Silver Linings by Katrina Nannestad

Nettie (Lynette) Sweeny lives with her three sisters and her dad on a farm. The year is 1952 and in a few months Princess Elizabeth will be crowned queen and shortly after this she will visit Australia and in particular rural Australia - coming to a town near where Nettie lives. Nettie's mum died in childbirth. Nettie longs for the love of a mother and so it is wonderful to read that when Nettie turns five her father remarries. Alice is a perfect mum to all the girls but especially to young Nettie. I think Alice is my favourite character in this story along with young Nettie of course oh and the wise bus driver. Here are some text quotes about Alice:

"Dinner is filled with happy chatter. Every time Alice puts her knife down, I weave my fingers in and out of hers. Eventually overcome by the thrill of having my own real mother, I slip out of my chair and hang off her neck. I spend the rest of the meal running my knuckles along the pearls on her necklace ... and planting kisses on her cheek."

"Alice gives us one more kiss, which makes the skin on my forehead tingle with happiness ... "

"Mum spends heaps of time sitting on the lounge or in bed because Billy's always hungry and needs a lot of feeding. She uses one arm for holding Billy, so there's always a spare one for wrapping around me and plenty of room for Muriel if she wants to snuggle up too. Which she does."

The Australian vernacular in this story is so endearing and I didn't tire of the sweet 'joke' about babies and storks and Nettie's sweet misunderstandings and earnest little letters sent to the stork asking for a baby. 

I wonder what readers from other places in the world will make of expressions like these:

'whacko the diddly-oh!'
'stone the crows'

chooks (chickens)

'ruddy cold'

'that's a porky' (tall tale or a lie)

crook (unwell)

yarn (a story)

duffer (fool)

This story has terrific descriptions of life in a small rural school. I really enjoyed the scenes where the kids are preparing their Christmas play and also getting ready to meet the young Queen Elizabeth. The importance of supporting neighbours during times of hardship and disasters such as floods is also a theme and there are references to the damage done to the minds of returning soldiers - which we now call PTSD. I think Aunty Edith may have had a Victorian upbringing - she has such strict beliefs about the behaviour of children. She is also attached to lace hankies and the importance of eating peas. There are some truly funny moments when Nettie uses her doll Fancy Nancy to voice her frustrations about Aunty Edith. Fancy Nancy can say all the naughty words that the children might think but they would never dare to say!

You will find a link to some very good teacher's notes here. Katrina Nannestead says: "This story is fiction but inspired by family history."

Publisher blurb: A new heartwarming novel set in 1950s Australia from bestselling author Katrina Nannestad. Nettie Sweeney has a dad, three big sisters, a farm full of cows and a cat called Mittens. But it’s not enough. She longs for a mother. One with a gentle touch and sparkles in her eyes. Instead, she has Aunty Edith with slappy hands, a sharp tongue and the disturbing belief that peas are proper food. When Dad marries Alice, all Nettie’s dreams come true. The Sweeney home overflows with laughter, love and, in time, a baby brother. Billy. The love of Nettie’s life. Then tragedy strikes. The Sweeney family crumbles. Nettie tries to make things right, but has she made everything so much worse?

An emotionally rich narrative with big, complex themes, told in a way that’s irresistibly immersive for middle-grade readers. Nettie is a captivating protagonist with a huge heart. While her naive innocence at the beginning of the book makes her immediately endearing, the resilience and courage she develops over the course of the book’s tragic events will earn her a special forever-place in readers’ hearts. Better Reading

I am adding this book to my list of CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) notable and short list predictions. This book will warm your heart, then break your heart and then on the final pages, while the sadness is still there, you will be given a small glimpse of a better future. This book is sure to become a classic in the same way Seven Little Australian's captured our hearts last century.  I recommend this book for readers aged 11+. Note there are some suggestions of domestic violence in the home of their neighbours the Parkes.

Other books by Katrina Nannestad - I have LOVED all of them.

The Girl who Bought mischief

We are Wolves

Rabbit, Solider, Angel, Thief

Waiting for the Storks

Olive of Groves

The Travelling Bookshop

A home for Goddesses and Dogs by Leslie Connor

Here is the publisher blurb: "It’s a life-altering New Year for thirteen-year-old Lydia when she uproots to a Connecticut farm to live with her aunt following her mother’s death. Aunt Brat and her jovial wife, Eileen, and their ancient live-in landlord, Elloroy, are welcoming—and a little quirky. Lydia’s struggle for a sense of belonging in her new family is highlighted when the women adopt a big yellow dog just days after the girl’s arrival. Wasn’t one rescue enough? Lydia is not a dog person—and this one is trouble! He is mistrustful and slinky. He pees in the house, escapes into the woods, and barks at things unseen. His new owners begin to guess about his unknown past. Meanwhile, Lydia doesn’t want to be difficult—and she does not mean to keep secrets—but there are things she’s not telling... Like why the box of “paper stuff” she keeps under her bed is so important...  And why that hole in the wall behind a poster in her room is getting bigger... And why something she took from the big yellow dog just might be the key to unraveling his mysterious past—but at what cost?"

