When the World Was Ours by Liz Kessler

When the World Was Ours by Liz Kessler

February 2021  Simon and Schuster

Blurb:

A powerful and heart-breaking novel about three childhood friends living during the Second World War whose fates are closely intertwined, even when their lives take very different courses. For readers of Private Peaceful, The Book Thief and Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl. 

Three friends. Two sides. One memory. Vienna. 1936. Three young friends - Leo, Elsa and Max - spend a perfect day together, unaware that around them Europe is descending into a growing darkness, and that events soon mean that they will be cruelly ripped apart from each other. With their lives taking them across Europe - to Germany, England, Prague and Poland - will they ever find their way back to each other? Will they want to? 

Inspired by a true story, WHEN THE WORLD WAS OURS is an extraordinary novel that is as powerful as it is heartbreaking, and shows how the bonds of love, family and friendship allow glimmers of hope to flourish, even in the most hopeless of times.

Wow, what a book.  I had been in a bit of a reading rut, struggling to really get into a book, but I read this one in two sittings…it would have been one sitting had I not started it at night.

Leo, Elsa and Max, three best friends living in Vienna.  They experience one of those rare ‘perfect days’ celebrating Leo’s 9^th birthday…and then the world as they know it changes, and friends become enemies. Leo and Elsa are Jews and Max is not.

The book follows these three characters on their separate, very different journeys through the years from 1936 to 1945.

I won’t give too much away, but the idea for this story came from the authors own grandfather.  He is the Leo in this story, and the chance encounter he had with a visiting English couple in Vienna turned out to change the course of his life.

This book is heartbreaking, so be prepared.  It is a story of the holocaust, and all of the horrors that surround that time in our history.  Not everything is explicitly explained, such as what happens to the Jews told to go to the left at Auschwitz, or what exactly Elsa’s friend Greta has to do, to get the extra food from the Nazi officers, but it’s all there.  

We get to see both sides in this book.  What is was to be Jewish, but also what it was to be a young German boy who grew up with one wish; to be part of the Hitler Youth.  Impossible to understand in hindsight, but how much did these young men really know about what being a Nazi soldier meant, in practice?

All of the darkness and sadness aside, this is also a story about family, hope and the memories of perfect days that keep us going, when the world is falling apart.

A must read. 

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read a review copy of this.

Zenobia by Morten Durr and illustrated by Lars Horneman

Zenobia by Morten Durr and illustrated by Lars Horneman
October 2018 UQP

Blurb:
Zenobia was once a great warrior queen of Syria whose reign reached from Egypt to Turkey. She was courageous. No-one gave her orders. Once she even went to war against the emperor of Rome.

When things feel overwhelming for Amina, her mother reminds her to think of Zenobia and be strong. Amina is a Syrian girl caught up in a war that reaches her village. To escape the war she boards a small boat crammed with other refugees. The boat is rickety and the turbulent seas send Amina overboard. In the dark water Amina remembers playing hide and seek with her mother and making dolmas and the journey she had to undertake with her uncle to escape. And she thinks of the brave warrior Zenobia.

Zenobia is a heartbreaking and all-too-real story of one child's experience of war. Told with great sensitivity in few words and almost exclusively with pictures, Zenobia is a story for everyone.

This is not a new one, just over a year old...but as I wasn't doing much in the way of Instagram or blogging back then, I thought I would say a few words about it now.

Zenobia is a perfect example of visual literacy, and the impact it can have on a reader. 

At first glance it would be easy to think that this is book for younger readers.  It's a larger format  (about A5 size) graphic novel, very little text...but it would have to be one of the most powerful refugee stories I have read.  

The colour changes in the illustrations show what part of the story is told in present day, and the parts that are memories of what has led the Amina to this point.  The present day illustrations are full colour, while the memories are depicted in a sepia like tone.  Like so many regugee stories, we see Amina living her life, happily in her village until the day her parents leave and don't come back.  Leaving her home, that is now nothing but rubble, with her uncle, who pays her way onto a boat, her only hope at survival...

I talk about this book a lot in schools, and I warn the students not to flick though this one and dismiss as a book for younger readers.  I tell them to be prepared to be prepared for confronting images and a a heart wrenching story.  It's the kind of book that you read, and when you get to the end you think...hang on did that just happen, and when you realise that it did, it will break your heart.

