Bravepaw and the Clawstone of Rotwood Mire by LM Wilkinson illustrated by Lavanya Naidu

Bookseller blurb: Titch and Huckleberry are on an epic quest. They have followed their hearts ... right into the path of a terrifying swamp monster, and a village full of brainwashed squirrels! Maybe their hearts aren't to be trusted? Maybe Titch is just an ordinary little mouse and not Bravepaw after all ...? But Bravepaw or not, Titch is not about to give up. Can she defeat the greedy turtle controlling the squirrels, and discover what his glowing green gem has to do with the legend of Bravepaw and her quest to save Alluria?

This is the swamp monster called a Bogbungler

It is wonderful scene when this slimy loathsome creature is defeated 

by Titch, Huckleberry and their new brave friend, a squirrel named Briar.

Image source: Instagram Lavanya Naidu

This book opens with the prophecy that you might remember from book one:

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.

Titch and Huckleberry have set out on their journey. They find themselves lost in a swampy area. Luckily a new friend named Briar arrives to help them but she then shows them something terrible. This area is a terrific place to find mulberries but somehow all the local squirrels have been enslaved by an evil turtle named Muskeg. Muskeg has a gem around his neck and this seems to be where is power comes from. Titch realised this is connect with the dreadful curseworms you might remember from the first book. At this point I need to stop and say you do need to read Bravepaw and the Heartstone of Alluria in order to make sense of this second installment. So once again Titch and her friends have to defeat several enemies and then find a way to continue their journey and fulfil the prophecy. 

Last night I re-entered the world of Bravepaw and the heroes Titch, Huckleberry and little Dollop. This is the second book in the series but so far I cannot find out how many more are planned. We discover in this second instalment that Titch and her team have to find all the 'Gems of Harmony'.  In this book they have found and restored the Clawstone. We also know they now have to go to the library city of Lexhelm where they will find clues about the other missing gems. So the way is open now for book three!

I was so disappointed Bravepaw and the Heartstone of Alluria did not make the 2025 CBCA Younger Readers Notable list but now it is even more important that you don't lose sight of this series. They should be added to your school library - a great quest, terrific writing, memorable characters, inviting covers, Australian, and perfect for junior readers aged 7+. 

Titch, Huckleberry and Briar are some of my favourite characters in contemporary children’s literature, and a series like this shows that children’s books can be timeless, they can be the kind of book that doesn’t attach themselves to a specific time or era. These can be very powerful, because rather than connecting with readers through a time, place, or items they can recognise, they use themes and what makes us who we are to connect us with the story and the characters.  The Book Muse

Better Reading list three reasons to read Bravepaw and the Clawstone of Rotwood Mire:

1. Who says you need to be a giant warrior to be a hero? Titch proves that even the smallest creatures can have the biggest hearts! She might be unsure at first, maybe she’s not Bravepaw after all, but one thing’s for sure: Titch won’t back down. She’s a great example that even when you feel small or ordinary, you’ve still got the power to be a hero. Plus, there are some magical gems along the way that might help too. Extra sparkles for that heroic flair!

2. The best part of any fantasy adventure? Magical prophecies that might come true! Titch needs to discover the truth about her quest, the legendary Bravepaw and the mysterious glowing green gem the turtle is wearing. What’s its connection to the fate of Alluria? How do the Gems of Harmony fit in? 

3. There’s so much mystery and wonder, you’ll want to unravel every single secret hidden in the pages.

Sure, there are monsters and gems, but the real magic in Bravepaw and the Clawstone of Rotwood Mire is the unbreakable friendship between Titch and Huckleberry. They stick together, face dangers head-on and remind us that being brave isn’t just about fighting—it’s about supporting your friends, no matter what. This story shows that the strongest heroes are those who can rely on their loyal friends!

When I read the first Bravepaw book I immediately thought of the Redwall series (and other heroic animal stories) and it seems this was one of the inspirations for Lili Wilkinson. That's great but I do hope she only plans to write three or perhaps four books for her series. There are 22 books in the Redwall series - I think I read about four or five before I lost my stamina.