I picked up this book because I really enjoyed another book by Leslie Connor - The Truth as told to Mason Buttle.  Earlier in 2011 I also read and thoroughly enjoyed Waiting for Normal.  Both are books I would add to my top 100 titles for senior primary and junior high school readers, but while I did enjoy A home for Goddesses and Dogs it did not hit the same emotional highs and lows I felt with these other two titles. Ms Yingling gave this book 3 stars out of five. Colby Sharp included this title in his list of best books for 2020.

You can listen to an audio sample from Chapter one on the US Publisher web page.  Warning (Chapter 26) - sensitive readers may find the description of the badly hurt baby goats very distressing.

An almost-orphan and a rescue dog share lots of heart in a winsome coming-of-age story. Kirkus

This novel will surely be a big and important story when it reaches the children who need it most. The Children's Book Review

Full of dogs, warmth and love, this is another great read from a talented author. Waking Brain Cells

Even though these are much shorter books and written for a slightly younger audience, I would pair A home for Goddesses and Dogs with these two books which explore the theme of dogs and their healing powers:

White Fur Flying

Waiting for the Magic

You should also look for Small Mercies which explores forming new relationships when children have to move in and live with other relatives after the death of a parent. 

Small Mercies

Lester's Dreadful Sweaters by KG Campbell

Before you read this book you need to notice the crocodile tail on the half title page swimming into the title page where he is fully revealed. This crocodile is heading for Cousin Clara's river side cottage. Luckily Cousin Clara is away but her cottage is consumed by the crocodile.

Lester hears the news and adds crocodiles to his list of "suspicious stuff starting with C." Then "he checked that his socks were even ...and combed his hair."  From this one page we can deduce so much about Lester. He is a neat freak. He likes things to be orderly and organised. He probably does not like change and his life which, until now, is safe and predicable.  Of course the arrival of Cousin Clara is sure to upset everything and if you read the title again you will certainly predict that these dreadful sweaters will be the cause.

Clara arrives with her knitting basket. She seems happy to sit and knit. No one is disturbed until the morning Cousin Clara presents Lester with a new sweater.

"It was shriveled yet saggy.
It had holes where it shouldn't
and none where it should.
It was a less-than-pleasant yellow
and smothered with purple pom poms.
It was DREADFUL."

Horror of horrors, Lester is forced to wear this ugly creation to school where he has to endure the whispers and taunts of his classmates especially Enid Measles who makes "a less-than-pleasant remark."

Lester is a problem solver - but he also a little sneaky.  "Later, Lester's sweater was discovered in the laundry, all stringy and shrunken."

Cousin Clara is not worried because she has plenty of wool. The next morning Lester is presented with another sweater:

"This one covered bits it shouldn't and didn't cover bits it should. It was an irksome pink and dotted with oddly placed upside-down-pockets. It was GHASTLY."

Lester wears this creation to school and suffers all over again. He needs to take action. Later the second sweater is discovered in the yard where it has been shredded by the lawn mower.

BUT Cousin Clara is unstoppable. She keeps knitting these dreadful sweaters in shades of pumpkin, olive and turquoise. The sweaters become a woolly mountain "of cruel colours, appalling polka dots, frightening stripes, starting tassels and things with six fingers."

Lester attacks them all. The scene looks like a massacre but there is one more and, oh no,  Lester is about to attend a birthday party for Enid Measles.  Remember his list of suspicious stuff starting with C?  One item on this list was clowns and Enid has clowns at her party. "Lester disapproved of clowns" but these clowns love his sweater. Have you spotted the solution to Lester's problem? Are we heading for that all important happy ending?

This is not a new book. It was published in 2012 but I am happy to see it is still available. KG Campbell is the illustrator of Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo along with some other books I need to explore. Lester's Dreadful Sweaters has a Kirkus Star review. In 2016 someone produced a musical stage production of this text. Here is a wonderful trailer. Read this detailed and thoughtful review by Elizabeth Bird in the School Library Journal. Here is a set of teaching ideas and book talk teasers. AND best news of all I found a Reader's Theatre script. Finally here is an interview with the author.