Excellent Teachers Notes available here.

The Changeover by Margaret Mahy

The Changeover by Margaret Mahy
This edition published 1985 by Methuen Children's Books Ltd

Blurb

'A clammy hand pressed Laura down to her knees beside Jacko's bed. It was the hand of terror, nothing less.'

It was a warning. Laura felt it when she looked in the mirror that morning. There had been others: the day her father left home, the day she met Sorensen - the boy with the strange silver eyes.

But nothing had prepared Laura for the horror of today. And now her little brother, Jacko, was fighting for his life after being sucked dry of his youth by the sinister Carmody Braque.

Laura knows there is only one way to save Jacko; she must join Sorensen and use his supernatural powers to change over if there is to be any hope for her little brother.

This would be one of the oldest books on my shelf.
This is a 1985 edition of one of my all time favourites., The Changeover by the legendary Margaret Mahy.

Way back when...
when I used to re-read books this one was near to the top of that list, it has been read a lot! 

What did I love about it so much? I am sure the ‘supernatural romance’ was a big part of it, I must have been 14 when I first read it. 

Nice new cover, 2017 edition.

I also like a good younger brother, older sister dynamic.  Being an older sister of a younger brother, there's something about this particular relationship that strikes a chord with me.  The other book that stands out like that for me is Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta.

And then there's the writing.  I am not saying that at 14 I was wise enough to recognise the literary greatness here, but I recognised a good story.  Looking back I feel lucky that a book like this made it into my hands and made me appreciate good writing and a good story...without even realising that's what was happening.

Might be time to give the yellowed pages of this one a spin again.

Does anyone else regularly re-read old favourites?

White Bird by RJ Palacio

White Bird by RJ Palacio
October 2019 Penguin UK

Blurb:

A powerful, unforgettable graphic novel from the world of Wonder, by globally bestselling and award-winning author R. J. Palacio.

To the millions of readers who fell in love with R J Palacio's Wonder, Julian is best-known as Auggie Pullman's classroom bully. White Bird reveals a new side to Julian's story, as Julian discovers the moving and powerful tale of his grandmother, who was hidden from the Nazis as a young Jewish girl in occupied France during the Second World War.

An unforgettable, unputdownable story about strength, courage and the power of kindness to change hearts, build bridges, and even save lives, from the globally bestselling author of Wonder.

Graphic novels aren't often on my radar.  They are not often at the top of my reading pile.  There is one way however to make me add a graphic novel to the top of my pile, and that is to make it a Wonder story, that is written AND illustrated by RJ Palacio.  This is how White Bird made it into my hands.

For someone who says she doesn't read graphic novels...I read quite a lot of them.  This one is substantial, hardback and 224 pages.  I have come to realise that for me the graphic novels that I have loved are the ones that use the illustrations to give another, more impactful, dimension to the story.  

You may remember this story in Julian's chapter in Auggie and Me, but White Bird fills in more of the blanks for us. The story of Julian's Grandmother, Sara, who escaped capture and hides from the Nazis in occupied France during the Second World War, is not a unique story.  There have been a number of books about other children who survived the atrocities of that war, and they are stories that should be told, and told again.  

That's why I think writing this book as a graphic novel is the perfect way to tell this story.  As I said, the images add another dimension for me, and they make me stop and look, as well as read. 

War is never pretty, so this book isn't either.  For some readers it may be too much to see soldiers shooting a young man in the woods, with the text: 

Then they shot him.  His blood spilled out onto the snow.  The snowflakes covered his body like a blanket.

I didn't find the violence in this book, too much or too graphic, but it is something to keep in mind, when deciding where it might fit in a school library.

I think it would work really to look at this book in conjunction with Once by Morris Gleitzman or Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.  It could of course also be used with Wonder, because even though they are completely different stories, written in completely different formats, White Bird still has the resounding message of kindness at its heart.

To bring the story full circle, we see Julian at a peace protest, holding a placard with the words...

