Which books should be promoted and reviewed?

I am so dismayed by all the promotion of books written by celebrities (I do know this is not a new practice) by publishers, chain stores, morning television chat shows and now children's book reviewers. This is difficult post to write (it is my third on this topic #1 #2) because I do not want to promote or even name the two books I am going to discuss here. If you want to discover them one appears as a colour advertisement on the back cover of our Australian children's book review journal Magpies (November, 2024). That issue also has a review. This same title was also shared on The Bottom Shelf (November 2024). The second title is featured on the website Kids' Book Review (November 2024). The Facebook group Your Kids Next Read have also offered this book as a giveaway prize. 

It is my policy with momotimetoread not to share books that do not appeal to me, but this issue of celebrity picture books is so important. I have found myself shaking my head in despair so many times over the last few weeks and then I saw these two books. In my view neither is a quality book and I would not add these two books to my library or personal shelves let alone share them with a child. I do need to say though, that writing and researching this blog post has also reinforced for me that we all read books differently. While most of the reviews of these two books do not express an opinion (good or bad) one reviewer deeply related to the themes of Book Two and she explains why she enjoyed it. It is good that we see and experience our world in different ways. 

Another concern I have relating to this topic is the issue of 'freedom of speech'. I will just pose a few questions. Should reviewers worry about 'biting the hand that feeds them'? Many reviewers and reviewing journals are sent books by publishers. Is it okay to post a negative review? Or is it better to set these books aside and not offer a review? And for print publications there is also the issue of paid advertising which is why Book Two has a full-page advertisement on the back cover of our wonderful Magpies Magazine. 

Book One

Celebrity author - Comedian and television personality, this is not his first children's book and he has adult titles too.

Plot: A glacier takes a journey. Why? Because he is bored? Where does he go? Away from his icy mountain home to the tropical coast. How does he travel? Using various forms of transport across different landscapes. Predictable outcome? Yes, he melts.

Themes: journeys, destinations, transport, Australia, leaving home, impatience

Better choices:

To Greenland

Bear's Adventure

Ivanhoe Swift left home at Six

Once upon a small Rhinoceros

Book Two

Celebrity author: AFL Football player and television media personality

Plot: A lonely boy wishes for a friend. A girl comes to rescue him. The boy has magical talents and so he is able to help the village where the girl lives and save them all from a dragon. His 'heroic' deed means others accept his difference and appreciate his talents and he gains a set of friends.

Themes: Shyness, self-acceptance, talents, friendship, belonging, identity, magic, wizards, dragons 
(there are also teachers notes for this book on the publisher page).

Better Choices:

The Boy, the Troll and the Chalk

Knight Owl

Benjamin and the Lonely Dragon

The Friendship Bench

Book One is not about glaciers or global warming but I did find these better books on those two topics:

Here is the Kirkus review

Here is the Kirkus review

Here are three final quotes from Besty Bird and her book Wild Things.

"If we sound cranky, it's because it often seems that what lies behind your typical celebrity book is an inherent level of disrespect for the craft of children's literature."

"Certainly during challenging economic times, publishers feel great pressure to sell blockbusters, drawing attention away from lesser-known authors and illustrators. There's no doubt that publishing is driven by sales, and just the right celebrity book can bring in the big bucks."

"... it's the poor tots of this world who not only have to read the often patronizing, flat prose offered by most celebrity authors, ... (but luckily) children are unrelenting critics, and they do not care about the number of movies or television shows in which someone has starred. ... They just want to read a good book."

Before Nightfall by Silvia Vecchini illustrated by Sualzo translated by Geoffrey Brock

Carlo can't hear

Carlo can't see out of one of  eyes

Carlo was hurt and cut

open and sewn shut

in so many places.

I won't name them all because

it would be like playing

Operation

and always going buzzzzz

This verse novel is narrated by Emma. Her brother Carlo is hearing impaired and blind in one eye. His second eye is now failing and so Carlo will need an operation. The pages where Carlo recovers in hospital are the most powerful part of this book as each page is black (with white text) and so as a reader I really felt the pain of complete sight loss. Carlo did go to school with his sister but:

Because one again we received

a notice from school

Carlo won't be allowed

to continue to attend

none of the teachers there

are qualified to 

talk

think

create

invent

learn

stay

with him

So now Carlo is being homeschooled by his parents and everyone is trying to learn sign language but what will happen if Carlo can no longer see their hands?

