A pile of picture books

Shop local where you can: For Australian readers, you can find this book on Booktopia, or support your local independent bookstore. US readers, check out Bookshop.org.

Title: Eyes that kiss in the corners
Author: Joanna Ho
Illustrator: Dung Ho
Genre/ issues: Picture books. Asian representation. Diversity and acceptance.

Title: I am every good thing
Author: Derrick Barnes
Illustrator: Gordon C James
Genre/ issues: Picture books. Black excellence.

Title: I am perfectly designed
Author: Karamo Brown
Illustrator:
Genre/ issues: Picture books. Family. Self esteem.

Eyes That Kiss in the Corners a love story to family connections and to celebrating oneself. A young girl notices her eyes are different to her friends … but her eyes kiss in the corners and shine glow like warm tea, crinkle like crescent moons, and are filled with stories of the past and hope for the future. It’s a beautiful book, and one is highly recommend.

I Am Every Good Thing is a powerful celebration of Black boyhood, of all the amazing features that make each individual special and unique and wonderful. Stunning artwork, and a powerful emphasis on the importance of recognising your place in the community of strong men who have come before you.

And continuing the theme of “books which celebrate YOU”, I am Perfectly Designed. Super sweet illustrations with a diverse range of skin colours represented, it tells the story of a conversation between a father and son reminiscing on their past experiences together, and about how perfectly designed they are for each other and for the role they play in the world. So lovely, it’s be a wonderful text to read with someone you love to remind them how special they are.

Title: Oona
Author: Kelly DiPucchio
Illustrator:
Genre/ issues: Picture books. Fantasy. Exploration

Title: Ernest the Elephant
Author: Anthony Browne
Genre/ issues: Picture books. Exploration. Family.

Title: Small in the city
Author: Sydney Smith
Genre/ issues: Picture books. Isolation. City life.

Oona is a fabulous mermaid with an appetite for adventure, by @kellydipucchio and @rizzyfig. She spends her time treasure hunting with her pal Otto, and she’s got her eye on a particularly sparkly treasure, but it lurks too far down in the deep for her to reach. Does she look like that’s going to stop her, though? I adore this book, and I’m always enthralled by illustrations that are obviously 2d but convey such a sense of movement and life. This is a gem!

The Shape Game by Anthony Browne is one of my favourite picture books to teach, so when I saw Ernest the Elephant I knew I’d be adding it to my pile. Ernest is on a trek with his family when he spots the forest, and despite warnings from his mother, he decides to go exploring … but of course he gets lost! Vibrant, engaging, and as full of life and hidden adventures as you would expect from this master artist.

Small in the City, by Sydney Smith. Wow. It’s hard to capture in a brief description what this book is about, because the deceptively simple narrative about being lost in the city is so multilayered and complex. It’s visually stunning, and lends itself to a number of rereadings as you get lost alongside our protagonist. This could definitely be a favourite for the year.

I didn’t select these three books to be posted together for any particular reason, but now I’m realising that they all have the overarching theme of finding your way in your world as someone small – in the ocean, forest or city, there’s always a place for the littlest of us. If you’re after a book for a little person in your life, you can’t go wrong with any of these, but I’d perhaps recommend Smith’s as suitable for older readers as well. It’s be a great text for visual analysis in an upper primary context I think!

Title: Where the heart is
Author: Irma Gold
Illustrator:
Genre/ issues: Picture books. True story. Environment.

Title: Hike
Author: Pete Oswald
Genre/ issues: Picture books. Worldless. Family.

Title: Leilong the library bus
Author: Julia Liu
Illustrator: Bei Lynn
Genre/ issues: Picture books. Libraries. Stories.

Title: The art of words
Author: Robert Vescio
Illustrator: Joanna Bartel
Genre/ issues: Picture books. Words and language.

Where The Heart Is, by @irma.gold and @oh.susannah.illustration is the beautiful story of Bindim, a young penguin who washes up on the beach in Brazil and is rescued by Joao who nursed him back to health. Based on a true story, it’s a lovely celebration of the power of friendship, and it’s so beautifully illustrated!

Hike by @peteoswald follows a father and son on a hike. Almost completely wordless apart from some onomatopoeiaic words, it’s utterly lovely, displaying both the beauty of nature and of the bond between parent and child. Stunning.

I can’t resist a picture book about libraries. A dinosaur library book? Hell yes! Leilong the Library Bus by Julia Liu and Bei Lynn sees Leilong try to join his friends at Storytime – but he doesn’t have a library card and is too big to successfully follow the rules! A super cute book which emphasises that libraries are for everyone.

The Art of Words by Robert Vescio and Joanna Bartel is my favourite kind of book – one that celebrates the magic and power of words, with a nod to the important role that punctuation can play in how we engage with words. An absolute gem.