I would compare the character Lester with another boy who thrives on being organised - Alistair from the books by Marilyn Sadler.

If you enjoy books about sweaters, jumpers and knitting look for these in your library or take a dip into my friend at Kinderbookboard and her pins called Yarn Yarns.

The Zebra Wall by Kevin Henkes

I picked up The Zebra Wall because I adore Kevin Henkes. You might like to read my reviews of Junonia and The Year of Billy Miller.

The Zebra Wall has so much to recommend it but sadly it also has one low point.  I am going to explain this because this issue does worry me.  Two of the main adult characters in this book are smokers. This book was written in 1988 and I am sure we were aware at that time about the dangers of smoking.

In this story we follow the emotional journey of Adine the oldest girl in a family of five girls.  Baby number six is about to arrive and everyone is sure this baby will be another little girl.  The family have lovely rituals to celebrate a birth - they write lists of suggested names, the nursery walls are painted with a special mural and everyone celebrates with  delicious home cooked treats.  In some ways the Vorlob family feel little like the Silks.  Each child is given a name following the alphabet - Adine, Bernice, Carla, Dot and Effie. The new baby will have a name beginning with the letter F (Adine has set her heart on Florinda) and the mural is filled with thing starting with F just as for Adine when it was filled with things that started with A.

I imagine you have guessed the new baby is not a little girl.  He arrives quite early and is tiny.  Nothing is ready and so Mrs Vorlob says for now they will call him Baby.  To complicate matters Aunt Irene has moved into the house to help with the new baby.  Adine finds life with her eccentric, cat obsessed and seemingly thoughtless aunt very difficult and worse news of all is that Irene will name the baby.

There is some very special writing in this book that just made me sigh with happiness.  Here is an example. When mum and dad are at the hospital Adine cannot sleep (she is sharing her room with Aunt Irene) so she moves into their room.

"The room was empty, the bed made.  Adine pulled the spread and the blankets back and climbed under them, sinking into the bed like syrup.  She loved the spread on her parents' bed.  It was the color of tea with milk, patterned with bursting, deep gold chrysanthemums."

I wonder did Kevin Henkes write his famous book Chrysanthemum before or after The Zebra Wall? Actually he did!  Chrysanthemum the picture book was published in 1991.

Back to the issue of smoking.  During her pregnancy Mrs Vorlob does not smoke.  Instead she holds onto carrot sticks.  Sadly the moment she arrives home from hospital she takes up smoking again.  Adine is disgusted :

"Mrs Vorlob reached into the pocket of her peppermint-striped jumper and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and her lighter. Adine frowned.  She had hoped her mother wouldn't take up smoking again.  Pretend-smoking vegetables may have looked silly but at least they didn't stink and they were good for you.  TV commercials about cancer frightened Adine."

If you enjoy The Zebra Wall you might also enjoy Lavender by Karen Hesse and also The naming of Tishkin Silk by Glenda Millard.

Pie by Sarah Weeks

It sounds like a cliche but Pie is quite simply a delicious book.  I gobbled it up so quickly and, not surprisingly, it has made me feel the need to go out and eat a large slice of pie.

Aunt Polly is a brilliant pie maker.  So talented she has won the Blueberry Pie Medal thirteen times and the whole town has benefited from her talents.  People come from far and wide to 'buy' these delicious pies.  No money is involved though, because Polly likes to give the pies away.

"Why on earth would I charge people money for something that brings me so much pleasure?"

Since they cannot pay with money people leave produce for Polly in the form of pie ingredients but sadly as the book begins Polly has died.  Her loving niece Alice is utterly lost.  She herself has no real interest in making pies even though she has watched and helped her aunt for years.  Alice is lost without her special aunt and so is everyone in the town because Polly has mysteriously left the details of her pie crust recipe to her cat Lardo.  When the pie shop is ransacked and Lardo is catnapped Alice and her new friend Charlie employ their detective skills to get to the truth.

If you want to know everything about this book and read a bonus pie recipe review look at this blog - it is amazing.  Here is a set of discussion questions.

This book does contain fourteen pie recipes.  Some of them sound a little odd like Green Tomato pie and Peanut butter and Raspberry Cream pie but I do like the sound of the Buttermilk pie and the Peach pie.

This book reminded me of Bliss which I recently reviewed.  We also have Regular Guy by Sarah Weeks in our school library and I now discover there are more books in this series.