The Final Year by Matt Goodfellow illustrated by Joe Todd Stanton

that next year will be tough ...

that it's time to knuckle down and focus

that it's all worth it in the end

that it's the most important year of our 

lives so far and we need to act like it ...

that it's time for us to step up and become top of the school

that it's the final year.

You can feel the tone of this writing from this extract near the beginning of the book. It feels a little like a rap song:

See the take-aways and neon-washed litter?

The disfigured pigeons 

huddled under railway bridges and flyovers?

Taxis buses pizza-boxes vape shops?

This is not a place of labradors and lattes and electric Audis

this is a place of staffies and cider

and exhaust-pipe smoke,

a place of one foot in front of the other brother

cos what else ya goona do?

Nathan Wilder (Nate) has two brothers, Dylan aged nearly four and Jaxon aged eight, and each of them has a different dad. Mum had Nate when she was just seventeen. Money is very short but mum is sure she can win at the bingo. Mum also likes to drink. Nate didn't ever meet his dad he just knows his name was Nick and he looks a little like Jesus. Jaxon's dad was a bully and a bouncer and he liked beer, lots of beer. He is now in jail. No one is sure about Dylan's dad. Dylan loves spiderman and he a kid always on the move. Nate loves his brothers, but Nate is also battling his own very serious anger issues. 

Early on we discover, just four little words my pile of books to show Nate is a reader (and a writer). Nate sleeps in the lounge room of their tiny flat - how does a kid like this have books? Why are the books hidden? Later we read "when I need to chill I head to the library." and "I've read everything I can find by David Almond. ... His style like music like poetry." Nate especially loved The Colour of the Sun. (I have added it to my own to read list). Then joy of joys the book his Grade 6 class will study is Skellig.

Notice the title - The Final Year. It is the final year of Primary. Nate has one great mate Parker Smith or PS. But when the new classes are formed the friends are separated. PS seems to have perfect life. Clean house, parents with jobs, food - regular stuff. Nate on the other hand has, in some ways, become a parent to his two young brothers.

Mum's out cold still

the morning after Bingo

so I get the boys ready

like I've done a thousand times before.

At the end of Gade 5 Nate and his class visit the room where they will go next year:

The classroom 

belongs to the old Year 6

stinks of 'em

and I mean stinks.

Their fadin name-tags are peeling off drawers

their work is all over the walls

Nate gets the new teacher Mr Joshua. He has no idea but this is so wonderful. Mr Joshua may be very inexperienced, but he is so wise and he offers gentle and caring support to Nate. He also loves to include music into his classroom which made me cheer. 

The other issue at school is Turner - the school bully and his gang. And now PS seems to be friends with Turner. 

Turner's no learner

he'll fight and he'll burn ya

he's done things that can't be forgiven.

Turner man, Turner

those fists gonna earn ya

a stay in triangular prison.

It is heart breaking to witness the disintegration of the friendship between Nate and PS. Thank goodness for his new friend Caleb. Then everything changes because Dylan is really unwell - seriously very very unwell. You will gasp over these scenes.

How can my head

be so full of stuff, Sir

so full of sadness

so full of questions

so full of danger

so full of pain

yet I am so empty?

Here is a description from their journey to the school camp in Windermer:

As we get closer

the hills are whiter than they looked

snow everywhere

like someone's laid down feathers

on the shoulders of a new world.

This book will break your heart and then mend it again. Please try to find this book and read it then give it to your young readers aged 10+ or pop it on display in your school library. This is one of those truly special books that needs to be in the hands of readers. This might be my book of the year. Teachers will love Mr Joshua and also the subtle commentary about the idiocy of state testing of our students - hooray! When you share this book make sure you find the music for "Every little things gonna be all right" (Bob Marley) and play it with the sound up LOUD. Here are some very detailed teaches notes. Matt Goodfellow introduces his book.

Carnegie shadow judges' notes say:

The Final Year is about …

 • The importance of friendship

 • How it is possible to control your anger

 • The power of writing

 • Putting family above everything else

 • How teachers can be inspirational

 • Growing up

 • How tough life is for some young people

 • Putting a brave face on things

 • The importance of kindness

A poignant exploration of change and loss. Nate struggles to come to terms with the changes facing him in his home and school life during his final year at primary school. His best friend moves class and his home life becomes increasingly uncertain after the tumult and turmoil of his brother being rushed into hospital. Can Nate find his place among a fast-changing world?