#TamaraReads #2021readingchallenge 85-94/2021

Happy reading,

June 17 2021

Pawcasso, by Remy Lai

Title: Pawcasso
Author: Remy Lai
Genre/ issues: Middle grade. Graphic novels. Pets. Family and relationships.

Shop local where you can: For Australian readers, you can find this book on Booktopia, or support your local independent bookstore. US readers, check out Bookshop.org.

Oh what a fluffy warm hug of a book this is! Pawcasso by Remy Lai is a middle grade graphic novel that ticked all the boxes for me this afternoon. A super-sweet story about Pawcasso, a grocery-shopping pooch who picks up a follower on his Saturday trip to the markets when Jo spots him out the window and follows him, intrigued. She runs into some kids from school who mistakenly assume this adorable pooch is hers, and she doesn’t correct them. No harm, right? Well, we know how these things go – and Jo needs to decide if she’ll risk her new friendships by admitting the truth. Funny, sweet, and beautifully illustrated – a highly recommended addition to your collection!

#TamaraReads #2021readingchallenge 81/2021

Happy reading,

Category: Book chat, Children's Books, Graphic Novels | LEAVE A COMMENT

June 12 2021

We Dream of Space, by Erin Entrada Kelly

Title: We Dream of Space
Author: Erin Entrada Kelly
Genre/ issues: Middle grade. Historical fiction. Family/ relationships.

Shop local where you can: For Australian readers, you can find this book on Booktopia, or support your local independent bookstore. US readers, check out Bookshop.org.

What a gem of a book. We Dream of Space hit me in all the 12-year-old-Tamara feels, from the focus on the Challenger shuttle disaster to the obsessions with Star Wars, from the sense that you don’t quite belong to the feeling of being not quite “enough” at anything. And then the suckerpunch for 46-year-old-Tamara? The fact that this book, so intensely familiar to me with its 1986 setting, is labelled “historical fiction”. Ouch.

The main action of this book covers the month of January 1986, and Bird and her brother’s social science teacher is counting down. She’d applied for the Teacher in Space program, a spot that eventually went to Christa McAauliffe, who I wanted to be, and whose motto about her life is one I’ve used to guide my career. Bird is obsessed with space, and equally obsessed with machines – she pulls apart anything vaguely mechanical she can get her hands on and draws her own “birds eye view” schematics of how they work, in an effort to make sense of her world. Her twin brother Fitch spends every moment possible playing Major Havoc at the arcade, and wrestles with an explosive temper he doesn’t understand. And their older brother Cash is in the same grade as them after failing the previous year, loves basketball but isn’t good enough, and feels like a failure at everything. They share a house with their parents who constantly fight, but they all exist in their own orbits, with their own dreams of of hope, belonging, friendship, family and space.

This is a truly special read, and even though I knew it was going to break my heart to revisit January 28, 1986, I felt so cherished and supported along with these wonderful characters through Kelly’s beautifully sensitive and compassionate writing that I was happy to go on that journey again. This is going to be one of my best books of the year, I can feel it. Not just the best middle grade book, but one of the best overall.

#TamaraReads #2021readingchallenge 77/2021

Happy reading,

Category: Book chat, Children's Books | LEAVE A COMMENT

June 8 2021

Center of Gravity, by Shaunta Grimes

Title: Center of gravity
Author: Shaunta Grimes
Genre/ issues: Middle grade. Family and relationships.

Shop local where you can: For Australian readers, you can find this book on Booktopia, or support your local independent bookstore. US readers, check out Bookshop.org.

I thought Center of Gravity by Shaunta Grimes was YA when I picked it up, and from the blurb I was expecting something quite heavy. Instead, I found myself immersed in a lovely, sad, but ultimately exceedingly hopeful middle grade novel about Tessa, who has always been anxious, and since her mother’s death has been cutting the photos of missing kids of milk cartoons and memorising their details, in an attempt to feel less alone. Then her father announces he is about to get remarried – and his much younger fiancée is pregnant. Tessa finds herself living in a new city, with a stepmother who has her own mental health issues, and a new group of friends who are facing their own family dramas. She soon realises that if she wants to gain control of her life, she might need to let go of a few things.

This book deals with some heavy topics – death of a parent, parental neglect and parental abuse amongst the most challenging of them. And whilst these aren’t easy topics to read about, they are handled with a lightness of touch that acknowledges their impact and seriousness without dwelling on the gory details. It’s a lovely piece of writing with an utterly beautiful cover!

#TamaraReads #2021readingchallenge 76/2021

Happy reading,

Category: Book chat, Children's Books | LEAVE A COMMENT

June 8 2021

The Book of Chance, by Sue Whiting

Title: The Book of Chance
Author: Sue Whiting
Genre/ issues: Middle grade. Family and relationships. Mystery.