Never Again #weremember

*There are author’s notes in the back of the book, giving background to why she wrote this. There are also comprehensive historical notes, to give further background to aspects of the story

Being Black 'N Chicken, & Chips by Matt Okine

Being Black 'N Chicken, & Chips by Matt Okine

Published September 24th 2019 Hachette

Blurb:

A heartbreaking and often hilarious story about trying to grow up when everything is falling apart from one of Australia's leading comic talents.
Mike Amon is a regular teenager. All he wants is to fit in. He wants to sit at the cool bench. He wants to be a star athlete. He wants his first kiss.
He also wants his mum to survive.
When his mum is suddenly diagnosed with advanced breast and brain cancer, Mike knows it's a long shot, but if he manages to achieve his dreams, maybe it'll give his mum enough strength to beat an incurable disease.
In the meantime, he has to live with his African dad whom he doesn't really know, a man who has strange foreign ways - and who Mike doesn't really feel comfortable sharing his teenage desires and deepest fears with. He doesn't even want to think about what it might mean if his mum never comes home from the hospital.
Based on his award-winning stand-up show, and the loss of his own mother when he was 12, Matt Okine's coming-of-age novel, Being Black n Chicken and Chips, is a funny, heart-warming, and sometimes surreal look at how young people deal with grief, the loss of loved ones, and becoming an adult - all whilst desperately trying to fit in with the other kids

I found this one really interesting. I am coming from a children's and YA background, and I wanted to see where this book might fit in a High School library, as the protagonist is a 12 year old boy. 

This book is published as, and marketed, as an adult title, but to me it read like a YA.  The only thing that will jump it up the age bracket for me, is the language (swearing), and maybe Mike's preoccupation with his penis :)

It's a coming of age story, a story of first love, schoolyard bullies and a story of the most heartbreaking loss you can imagine at 12.  It has a good blend of humour throughout the story though, and that helps to take the edge of the tragedy that is unfolding for Mike.

The loss of his mother, and the confusion and questions surrounding growing up were honest and believable, if sometimes uncomfortable to read...but that's life, sometimes uncomfortable, especially if you are a 12 year old boy I would imagine.

The 90s setting was fun to revisit, for someone who lived through it, and I don't think it will jar with any readers who may not even remember a corded telephone!  

As someone who sells books to schools, I would have loved this to to be toned down slightly on the language front, and maybe a few less penis scenes....but that's just me being greedy, because I liked this book, and I would love for it to be a story for ages 11+, as well as adults and older teens.

Thanks to Hachette and Net Galley for the opportunity to review.

A Song Only I Can Hear by Barry Jonsberg

A Song Only I Can Hear by Barry Jonsberg
Published June 2018 Allen & Unwin

Blurb:

Good evening, Rob. Your first challenge follows. These challenges have nothing to do with impressing Destry Camberwick. They are all to do with Rob Fitzgerald impressing Rob Fitzgerald. Bear that in mind at all times. Challenge 1. You will enter the Milltown's Got Talent competition. This gives you over a fortnight to polish your act and work out strategies to overcome panic attacks. I would wish you luck but the point of this challenge is that you don't need it. 
Introducing Rob Fitzgerald: thirteen years old and determined to impress the new girl at school, but it's a difficult task for a super-shy kid who is prone to panic attacks that include vomiting, difficulty breathing and genuine terror that can last all day. An anonymous texter is sending Rob challenges and they might just help. Or not. Beautifully moving and full of heart and humour, A Song Only I Can Hear is a delightful novel about dreaming big, being brave and marching to the beat of your own drum.

This is, hands down one of my favourites from 2018...and it's another book that I can't actually tell you to much about.  I read a lot, so it's not often that I don't 'see something coming' in books, especially where I know something is coming...but this one got me.

Great characters:

Rob... brave, willing to try anything.  Maybe that's what we all need at times...anonymous messages, challenging us to get out of our comfort zone.

Grandad...who loves a bit of swearing, but it's OK because Rob has edited Grandad's words in the book, so there's a lot of Blankety this and Blankety that.

Andrew... best friend. I love the goalkeeper coaching session. Andrew's advice is this...imagine Destry is standing behind you and they are trying to kick the ball into her face...Rob's job is to protect her face...shouting I WILL NOT LET HER FACE SUFFER.