Highly accessible, lyrical and life affirming, this is a must-have novel that will authentically resonate with so many under-represented children and perfectly captures what this crucial transition period feels like. As such, it is a must-read for adults as well as the children who will devour it. It will also resonate with children who have made that transition and perhaps help them with their own feelings, as well as encouraging them to write for themselves. Love Reading 4Kids

This incredibly powerful novel, written entirely in free verse, really packs a punch. Nate’s innermost thoughts burst from the pages, enabling readers to really connect with his intense feelings of pain, anger and love. Thoughtful black-and-white illustrations punctuate the text of this spectacular debut novel, which is a heart-wrenching and ultimately uplifting read. Book Trust

Next step for me is to find the sequel published early in 2025 because the final words of The Final Year are ... 

Companion book:

Motormouth (now out of print but is sure to be in many Australian school libraries)

Thunderhead by Sophie Beer

"The possibly dying part of the surgery didn't scare me. It was the deaf part that scared me. Life without music. Even though music is my life."

Thunderhead is a long way outside my 'reading demographic'. It is a Young Adult title and I mostly read books for ages 5-12; and it is filled with contemporary music references nearly all of which meant nothing to me mainly because I am 'too old' or I missed this experience during my own teenage years. I will say some reviewers (see the end of this post) disagree and I have seen this book recommended for ages 10+ but I think it will have greater appeal to readers aged 12+ in the early years of High School. 

Thunderhead did hold my attention but I think my reading experience was probably only set to about 30% because I could not really relate to the enormous number references to music and also, unlike most reviewers, I did find the angsty teenage friendship trials a little tedious even though I am sure this is probably how most teenagers really do feel as they navigate change and try to work out how to fit in. My own teenage years were agony but I do not want to dwell on or think about events from over fifty years ago. 

Here is the publisher blurb:

Meet Thunderhead: awkward, music-obsessed and a magnet for bad luck. Their favourite things in life are listening to records and hanging out with their best (and only) friend Moonflower. But Thunderhead has a big secret. And when Moonflower moves schools, they're faced with the reality of surviving the wilderness of high school alone. Make new friends? NOTHANKYOUVERYMUCH. As two big life events approach, Thunderhead posts playlists and heartfelt diary entries as an outlet to try to make sense of their changing world, to try to calm the storm brewing in their brain and to try to find the courage to unfurl their heart.

Here are some text quotes which did resonate with me:

"I care so much about what people think of me that it keeps me awake at night, remembering cringe, ridiculous things I've said, twisting myself inside out with embarrassment."

"Get up and speak in front of the class? I would rather eat my own shoe with tomato sauce and a pocket knife."

"Music is one of the only sources of true magic I can think of. You can put a song on and suddenly be engulfed in memories of when you discovered it or what you were doing when you first heard it. Songs are spells, woven with melody and lyrics."

"At first I was scared I was going to die. Which is a pretty heavy thing when you're still as tall as you were in Year Four. I'd like to die having reached the prerequisite height to go on a roller-coaster, thanks very much."

"Mr Dosun (the school counsellor) is a bumbling, good-natured guy who I'm fairly certain is the result of a bad magic spell and is actually a golden retriever in a human's body."

"I get so angry that I have to be a BODY. I wish I were some ethereal spirit, flitting through dimensions and the space-time continuum, not bogged down by being inside a mound of flesh that is falling apart."

"Approximately every seven years, every cell in your body has died and been replaced. ... I met Moonflower seven years ago, when we were in Year Two. In that seven years, every cell inside her body has died and been replaced by another. She is literally not the same person who I first became friends with."

The daughter of one of my friends works for our Australian radio station called Triple J - even though she is way older than the intended audience for Thunderhead I kept thinking she would really enjoy this book so I think I will send her the details. Unlike me, she is sure to know 100% of the music references and her teenage years are recent enough for the trials and tribulations of friendships and the desperate need to 'fit in' to still resonate. 

Readers can find all the songs from this book via a Spotify list but since I don't have an account with this service I was unable to add this layer to my own reading. You can however listen to samples of the tracks. There are over 180 tracks because each entry in Thunderhead opens with a list of five or six tracks that reflect the themes or her feelings as she goes through her complex life journey. 

Thunderhead is sure to be a CBCA 2025 Notable title - hopefully in the Older Readers category.

This is the album Thunderhead really wants to own:

Here is an interview where Sophie Beer talks to Joy Lawn (Paperbark Words). Allen and Unwin list some famous author endorsements for this book on their webpage. 