This book is aimed at a Young Adult audience. It is a complex book to read and understand even though it only has 109 pages. It demands to be read very slowly because Silvia Vecchini does not fill any story gaps - you have to work things out for yourself. Between each section of verse there are narrative pages where we meet other people in Carlo's life:

Something different between the verse are different points of view from people in Carlo’s life. A school official, a sibling, a school friend and a local shopkeeper. A nurse and then Carlo himself, whose POV is portrayed in white text on black pages, signifying the darkness around him as he waits to see if his limited sight is restored. What book next

Publisher blurb: A moving tale about a brave hearing-impaired teen losing his vision, told through the perspective of his loving sister in poetry, prose, and the sign-language alphabet. Carlo is a teenager who happens to be hearing-impaired and can see only out of one eye. Now that eye is failing, and Carlo must have an operation to try to save his vision. His fierce and funny sister Emma, Carlo’s closest companion, begins writing poems that express the fear she works hard to hide, while his seeing-eye dog Lulù remains steadfastly at his side. But even with the support and affection of his family, how can Carlo face such uncertainty? And what will happen if he can no longer communicate with them? Before Nightfall is a book about trust, imagination, empathy, and language, narrated through the poems Emma types and through prose passages told from multiple perspectives and illustrated with sign-language alphabet, drawn by the Italian artist Sualzo. Despite the immense challenges Carlo and Emma face, their story is one of hope and wonder.

I picked this book up in Readings Kids in Melbourne. I probably would not have found Before Nightfall, but it had been miss-shelved with the Middle Grade books - it is most certainly a YA title. The book price sticker shows this too. You know that I rarely read YA but I am pleased I made this discovery, and I am keen to share this book with a literary friend. 

Silvia Vecchini was born in 1975 in Perugia. She loves poetry and has written several books for children and young adults. Antonio “Sualzo” Vincenti is an author and comics illustrator. He won the Festi'DB di Moulins in 2009, best screenplay category, for L'Improvvisatore, and was named finalist in the Micheluzzi Award in 2010. Geoffrey Brock is the author of two collections of poems, the editor of The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry, and the translator of books by Umberto Eco, Italo Calvino, Roberto Calasso, and others. His translation of Pinocchio appears in both the NYRB Classics series and the New York Review Children’s Collection. He teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Translation at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

Awards for Before Nightfall:

• Strega Ragazzi Prize 2021 Finalist
• Cento Prize 2020 Finalist
• Orbil Award 2020 Finalist
• Giovanni Arpino Prize 2020 Finalist

I do hope this book has been submitted by IBBY in Italy for our IBBY Collection for Young People with Disabilities. 

The IBBY Collection located at the Toronto Public Library features a large international selection of books for and about young people with disabilities. The books are chosen by the IBBY National Sections, as well as by independent experts and publishers. Take a look at our Australian titles which are part of this collection. 

Highlights of the Collection include:

• 4000+ books in over 40 languages
• special formats such as Blissymbolics, PCS, Braille, sign language, tactile and textile books
• fiction books that portray children and teens with disabilities as characters in stories and novels
•  books for adults with developmental delays, language disabilities or reading difficulties

Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson

"The first time you forgot my name

feels like yesterday. Feels like an hour ago.

Feels like I blink and you forgetting

is right there in front of me."

We have a new adult television series (based on a book by Brendan Cowell) here in Australia called Plum and this program covers the same issue as Before the Ever After of brain injuries to football players. In the book by Jacqueline Woodson it is American Football and Plum is all about Rugby League but really the consequence of constant head injuries is the same - an acquired brain injury. 

ZJ is watching his football dad fall apart. Dad visits so many doctors but no one seems to know what is wrong and when they do offer a diagnosis none of their medicines work and worse some make his dad's behaviour even more erratic. 