Shop local where you can: For Australian readers, you can find this book on Booktopia, or support your local independent bookstore. US readers, check out Bookshop.org.

It’s always a relief when you read a book by someone you know and like, and discover the book is really good so you don’t have to do that polite diplomatic review so you don’t offend or upset them! The Book of Chance by Sue Whiting is one of those. Mystery isn’t usually my genre, which is probably why it’s taken me a while to get to this one, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and curled up on campus today with a coffee and a blanket scarf I devoured it in one sitting!

Chance Callahan has no time for fakery in her life, and holds everyone around her to pretty high standards. So what happens when Chance discovers a truth that threatens to derail her trust in someone she loves dearly, and to turn her world completely upside down?

I loved the structure which sees us start at the end of Chance’s story, the authentic characters, and the glimpses of Wollongong and its surrounds that are so familiar to me. This middle grade novel is totally worthy of its position on the CBCA younger readers shortlist this year, and is a masterclass in engaging and compelling storytelling. And phew – no diplomatic platitudes required in this review!

The only possible content warning, if you have sensitive young readers or those with recent vehicular trauma, is the (spoiler alert!!!) description of a car accident with multiple fatalities. Sensitively told, no explicit details, not traumatic unless it’s likely to be personally triggering for a reader. A cracker of an Australian novel for upper primary or lower secondary readers.

#TamaraReads #2021readingchallenge 75/2021

Happy reading,

Category: Book chat, Children's Books | LEAVE A COMMENT

June 4 2021

Dear Sweet Pea, by Julie Murphy

Title: Dear Sweet Pea
Author: Julie Murphy
Genre/ issues: Middle Grade. Contemporary fiction. Queer fiction. Family and relationships.

Shop local where you can: For Australian readers, you can find this book on Booktopia, or support your local independent bookstore. US readers, check out Bookshop.org.

I’ve had Dear Sweet Pea by Julie Murphy sitting on my shelf for a while now, and in an attempt to whittle down my work-related TBR, tossed it into my carry-on bag before I headed to the airport yesterday. I’m so glad I did! A sweet, lovely, joyful gem of a book. I was expecting it to be YA, but instead discovered a middle grade book full of heart and humour.

Patricia DiMarco is known as Sweet Pea by everyone in her life – and her life is a little weird right now. She’s in a constant battle of insults with her former best friend, her divorced parents have set up almost identical houses 2 doors apart so that her life can stay “normal”, and her eccentric next door neighbour who writes the local paper’s advice column has just asked her to carry out a detailed and frankly a bit strange house-sitting and mail sorting job while she’s away.

It’s all going kind of ok … but then Sweet Pea recognises the hand writing on one of the letters that is sent to her neighbour seeking advice. Of course, she decides to answer it herself … and what follows is a sweet narrative about changing friendships, dealing with prejudices, and accepting people for who they are.

I read this in a couple of hours on the plane last night, and had the biggest smile on my face when I finished it. Great for upper primary readers, or teens/ adults who want a sweet, diverse, and delightful quick read.

#TamaraReads #2021readingchallenge 70/2021

Happy reading,

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May 30 2021

Displacement, by Kiku Hughes

DIsplacement, by Kiku Hughes

Title: Displacement
Author: Kiku Hughes
Genre/ issues: Historical fiction. Timeslip. Japanese internment during WW2.

Shop local where you can: For Australian readers, you can find this book on Booktopia, or support your local independent bookstore. US readers, check out Bookshop.org.

I was in my early 20s when I learned about the internment of Japanese people in Australia during WWII, and only by accident, after my Canadian literature lecturer at uni gave me Obasan by Joy Kogawa to read. I read it in horror, appalled at the way Canada had treated their Japanese residents, and then even moreso when I learned the extent of this experience in my own country. How did I get through my whole school life and not learn about this? Obasan and its sequel Itsuka became the focus of my honours thesis, and still remain influential texts for me, as I often reflect on the impact of major cultural and world events on individuals, particularly children.

Displacement, by Kiku Hughes, examines this dark piece of history in the USA through the lens of Kiku, a teenager growing up in a world punctuated by Trump speeches and growing racial unrest. After visiting her grandmother’s home in San Francisco, she gets caught up in a fog and is transported back in time to the 1940’s Japanese American internment camp where her grandmother is being forcibly relocated with her family. Kiku is stuck, and witnesses the lives of people who were denied their civil liberties by their own government but still created a sense of community by and committed acts of resistance to survive. Beautifully illustrated and compelling written, this graphic novel captures the significant and ongoing impact of generational trauma, and the importance of continuing to fight for civil and human rights for all. A really powerful read about significant historical events, sensitively told and suitable for upper primary and high school readers – or adults who are smart enough to know that graphic novels for younger readers are worth their time.