Click each of these review links for more plot details:

It’s a difficult review to write, without giving away too many of the secrets and twists but I can assure you that this is one fabulous and moving novel. Just so Stories

I loved this book, because it was lovingly and thoughtfully created with personal experience and excellent research. It’s one of those books that I couldn’t put down, and that comes to life vibrantly on the page. It’s full of heart and soul, music and joy, family and friends. It will make you laugh, cry, and cheer, and get into your heart and soul. Feeling seen and understood in the books you read is a powerful thing, and we need to have more awesome disability representation like this. The Book Muse

And music itself is a character in the book. Every chapter begins with a playlist – Playlist for Luck, Playlist for New Friends, Playlist for Staring Big, Awful, Scary Things Right in the Eyes. Beer cleverly establishes Thunderhead’s long term love of music via intergenerational influences to ensure the lists don’t date the book, with everything from Nina Simone, to Taylor Swift, to mxmtoon. Storylinks

Here is the webpage for Sophie Beer where you can see her previous picture books. It is fun to link her new Upper Primary/High School book Thunderhead with her work on the Little People Big Dreams title about Elton John. Sophie Beer did all the art in Thunderhead and at times this gives the book a graphic novel feel. 

The Falling Boy by David Almond

"There were battered faded signs. KEEP OUT. NO ENTRY. 

BEWARE DANGER OF DEATH. One had a silhouette of a falling boy on it."

"Beyond it was the wasteland - shrubs and scrawny trees and brambles and rubble and dusty ground. And old tombstones, lopsided, broken, lots of them topped to the earth. Then the chapel itself. Ancient, crumbling. The roof was shattered and the spire was nearly gone. Most of the windows were bricked up, the huge front door had bars and boards across it."

It is the summer holidays. Obviously these warning signs mean nothing to the local kids. In fact they have meant nothing for several generations as the graffiti inside attests. The kids call this place the Chapel of Doom. There had been plans to use it for a restaurant or a club or a community centre or a museum or even restore it as a church but nothing had happened for decades.

Joff does have a lot going on in his life - high school starts soon and worse dad is very ill. 

"I wanted this stupid rotten time to be over. I wanted to feel happy and strong like I used to feel. I wanted to be the proper Joff Johnson again."

David Almond explains he was going through his own cancer journey when he wrote this book which is dedicated to a hospital where he lives in Newcastle-on-Tyne. 

I did keep thinking something dreadful was going to happen (you need to read this book to see if I was right). David Almond gave me some serious story hints such as crows flapping out through the shattered roof as Joff enters the building. Then we read that his dad told him there used to be a golden angel on the spire but it had flown away years ago. And then these words which gave me a jolt:

"There were painted scenes high on the walls from when the church was in use. ... You could just about see the saints with bits of their halos, and angels with bits of their wings, and fragments of Heaven though God disappeared long ago."

There is also the mystery of Dawn's deceased brother. 

David Almond writes books that, while not too difficult to read, contain very deep themes that are sure to give readers plenty to think about long after the book is finished. No wonder he won the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Medal. I was left with some unanswered questions in this book - but that is a good thing - readers do not need to have all the answers. I also felt a lot of internal tension reading this book - expecting a dreadful outcome - maybe I was wrong to feel this?

I wanted to compare The Falling Boy with Skellig.

I read Skellig decades ago. It was published in 1998 and so I am sure my memories are fragmented and incomplete but I did keep thinking there are links between this newest book by David Almond - The Falling Boy and Skellig (winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year Award). 

• Both stories feature a lonely boy - Michael in Skellig and Joff in The Falling Boy
• A loved family member has a serious illness - Michael's sister in Skellig and Dad in The Falling Boy
• The boy makes friends with a girl - Mina in Skellig, Dawn in The Falling Boy
• The girl has a role in healing the boy or helping him navigate difficult times
• There are issues of bullying
• The setting in both books include an old disused building - in the Falling Boy it is an old church
• The ending of both books leave readers with a sense of hope and renewal

The Falling Boy blurb from the author page: Nothing is the same for Joff this summer. His dad is ill, his mam is working, there’s a new kid in town. He can’t wait to escape each day and explore with his dog Jet. But there’s one place he’s not allowed to explore. Above the town sits the Chapel of Doom, ancient and crumbling, with its warning signs and the legend of the Falling Boy. And when Joff’s adventures take him beyond the boundaries he discovers something unexpected, something truly magical …

There are at least two falling boys in this new novel from David Almond. The first appears in silhouette on the danger sign as Joff approaches the ruined Chapel of Doom above his village. The second is Joff himself, on the verge of secondary school, tumbling and flailing into a pit of confusion and despair as his beloved dad (perhaps a third falling boy?) undergoes treatment for cancer. If you have read any of Almond’s novels before, you might know how this might work out. Books for Keeps