So while I can't tell you much, all you have to know is this...Rob is a character that you will love, and this book will make you laugh and cry...and both are good things...

I have labelled this as YA, but read it as an adult, and then decide which young people in your life need this book in their lives...I think it's great for age 11/12+...

My Brigadista Year by Katherine Paterson

My Brigadista Year by Katherine Patterson
Published April 2018 Walker Books

Blurb:

In an engrossing historical novel, the Newbery Medal-winning author of Bridge to Terebithia follows a young Cuban teenager as she travels into the impoverished Cuban countryside to teach others how to read.

When thirteen-year-old Lora tells her parents that she wants to join Premier Castro’s army of young literacy teachers, her mother screeches to high heaven, and her father roars like a lion. Lora has barely been outside of Havana – why would she throw away her life in a remote shack with no electricity, sleeping on a hammock in somebody’s kitchen? But Lora is stubborn: didn’t her parents teach her to share what she has with someone in need? Shining light on a little-known moment in history, Katherine Paterson traces a young teen’s coming-of-age journey from a sheltered life to a singular mission: teaching fellow Cubans of all ages to read and write. Inspired by true accounts, the novel includes an author’s note and a timeline of Cuban history.

This is the perfect example of a book that opened up a whole chapter of history that I never knew about...that I can't believe I didn't know about...that I think everyone should know about.

When you hear the name Fidel Castro, what does that make you think of?  For me, rightly or wrongly, I thought: Cuban, Communist, bad guy.  This book did however open my eyes to an amazing initiative he was behind, the Cuban Literacy Campaign. 

Between January 1 and December 22, 1961, Castro implemented this campaign to abolish literacy in Cuba. He was determined that everyone in Cuba would learn to read and write.  Many adults living in rural areas had very little schooling, as working was more important than education,this meant that people living in these areas could not read or write.So Castro asked for volunteers, Brigadistas, to spend a year in these communities, teaching them to read and write.  

This is a fictional story of that year, and follows 13 year old Lora, who volunteered,  on her Brigadista year.  She is not welcomed by everyone. There are plenty of older farmers who object to a 13 year old girl being able to teach them anything...but with time, and patience, Lora starts to see results, and more member of the community want to learn.

Before 1959 Cuba's literacy rate was between 60-76% at the end of 1961, 707, 212 adults were taught to read and write, raising Cuba's literacy rate to 96%. That is amazing to me...and to this day Cuba still has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, reported at being between 99.75% to 99.9%.

I loved this book, but it's one that might need to be introduced to readers.  A number of schools that I have visited, the librarians are unsure about it...based on the cover and topic...will kids really care about a Cuban Literacy Campaign in 1961?  On the other hand, when I do book talks, and talk about this book...all of the kids want to read it...

As for an age recommendation on this one, I would say 11+.  There is some violence in the book, as there were groups of counter revolutionaries that terrorised the teachers and students during this time to reduce the support of the campaign.  It's not too explicit or graphic, but it is part of the story.

Brontide by Sue McPherson

Brontide by Sue McPherson
Published June 2018 Magabala Books

Blurb:

Rob; (and his brother Pen) white Aussies. Rob is completing Year 12, going to schoolies, working as an apprentice in his dad’s company and loves his dog, Nig. Rob believes real men take risks. Pen; fifteen-years-old, storyteller, graffiti artiste extraordinaire with a penchant for male anatomy. Pen is liked by everyone. Pen and Benny Boy are mates. Benny Boy; fifteen-years-old, Aboriginal, loves drawing, fishing and living with his awesome (white) foster Nan. Benny Boy doesn’t trust Rob. Jack; white, male, finishing Year 12, new to the area, from the bush and adopted into an Aboriginal family. Jack has met Pen and reckons he’s a funny bugger. He has also just signed up as an apprentice working alongside Rob-the-knob. Brontide is a coming of age story about four boys and their lot in life. Recounted through storytelling sessions at their school over a period of five days, these boys chronicle their lives. They are at times demanding, occasionally rude, always funny and unexpectedly profound. The boys like to challenge themselves and the rules, and soon realise that not everything goes to plan…

This has been one of my quickest reads from last year, (I read the whole thing at the hairdressers), but the most powerful.

