Middle grade novels with other-worldly places and times. Into the world sideways by Ross Welford, Queen of Muck by Isaac Thackray

Into the Sideways World

By Ross Welford

ISBN 9780008333843

Harpercollins

Twelve-year-old Willa lives with her parents and older sister, Alex. Things are not great. Her parents are always arguing, the environment is suffering and the possibility of a world war is constantly on the news.

At school she meets the new boy, Manny and they become good friends. They also accidentally discover an alternative world. In this world, there are no wars, the environment is perfect and there are strange creatures, like the cog. There is much to like in this alternate world. There is much we can learn, if we take the time.

Trying to convince people in the ordinary world of the things they have seen is problematic. No one believes them. Time becomes an issue when there is risk of being trapped in one world, or drowning.

The pace is good, the characters believable, and more importantly, likeable. Manny is quirky and extremely friendly, while Willa is a bit more sensible. The writing, like Ross Welford’s other books, offers good suspense, excitement and a jolly good read.

Queen of Muck

By Isaac Thackray

ISBN 9780473576028

Mary Egan Publishing

When Lucy and Lily’s grandad goes missing, they are desperate to find him, even though they have no idea where to start looking.

A fallen postcard in grandad’s shed holds the key to his disappearance and the first chance to finding clues. The sisters find themselves tumbling into a rather strange place where things are not quite what they seem. They are greeted by a talking fox who takes them into the nearby town, Florez. From there, all sorts of magical, funny, and mysterious things begin to happen.

There is also danger, risk and more humour with characters like Horrible Bob, Sergeant Onion and the evil Queen Deidre of Muck Palace. While being at risk of being disposed of, the girls still need to find their grandad.

Working together, good friends and some good planning, all go a long way to solving the mystery. A fun read.

Ice by Susan Brocker. A secret. A rescue. A terrifying truth. A mystery, a villain and a jolly good middle grade read. Set in New Zealand’s cold, snowy slopes of Wanaka.

Ice

By Susan Brocker

ISBN 9781775437567

Scholastic NZ

I admit that animals stories are not usually my first choice but I was very pleasantly surprised with Susan Broker’s latest title. I read it over two days and was thoroughly caught up in the mystery, the family dynamics and just the whole story.

Zac, has lived with his mother in Auckland since his parent’s divorce but is forced to stay with his father and his new wife and step brother and step sister in Wanaka, a long, long way from the big city. Zac likes nothing more than to play games on his console but his father has other ideas for him. He volunteers at a wildlife sanctuary but it isn’t long before he realises things are not as they seem. His stepmother encourages him to take on the care of a dog from the pound but the one he chooses, destined for euthanasia, looks at him with ice blue eyes and he can’t resist saving her. However, something is wrong. The dog howls each night at the moon, as if caught up in terrible sadness. Thus, the mystery of the dog he calls, Ice, begins.

It’s a good mystery, a good story and a good pace. The setting of the ice and snow and hills around Wanaka are descriptive and realistic. Zac’s relationship with his father is strained and Zac feels that whatever he does, isn’t good enough so he lies but the lies create even bigger problems.

Zac is forced into situations that beg him to step up and find the strength of the characters he fights in his games. It is the stepping up that creates the character’s growth and that always makes a good story. Indeed, it is more than just stepping up, Zac, has to fight for his and his family’s survival.

Ice, a white German Shepherd has her own personality. She is courageous and loyal.

I do think this would be a good read aloud for upper primary and intermediate school.

Minky Stapleton provides some thoughtful black and white illustrations throughout the book.

Gallant by V. E. Schwab – a ghoulishly good YA read. Dreams, ghosts, madness, and a mute girl looking for answers in her mother’s journal. Top read, exquisite language. @veschwab

Gallant

By V. E. Schwab

ISBN 9780062835772

Green Willow Books Imprint of Harpercollins

I love books. No doubt about it. I love buying them and I love borrowing them from the library. Libraries are one of the best uses of our rates money. Anyway, I preordered this new book from the library and I am so glad I did. It is beautifully written and so many times I just stopped to savour the sentences and read again.