The Falling Boy is about Joff, a boy in the north-east whose Dad is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer of the colon. Joff has friends, he has an enemy, and he meets a girl who doesn’t quite fit in. It is the start of the summer holidays, and Joff spends time visiting an abandoned chapel – the Chapel of Doom – the one he went to with his Dad before he fell ill, and plays there. This is where the title of the book comes from, as the chapel is rumored to have been the site of a boy falling to his death, and is now an angel. A myth? A legend? Just Imagine

Here are some books I previously mentioned for readers to explore after Skellig:

The Amazing Mind of Alice Makin

Angel Creek

Six Summers of Tash and Leopold by Danielle Binks

The title of this book is quite intriguing. You need to think about it both before and after reading this newest book by Danielle Binks. Before reading the title made me think was a Young Adult title - perhaps a first love story. And after reading this proved to be untrue. Also, the name choices are interesting. One is an abbreviated name and the other a full name. This could say Alytash and Leopold; or Tash and Leo.  As for the six summers you need to read the beginning of the book carefully to understand this idea. 

Tash's real name is Alytash Simons (a name I had no idea how to pronounce as I was reading) but she prefers to be called Tash. Leopold Zając has many names. His mum calls him Myszko which means mouse in Polish. His Uncle Alek calls him Lew which means lion also in Polish but in reality, he just wants everyone to call him Leo. Oh, and it would be great if everyone took the trouble to learn how to say his last name: Zye-onse.

Tash is unwell and has been in hospital for extended periods. She is sure her cancer will return, and she is terrified of this. This partly explains why, after years of friendship, she now seems to have rejected her friend Leo. She does not want to think about her life before or be reminded that she is 'the cancer girl'. Tash is staying home for now and homeschooling. 

Leo has his own demons. Dad has had to move away to live with his own parents in Western Australia because his gambling addiction has nearly ruined their family. Leo misses him dreadfully. 

As this story opens as Grade 6 is ending and so over the coming months Leo will start high school but instead of going to the local public comprehensive one, he has won a scholarship to the prestigious Como College. Leo is worried about leaving his only friend Rami and he is also dreading the long journey to reach this distant school each day. And he knows he has to live up to his mum's expectations. Then Leo discovers he simply cannot go to school. He is not deliberately avoiding high school but his anxiety is so acute he simply cannot attend. He can do his schoolwork at home but he simply cannot leave the house to catch the train. 

At the end of Grade 6 a couple of significant things have happened. Leo experienced his first dreadful panic attack and to make matters worse this happened in front of all the Grade 6 kids at the end of year waterslide day. Tash has not spoken to him in over a year and then suddenly she wants his help to deliver a letter to a lady, Mrs Shepparson, who lives nearby.

Mrs Shepparson has her own terrible life issues to deal with. Her son died aged twelve in the storm water drain, she is suffering from acrophobia, and developers are harassing her wanting to buy her sweet little house which is full of memories and colours. The only company she has is her dog named Rosie. And those letters (there seem to be lots of them) are a mystery. Then tragedy strikes and it seems the developers are to blame. All these things need to come together. Leo and Tash need to get to know Mrs Shepparson; Leo and Tash need to heal their friendship; and the bullying by the developers of the new housing estate must be uncovered and stopped.

Danielle Binks creates a strong sense of place in her book although it is fairly Melbourne centric. Having visited a few Melbourne suburbs (I do not live there) I could, however, easily visualise the street, culvert and storm water drain which are the main focus of the story. I read that the real suburb is Noble Park in Melbourne.

Blurb: Alytash and Leopold - Tash and Leo - are neighbours who used to be best friends, but aren't anymore, for reasons that Leo doesn't entirely understand. But now it's the last week of Year Six and Tash is standing in Leo's front yard with a misdelivered letter - and a favour to ask. It's a request that will set off a chain of events in their little crescent in Noble Park, a suburb that is changing, and fast. As they solve an unfolding neighbourhood mystery and help Ms Shepparson, a reclusive neighbour with a tragic past, Tash and Leo each has to confront fault lines in their own recent histories and families. They will discover that friendships can grow and change, that bravery takes many forms, and that, most of all - whatever the future holds - friends and family are what matter.

I think readers aged 11+ either at the end of Primary school or in High School will enjoy Six Summers of Tash and Leopold. I do like the cover. My label for this book is Young Adult - I wonder if this book has been submitted for the CBCA Book of the Year Awards 2025 and if it has, I think it might be a notable title.