"I feel like someone's holding us,
keeping us from getting back to where we were before
and keeping us from the next place too."

"There's not a name for the way

Daddy's brain works now.

The way he forgets little things like

the importance of wearing a coat outside

on a cold day. There's not a name

for the way I catch him crying

looking around the living room like

it's his first time seeing it."

This book is a MUST add to your library especially a High School library. Listen to Colby Sharp talking about this book. I know nothing about American football but that did not take away from my appreciation of this important story. Like me, Colby loved the friends in this book. I just wanted to thank and hug Ollie, Darry and Daniel. They are so supportive of ZJ and also beautiful in the way they relate to his dad.

You know – I think I thought I was writing Before The Ever After to talk about head injuries and loss. But in the end, it became a book about friendship and family and love. So I guess I wrote because that’s what I wanted to talk about here. ZJ has some really cool friends. It was so fun putting them on the page. Jacqueline Woodson

Before the Ever After is a verse novel and you know I love this form. The publisher site suggested age nine, but I think this book will better suit mature readers aged 10+. 

A poignant and achingly beautiful narrative shedding light on the price of a violent sport. Kirkus star review

Here is the publisher blurb: For as long as ZJ can remember, his dad has always been everyone's hero: a pro football superstar, a beloved member of the neighbourhood and a really, really great dad. But there's something not right about ZJ's dad these days. He's having trouble remembering things, seems to be angry all the time and is starting to forget ZJ's name. Bit by bit, ZJ has to face this new reality that his family can't keep holding on to his dad's glory days. As his dad begins to have more bad than good days, will they ever find happiness again?

In 2018 Jacqueline Woodson won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, an international award for children’s and young adult literature, and in 2020 she won the Hans Christian Andersen Award (IBBY) an international award for lifetime achievement in children’s literature.

Ettie and the Midnight Pool by Julia Green illustrated by Pam Smy

I spied this book in Melbourne (Ladyhawke, Ivanhoe) and I recognised the author name but I couldn't think which book I had previously read. I was delighted to find it was House of Light. I said in that post that I would like to read more books by Julia Green but sadly I didn't really love Ettie and the Midnight Pool in the same way. I found the anger Ettie levels against her grandmother quite awful. I know Ettie is growing up and questioning the way her grandmother seems to set so many rules. Ettie is also desperate to know more about her absent mother and she wants her grandmother to acknowledge life is not like a story with a happy ending. In fact, when Ettie finds out that the famous myths and other classic stories her grandmother has told her do not have the endings her grandmother always shared and that these stories are actually filled with tragedy and sadness Ettie becomes even more determined to defy her grandmother.

Near their home there is a disused slate mine. Ettie is not supposed to venture beyond a certain point, and she is most definitely not allowed to swim in the lake at the bottom of the mine. I am sure you have worked out she breaks both of these rules and that her behaviour has dangerous consequences. Ettie is not alone though and perhaps she would not have been so defiant or attempted such dangerous activities if she had not met the mysterious Cora.

It would have been good to find a list of the famous stories referred to in Ettie and the Midnight Pool such as Pandora's box, Persephone and Demeter, Orpheus and Eurydice, and Icarus. Familiarity with these might help readers more deeply appreciate Ettie and the Midnight Pool. There are also references to Little Red Riding Hood (think of the cautionary tale) and The Incredible Journey by Shelia Burnford which is a book I loved as a child. I also wanted to know more about Ettie's absent mother. The story implies she cannot travel home because of Covid restrictions but there is also a hint that her mother has no plan to return and that she thinks Ettie should be raised by her grandmother. 

Readers aged 11+ might enjoy Ettie and the Midnight Pool. These reviewers all enjoyed this book (way more than I did) and you can click these for more plot details. 

Not everything is spelled out for the reader who is given space to form their own conclusions in this haunting, intriguing tale. There is a wonderful use of myth and traditional tales to underpin the message that you cannot, and should not, try to protect children from the dark side of life. We cannot fully appreciate the light without understanding the darkness that exists. Superbly descriptive writing, evocative illustration and psychological depth make this an unforgettable read. Love Reading4Kids 
This review also includes an interview with Julia Green (27 minutes).

