Bailey Finch takes a stand by Ingrid Laguna

Bailey has a special friend - her dog Sheba. She takes Sheba for a run down at the creek near their home nearly every day. Bailey loves to climb trees and this bush retreat is her happy place but one day Sheba is badly hurt when she swallows some glass. Sheba is rushed to the vet but this incident means Bailey now looks more carefully at the creek. She sees all the dreadful litter and degradation of the natural environment. 

"Bailey found chocolate wrappers, old tennis balls, bits of foam, coffee cups, beer cans, a Coke bottle, rubber bands, string, plastic packaging and tinfoil."

A few days later when she visits the creek Bailey means a boy called Israel. He is a natural history walking encyclopedia. He talks about the birds and the frogs and even shows Bailey a photo of a platypus - but we do learn is a very long time since any platypus were seen in this area.

Bailey is a girl of action. Things are hard at home because her mum has died and her father has retreated into his grief. Bailey wants to reconnect with her dad and she hopes if she can inspire the community to assist with cleaning up the creek then he might notice her and move on from his deep sadness. Meanwhile she is also desperately worried about her precious dog because he seems to be getting worse not better. Every visit to the vet is so upsetting. 

Bailey and Israel visit the council office but they won't help them because they are too young so she and Israel decide to clean up the creek anyway. They make some posters and flyers and they invite the community to come on Saturday. It is a wonderful affirming scene when lots of people turn up and heaps of hessian bags are filled with debris and even better every one is keen to make this a regular Saturday event. 

I picked up this 2021 book because it was a Environment Award for Children's Literature, Fiction, 2022 winner.

Bailey’s desire for change stems from sentiment: the creek where she’d spend time with her parents, and her dog’s sickness from that same creek. If we all started to initiate the change needed in the places we regularly interact with, we can collectively make a difference – and Israel and Bailey’s friendship is a testament to this. Better Reading

This book is an easy read with that all important happy ending. I had one tiny quibble. Early in the story Bailey mentions giving her dog Sheba some chocolate cake - this is very dangerous. Dogs should not be fed any chocolate. I wonder why how the book editor missed this? I do like the cover. If you are studying local government with your class you could use Chapter 17 as a way to discuss the role of councils and local community activism. Here is an interview with Ingrid Laguna where she talks about this book. 

They Threw us Away by Daniel Kraus illustrated by Rovina Cai

Furrington Teddies DAMAGED MERCHANDISE

I am going to begin with some text quotes which might give you an idea about this story which some critics describe as a macabre fairy tale.

"Seeing a teddy move or talk might scare a person. That might make a teddy less likely to be chosen. And being chosen was all the teddies wanted."

"To a teddy, this was the meaning of free; being selected off the shelf, taken home and embraced by a child."

"Forever Sleep would make all scares float away. Teddy rumour had it that Forever Sleep felt like a child's hug that never ended."

"He peeked down at his body. It was strange to see himself outside his dark box. But all his parts were where they should be. He pudgy teddy limbs. His round tummy. His blue teddy fur. A tag was sewed to the seam at his side. MY NAME IS BUDDY, it read. Seeing his name printed like that made Buddy feel stronger."

"Buddy's clean feet passed across all sorts of revolting rubbish. Soiled, wadded napkins. Pastic bags inhaling and exhaling with the breeze. Fast-food wrappers wounded with ketchup. Cotton swabs yellowed with earwax. Baggies of dog poop. Apple cores, banana pees, bread crusts. And water bottles by the billions."

"The fifty gulls had turned into one hundred. ... They were so close, Buddy could make out ghastly details. Wings curling like cutlasses. Black beaks and talons extending like needles. Merciless eyes sparkling like stolen gems."

"They were still thaumaturgic Furrington Teddies with Real Silk Hearts and So-So-Soft fur. But it was also true they were lost in a harsh world. What it is took days for children to find them? Or weeks? How long could teddies last on their own?"

"Buddy widened his gaze. Scattered amid gutted packaging were the remains of dozens of Furrintgon Teddies. They'd been torn to pieces."

If you explore these review comments you can read more about the plot of They Threw us Away. 