Here is a quote from the teachers notes for the first book:

‘Bravepaw sprung into existence over breakfast with my fabulous publisher Susannah Chambers. Our kids are besties, and we were discussing their reading and play. My kid Banjo loves reading funny, silly books like the Treehouse series and Real Pigeons, but when he plays, it’s deadly serious, high-stakes adventure. I found myself longing to introduce him to the classic children’s fantasy that I loved as a child – Brian Jacques’ Redwall, Tamora Pierce’s Alanna and Isobelle Carmody’s Obernewtyn. But at the time he was still a bit too young for those. The Bravepaw series is an introduction to high fantasy for junior fiction readers. It’s got all the tropes, all the adventure, but packaged in an easy to read, early chapter book format, complete with Lavanya Naidu’s stunning illustrations.'

The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathi Applet

As the title suggests the setting for this story is a swamp in the east Texas bayou.  Sugar Man swamp is home to a number of animals but of importance in this story are two raccoons, a rare bird that mayb even be extinct, some alligators, dangerous rattle snakes and the Sugar Man himself. He is a bit like a yeti or a Sasquatch. Growing in the swamp are various wonderful tall trees and some very special sugarcane. From this cane you can make muscovado sugar.  Paradise Pies Cafe use this sugar to make delicious fried pies - fresh baked each morning.  Also waiting to be found in this swamp is an old car.  It is a 1949 Sportsman DeSoto

The true blue scouts of the title are two racoons named Bingo and J'miah. The live in the old car and when lightning strikes, the radio in the car springs to life with words of wisdom, warnings and a weather update. Right now, though, the most dangerous thing in the swamp as far as Bingo and J'miah are concerned is a large group of hungry wild hogs who are heading straight for the sugarcane. Our scouts need to warn the Sugar Man but how do you do this when he is asleep and likely to be real angry if woken too soon.

For the humans who live near the swamp there is another danger:

• Who is the enemy? Sony Boy Beaucoup who wants to drain the swamp.
• Who is the hero? It is Chap (full name Chaparral) who plans to save a boat load of money to pay off this vile man. It is Chap who plans to find that missing car, and the missing rare bird (Ivory-Billed woodpecker) and hopefully prove the Sugar Man is not a myth. But maybe this last part might not be such a good idea?

I adored, I am going to say that word again - adored reading this book.  I had read The Underneath by Kathi Appelt so I was very keen to experience another of her books. Oddly it has taken me almost a year to do this.

Can you imagine in taking 2 or 3 or 4 or even 5 story lines and tossing them all up in the air. I am sure you are visualising this as a huge tangle. NO Kathi Appelt does this with the ease of a consummate circus performer. Some how she blends all these story threads and gives her reader an utterly splendid story set in the swamps of Texas.

I knew from the beginning, from the very first chapter, I was going to enjoy this story. I read the whole book in one go while sitting on a train travelling to southern NSW. I think Kathi had me hooked with words and phrases such as:

nosiree
falderal
'Houston we've got a problem'
'It was glory hallelujah, get out the biscuits, my-oh-my-oh-my.'
'He was clearly up the tree without a parachute.'
'Those pies kicked their stripy booties.'

This book gives you such a strong sense of place and the people and it is so funny yet poignant too. Here is a description of Sonny Boy Beaucoup the man who plans to sell the swamp and turn it into a Alligator World Wrestling Arena and Theme Park.

"... the man was all decked out in a fancy blue and white seersucker suit with a red bow tie. He wore white wing tip shoes, with the thinnest socks Chap had ever seen. The socks were so thin, Chap could see the light-colored hairs of the man's legs through the sheer knit. How would they ever protect his ankles from the biting fleas that lived in the swamp?"

If you read this book with a group (and I'd suggest this would be a terrific thing to do) here are a set of Book Discussion questions from the publisher. You can listen to an audio sample of the first chapter here.