'Powerful, haunting and incredibly atmospheric . . . told with all Julia Green's great skill and shot through with a vein of dark mystery. A truly special book' Nicola Davies

Enhanced by Pam Smy’s powerfully evocative illustrations, Julia Green’s wonderful descriptions of the countryside, in combination with intrigue and nail-biting moments, make this a mesmerising story that lingers in your mind long after you’ve set the book aside. Red Reading Hub

This would make the perfect read for those children who are thinkers, who want something different or special to read. Every class has them and it’s always a joy to have a gem like this to offer when they are ready for their next book! It is a wonderful, layered story, full of love, longing and life. Through the Bookshelf

Julia Green’s writing is always incredibly powerful – an ode to nature with a hopeful call to action. Ettie and the Midnight Pool is no different. Readers feel the rhythm of the earth – the peace, the heartbeat, the story of the land – as they think about their own place in it. From the freshness of the hay meadows to the oak trees to the iciness of the water, nature is enchanting and the most beautiful place to be. Scope for Imagination

Ettie and the Midnight Pool companion book:

October and October

Julia Green is an author of over twenty novels and stories for children and young adults. She has worked as a publicity assistant for a publisher, a library assistant, an English teacher, and is currently Emeritus Professor of Writing for Young People at Bath Spa University. 

The Wobbly Bike by Darren McCallum illustrated by Craig Smith

The trials of learning to ride a bike linger with me decades after my mum and dad gave me a brand new bike and then my dad spent so many evenings running alongside me, holding on of course, while I practiced on the empty road below our house. The other neighborhood kids all had secondhand bikes and even now some of them remember that mine was brand new. 

Like the little girl in this story I started with a tricycle and then moved up to a bigger bike and yes it did wobble and yes it did feel out of control but remember mine was new. The bike in this story is an old one from Grandad's shed. It needs cleaning and some repairs but really that wobble is not actually the fault of the bike - it is all just part of learning and persevering. 

Bookseller blurb: How do you fix a wobbly bike? Could it be the tyres, the terrain, or maybe it might be a new rider? A joyful, multi-layered story, celebrating the unique culture of Australia's urban "top end", the precious roles of grandparents in families, the fact that kindness and encouragement, combined with practice, are the key to success, bound together with gentle humour. because laughter is always the best medicine.

Notice all the quintessentially Australian inclusions in the illustrations - hills hoist; old roller lawn mower; the back shed and the house itself which looks like a "Queenslander". I also love the natural feel of the inclusion in this book - there are indigenous kids and a child in a wheelchair - all just kids in this neighborhood which I have discovered is in Darwin. 

Here are some brief teachers notes from Lamont. 

Darren is a tradesman and the author of The Wobbly Bike, he resides in Darwin with his wife and two daughters. The Wobbly bike was inspired by his daughter Summer who referred to her bike (after the training wheels were removed) as her wobbly bike. The book is a shout out to all children, especially the ones who struggle to never give up and keep trying your personal best and is also a nod to the precious roles of Grandparents.

Craig Smith  is one of Australia's most prolific, popular and award-winning illustrators of children's books. His witty and humorous artwork combines a wonderful sense of the absurd with a fine attention to detail. Craig has illustrated book covers, fiction series (including Too Cool written by Phil Kettle), and picture books Where's Mum? (Honour Book in the 1993 CBC Picture Book of the Year Awards), Billy the Punk (shortlisted in the 1996 CBC Picture Book of the Year Awards), and Bob the Builder and the Elves. Craig's previous Penguin titles include Paul Jennings' The Cabbage Patch series, Rachel Flynn's I Hate Fridays series, Gillian Rubinstein's The Pirates' Ship and The Fairy's Wings, Doug MacLeod's Sister Madge's Book of Nuns and numerous Aussie Bites and Nibbles. (Source Storybox Library) 

He also illustrated My Dog's a Scaredy Cat and one of his earliest books was Black Dog by Christobel Mattingley (later renamed First Friend). I read Bob the Builder and the Elves to hundreds of children in my former school library. Here is his web page and you can see him working here. 

