The Swallowtail Legacy: Wreck at Ada's Reef by Michael D. Bell

Meadowlark Elizabeth Heron-Finch is known as Lark and she has returned to the island where her mother lived as a child. Lark has come with her sister Pip (Sandpiper Alanna Heron-Finch), with their stepfather Thomas and his three sons.

"When I was five, and Pip was three, our dad died ... That same summer Thomas's wife was killed by a falling tree branch when she was jogging in Central Park. Four and a half years later, Mom married Thomas. ... So we had kind of a Brady Bunch thing going for a couple of years but then, three months ago, Mom died, and what was left? Thomas and his kids, and then Pip and me. I don't know what we are exactly, but it doesn't quite feel like a family."

The Island of Swallowtail is holding a mystery. One resident now claims the island is his because of an inheritance. He has a plan to develop the island with holiday houses and a golf course but one resident - Nadine Pritchard - is desperate to find the truth and stop this dreadful development which will ruin their tiny island home. Nadine was Kate's (that's Larks Mom) best friend. She is also the granddaughter of a man who was killed in a boating accident many years ago off the coast of the island. This is where describing this story could get a bit complicated.

Captain Edward Cheever was born on Swallowtail island. His wife and young daughter Ada died during the flu epidemic. Edward Cheever has only one brother named Gilbert. 

"So, when Captain Cheever dies, he owns all this land, everything north of this line. Something in the neighborhood of five hundred acres, or almost twenty percent of the island. A lot of land. Unfortunately, the only will that the captain leaves behind is one written in the 1930s that, naturally, leaves everything to his wife and daughter. One little problem: they're already dead. So who gets it all? His only living heir, the brother he hates, Gilbert."

So now we have several mysteries to solve. Did Captain Cheever write a new will? If so where is it? What do his dying words (will, safe, two bells, Ada holds the key) mean? Was the boating death of Albert Pritchard really an accident? Did one of the witnesses leave something important out of the inquest into his death? Why is the woman at the Cheever Museum so nasty? You need to read this book to find all the answers to these and many more questions.

There are a lot of characters in this story and I did find at times I was a little bit confused but that may be because I read this book a little too quickly. It might have been helpful if the author had popped a character list at the beginning of the book perhaps.

Here is the publisher blurb: Twelve-year-old Lark Heron-Finch is steeling herself to spend the summer on Swallowtail Island off the shores of Lake Erie. It’s the first time she and her sister will have seen the old house since their mom passed away. The island’s always been full of happy memories—and with a step father and his boys and no mom, now everything is different.When Nadine, a close family friend, tells Lark about a tragic boat accident that happened off the coast many years before, Lark’s enthralled with the story. Nadine’s working on a book about Dinah Purdy, Swallowtail’s oldest resident who had a connection to the crash, and she’s sure that the accident was not as it appeared. Impressed by Lark’s keen eye, she hires her as her research assistant for the summer.And then Lark discovers something amazing. Something that could change Dinah’s life. Something linked to the crash and to her own family’s history with Swallowtail. But there are others on the island who would do anything to keep the truth buried in the watery depths of the past.

Each character, historic and contemporary, sparks with life. Lark’s process and the reveals are perfectly paced. Descriptions of the island and weather, plus some dramatic moments on rough water, help build atmospheric tension.  Kirkus Star review (this reviewer also said Readers will be hooked—more, please!)

I love the way Thomas inserts wise quotes into his everyday conversations by people like Marcus Aurelius, Aristotle, and Cicero.

If your reader aged 10+ loves a good mystery story they are sure to enjoy Wreck at Ada's Reef. I would pair this book Out of the Wild Night by Blue Balliet. And the publisher links this book with The Parker Inheritance.

The Parker Inheritance

Here is the website of Michael D Bell. And here is an interview where he talks about is book. Nearly everything is resolved at the end of the first installment in this series except we do need to know more about the little bird that Lark found in her bedroom and also more the book that was carved inside to hold this little treasure. The second book from the series The Swallowtail legacy was published in 2023 and it takes up this part of the mystery.