Here are a few text quotes:

"I think it's a pretty good test of a friendship, being apart for a while and coming back together again, seeing if it makes you feel more or less like yourself."

"The past can never be changed, but 'history' is ongoing - we try to understand what happened, and we find new evidence or new accounts that fill out our understanding and provide new context. Which means history is an ongoing conversation that we can always learn more about, but the past is a fixed point that's just kind of there waiting for us to dig up and better understand. "

"Everyone keeps telling me that the cancer isn't back, that I've been given the all clear,' she made bunny rabbit air quotes with her fingers, ' but all I can hear is yet."

"It's easy for historians - they look at the past like rewinding a movie, able to skip backwards and forwards seamlessly so that all the events line up and make sense, dominoes falling in place along the timeline. Uncertainty doesn't factor in once the story's been written, and it's easy to forget the people in the middle of all that history, who never knew whether or not things would work out in the end."

Reading reviews of Six Summers of Tash and Leopold I made some discoveries - things I might not have thought of:

1.  It is essential to turn back to the beginning of this book and re read the letter Leo writes to Tash, which is how the book begins and yes, it is how the book ends too. 

2. The publisher has likened this book to Bridge to Terabithia and I thought oh no surely not but - well you need to discover why this is actually one book you could connect with Six Summers of Tash and Leopold.

Read this extensive interview with Paperbark Words and Joy Lawn. 

Review quotes:

This is really a book that displays the human condition at its best and worst, and we just love the characters all the more, for it. Both Tash and Leopold are authentic kids who we care deeply about, and they live on long after the book is finished. Fabulously for a YA novel, the conclusion makes you re-open the book at the first page to read again what you have already absorbed – a genuinely brilliant inclusion.  Kids' Book Review

The Six Summers of Tash and Leopold is also filled with wonderfully diverse characters. Leo has Polish heritage, Tash has mixed race South African heritage, and the peripheral characters come from various backgrounds: Rami is Indian, Fatemah has Muslim heritage, and the librarian at their primary school is non-binary. The Book Muse

As they solve an unfolding neighbourhood mystery and help Ms Shepparson, a reclusive neighbour with a tragic past, Tash and Leo each must confront fault lines in their own recent histories and families. They will discover that relationships can grow and change, that bravery takes many forms, and that, most of all – whatever the future holds – friends and family are what matter. Buzz Words

I do, however, need to do a little nit picking about this book. I really did not understand why the Primary School Teacher-Librarian was a non-binary person with the courtesy title Mx Chambers. I'm always happy find a kind, sympathetic, and in this case, wise teacher-librarian in any story or school library, but I found this character label inclusion a little contrived. I did do some research because this term was new to me, in fact at first I thought it was a typo, and here is what I discovered: Mx. is a title that indicates neither marital status nor gender. The Reading Time reviewer agrees with me about this small point. 

Speaking of typos - sorry I did warn you I was going to be a bit picky - if you have this book in your hands turn to page 225. I feel there might be a word missing from this sentence. It is not crucial to the plot but it confused me:

"At that, I threw my arms around Tash - pinning her own in place if only so I could help warm them - and I felt her turn her head and rest her cheek atop my head."

Is this meant to say pinning her arms in place? or pinning her hands in place? We have read in the previous section that it is winter, and they are both quite cold.

One more problem - sorry again. Leo and his former friend Rami are library monitors, or as they are called in this book Library Leaders. Clearly Danielle Binks does appreciate libraries. The Primary school library sounds terrific in contrast with the non-staffed, high tech, impersonal, and 'all for show' posh high school library. Early in the book Leo quotes his mum who quotes Professor R David Lankes - 

"Bad libraries build collections, good libraries build services, great libraries build communities."

I watched this video by Danielle Binks from her Instagram page and I know she deeply appreciates school libraries but there is a small error in her story (well it feels like an error to me). Some libraries use little paper slips to record the date a book is due back - this was certainly a standard library procedure in the past. The little slips are called date due slips, not catalogue cards. As a teacher-librarian this sentence gave me a bit of a jolt (sorry I know this is so trivial). You can see examples below.

"Over the break I received a letter in the mail ... from Librarian Chambers. I guess they meant to give it to me at graduation, but then I didn't go. It was an old-school library catalogue card - the ones that used to be taped into the back of library books to show how many times a title had been borrowed, before everything got digitised."