You also need to linger over the end papers - morning on the opening pages and night at the back. And unlike so many other books I have read (mostly by celebrities) recently the rhyme used for the story in this book is perfect. 

This is such a joyous book with its humour, rhyme and illustrations making something very special from something very ordinary, evoking memories, connecting kids and generations, and reminding us that things that are worthwhile are worth striving for. The Bottom Shelf

This book is sure to be a CBCA Notable title for 2025 and it might even make the short list for Early Childhood. 

I love the work of Craig Smith and I think it is easy to connect this newest book with one of his masterpieces - Dreadful David.

Our Pool by Lucy Ruth Cummins

Pure summer fun. Kirkus Star review

"Everyone is sweating, and smiling, and skip stepping toward ... OUR POOL."

"First stop is the locker room, where clothes come off lickety-split and swim suits go on luckety-spitter."

The pool is like "An ice-cold bowl of City People soup."

"You can feel TALL in the shallow end. And OH-SO-SHORT in the deep end."

This is a joyous, noisy, fun book with the most vibrant illustrations in bright Fluro colours. And the way the text is presented in capital letters it just begs to be read aloud.

While I was in Melbourne this week I took the opportunity to spend a couple of hours in the narrm ngarrgu Library which opened just one year ago. One of the books I read was Our Pool and it 'blew me away'. Click the LOOK button the publisher site to see inside this book. You can see all the pages in this video but do try to find the book to read to your group - that would be way better than just showing this video. 

Publisher blurb: On a hot day, people come from all over the city to spend the day at the pool in this joyful picture book that’s a love song to summer, the city, community, and staying cool! Today is a pool day in the city! The sun is shining, so what are you waiting for? Friends and family. Kids and grandparents. Big bodies and small bodies. Everybody is welcome at our pool! Get ready for swimming and splashing, zigzagging and dunking, and racing and laughing.

Image source NPR (listen to an interview with the author)

Lucy Ruth Cummins is an author, illustrator, and art director of children’s books. She was happily paired with Jean Reidy for both Truman, which was named a New York Times Best Children’s Book of 2019, and Sylvie. She is also the author-illustrator of Stumpkin, Vampenguin, Dalmartian: A Mars Rover’s Story, Our Pool, and A Hungry Lion, or A Dwindling Assortment of Animals. Lucy has swum in creeks, streams, gorges, rivers, swimming holes, pools (above- and in-ground), lakes (both Great and Finger), decorative fountains, and oceans. Her very favorite place to swim, however, is at her community pool in Brooklyn with her sons and her neighbors.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

The Scholastic Classic edition published in 2023

This week I was lucky to see a stage show of A Christmas Carol (here is a video promotion from the 2022 production) so before attending I re-read this classic story. I'm sure you know this famous tale so I thought I would share a few text quotes and book covers. You will also easily find abridged editions and I even discovered a board book!

“I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.”

“Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.”

“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

"The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.”

“As good as gold,” said Bob, “and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.”

“No space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused!”

Just look at the wonderful illustrators I have found - Robert Ingpen, Roberto Innocenti, PJ Lynch, Quentin Blake, and Christian Birmingham.

Illustrated by Robert Ingpen

Illustrated by Roberto Innocenti

Illustrated by Quentin Blake

illustrated by Christian Birmingham

Reading this book over the last few days I really appreciated the delicious vocabulary used by Charles Dickens in 1843. You can read A Christmas Carol (full text) for free from Project Gutenberg.

• prodigiously
• bestow a trifle
• palpable brown air
• veneration
• impropriety
• homage
• tremulous
• incredulous
• fettered
• penance
• jocund (cheerful and light-hearted)
• odious

There are also lots of audio versions - here is one with Hugh Grant. And this one is with Miriam Margolyes. 

Greetings from Nowhere by Barbara O'Connor

"Then she used a red marker to put a big X through May 22 on the wall calendar. She had made it through another day."

Can you feel the deep sadness here? Aggie and Harold have owned the Sleepy Time Motel for decades but now Harold has died and the motel is in need of serious repairs and there are no guests and the pile of unpaid bills is growing and growing.