Here is the Kirkus review

One Tiny Treefrog: A countdown to survival by Tony Piedra and Mackenzie Joy

This story starts with ten eggs, but red-eyed treefrogs usually lay clutches of closer to forty eggs on leaves that overhang ponds or temporary pools of water. 

This is a wonderful nonfiction book which could be read across a wide range of ages. It is a counting book yes but it also a book about the lifecycle of the treefrog but then when we reach zero older readers will understand this little frog is another of the precious endangered creatures found in our world that need our protection.

This book is set in the low land wet forests of Costa Rica which is home to more than 12,000 plants, 800 birds, 400 reptiles and amphibians, 200 mammals and 175 freshwater fish.

Here is part of the text:

Ten tiny tadpoles grow in their eggs.

Nine alert tadpoles begin to wiggle free.

Eight wriggling tadpoles plunge in to a watery new home.

This book employs some excellent design features. End papers filled with frog eggs, there is a page you turn long-ways to see the plunge (read the line above), four pages of background information and facts, well-paced page turns, scientific names in small print on some pages where we see other species living in this wet environment and shiny paper with interesting colour changes on each page. You can see inside One Tiny Treefrog here. 

Publisher blurb: Deep in the tropical forest of Costa Rica, ten sticky frog eggs cling to a leaf. Only nine eggs hatch. Only eight tadpoles wind up in the water below. What will it take to survive the countdown to adulthood and begin the cycle again? This beautifully designed, color-drenched introduction to frog metamorphosis peeks at this animal’s habitats and predators as it illustrates competition and natural selection. Cocreators Mackenzie Joy and Tony Piedra have crafted a dazzling spin on the life of one of nature’s darlings, the red-eyed treefrog. Back matter invites budding naturalists to discover even more treefrog facts, revisit the pages to spot other Costa Rican species, and check out a bibliography.

You might find this nonfiction book in your school or local library:

Many years ago I also had this book which had photographs of ceramic sculptures - I should have kept it because I see it for sale for over AUS$50.

Tony Piedra grew up in Houston, Texas, chasing lizards in the backyard and capturing great adventures in his sketchbook. Eventually, he relocated to California, where he worked for many years at Pixar Animation Studios, building environments for some of the studio’s most popular movies, including Up and Coco. He is the creator of The Greatest Adventure, his debut picture book, and lives in northern California. Mackenzie Joy, as an artist, loves to scribble and paint on nontraditional canvases. As a writer, she enjoys finding the perfect rhythms, sounds, and words. As a storyteller, she wants to share stories that are quirky, hopeful, and thought-provoking. Mackenzie Joy lives in northern California. Books Up North

Here is an interview with Tony Piedra and Mackenzie Joy - they met and are now married. And here is their new book due out next month:

The Probability of Everything by Sarah Everett

Dear Reader,
If you are reading this, then chances are that 

our world has ended.

"My name is Kemi Carter, and I'm a scientist .... My favorite type of science is the science of probability. Probability is pretty great because it tells you how likely something is to happen or not happen. It is a way of predicting the world."

BREAKING NEWS: MASSIC ASTERIOD ALTERS PATH, NOW ON COURSE TO MEET EARTH! NASA RELEASES STATMENT: DO NOT PANIC! PRESS CONFERENCE TO BE HELD IN THIRTY MINUTES!

"How long did we have until the end of the world?"

Kemi knows the world is about to end. This is huge and impossible to process so she decides to collect a box of treasures so that the people who come next have some idea about her life and the lives of various members of her family. 

Begin here with this video by Colby Sharp - "this book is blowing everyone's mind" ... "this is the best book to read when you know nothing about it!" ...  "You are in for the ride of your life."

Colby also says do not read the back cover (blurb) - luckily I was not able to do this because I read the ebook of The Probability of Everything.

Now listen (just play it without the image) to this video where the reviewer explains it is best to come to this book knowing nothing about the plot. This review is 9 minutes and at the end the librarian says she would like one million dollars so she could buy this book for everyone - surely that makes you curious about this story.