Reflective children will revel in this thought-provoking world. Kirkus Star review

Someone, or something, is behind all that’s happened to the teddies and I have a feeling the identity of who, or what, that is will be an exciting one to learn. Thoroughly Modern Reviewer

I often ruminate over what “horror” for children really is. The media refer to it as “mystery”. Is it the gothic, dark old haunted house atmosphere? Is it confronting the fear of the loss of loved ones, abandonment, or persecution? Awake at Midnight

Publisher blurb: Welcome to The Teddies Saga, a gripping new middle grade trilogy from New York Times-bestselling author Daniel Kraus and illustrator Rovina Cai. Buddy wakes up in the middle of a garbage dump, filled with a certain awareness: he’s a teddy bear; he spent time at a Store waiting for his future to begin; and he is meant for the loving arms of a child. Now he knows one more thing: Something has gone terribly wrong. Soon he finds other discarded teddies—Horace, Sugar, Sunny, and Reginald. Though they aren’t sure how their luck soured, they all agree that they need to get back to the Store if they’re ever to fulfill their destinies. So, they embark on a perilous trek across the dump and into the outer world. With ravenous rats, screeching gulls, and a menacing world in front of them, the teddies will need to overcome insurmountable challenges to find their way home.

I do need to give a warning - nothing is resolved at the end of this book. I am heading off to find book two and book three because I desperately need to know about the fate of Buddy and his friends and I even more desperately need that all important 'Happy Ending'!!

I am so glad I read this book as an ebook because then I could highlight all the moving, poignant, and even disturbing passages. And I could make note of delicious words such as cockamamie, squirmy-wormy, and colour names such as chartreuse, verdigris, azure, amaranth, sinopia, feldgrau and amaranth. 

This book is disturbing yet somehow also compulsive reading. Take a look at the trailer from the publisher.  It is NOT a book for a young child which might be implied by the image of a teddy bear on the cover but it is a book that readers 11+ will find engrossing even though it is quite a violent and sinister story. You might think of Toy Story; Lord of the Flies; and Coraline. They Threw us away made me think of  Ollie's Odyssey.  I also thought about The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate diCamillo which I found oddly disturbing. The theme of identity and self discovery are also explored in Boot and The Last Human. 

Here are the next two books in the series:

The Creakers by Tom Fletcher illustrated by Shane Devries

"Impossible isn't real.  It's just in your mind!"

After reading a few long and intense books over the last week it was good to take a little break yesterday with The Creakers.  Tom Fletcher is famous for his book The Christmasaurus but I will confess I have not read this.  He is also the author of the popular picture book series 'The Dinosaur that pooped'.

When you see this book you may think it looks quite long but the 330+ pages have a largish text size and plenty of illustrations and this combined with a fast paced story means you will (if you are a reader in Year 2 or 3) look very impressive because you reading a 'long/fat' book but in fact you will be able to read this romp quite easily (and the grown-ups will never know!)

Lucy Dungston's dad has disappeared. Mum thinks he has left the family but Lucy is sure he will return.  One morning Lucy wakes up to discover her mum has gone too!  When she steps out onto Clutter Avenue it appears she is not alone with this issue - all the parents and other adults are gone. Overnight they have all disappeared.

At first this seems fabulous to the children.  Freedom to play, eat junk food, watch movies rated higher than PG and make lots of mess but Lucy and her friend Norman realise this is actually a crisis.  The pair investigate and discover hidden tunnels under all the beds in Whiffington. These tunnels lead to the home of the Creakers - a place called the Woleb - and it is these smelly, ugly creatures who have stolen all the parents.  But why?  And how? And what can Lucy, Norman and little Ella do?

With thirty short chapters and funny little asides** by the author I am sure this light-hearted fantasy will make you laugh and also cheer as Lucy sorts out this mess with her can do attitude, boundless energy and common sense problem solving.

Here are a few quotes from the text to give you an idea of this writing :

Lucy finds herself in the Woleb
"It was the strangest thing she'd ever stepped on. It felt warm, damp and squelchy, like standing on a giant tongue.  Yuck! thought Lucy. I wish I'd worn my slippers. That's the thing about having adventures in the middle of the night. You can never be fully prepared for them."

Lucy and Norman decide to use Ella in their plan to capture a Creaker.
"Now it's not very nice to use little girls as live bait to catch monsters, but, if you do ever have to, then it's always best to use an annoying little sprog like Ella, just in case they do actually end up getting snatched."

There is also an audio version of this book which would make a fun listening activity for any junior class.  Here is a review with more plot details.  Finally take another look at the word 'woleb' - have you discovered the truth.  This little trailer from Penguin makes The Creakers look a lot more scary than it actually is - take a look.

**"Ok, we're about to dive down into the Woleb with Lucy. Are you ready? You might want to go to the loo before reading this chapter. I'd hate you to have a little accident. No? Ok, don't say I didn't warn you. By reading on, you agree that the author accepts no responsibility for any toilet-related mishaps you may have as a result of being scared by the following chapter(s)."