It's a book that I had looked at, but honestly, I hadn't thought about reading it...I read it for a talk I was doing on Indigenous fiction...and it turned out to be one of the best books, if not the best book I  read in 2018. As I type that I think that I may have said that about nearly every book I have written about on the blog...

In the spirit of full disclosure…I did actually think this was a true story when I read it.  When I picked it up originally I assumed it was fiction, and then I read the Authors note, and thought…’oh, these are actual interviews’  See what I mean, ‘…

I told a lot of people it was a true story, and then I had a comment on Instagram saying ‘I can’t work out if it’s real or maybe based on something that really happened??’, and I started to doubt myself.  So I read a bit more about it, and listened to an interview with the author…and realised I am a twit…it is fiction…just so you know.

The format is interesting too...all written as interviews, so there's not too much text on the pages.  This makes it a particularly good choice for teenage boys who, 'don't want a thick book' or 'can't find anything good to read'.  The fact that the characters are so realistic, means that these teenage boys are no angels but each one of them has heart and personality in abundance. I think most boys will either see some of themselves in the characters or at least recognize their friends and classmates in them.

I loved this book.  I am telling everyone to read it. While these characters are not real, they are based on real interviews, and I think that the author has created some of the most memorable characters that have come into my life.

Paris Syndrome by Lisa Walker

Paris Syndrome by Lisa Walker
Published March 2018 by Harper Collins

For fans of John Green, this funny and poignant coming-of-age story is about that crazy thing called love. And how it can be found anywhere.

Happiness (Happy) Glass has been a loner since moving to Brisbane and yet still dreams about living in Paris with her best friend Rosie after they finish Year Twelve. But Rosie hasn't been terribly reliable lately.

When Happy wins a French essay competition, her social life starts looking up. She meets the eccentric Professor Tanaka and her girl-gardener Alex who recruit Happy in their fight against Paris Syndrome - an ailment that afflicts some visitors to Paris. Their quest for a cure gives Happy an excellent excuse to pursue a good-looking French tourism intern, also called Alex. To save confusion she names the boy Alex One and the girl Alex Two.

As Happy pursues her love of all things French, Alex Two introduces Happy to her xylophone-playing chickens whose languishing Facebook page Happy sponsors.

Who knew that Paris Syndrome was an actual 'thing'?  For someone who thinks they know everything (me), I am always surprised when I learn something new...which to be fair, is pretty much every day.  Here's what Wikipedia had to say:

Paris syndrome (French: Syndrome de Paris, Japanese: パリ症候群, Pari shōkōgun) is a transient mental disorder exhibited by some individuals when visiting or going on vacation to Paris, as a result of extreme shock derived from their discovery that Paris is not what they had expected it to be. The syndrome is characterized by a number of psychiatric symptoms such as acute delusional states, hallucinations, feelings of persecution (perceptions of being a victim of prejudice, aggression, or hostility from others), derealization, depersonalization, anxiety, and also psychosomatic manifestations such as dizziness, tachycardia, sweating, and others, such as vomiting.^[1] Similar syndromes include Jerusalem syndrome and Stendhal syndrome. The condition is commonly viewed as a severe form of culture shock. It is particularly noted among Japanese travellers

I found this book equal parts funny and touching.  It had a light-hearted touch, while still dealing with more serious themes.  Happy is dealing with moving to a new city, being away from her friends, and the place where all of her fondest memories were made.  Her relationship with her father is tenuous, as he now has a new life with his new girlfriend, so she's working on that as well as trying to get her Mum out into the world of dating.

Then there's the question of Happy's sexuality.  She meets two Alex's, a boy and a girl.  She embarks on a relationship with Alex the boy, and a friendship with Alex the girl, only to realise that it's Alex the girl she's interested in romantically.   I thought that this aspect of the story was done so well, as it showed that we fall for a person, not a gender.  It actually comes as a real surprise to Happy that she has these feelings for Alex the girl. 

There's also a bombshell towards the end of the novel, where we learn exactly how much Happy is really coping with.