In a honeyed dialect, the omnipresent narrator directly engages readers, ricocheting between the hilarious human and critter dramas to a riotous finale.  A rollicking, ripping tall tale with ecological subtext. Kirkus Star review

As I sunk into the marshy land of the swamp, it was Appelt’svoice, that honeyed drawl, that I heard as if she were sitting beside me whispering into my ear, “All will be well, sister.”  And indeed, it was. Nerdy Book Club

There’s rollicking humor and wild adventure and zesty danger here, as well as a thread of poignancy to anchor us. There’s a marvelously complex web of folks and their enterprises, all unknowingly barreling towards one grand mash-up. And there’s a swamp to save, with its rich habitat hanging in the balance. All of this is told in a delightful, folksy, storyteller’s voice, with short (at times very, very short!) chapters that pop in on one scene, then switch to another locale, keeping us turning those pages to find out more. Orange Marmalade Books

Swimming against the storm by Jess Butterworth

According to a Cajun legend, loup garous wander around in forests and swamps of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana. These creatures have a man’s body and a wolf’s head... 

I do enjoy survival stories and oddly I also really enjoy books set around swamps. Swimming against the Storm fits the bill perfectly. Grab your wet weather gear and your courage - you will need both when you enter this book!

Eliza, her sister Avery and their mum and dad live in Coteville, Louisiana. Their backyard is the bayou. Mum and dad make their living from shrimping. As this story opens Eliza has turned twelve. This is the day Eliza can go shrimping. Her sister is only ten and so she is left behind. Avery is deeply disappointed and upset.

 Eliza has imagined this day for years but she is not prepared for the reality of the by-catch. There are crabs, fish of all sizes, plastic debris, shrimp of course and a beautiful sea turtle all caught up in the nets. Eliza is distressed to see the turtle is hurt and while her parents do gently put him back many of the beautiful fish are left to die on the floor of the boat. Eliza had no idea shrimping also meant the death of so many precious sea creatures.

The sisters have a great relationship but jealousy over the shrimping outing is a real threat. Avery tells Eliza she and her friend Grace have found something mysterious and interesting on a small island in the swamp. After the disaster of the shrimping outing Eliza is keen to reconcile with her sister so the two set off. First they travel in a small motorboat and then jump into a pair of kayaks. Avery leads her sister across a small island to a footprint.

There is a legend in the bayou of a creature called a Loup-garou. Have they found evidence this creature really exists?

Meanwhile an oil company are advising all residents to leave the area and find a different place to live because the land is subsiding and sea levels are rising. Leaving the area will mean the end for this small, close knit community.

This area is also famous for wild hurricanes. Eliza, Avery, Grace and their friend Huy decide to investigate the mystery of the Loup-garou. If this creature does live in their swamp then maybe they can save their home. This is an action packed atmospheric story. You will feel the wild wind lashing at your hair, the mosquitoes biting your exposed skin and the mud of the swamp sticking to your clothes and hair. I loved final scenes which are filled with tension as the hurricane rages and the kids race home ready to reveal the truth. The title is perfect. There is the real storm, the storm of corruption by the oil company and the storm between the two sisters which Eliza is desperate to heal.

Swimming against the Storm will be available in April this year. I would follow this book with titles by Carl Hiaasen such as Chomp and The Explorer by Katherine Rundell.

I also very keen to read these two earlier titles by Jess Butterworth:

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

Memorable, controversial, wonderful.

Elizabeth Bird SLJ Fuse 8

It's beautiful. It's simply beautiful. Like a love letter to the English language. Appelt's poetic style suits this prose novel achingly well. Becky's Book Reviews

I am not going to retell the plot of this book. If you click the review links above you can read them for yourself.  Instead here are my random thoughts about this book - a book I loved reading.

This book made me think of a series of threads which might begin as separate strands. Gradually a skilled person joins them together in a pattern. One thread, however, is short and disappears into the design very early. Another thread is totally wrong. It is the wrong texture, wrong colour and feels rough and damaged. It cannot be part of the pattern and yet it is now tangled and will be difficult to remove from the final design. One thread also feels wrong but by the time this weaving it finished the maker sees that it is just perfect adding an important dimension to the whole effect.