"Nobody had come for a long, long time. Nobody had come since when? Auggie wondered. She flipped open the motel guest book and looked at the last entry. Nearly three months ago Mr. and Mrs. R.J. Perry from Ocala Florida."

It is time for Aggie to sell her home - the motel. 

Meanwhile we meet Willow. It is Willow and her dad now because her mum just left one day. Willow has so many unanswered questions about her mum Dorothy. Her dad just won't talk about her. This is another family filled with sadness.

"His misery grew and grew until it filled up the whole house and seeped out of the doors and windows into the year. It floated over the patch of weeds that used to be flowers that Dorothy grew. It circled the swing set where willow used to play while Dorothy pinned wet sheets on the clothesline. And it snaked around the mailbox where willow waited every morning at ten o'clock."

Willow is so desperate to receive a letter from her mum she even writes them and posts them to herself. Then one morning things completely change. Her father reads an advertisement about a motel that is for sale - yes it is the Sleepy Time Motel in North Carolina. 

The third person we meet in this story is Loretta. She is also looking for some thing so she can make sense of her life. Loretta is an adopted child. She has a beautiful loving family but she really knows nothing about her birth mother.  On the day of this story though, a parcel arrives. Her mother has died and the box contains "all her earthly possessions". A tattered pincushion; a Japanese fan; a silver pocket watch; a picture of a hummingbird; a Bible; tiny scissors; a sparkly poodle dog pin; a pale blue handkerchief with the letter P embroidered in pink; a heart-shaped box made of red velvet and a silver charm bracelet. Oh and there is a photograph of a young girl about the same age as Loretta. The charm bracelet is the key to what happens next. Her mum and dad agree to visit all the places that match the charms. I imagine you have guessed that Loretta and her parents are going to end up at the Sleepy Time Motel.

Then we meet Kirby. Kirby is a troubled boy. His mum does not understand him and he does not like the latest step dad. Things have become so bad that he is now being sent juvenile detention centre/school. His step dad does not come on the long journey. The car is old and yes, it breaks down and yes this happens near the Sleepy Time Motel. Kirby is angry and desperately missing the only person who ever showed him any kindness - Burla Davis - the old lady from next door.

Now you have met all of the characters (the chapters alternate their voices) I invite you to read this wonderful story of healing and new beginnings. I am always drawn to books like this especially ones where places (and people) are in need of repairs. Oh, and this book, even though you know there HAS to be a happy ending, has just the right amount of tension to keep you flying through the pages. Hooray for Barbara O'Connor! This is resoundingly a five-star book.

I often look for character descriptions:

"Her face was lined and leathery, but her eyes were clear and sparkly. She kept pushing the stretched sleeves of her sweater up over her bony elbows."

"The one who smelled like lavender talcum powder. The one who made doll clothes out of dishcloths and cradles out of oatmeal boxes. The one who called her Lulu ..."

Here is the teacher's guide.

As these unlikely folks come together in Aggie’s tumbledown motel, they find something they need through the friendships that form. O’Connor artfully weaves together the hopes, fears, disappointments, sorrows and joys of her multi-generational cast to produce a warm and satisfying conclusion. Kirkus

Publisher blurb: Aggie isn't expecting visitors at the Sleepy Time Motel in the Great Smoky Mountains. Since her husband died, she is all alone with her cat, Ugly, and keeping up with the bills and repairs has become next to impossible. The pool is empty, the garden is overgrown, and not a soul has come to stay in nearly three months. When she reluctantly places a For Sale ad in the newspaper, Aggie doesn't know that Kirby and his mom will need a room when their car breaks down on the way to Kirby's new reform school. Or that Loretta and her parents will arrive in her dad's plumbing company van on a trip meant to honor the memory of Loretta's birth mother. Or that Clyde Dover will answer the For Sale ad in such a hurry and move in with his daughter, Willow, looking for a brand-new life to replace the one that was fractured when Willow's mom left. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that Aggie and her guests find just the friends they need at the shabby motel in the middle of nowhere.

