Eat my Dust by Neridah McMullin illustrated by Lucia Masciullo

In 1928, Jean Robertson and Kathleen Howell broke the land speed record when they traveled from Perth to Adelaide 2824km in two days, nine hours and 57 minutes. They broke the record by five hours driving their Italian Lancia Lambda car.

"Intrepid, dynamic, pioneering, Jean and Kathleen broke down gender stereotypes by excelling at driving, discovering Australia by car, and conquering what was considered a male-dominated frontier." (endnotes)

Eat my Dust recreates the journey by these pioneer women. It also explores the bias/sexism of the times - against women.

"I bet you're back by dinnertime,' sniggers the official."

You could build a writing lesson around the power of the word choice here - sniggers.

Later we read this:

"You two are dreamin'. You'll get lost out there in five minutes and I won't be coming to find ya."

On the other hand - you are sure to be cheering when the two women blow a tyre and without a second thought they jump out of the car and quickly execute a repair. And when their car seems to fly through the air.  I love the colloquial Aussie slang too:

"The saltbush is a silver blur as they go like the clappers."

This book is certain to be a CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) Eve Pownall (non-fiction) notable title and I am sure it will also be shortlisted. Add this book to your library shopping list today and plan to read it to groups of students as soon as it arrives. 

Congratulations to Neridah McMullin for finding, researching and sharing this story. Congratulations to Lucia Masciullo for her fabulous illustrations - you can almost feel the heat and smell the dust. And finally congratulations to Walker Books Australia for publishing this book so children can read this story about the history of our continent. Read some review comments on their webpage. Also congratulations to Walker on teaming Lucia and Neridah together - just a perfect pairing of illustrator and author. Here are some teachers notes and an interview with Lucia Masciullo about this book. 

This is a story of perseverance and resilience, and an important yet relatively unknown part of Australian history. Read Eat My Dust! with your kids, it's a story that deserves to be celebrated.  Kids' Book Review

A great addition to any library ... Reading Time

With the 2023 CBCA Book Week theme of Read. Grow. Inspire still fresh in our minds, this is another story that allows young readers to meet the pioneers who followed their dreams, inspired others and  made something “abnormal” normal for today’s generations.  The Bottom Shelf

Lucia Mascuillo has a piece of art in our IBBY Australia Mini Masterpiece art auction (18th November 2023). 

I have talked about other books by Neridah McMullin:

Drover

Fabish

Evie and Rhino

And I have talked about these books illustrated by Lucia Masciullo:

Go Home, Cat!

Olive of Groves

The Imagineer

The Hole

Max Champion and the great Race Car Robbery by Alexander McCall Smith illustrated by Kate Hindley

Written in his wonderfully measured style of words, Alexander McCall Smith has created a gentle story about courage, goodness and honesty which will delight the hearts of younger readers. Blue Wolf Reviews

Here we have a brilliant junior novel. It contains all the right ingredients - cars, racing cars and running races, fair play and justice, goodies and baddies and a very, very happy ending. This is a book to enjoy in a family and it should be in every library collection too.

Max's grandfather repairs old cars but in his younger years he built cars and he branded them with the name Champion. Years ago Grandfather Gus took one of his cars, named Arabella, in a car rally from England to India. Until right near the end Arabella was winning the race but they had a serious rival named Adolphus Grabber.  Grandfather Gus still has no proof but he is fairly sure the engine failure close to the end of the race was sabotage and that Adolphus Grabber, who won the race, was to blame.

The Grabber family now live near Max, his mother and grandfather. As fate would have it Max finds himself in a running race up against Pablo Grabber. It is a relay race. Max is just about to take off on the final leg. "He didn't see Pablo - nobody saw him, because cheats are often very careful to make sure that nobody seems them cheating."

Everything finally comes to a head when Max and his mother are working at the Grabber mansion. His mother has been employed to make 2000 sandwiches. Max walks away to take a little rest from the sandwiches and stumbles into a room filled with stolen goods and now the chase is really on and it is time for the truth to be revealed.

Begin here and read a chapter sample and here is an audio sample which begins from page 7. The illustrations are just perfect by Kate Hindley.  Take a look at my review of Oliver and Patch.

I would follow Max Champion and the Great Race Car Robbery with The No.1 Car spotter series by Atinuke.  Take a look at Alexander McCall Smith's web site for a list of all his adult and children's titles. In our school Mike's Magic Seeds is still one of our most popular books and a real treat to read aloud.

Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam Up, up and away! by Tracey Corderoy and Steven Lenton

This is my third post in recent days about easy chapter books and here is another winner.

Mo Willems  “I only write 49 percent of the book and the audience puts in the rest,”

This mindset will help a young reader when beginning Shifty McGiffy and Slippery Sam - Up, up and Away!  This is one book in a set of seven from the brilliant publisher Nosy Crow and it is not the first.  There are also picture books about these characters. You can begin with this book as it does stand alone.

If you enjoyed any books from the Dixie O'Day series then this is the perfect book for you to pick up next.  There are three little stories in this book :

• Up, up and away!
• To Catch a thief
• The Mystery Parcel

In the first story our heroes have entered a race across the countryside.  They are driving their Bakemobile. Lots of their friends are also in the race which should be fun but then a serious rival arrives.  Red Rocket is driving a tank and he is well known for his cheating ways.  Our heroes do win on the day but not in the way you might expect.  This is a story to warm your heart and show genuine kindness in action.  

Tracy Corderoy has some excellent easy chapter books.  The Hubble Bubble titles are very popular in my school library. I have plan to read some of the earlier books about Shifty McGifty and his friend Slippery Sam.  My local library has two from the series so watch this space.  You can see one book here on Bookaboo.  In these books there is also plenty of cake to enjoy too and joyous colour illustrations by Steven Lenton.