"The world is made of patterns. The rings of a tree. The raindrops on the dusty ground. The path the sun follows morning to dusk." (Chapter 65)

When you read this book I hope my thread analogy makes sense. To start you off the Calico Cat is the short thread.

Major Characters:
Calico Cat - her life is short but she is essential to the rescue of Ranger
Her twin kittens Sabine and the aptly named Puck
An old hound dog called Ranger
The man named Gar Face whose life is fueled by revenge and hate. "Hatred, like sweat, coated his skin. ... Do not cross his angry path. Do not."
Grandmother Moccasin the old snake trapped for a thousand years "a creature even older than the forest itself, older than the creek, the last of her kind."
The Alligator King - he is patiently waiting for the man to make a mistake.

I adore all the references to trees in this book. "Trees are the keepers of stories." Here are some which I love the sound of. Coming from Australia nearly all are unfamiliar to me. As Elizabeth Bird says through this beautiful writing:

"We hear the wind in the pines and the smell of the water."

Loblolly Pine
Tupelo
Blackjacks
Water Oaks
Sumacs
Longleaf Pine
Weeping Willow
Mulberry
Ash
Sugarberry
Juniper
Maple
Beautyberry
Chestnut

Kathi Appelt is also so skilled with her words on the actions of cats.
Sabine sees her brother step into the sun.  "She had awakened just in time to see her brother step into the sun's dim light, see him roll onto his back, see the beams of sun float onto his tummy. She had seen him smile up at the lovely light, seen his coat glow in the shimmery gold."

Puck is given a freshly killed mouse by the hawk. "Even though the mouse was already dead, he decided to kill it again, just to make sure. So he fluffed up his fur as much as he could ... arched his back to its full kitten height, and pounced on the lifeless body with all four paws. He battered it from side to side and tossed it into the air."

Sabine : "Soon she was completely absorbed in her personal bath, concentrating fully on licking every strand of her silver fur. She cleaned her paws, including between her toes. She reached over and licked her narrow back. She tucked her head and cleaned her soft-as-velvet belly. And every few minutes, she stopped and licked Ranger's long ears. He loved it when she did that."

One aspect of this book that I really enjoyed was all the tension Kathi Appelt created. I knew it would all be resolved and I could hardly wait to find out how.  One tiny example is when Puck finds himself on the wrong side of the river. His fur is coated with mud which hardens in the sun. Finally after many adventures Puck falls into the river. He can swim. He is okay. He sadly finds he is still on the wrong side of the river. "The only good thing to come out of his experiment in sailing was this: The cold water had loosened the last of the old mud, and his coat, though completely wet, was now completely clean."

I volunteer in a small library at a city Children's Hospital and last week I discovered I am allowed to borrow their books. I spied The Underneath by Kathi Appelt and I remembered reading her book Keeper. I am late in my discovery of The Underneath. It was first published in 2008 and won a Newbery Honor but I am very happy to report it is still available. One important point - make sure you read this book yourself first before giving to a young reader. As you can see from my set of labels it is violent and some scenes with Gar Face and his treatment of Ranger and the kittens are extremely cruel. I would suggest this book is for readers aged 10+. You can listen to part of Chapter one here.  Read this review for more story details and a different perspective. Here is the trailer.

Here is a very detailed review by Middle Grade Ninja. I was interested to read the way his review likens the story line to juggling plates. Here is an excellent interview by Uma Krishnaswami author of The Book Uncle and me.

The Underneath, as I said, is a violent story but it is also a love story and a story about loyalty, perseverance and promises. I would follow or pair this with Sounder by William H Armstrong, Shiloh by Phyllis Naylor Reynolds, Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls and for a book with a similar setting look for Chomp by Carl Hiaasen or Skink no surrender also by Carl Hiaasen. The evil of Gar Face reminded me of Zozo from Ollie's Odyssey.

Here is one more beautiful phrase from this book:
"And then, as if the lightning were a zipper in the clouds, it opened them up and let the water out. Buckets and buckets of cold rain, sheets of it. Rain that had traveled for thousands of miles."