Indigo Blue by Jessica Watson

Indigo Blue by Jessica Watson
Published January 2018 by Hachette Australia

Blurb:

Alex feels like a fish out of water in her new hometown - the sleepy little lakeside village of Boreen Point where she is reluctantly sent to live with her slightly eccentric aunt for her final year of high school. None of Alex's classmates could care less about the new girl, so Alex couldn't care less about them . . . or so she tries to tell herself. As a distraction from what is quickly shaping up to be a very lonely year, Alex spends her savings on a rundown little yacht and throws herself into restoring it. An offer to help a shy classmate with a history assignment leads to a curious discovery and the beginnings of a friendship, but it's Sam - the sailmaker's apprentice - and his mysterious ways that really capture Alex's attention . . .

I have to start this review by saying that I REALLY want to tell you what happens in this story.  I won't...because I don't do that, but this book really isn't what I was expecting at all.  The blurb, doesn't lie, it is about a girl called Alex fininshing her last year of High School in a small Queensland country town.  She does have trouble fittng in, she does buy a boat, and she does meet a boy...and then....a whole storyline I can't mention.

The descriptive language in this book was great.  I could see the landscapes, and the 'action' scenes when Alex was sailing were great too.  It was the 'voice' of Alex that was off for me, she seemed very young, and it makes me question who this book is written for? The main character Alex, is in her last year of High School, and for me that would normally mean the book is aimed at readers 14+, but his book seems to be written for a much younger audience, I would be OK with an 11-12 year old reading this book.  There is some boy/girl love interest in the story, but it's very innocent (I think the characters kiss twice) 

I didn't love this book, but I didn't hate it either...I think I just felt a bit tricked because I thought I was reading one thing and then it turned into a completely different book...for me anyway.

I would be very interested to see what other readers have to say.

Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

I read this amazing books a few weeks ago, and if you read my last post you will already know I am a terrible blogger who can't keep up with the amount of books I read...but I LOVED this book.

I made a comment on Instagram about reading the right book at the right time, and that's what happened with this one.  I have just binge watched the first two seasons of Nashville (This is relevant due to the Dolly connection...) and then there's Friday Night Lights which is one of my all time favourite TV series, so I am a little bit in love with these parts of the world, namely Tennessee in the case of Nashville and Texas in the case of Friday Night Lights and the wonderful Dumplin'.

Here's what the blurb has to say:

Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed "Dumplin'" by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin.

Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. 

With her all-American-beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked . . . until Will takes a job at Harpy's, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn't surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.

Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does. Along the way, she'll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.

With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs, and a wildly unforgettable heroine—Dumplin' is guaranteed to steal your heart.

If watching Nashville made me go and download the soundtracks and play on repeat, this book made me download Dolly Parton's Jolene, play it loud and sing it at the top of my voice.  It's a book that makes you want to stand up and cheer for Willowdean.

One of the good things about Willowdean as a character is that while she is at home in her body (something we should all strive to be no matter what size we are) she is still human. While she may not have body issues, she still has to deal with universal issues including boys, friends and family, generally surviving being a teenage girl.

I will admit now that I did not read Julie Murphy's first book Side Effects May Vary, but it now at the top of my TBR pile.

Looking-Glass Girl by Cathy Cassidy

Looking-Glass Girl by Cathy Cassidy

Published March 2015 Penguin Books

'It happened so quickly . . . I was falling, falling, falling into the darkness.' 
Alice nearly didn't go to the sleepover.  Why would Savvy, queen of the school, invite someone like her?
Now Alice is lying unconscious in a hospital bed. 
Lost in a wonderland of dreams and half-formed memories, she's surrounded by voices – the doctor, her worried friends and Luke, whose kisses the night of the fall took her by surprise . . . 
When the accident happened, her world vanished – can Alice ever find her way back? 
A wonderful modern-day reimagining of Lewis Carroll's timeless classic.


2015 is the year of Alice, 150 years since the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, so it’s not surprising that we are seeing some Alice spinoffs  out there.

Cathy Cassidy is an extremely popular author for young teenage girls, and her re-imagining of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has everything you would expect from a Cathy Cassidy, friendship, bullying, growing up, boys and family.

Soon by Morris Gleitzman

Soon by Morris Gleitzman
Published June 2015 Puffin Books Australia

I hoped the Nazis would be defeated.
And they were.

I hoped the war would be over.
And it was.