Companion reads:

Blooming at the Texas Sunrise Motel

Front Desk (note this has a very different US Cover)

Louisiana's Way Home

Other books by Barbara O'Connor:

Halfway to Harmony

How to Steal a Dog

Wonderland

The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis

Wish

Bravepaw and the Heartstone of Alluria by LM Wilkinson illustrated by Lavanya Naidu

Titch (full name Tithonia Proudleaf) has heard the legends of Bravepaw her whole life. Her home is on a very high plateau and no one ever leaves not even to explore the Great Forest below. Titch has one terrific friend - another mouse named Huckleberry. Titch has one important job - to look after the pufflings and on this day she is supposed to move them to a higher pasture but, on the day of this story, Titch and Huckleberry meet an injured warrior. A hare flying a hang glider. He has flown up to their plateau and he tells the startled mice his name is Prince Vetiver. If this was not amazing enough the prince is being pursued by horrid creatures called curseworms. They feed on colour and life. They want the gem Prince Vetiver has had attached to his staff. This gem (it is called a Heartstone) once belonged to Bravepaw. In the battle the staff is thrown down and in an amazing turn of events it is young Titch who picks it up. She is somehow able to wield the power of this precious stone and she manages to defeat the curseworms although they will attack again. What made this happen? Is this somehow linked to the story of Bravepaw? Could Titch have a destiny beyond her wildest imagination? Is this the beginning of the adventure she once craved and if so what other terrible dangers lie ahead? And what of the Prophecy:

When the sky fills with shadows

And all is turned to grey

Bravepaw will come.

When hope turns to ashes

And all have lost their way

Bravepaw will come.

The Heart will light the dark

Night will turn to day

When Bravepaw comes.

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

"The crystal at the top of the staff blazed into life. A wave of bright light burst from it, flooding the edge of the Plateau with a rainbow of colours. The curseworms were blown away from the warrior like apple blossom in a strong spring breeze."

"There were a strange band of maybe thirty creatures, many different kind. Titch saw frogs and lizards, a hedgehog, a shrew, a sparrow and even a pair of rabbits. They all looked of a type, though, with matted fur and rough, dirty clothes decorated with bones and insect shells. They shouted and hissed at each other as they walked showing off sharp teeth and clows."

These are the grabbers - they raid villages for valuables to sell at the Midnight Market.

"One of the grabbers - a one-eyed lizard - seemed to be in charge. He wore a toad skull on his head and walked at the front of the group, wearing a coat covered in pockets. Each pocket contained an earthenware flask or jar sealed with wax, and a large iron key hung from his belt."

This book is certain to be a CBCA 2025 Younger Readers Notable. We really need more junior novels like this - easy to read, short chapters, and an engrossing action packed story with very likeable characters and just the right amount of tension and drama. Bravepaw is the full package. I love the character names - even the minor ones like Hyssop Buttonbrow and the invented creatures such as the puffling (not related to baby puffins) named Dollop. Along with curseworms we also meet a huge creature called an eaglebear. I have a feeling the eaglebear will return in the second installment and that he will come to the aid of Titch and Huckleberry.

Here is the web page for LM (Lilli) Wilkinson. The illustrations are terrific too by Lavanya Naidu.

You can see the puffling Dollop in this illustration

This promises to be a fantastic illustrated series. Imaginative and full of fast-paced action, the characters are fantastic with carefully chosen names which makes things more exciting. Kids' Book Review

This enchanting tale is about friendship, bravery, believing in yourself and doing the right thing by others.  Filled with adorable characters, from the lovable Titch and her faithful friend Huckleberry to the oh so cute little Dollop. I'm excited to read the next book to see what adventures and dangers await this little trio as they venture on their quest to heal the heart of Alluria. Little Squirrels Booshelf

In the book, Wilkinson creates a richly imagined fantasy world in Alluria, complete with its own lore, magic, and mythical elements. The Heartstone of Alluria, a central plot device, hints at ancient powers and secrets that drive the story. This detailed setting invites readers to escape into a fully-realised universe that’s full of imagination. Better Reading

Here is book two:

I can see the Bravepaw series working so well as a steppingstone to other more complex animal hero and quest stories such as these:

The Legend of Podkin One-Ear

Poppy

Endling

There are fifteen books in this series (including a prequel)