This book will shock and shake you - it is utterly fabulous but any more plot points will spoil it. I will however list a few text quotes:

"A sudden chill entered the room. It was Narnia cold, the kind of cold that makes your bones ache, and I shivered. The front door creaked like it had been left open, and I wondered if that was the reason for the cold."

"Amplus ... has a 84.7 percent chance of hitting us."

"When Mrs Wallace had taught us about asteroids, I hadn't really considered the possibility of one colliding with us. It was kind of the way I hadn't paid too much attention to our lesson on Tasmanian devils because I knew they were only in Australia."

"Would Baby Z be born before the asteroid hit? Mom was only five months pregnant, which meant the world would have to last another four months at least, if we were ever going to meet the baby. We didn't even know if we had four hours."

"... the end of the world might sound like a whoosh, like a thunderclap, or like a peaceful silence."

"Four days meant less than a full week of school. It meant we would never meet Baby Z, that I would never have two sisters instead of one. It meant the world would end on a Thursday."

"There has to be a way to make sure they don't forget all about us."

"I'm make a time capsule ... If I save all the most important stuff, the things we love the most, then nobody has to feel so sad about the end of the world. ... If I saved one thing that was precious to each member of my family, then something that was part of them - something that they loved - would always be here. It wouldn't be destroyed by the asteroid, and the next earthlings could find it and know about us."

What are some things to put in a time capsule:

• Photographs
• Newspaper clippings
• Favourite books (Kemi likes The One and Only Ivan; Charlotte's web and Where the wild things are).
• List of movies or tv shows you love
• A mobile phone
• Food (that won't spoil) 
• Clothes
• A map of your town showing all your favorite places
• Letters between you and your loved ones

ONLY after you have read this book (yes you do need to read it) you might look at a few reviews such as this one from Kirkus (star review). 

Awards:

• NPR Books We Love 2023 
• Publishers Weekly Best of 2023 
• Winner of the Governor General's Literary Awards for Young People's Literature

This review by Betsy (my blogging/reviewing hero) contains spoilers - WAIT - read the book first please!

And while I’m generally a pretty slow reader, I devoured this baby immediately. How could I not? Sarah Everett wrestles with an outsized and ambitious bit of plotting, all the while keeping her cards close to her chest. Here’s some advice: Hand this to kids that like their books with a bit of a twist. And do NOT skip to the ending and read that first. You will live to regret it if you do. Betsy Bird

Companion book:

Wishtree

Ode to a Nobody by Caroline Brooks DuBois

 

If Forest was the glue

binding the family 

then I am the heat

weakening the bond.

If Forest was the duct tape,

the button, the magnet, the bungee

holding us together,

then I am the resistance

the yank, the pull.

Quinnie, Quinn, Quinn(ie) 

Mom's ultrasound and intuition
convinced her

I was born to be a boy.

So my parents chose a name

and for nine long months

called me Quinn.

When I turned out a girl,

Mom still liked Quinn.

'It's gender-neutral,'

she insisted.

Dad disagreed

and has always called me

Quinnie. So it's Quinn on paper,

but out loud mostly Quinnie

and sometimes Quinn,

depending on 

who's speaking.

Quinnie's brother is the star of the family, at least according to his sister. Mum and dad keep fighting. Quinnie is sure that is all her fault. And then the tornado hits.

It's been a week

since the tornado struck.

I swear time has crawled.

It could be lack of electricity

in our busted home, or moving to Ivy-

days of doing things I've never done,

and all the time spent offline.

Maybe it's just me,

or maybe it's the truce

between Mom and Dad.

But I've changed a lot in the span

of this 'week-year'.

In class Ms Koval sets an assignment of poetry writing for the whole month. They study famous poems and learn techniques. Reading the poems by Quinnie we gain insights into her family issues, friendship issues, her worries, and the way Quinnie learns how to stands up to her old friends who want her to do dangerous things. 

In one incident Jack and Jade spray paint damaged houses but when the spray tins are left in Quinnie's pack she has a wonderful idea. She writes poems of hope on neighborhood walls as she watches all the people who suffered from the tornado begin to rebuild their lives. 

