Drink, Slay, Love

Our funny bones are actually pretty tickled about this one. Great title, great cover.

'One hour til dawn,' Pearl said. She leaped off the roof and landed catlike on the pavement. 'Oodles of time, if we steal a car.'

We laughed out loud three times on the first page. It's going to be a winner.

NOT FOR PARENTS...

Lonely Planet has released a great new series for junior travellers, which is well-worth a look.

There's the big travel book that gives lively and fascinating information on each country.

There's also individual city guides with the kind of information that kids will find particularly interesting.

For example, did you know that in 1938 a boa constrictor took a ride on the Paris Metro - "unaccompanied and without a ticket." Also, that underneath Paris are the Catacombs - which contain the bones of about six million people! Most of the bones have been very artfully displayed.

In Rome, back in ye olden days all roads actually DID lead to roam.

Then, more recently in 2010, some environmental campaigners built a hotel out of rubbish they collected from European beaches.

This is just a taster of the fab facts available in these books.

There are also guides to New York and London.

The Loud Book!

The Loud Book! Deborah Underwood and Renata Liwska (Koala Books)

Here's a fabulously illustrated picture book for the 3 and up crowd about all the kinds of loud in our lives.

Walking-to-school song loud.

Belly flop loud.

Deafening silence loud.

Garage avalanche loud.

Aunt Tillie's banjo band loud.

From the team that brought us The Quiet Book - which we absolutely loved to bits.

Ffor Ffun, read Fforde

The Song of the Quarkbeast, Jasper Fforde (Hodder&Stoughton)

The magical, adventure-filled and hilarious sequel to The Last Dragonslayer. Kazam is being challenged by iMagic, their magic company competition and whoever wins will be favoured by the King and have the monopoly on magic. They might even be able to get the mobile phone network back up.

Our non-magic, foundling heroine Jennifer Strange just knows there is something more devious going on with the Amazing Blix, the king of the unUnited Kingdom...and just where and when will Kazam's missing manager the Great Zambini appear next to give them all some much-needed advice? Plus, should she go on a date with Youthful Perkins?

Surges of magic that can send oak trees flying. Trolls out to rid their homes of human vermin ("here person person person"). A sneaky Quarkbeast looking for its other half. Big Magic, small magic, flying carpets, old grudges, new possibilities.

It's explosive. Literally. Just read it - your sides will split with laughter and magic.

--Kate--

Hunger Games news

While it is common knowledge that the book is always better, the new Hunger Games movie trailer has been released and it looks fabulous!
 

Gangsta Granny

Gangsta Granny, David Walliams, Harper Collins 

Ben's granny stinks of cabbage, adores scrabble and talks to Ben like he is a toddler. Ben has to spend every Friday night with Granny while his ballroom dance obsessed watch 'Strictly Stars Dancing', a show Ben hates so much he would rather eat his own bogeys than watch that rubbish.
But when Ben discovers that Granny is in fact an international jewel thief, things get very interesting, very quickly.

Gangsta Granny contains cabbage-flavoured chocolates (they are not as nice as they sound, and they don't sound that nice), alibis provided by the Clingfilm Appreciation Society and a chat with the Queen.
It is exciting, funny and even made me a bit teary.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Darius Bell is back!

Darius Bell and the Crystal Bees, Odo Hirsch (Allen & Unwin)

The bees on the Bell estate are dying. No honey! Then Darius realises that having no bees also means no pollination of the plants, and that no plants means no food. Not only that, but then the gardener will have to leave and take his family - great friends of Darius' - with him. This cannot be!

Darius has to find a way to fix this situation and this means outwitting his strict teacher and getting around the pernickety, nasty Mayor. But if anyone can do it then Darius can...though he might need a little bit of help.

Top book for 10+

early harvest

Yesterday we received our first copies of the new magazine early harvest, brought to you by the brains behind Pigeons and their trusty brains trust of local primary school aged kids - editors of this fantastic new rag. They all worked in collaboration with the folk at harvest magazine.

The result? A gorgeously designed magazine full of stories and illustrations by young and old that we just know you will adore.

Come and help us celebrate the launch at the Sun Theatre on Saturday 12 November at 11am. Authors and committee will be in attendance, as well as the magnifique Sally Rippin, who will be launching.

Inky Awards 2011

The Inky Awards were announced last week at the Centre for Youth Literature in Melbourne. These are youth voted awards, people, so what better recommendation could there be?

Silvermay by James Moloney won the Gold Inky for an Australian book.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare won the Silver Inky for an international book.

Click here for more about the actual award event.

A Bedtime for Bear

A Bedtime for Bear, Bonny Becker and Kady MacDonald Denton (Walker Books)

Bear has some requirements for bedtime: his glass of water must be ready and waiting in a particular spot on the bedside table and his favourite pillow needs to be sufficiently fluffed up. But most importantly, it has to be VERY quiet.

When Mouse comes to stay Bear’s quiet is interrupted by the sound of teeth brushing 

(bristle, bristle, bristle) 

humming 

(humm, hum-pa-pummmmm)

and the creak of Mouse settling down in his bed 

(creak, squeak, rattle)

But it is when Mouse falls asleep and quiet finally descends that Bear realises it might just be a bit too quiet...

This is just lovely. A little bit funny and delightfully illustrated. 

The Treasure Thief

The Treasure Thief, Béatrice Rodriguez, Gecko Press

Remember The Chicken Thief? 

 Here's another one!

Fresh from trying to "save" their chicken friend from a fox (only to realise the pair were actually in love!) the bear, rabbit and rooster come across a mysterious glowing orb in a cave. The rooster, in a greedy selfish kind of fit, decides to make off with it by himself. Pursued by a bear and a rabbit through creepy caves with glowing creatures and through mushroom fields and over the ocean...the adventure goes on for pages.

A beautiful wordless picture book full of brilliant illustrations and a great tale.