#TamaraReads #2021readingchallenge 67/2021

Happy reading,

Category: Book chat, Children's Books, Graphic Novels | LEAVE A COMMENT

May 21 2021

Jo: An adaptation of Little Women (sort of), by Kathleen Gros

Title: Jo: An adaptation of Little Women (sort of)
Author: Kathleen Gros
Genre/ issues: Graphic novel. Middle grade. Little Women adaptation. Queer fiction.

Shop local where you can: For Australian readers, you can find this book on Booktopia, or support your local independent bookstore. US readers, check out Bookshop.org.

Little Women was one of my favourite stories growing up, and I always wanted to be Jo. In her I saw a feminist icon with a passion for stories, long before I understood what it meant to be a feminist. I read the book, I spent countless hours watching the 1949 movie version with my grandparents, and I’ve held this story close to my heart for as long as I can remember. Today, I fell in love with another adaptation of it. Jo: An adaptation of Little Women (sort of), by @kagcomix, is a joyful middle grade graphic novel that portrays the March girls as contemporary school kids, finding their own way in the world and celebrating each other’s strengths and interests. Jo joins the school paper, and meets Freddie – and things get complicated when Jo’s best friend Laurie tells her he likes her. But Jo doesn’t have the same feelings for him – or for any boy. In fact, she thinks she might have a crush on Freddie.

This is as sweet and wholesome as you’d expect an adaptation of Little Women to be. I was thankful that it’s a loose adaptation, so whilst there is reference to Beth having been sick in the past, and having follow-up treatments to ensure she stays well, we don’t get to see her any tragic ending for her in this retelling. A sweet, lovely, and heartwarming introduction to younger readers not familiar with Alcott’s classic tale, and for those hard-core fans alike.

#TamaraReads #2021readingchallenge 63/2021

Happy reading,

Category: Book chat, Children's Books, Graphic Novels | LEAVE A COMMENT

May 19 2021

Give me some space!, by Philip Bunting

Give me some space!, by Philip Bunting

Title: Give me some space!
Author: Philip Bunting
Genre/ issues: Picture books. Space.

Shop local where you can: For Australian readers, you can find this book on Booktopia, or support your local independent bookstore. US readers, check out Bookshop.org.

I love @alianational’s National Simultaneous Storytime, and it was extra exciting this year to be able to tune in to Storytime from Space! As well as the #1MillionKidsReading in schools and libraries around Australia, NASA astronaut Shannon Walker read @philip.bunting’s Give Me Some Space from the @iss. It’s a thrill to add this to my #2021readingchallenge tally. If you missed it, it’s not too late – check out the recording on YouTube!

#TamaraReads #2021readingchallenge 62/2021

Happy reading,

Category: Book chat, Children's Books, Picture books | LEAVE A COMMENT

May 13 2021

School For Extraterrestrial Girls: Girl on Fire, by Jeremy Whitley and Jamie Noguchi

Title: School For Extraterrestrial Girls: Girl on Fire
Author: Jeremy Whitley
Illustrator: Jamie Noguchi
Genre/ issues: Graphic novel. Sci-fi.

Shop local where you can: For Australian readers, you can find this book on Booktopia, or support your local independent bookstore. US readers, check out Bookshop.org.

A great read, and a great set of steps! School For Extraterrestrial Girls: Girl on Fire is the first in a middle grade graphic novel series by @jrome58 and @jamienoguchi about a boarding school for alien teenagers who have found themselves living on Earth. Tara has always wanted to be extraordinary – but spontaneously combusting in the middle of math class probably wasn’t what she had in mind! After the shock discovery that she is, in fact, an alien, she has the choice to be deported to a far off planet, or to attend the School for Extraterrestrial Girls, where she still leans maths and science, but also galaxy civics and controlling (and accepting!) her powers. This is a super-fun graphic novel – the highlight for me is definitely Kat, the feline alien who lives for snuggles and drama, and who wears a Jellicle AF sweater. Gold!

#TamaraReads #2021readingchallenge 58/2021

Happy reading,

Category: Book chat, Children's Books, Graphic Novels | LEAVE A COMMENT

Tamara Reads ….

and talks about books, authors, education and stuff.

A pile of picture books

Pawcasso, by Remy Lai

We Dream of Space, by Erin Entrada Kelly

Center of Gravity, by Shaunta Grimes

The Book of Chance, by Sue Whiting

Dear Sweet Pea, by Julie Murphy

Displacement, by Kiku Hughes

Jo: An adaptation of Little Women (sort of), by Kathleen Gros

Give me some space!, by Philip Bunting

School For Extraterrestrial Girls: Girl on Fire, by Jeremy Whitley and Jamie Noguchi