Stay strong.

We survived!

Hold that vibe.

Hear the song.

Of lives resuming

And hope blooming.

After a month of writing Quinn reads her best poem to the class. Jack kept saying this poetry writing project was a waste of his time but then he slips his poem into her pocket. It has been a year of change but there will be good times to come. You are sure to shed a few tears when you read the final scenes. 

Take a close look at the cover of this book. The town is hit by a tornado - hence the flying objects; Quinn and her mum shelter in the basement but she forgets to rescue her hamster named Pumpkin; Jack was Quinn's best friend and they liked to skate and game but now Jade has arrived and this precious friendship has shifted.

This beautiful novel in verse, a novel all about poetry and the power that comes from writing and discovery, is not to be missed. The message about leaning into and accepting yourself is an important one. School Library Journal

Here is the web page for Caroline Brooks DuBois.

Straight ater I read Ode to Nobody I read Right as Rain (not a verse novel) - these books have very similar themes (parents on the brink of divorce; poetry writing; school life; friendship) so I have found myself mixing up the plot points. I will talk about this book over the coming days.

Singing with Elephants by Margarita Engle

 

Brilliant, joyful, and deeply moving. Kirkus Star review

Publisher blurb: Cuban-born eleven-year-old Oriol lives in Santa Barbara, California, where she struggles to belong. But most of the time that’s okay, because she enjoys helping her parents care for the many injured animals at their veterinary clinic. Then Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American winner of a Nobel Prize in Literature moves to town, and aspiring writer Oriol finds herself opening up. And when she discovers that someone is threatening the life of a baby elephant at her parents’ clinic, Oriol is determined to take action. As she begins to create a world of words for herself, Oriol learns it will take courage and strength to do what she thinks is right—even if it means keeping secrets from those she loves.

The baby elephant mentioned in this blurb is a twin. An unscrupulous actor who seeks fame at any cost takes one of the two-week-old baby elephants away from its mother. Oriol is determined to find the baby. She feels the grief of the mother and remaining twin very deeply. Once she finds little Song (his sister is Dance) Oriol then needs to spring into action. She organises a petition and with the help of Gabriela Mistral letters are written to other famous actors and to the Humane society. There must be a way to save this tiny elephant and stop the cruel intentions which would force her to perform in unnatural ways. 

Here are a few text quotes to give you a flavour of this verse novel:

My bird name
musical and sweet,
is one I chose 
for myself, long ago, in Cuba
when I knew who I was
and how 
to speak.

ELEPHANT ANATOMY

Standing in front of Chandra

I'm stunned into silence.

Tree-root feet.

Half-moon toenails.

Map-of-India ears.

Paintbrush tail.

A snake-shaped nose

with forty-thousand

muscles.

Her fifty pound heart pulses with love

for her soon-to-be newborn.

She's been pregnant for twenty-two months,

due any day.

She needs to eat three hundred pounds of hay

every twenty-four houses.

When she moves

she's as graceful

as a swaying

ocean wave.

MY FUTURE IS BLURRY (extract)

Gabriela Mistral is right-

I cannot predict the future,

but I can imagine a time

when wild animals

are no longer held captive

My words and actions

have shown me what

is possible.

Maybe the will change

the whole world

someday.

You can read more text extracts here.

Add this book to your list of verse novels to share with young readers aged 10+ up to age 13. 

The book is rich with simple yet profound expressions of love, loss, heartache, and wholeness. As we learn along with Oriol, poetry is the soul’s way of singing, whether that soul is human or animal. This lesson becomes more apparent as Oriol’s connection to the animals she cares for grows stronger and stronger, in particular her relationship with a pregnant elephant named Chandra whose rhythmic sways and sounds remind her of poetry. Good Reads with Ronna

I met Margarita Engle at a USBBY conference a few years ago so when I saw this verse novel in The Little Bookroom (Melbourne bookstore) I grabbed it.

Have you heard of Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) - the first Latin winner of a Nobel Prize for Literature? I had not heard of her but there are details at the back of Singing with elephants along with one of her poems.

