at all.

My Folks Grew Up In the 80s by Beck and Robin Feiner

My Folks Grew Up In the 80s by Beck and Robin Feiner
September 2019 Harper Collins

Blurb:
Travel back in time to the era no one has ever forgotten - the '80s - because those outfits were so rad you had to wear shades.

Welcome to the 1980s - a time when crimped hair and perms were cool, kids listened to cassette tapes, thought dancing on your head was the ultimate, and synth-pop ruled the school. 

My Folks Grew Up in the '80s is a stroll down memory lane for the kids who grew up then, and a hilarious chance to share the decade's outright weirdness with a whole new generation.

My folks may not have grown up in the 80s, but I certainly did. Well I was a teenager in the 80s. I am a self confessed 80s tragic.  To be honest as far as music and movies go, all of my favourites pretty much all came out in the 80s.

This book is a real walk down memory lane...complete with fluro colour palette.  

So many memories...

• Old school 'jaffle' toasted sandwich maker, I remember the tomato used to get so hot in those things, that you would get third degree burns when it dripped on your chin. (I actually bought one again quite recemtly!)
• Plenty of posters on my wall..although I was more Bon Jovi  and Bananarama than Kylie and Devo.
• Leg warmers and aerobics with Jane Fonda
• Trips to the video shop to borrow VHS movies, that had been watched so many time the quality was less than perfect.
• Having my finger on the record button on Sunday nights listening to the Top 40 radio show, ready to record my favourite songs...onto a cassette tape
• ...and hairspray...so much hairspray...I get flashbacks to New Wave Discos, every time I smell TAFT hairspray.

For 24 hours only, you can head over to my Instagram page and see the slightly blurry 80s photo version of the real What's Rebecca Reading in my stories!

Adults will smile fondly when reading this one, and kids will ask 'what's that?' and 'really?', and the answer will be 'Yes, really"

On a more serious note, it fits in really well with the Australian Curriculum,

HASS Year 1 - 

How has family life changed or remained the same over time
How can we show that the present is different from or similar to the past?

HASS Year 2

How have changes in technology shaped our daily life?

Just Desserts by Charlotte Ree

Just Desserts by Charlotte Ree
Published October 2019 Pan MacMillan Australia

Blurb:
You'd butter believe this is the only baking book you'll need this Christmas!

Instagram sensation Charlotte Ree is famous for her simple and delicious sweets ... and her love of puns. Her easy, user-friendly creations are designed to taste amazing, rather than just look pretty (though pretty they most certainly are!).

Just Desserts showcases 30 of Charlotte's most popular and delicious cake, biscuit, slice and dessert recipes in one outrageously gorgeous little package. Featuring essentials, such as chocolate brownies, shortbread caramel slice and chocolate-chip cookies through to show stoppers, such as layered berry pavlova and chocolate ganache & blackberry bundt, Just Desserts is the ideal gift for the baker and sweet-lover in your life - even if that's YOU!

I got may hands on this beauty a few days ago.  

Not the kind of book I normally share, but it is gorgeous.

I have been lucky enough to sample the decadent Nutella Thumbprint Cookies, and they are as good as they look!

Check out my Instagram stories for a flick through, so see just how lovely the book is on the inside, even the end papers are stunning.

I plan to post a finished product as some point... I am thinking Charlotte's version of one of my favourites...the Kingston biscuit!