Date Due slip ready for date stamping

Cards in a card catalogue

Companion books:

Grace Notes

The Year Mrs Montague Cried

The Honest Truth

Exit through the gift shop

A Good Night for Shooting Zombies

Stand on the Sky by Erin Bow

"Aisulu's family had always kept eagles: her oldest uncle had hunted with eagles, and her grandfather, and her great grandfather. Her people were nomads who moved with their hers across the mountains of Western Mongolia, and their life could be harsh. And yet it was glorious, and it was sweet, and it had eagles. ... In the fall they went to the Eagle Festival and came home with medals and honour."

"She did not look like an eagle hunter, in a dark thing with bright stitches. She did not look like a poor girl, with a small frame and chopped hair. She looked like something brand new. She looked like a hero. She looked as if she could stand on the sky."

Here are the opening scenes from Stand on the sky:

"There was no sign of Serik's horse. Aisulu and her brother, Serik, had searched for almost two hours ... Above them the sky was high and huge and bright, wheeled with birds."

"Serik stood with his head tipped back. He was watching the birds circling overhead. They were huge and black against the sky, a pair of golden eagles."

The pair of eagles are out collecting food for their newly hatched chicks. The children climb higher into the mountains looking for the lost horse but in the meantime a storm is gathering. A dangerous storm. Luckily, they find a stone shrine which gives them a place to shelter.

"Skerik was wearing a sweatshirt and a denim jacket and jeans and sneaker with the Velcro worn out. Aisulu's hand-me-down shapan was just corduroy and felt padding ... Neither of them was dressed well enough to survive a blizzard and they both knew that."

The children do survive and so do their horses but:

"Something was wrong. She looked down the northern slope. She saw the meadow blazing white, shadowless. Then she saw that scattered across the hard snow were birds. ... They were all dead. They were all dead, hundreds of them, scattered everywhere."

And among the dead birds the children see the golden eagle feeding on the little dead song birds. Sereik decides he can catch this eagle but as he attempts this he breaks his leg. Aisulu knows Sereik's secret. His leg is not just broken - he is unwell. Aisulu has to get her brother back to their camp. She knows she is leaving the eagle to die but what about those chicks?

You can read more plot details following links below but I really suggest reading this book first so you can let this engrossing story unfold as a wonderful reading experience. I will make special mention of one memorable character though - the wife of her Uncle Dulat - she is from a different ethnic group and is called Fox Wife. Her kindness towards Aisulu is a part of this story that lingers with me. Stand on the sky is another of the books I read on my recent holiday on a Kindle. 

On my flight while I read this book the airline kept showing an advertisement featuring footage from the documentary The Eagle Huntress. Just as aside I have no idea about the name of the bank even though I watched this advertisement multiple times on four different flights. It felt a little strange to be reading a book with the same setting and plot as the advertisement. At the time I did not know the ad was using footage from the documentary The Eagle Huntress (see images below). 

Publisher blurb: It goes against all tradition for Aisulu to train an eagle, for among the Kazakh nomads, only men can fly them. But everything changes when Aisulu discovers that her brother, Serik, has been concealing a bad limp that risks not just his future as the family's leader, but his life too. When her parents leave to seek a cure for Serik in a distant hospital, Aisulu finds herself living with her intimidating uncle and strange auntie — and secretly caring for an orphaned baby eagle. To save her brother and keep her family from having to leave their nomadic life behind forever, Aisulu must earn her eagle’s trust and fight for her right to soar. Along the way, she discovers that family are people who choose each other, home is a place you build, and hope is a thing with feathers.

In the interest of a balanced review please read these comments by Kirkus about this book and the involvement of women in eagle hunting. Putting this to one side, though, I thoroughly enjoyed Stand on the sky and I would put aside the issues of gender and just cheer Aisulu and her heroism to save and train this young eagle and her amazing courage to compete against older and more experienced hunters. 

As I mentioned you may have seen the 2016 movie documentary The Eagle Huntress - here are two images from the movie:

(This) is a story of strength, courage, and resilience that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt abandoned, alone, or doubted themselves and their place in the world. While researching the book, Bow spent a summer living with a Kazakh eagle hunter and his family and enlisted the help of Kazakh readers to ensure she got things right. Her writing is both lively and elegant, drawing the reader along on Aisulu’s quest and building toward the moment when she will learn if she has what it takes to be a true burkitshi. Bow delivers a jubilant tale that celebrates the power of family, love, and young women. Quill and Quire

Read this review for full details of the plot (warning this does contain spoilers)

Readers will love the relationship between Aisulu and her eagle Toktar. They will love the connection between girl and bird and reading about how the two learn together and grow together. It’s simply a beautiful story masterfully told, from beginning to end. Pamela Kramer

Ms Yingling also loved this book.