"I wanted to imagine how she might have influenced a child ... so I invented a Cuban immigrant girl who loves animals and nature as much as Mistral."

"She believed children deserved kindness, and her reforms of rural education became a model for all Latin America. At the same time she became a world-famous poet, and served as a diplomat, representing the government of Chile while living in various countries. .... (She) was an influential peace activist (and one) of the founders of the League of Nationals and later UNICEF."

Awards:

• Rhode Island 2024 Children's Book Award Nominee
• Bank Street 2023 Best Children's Books
• New York Times Best Children’s Books of 2022
• Kirkus Best Middle Grade Books 2022
• School Library Journal-26 MG Books for Latinx Heritage Month 2022
• Nerdies Award, 2022
• Cybils Award Finalist
• School Library Journal Mock Newbery Suggestions
• Kirkus Starred Review
• Junior Library Guild Selection
• New York Times review
• NPR Morning Edition interview
• Publishers Weekly starred review

Margarita Engle is the author of these (Summer Birds is a firm favourite of mine).

Congratulations to Pamela Allen

 

Pamela Allen Order of Australia Medal

Australia Day Honour list: Mrs Pamela Kay ALLEN for significant service to literature as an author. 

Pamela Allen was born in New Zealand (1943) but lived in Australia for over thirty years before moving back to her original home. She has received numerous awards in New Zealand. 

Pamela Allen is a phenomenon in the world of children's literature. Since her first publication in 1980, her picture books have enchanted generations of children around the world, and have garnered a glittering array of awards and commendations including six Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards, two New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards, an International Board on Books for Young People Diploma for Illustration, the Margaret Mahy Medal, New Zealand’s most prestigious award for children’s literature, and most recently The Gaylene Gordon Award for a Much Loved Book from the Children's Literature Foundation of New Zealand. Penguin Australia

Her first book was Mr Archimedes Bath written in 1980.

Two Melbourne radio hosts were talking about Pamela Allen's books today and of course they talked about an debated this favourite (by the way I still blame the little mouse). Who sank the Boat? was the 1989 CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) picture book of the year winner:

Here is an ABC Radio interview with Pamela Allen. 

Pamela Allen was selected in 1984 as the IBBY Australia honour book winner with her book Who Sank the Boat?  

For this biennial Honour List, published in connection with the IBBY Congress, National Sections of IBBY are invited to nominate outstanding recent books that are characteristic of their country and recommended for publication in different languages. One book can be nominated for each of the three categories: writing, illustration and translation.

I recently talked about Shhh! Little Mouse. 

CBCA Awards

• 1981 Mr Archimedes Bath Picture Book of the Year Commended
• 1983 Who sank the boat? Picture Book of the Year Winner
• 1984 Bertie and the Bear Picture Book of the Year Winner
• 1993 Belinda Picture Book of the Year Honour Book
• 2001 The Potato People Early Childhood Honor Book
• 2004 Grandpa and Thomas Early Childhood winner
• 2007 Doodledum Dancing Early Childhood Honor Book

I was working as a volunteer in a school library yesterday and one of the Preschool teachers requested books about colours - I found this one by Pamela Allen - once it is returned, I need to read it. I missed it back in 2011.

‘From Pamela Allen's first publication in 1980 it was clear that here was a creator of picture books with all the glow, gesture, din and dance to capture the attention, engage the imagination, teach, show, tickle and excite small children.’ Meg Sorensen, Australian Book Review

Australia Day Picture Books

The Bunyip of Berkley's Creek statue - State Library of Victoria

These are the books I would share with young children TODAY! You are sure to think of lots more titles - why not visit your local or school library and ask to see some picture books that celebrate Australia!

The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek

Possum Magic

Are we there Yet?

Dirt by Sea

Clancy of the Overflow

Andrew McLean

Lizzie Nonsense

Baby Business

We are Australians

Sebastian lives in a hat

Mallee Sky

Hello from Nowhere

A House for Wombats

Australia from Dawn to Dusk

Alphabetical Sydney