I hoped we would be safe.
But we aren't.

Soon continues the incredibly moving story of Felix, a Jewish boy still struggling to survive in the wake of the liberation of Poland after the end of World War Two.

The fifth book in what Morris Gleitzman calls this 'family of books'.  He explains in the back of Soon,  that instead of calling this a series he prefers to think of the books as a 'family of books'.   Each one standing alone.  This is true, they do stand alone very well, as it's been a few years since I read After, and the fact that I couldn't remember the story vividly did not detract from my enjoyment of this latest instalment.

The Road to Gundagai by Jackie French

This is the third book in the Matilda Saga, which includes A Waltz for Matilda and A Girl From Snowy River. Set in 1932, the story follows Blue, a young woman, who has lost her family and is slowly being poisoned by her Aunts’, when the circus comes to town everything changes. With the help of Fred, Blue sneaks away in the dead of the night…and joins the Magnifico Family Circus. 

The story unfolds over the years that Blue spends with the circus, so we read about day to day life of the circus, and how the small number of people who make up the circus, take on many different persona's throughout the show. There is also a lot to learn about the depression and the hardships people faced, not only the circus folk, but the people in the towns they visited.

While this is the third book is the series, you don’t need to have read the others to enjoy it, the story stands alone but it does feature characters form the two earlier books such as Miss Matilda and Joseph McAlpine. 

There is just so much depth to this story; you could say it’s about the depression, but it also about family, values, strength, independence and identity. As with a lot of Jackie Frenchs’ books you don’t get a great story without some mature content, we read of children being sold into slavery, beatings, rape and murder.  In saying that I think this book is fine for Upper Primary aged readers, as well as Secondary school aged., this series features incredible strong female characters and I think girls of age 12+ won’t be able to put it down.

AusReading Month - Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden

Blurb:
When Ellie and her friends go camping, they have no idea they're leaving their old lives behind forever. Despite a less-than-tragic food shortage and a secret crush or two, everything goes as planned. But a week later, they return home to find their houses empty and their pets starving. Something has gone wrong--horribly wrong. Before long, they realize the country has been invaded, and the entire town has been captured--including their families and all their friends. Ellie and the other survivors face an impossible decision: They can flee for the mountains or surrender. Or they can fight.

It’s hard to believe that this book is 20 years old this year!    I was a little unsure as to whether or not I should even include it...is a 20 year old book old enough to be considered a classic?  So, in true modern style I Googled "How old does a book have to be,  to be considered a classic?" and wiki answers came up with this, which I couldn't have said better myself:

Classic books are like cult movies. They shape new concepts in our society, have something special to offer in an educational way. It is more these aspects of a book that make it a classic.. not how long ago it was published.

AusReading Month - Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park

I actually didn’t read this book in the technical sense, I listened to the audio book.  I think that reading this book as an adult has given me a slightly different perspective compared to when I would have read it as a teenager.  As a teenager I am sure I could identify with the character of Abigail, with the idea that life isn’t fair, feeling hard done by and NO ONE really understanding her. As an adult, I found the Abigail a little bit annoying and whiney, this may have had something to do with the narration of the audio book, not that the narration was bad, but because it really brought the character of Abigail to life!

This book has a little bit of everything, teenage angst, coming of age, history, time-slip, family drama, romance and a little touch of creepy.  The creepy element again may have had more impact listening to the story as an audio book, but when the children are playing Beatie Bow and ….sees the little furry girl, it is quite creepy.

One of the main aspects of my job is working worth schools and librarians, and the National Curriculum is now a big part of that.  I now find it hard to read any historical Australian novel and not wonder how it would fit into the curriculum.  This book does, and it doesn’t fit the curriculum in my mind.  It does because it is a wonderful insight into everyday life of a family living in Sydney in 1873, it looks at the education, working conditions, lack of plumbing, expectations of females, the food they ate, jobs they had and even what it smelled like.  The reason I don’t think it’s a perfect fit is because that part of the history curriculum is Year 4/5, and the book is probably too old for that age group.  Most of it’s fine, but along with all of the interesting parts of history, there’s also the more seedy side to things, like when Abigail is snatched from the street and taken to a house of ill repute, where she’s told ‘ ‘tisn’t such a bad old life.  Better than starving on slop work in the factories, any old how’ (page 90).  It doesn’t actually spell out what these women are doing for money, but it’s worth noting if you plan to use it in the classroom.