Here is a CBC interview with Erin Bow and audio interview when she ran the Governor General award. And here are some discussion questions. Read an extract from the book here. 

Awards for Stand on the sky:

• Winner, Governor General’s Award for Young People’s Literature — Text, 2019
• Short-listed, Rocky Mountain Book Award (Alberta Children’s Choice), 2021
• Short-listed, IODE Canada Violet Downey Award, 2020
• Short-listed, Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Award, 2020
• Commended, Best Books for Kids and Teens, Canadian Children's Book Centre, 2019
• Commended, OLA Best Bets, 2019

Companion book:

Running on the roof of the world

Here is a previous book by Erin Bow that I really enjoyed:

Simon sort of Says

The Letter with the Golden Stamp by Onjali Q Rauf

Audrey lives with her mum (Mam) and twin younger siblings. Things are very tough for the family and Audrey knows it is her job, even though she is only nine years old, to keep everyone safe. To do this she has to keep her mum's illness secret. And she has to be sure the authorities (Them) don't find out about mam or the bills they can't pay or their shortage of food. Her days are a roller coaster of emotions as she assesses her Mam's pain levels, wrangles her brother and sister and tries to maintain a web of lies with her two best friends. There is one person, though, who brightens every day - Mo the postman. Audrey collects stamps and Mo brings her all sorts of interesting ones he also has a cheerful smile at her door each morning. I love the way everyone recognises his door knocking pattern. The doctor also does home visits and so he tries to help especially when the pain medications need increasing but things are coming to a head for Mam and Audrey.

Mam's bedroom is upstairs and the bathroom is downstairs. Mam finds it so hard on some days to go up and down. Audrey calls these nightmare days. The doctor tells Mam - in a conversation overheard by Audrey, that Mam needs a wheelchair, a stair lift and they need to add an ensuite bathroom upstairs. But how could they ever possibly afford even one of these things? There is government assistance, but this could take up to a year and Mam needs these things now. 

"After I made up my mind to get Mam everything she needed for the doctor's orders, I tried to think of what I could do to afford them ... I knew we needed thousands of pounds - electric wheelchairs and getting a whole bathroom and a stairlift would probably cost more than everything we owned all put together. So I made a list of all the things I might try ..."

Audrey thinks of winning the lottery - but she has no money for a ticket and she is too young to buy one anyway. Holding a bake sale - but she cannot cook and has no money for ingredients. Do a sponsored run - but who would sponsor her for thousands of pounds to run around their small town?

Adding to the pressure strange people have moved in across the road and Audrey is convinced it is THEM - the welfare authorities sent to spy on the family.

Audrey's dad left two years ago. Audrey is Welsh, so she calls her dad Tad. Just as a side note Onjali who has Bangladeshi heritage now lives in Swansea, Wales. I enjoyed the way she added Welsh words - just a few - into this story. Every Christmas the children receive every item on their Santa wish lists. Audrey is sure these expensive and generous gifts come from Tad. Audrey is a problem solver. Her Mam needs help. The family need money. Tad must be rich. She finds an old envelope with his address. Surely if Audrey writes to Tad and explains their dire circumstances, he will rush to help them. Mo helps with the posting. The letter is sent. But then just a few days later it is returned with red 'return to sender' stamps all over the envelope. 

This story is told in the form of a police confession. Audrey has done something quite desperate to try to reach her Tad. She recounts the events leading up to her wild postal journey and the desperate chase by the authorities as they try to catch her. By the end of the book I was sobbing! One of the reviewers below uses the word 'compelling' and that is SO true. I just kept turning page after to page desperate to find out what Audrey did that led to her interview at the police station and also desperate to reach, what I hoped would be, a happy ending. I think readers aged 10+ will really enjoy this personal recount of Audrey's journey to help her mother and her family. The writing style may be very different from other books but it is well worth persevering until the rhythm of the writing feels natural - this is what happened to me as I was reading. 