During her 9 months in 1873, Abigail can’t help but think how much better life is in her time.  Strangely though not everyone she meets is that interested or enthusiastic about the changes she describes, in particular Judah, as we can see in this exchange below:

‘I don’t think there are many ships,’ said Abigail.

“things like wool come in trains.’

‘We’ve got steam trains,‘ said Beatie proudly.

‘These would be electric or oil driven, I think, ‘ said Abigail, ‘and then a lot of goods come overland in huge semi-trailers…that’s a kind of horseless carriage, ‘ she added hastily.

Judah listened politely. ‘Seems a sad waste of good money when the sea and wind are free for all,’ he remarked

(From page 140)

 

In re-reading all of the books for AusReading month, one of the things I have been considering is whether the book works as well today as it did when it was first published. This book is tricky, in that the part of the story set in 1783 absolutely stands up to any historically based novel written today, it's the part of the story set in present day that might not ring true with today’s readers. Present day in this book is 1980, so 33 years on, teenagers act and speak quite differently, so while 1980 might not seem particularly historical to some of us, teenage readers today may considered the whole books a piece of historical fiction!

AusReading Month - Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

The blurb:

In 1900, a class of young women from an exclusive private school go on an excursion to the isolated Hanging Rock, deep in the Australian bush. The excursion ends in tragedy when three girls and a teacher mysteriously vanish after climbing the rock. Only one girl returns, with no memory of what has become of the others ...

Well...  November is nearing its end, and I have yet to publish my posts for AusReading month!  Better late than never, I will get them all in by the end of the month...just by the skin of  my teeth!

This title has been released as an Australian Children’s Classic, but I am not sure I would sell it as a children’s book.  As you can see by the new cover it looks like it’s suitable for younger readers, but I would say it’s more of a teenage/adult title. 

AusReading Month - Taronga by Victor Kelleher

Blurb taken from  http://www.insideadog.com.au/books/taronga

A bleak but compelling look at the future beyond the nuclear holocaust. Ben, who has a telepathic ability to control animals, leads a hazardous existence in the bush west of the Blue Mountains. Hopeful of a kinder life in the city, he escapes to Sydney - only to be futher disillusioned. Then, at the heart of the city, he comes upon Taronga Zoo, which has been strangely unaffected by the general chaos. Or has it? Is it an island of safety in the midst of so much danger? Or is it really the most sinister place of all?

I thought I would start my AusReading blog posts with Taronga, as I think it may be the one book out of my 5 that people are the least familiar with, and it just so happens it might be my favourite of the 5!

The novel opens with Ben, in the bush, using his skills to ‘call’ animals.  In this instance Ben is using this skill to lure the animal out, so it can be shot by Greg, an older boy who is using Ben and his skill

It might seem like an amazing skill to have, to get into the mind of an animal and make it do what you want it to, but to Ben it’s a curse.  It’s wrong to force any living thing to somthing against its will.

What happened before, ‘the last days’ is never fully explained, but that’s part of the beauty of this book, and the thing that makes it work as well today as it did 20+ years ago.

The other major character in this story is Raja, the male tiger.  He is the only animal that mentally fights Ben when he tries to get into his head. Throughout the course of this story we see the resistance lessen and both Ben and Raja realise that they are actually the same, both being held prisoner, both being forced against their will.

I hope I don’t put anyone off by saying that I think this book will appeal to readers of the Hunger Games.  It’s not the same storyline by any stretch, but there’s something about the survival instinct and the determination of Ben and his desire to do the right thing that reminds me of Katniss.  There’s also the idea that human life is expendable.

Brona mentioned the questionable cover of this new edition, and I would have to agree with her.  This is at times quite a violent and dark story, but this new cover makes it look like it might be a nice story about a boy and a tiger.  The other thing about this new edition is that it’s a hardback.  A hardback is great for people that want a nice edition of a classic novel, but I’m not sure it’s the right choice for giving this book a new lease of life with teenage readers.  See below for earlier cover images.

1986               1988                      2014