Through Amy’s vivid storytelling we get a beautiful sense of the characters and the warm local community around her and especially of Mo, the local postman who keeps secret his own hidden support for Audrey and her family. The author explains her own fascination with stamps and her admiration for these community champions and I can see this gem of a book inspiring a whole new generation of letter writers. Love Reading4Kids

The story is very compelling, and Audrey makes a brave, funny, kind protagonist. Despite the serious subject, it’s a fun, fast-paced easy read with a very hopeful ending.The book shines a light on the challenges faced by over a million young carers in the UK. Book Trust

Publisher blurb: Deep in the heart of Swansea, Wales, lives a small girl with some big secrets to keep. Secrets that make her one of the best actresses on the planet – because no-one would ever think that, away from school, Audrey is the sole carer for her increasingly sick mam and her two younger siblings … or a seasoned thief. With her worlds threatened by the arrival of a mysterious, invisible neighbour, behind whose closed curtains and shut front door may lie a spy, Audrey must take matters into her own hands to save her family. Inspired by her beloved collection of stamps, her friendly neighbourhood postman (and fellow stamp collector), and her two best friends, off Audrey must go: on an adventure that will lead her to places – and hearts – she never knew existed.

Just look at that cover of The Letter with the Golden Stamp - I knew I HAD to read this book and then I saw the author. I really, really enjoyed four of her previous books:

The Boy at the Back of the Class

Night Bus Hero

The Star outside my Window

The Lion above the Door

In a couple of days I will talk about a new Australian book - The Kindness Project by Deborah Abela - it would be a perfect companion book to read after The Letter with the Golden Stamp.

You might also look for these:

The Meaning of Maggie

The Honest Truth

The Lorikeet Tree by Paul Jennings

Twins - are they always friends? Do they share interests and abilities? Not necessarily. Emily and Alex are twins but they are also very different from one another. Emily loves literature, writing and nature. She is afraid of heights. Emily anticipates consequences of the actions of others. Alex is fantastic at building and maths. He loves constructing crazy structures. He has the idea that his actions can make things change. This is an echo of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Little Match Girl. 

Five kittens are born to a feral cat under their house. Alex needs something to love. Emily knows a cat will mean trouble for the beautiful wild creatures, especially the birds, that have found refuge in the forest the family have created around their home. 

Years earlier their mother has died and now the twins have to cope with the desperately sad news that their father has an inoperable brain tumour.

The structure of this book is simply wonderful. Emily is writing a memoir as a school assignment and so each section is divided with a teacher feedback page which grades her work. The memoir format gives this book so much honesty.

This is a beautiful story told in a very unique way. ... With rich characters who reveal ALL their flaws, it’s the kind of book kids will read and remember forever. ... I am forever changed after reading it, and you will be too. Kids' Book Review

This morning I headed off to my local independent book store where I picked up a great stack of middle grade book and Young Adult. In my next post I will list all of the titles because they will be my reading for February.  

I couldn't wait to read this latest book by Australian master storyteller Paul Jennings. By coincidence I had read a review of this book this morning over breakfast also by coincidence this book was released today! As with other recent novels by Paul Jennings I was immediately engulfed in this story and yes, I read the whole book in one sitting - it felt like I stopped breathing!

Publisher blurb Allen and Unwin: A sister and brother face the hardest year of their lives and discover the healing power of nature in this compelling tale from master storyteller Paul Jennings. Emily loves the bush and the native animals on her family's reforested property, particularly the beautiful rainbow lorikeets that nest in one of the tallest trees. But then her father is diagnosed with a terminal illness, and Emily's world enters a tailspin. Her twin brother, Alex, refuses to accept the truth. His coping mechanism is to build elaborate additions to his treehouse in the superstitious belief that it will avert disaster - leaving Emily to deal with harsh reality on her own. When Alex secretly adopts a feral kitten, going against everything that's important to Emily, the siblings' emotions reach boiling point - with potentially dangerous consequences for them all. A moving story of family, loss and love, from one of Australia's most beloved storytellers.

The setting for this book is quintessentially Australian set in Warrnambool which is actually where Paul Jennings lives. But having said that I do hope this book reaches an international audience even though I imagine for the US market the book will probably be given a different title. I regularly read books set in Maine, New York, or Florida in the US and of course from many other places around the world. I think it is wonderful to read books set in other places and so I hope publishers will grab this book and make it available to readers (aged 11+) in the US, UK and beyond. Similarly readers from other countries may be unfamiliar with our lorikeet but again I am happy to read about birds we don't have here in Australia such as the hummingbird, woodpecker and chickadee. 

Image source: Moonlit Sanctuary (Victoria)

You can read more about The Lorikeet Tree on Paul Jennings web page and see the first draft of the cover (which I really like). 

Paul Jennings first wrote his short stories back in 1985 and they were splendid but if you haven't read these three more recent Paul Jennings books (yes he is famous for those terrific short stories such as the ones in the book Unreal) head out to your library now and grab them - and I do mean NOW

A Different Dog

A Different Boy