Olivia has been raised at Merilance, a home for girls. Olivia doesn’t mix well with the others. She is mute and she can see ghouls. The only thing she owns is an old journal of her mothers and Olivia knows every line, every page by heart. Life in the school is difficult and lonely, so when a letter arrives telling her that she has a home and family who want her in a far off place called Gallant, Olivia can’t wait to get there. However, lines in her mother’s journal warn her that whatever she does, she must never go to Gallant.

The shadows are not real.

The dreams can never hurt you.

You will be safe as long as stay away from Gallant.

When Olivia arrives, her cousin tells her the letter is fake and she must go but Olivia stays and that is when life begins to unravel. There are ghouls and shadows, darkness, fear and longing, too.

Everything casts a shadow. Even the world we live in. And as with every shadow, there is a place where it must touch. A seam, where the shadow meets its source.

The book certainly has it moments of suspense and tension.The story is paced with thought and the darkness creeps in the more you read. Bit by bit, more of Olivia’s mother’s journal is revealed, secrets opened up and danger presses in. There are locked doors, ghostly figures and evilness. I do feel this is one of those top YA crossover books that many adults will love too. The imagery is vivid and I felt like I was right there with Olivia. I felt her loneliness, and her need to belong. I felt her need to know who her parents were. I could feel her frustration at not being able to be understood, not so much because she could not talk, but because other’s refused to try to communicate. I most definitely felt her fear, and I confess, I’d be too scared to go anywhere near Gallant. Her bravery, when needed, is awesome.

I loved it. I really liked the different characters at Gallant; her cousin Matthew, and Edgar and Hannah who look after the crumbling manor. They all had their flaws, making them real and relatable. Perhaps not a book to read late at night on your own.

The book has occasional illustrations which are beautiful, haunting, black, grey and shadowy.

Top read. Definitely, highly recommend this.

New picture books I’ve been reading

Words about birds of Aotearoa New Zealand

By Geoffrey Fuller

ISBN 9781775437666

Scholastic

I’m sitting here on my bed, sun coming through the window, and I have one foot hanging over the edge, and the other up on top in a moon boot. I’m watching a sparrow as it perches on the clothesline happily outside my window. It keeps turning its head and looking at me as if trying to communicate. It’s quite fitting as I write about a book on NZ birds.

The book is a collection of poems about birds, written and illustrated by Geoffrey Fuller. It features mostly Native birds from different areas, such as forests, swamps, ocean birds.

Yellow eyed penguins, and kea are my favourites. I do think there is not enough poetry being published, so this is lovely to see. The poems are short, with just a little information but mostly fun. Each bird has its own full page illustration opposite its poem.

Good introduction on birds for primary schools and keen bird watchers.

The story of Swoop

By Matt Owens

Illustrated by Emma Gustafson

ISBN 9781775437642

Scholastic NZ

Another book about birds, as I note my wee sparrow friend has flown off in search of better conversation.

This book is based on truth. Firefighter Matt had been driving down a country road when he discovered a cold, hungry, baby magpie all on its own. He scooped it up and took it home and cared for it. He even named it Swoop. The two became friends, and even Matt’s cat, Mogli accepted the magpie. Being the caring person he is, Matt soon realised that Swoop needed to be with his own family and friends, other magpies.

Set in the natural surroundings with full colour page illustrations, this is a sweet, heart-warming story about bird and human relationships. I do really like the illustrations of the magpies with their shiny black and white feathers and cheeky personalities.

Roo and Vladimir (an unlikely friendship)

Written and illustrated by Minky Stapleton

ISBN 9781775437505

Scholastic NZ

Roo is a happy dog, a very, big happy dog who loves doing lots of things. He is clumsy and trips over his own feet, and this causes him lots of trouble and makes him sad, especially when other dogs are frightened of him.

It is the meeting of another dog, Vladimir, a much smaller one, that shows friendships can be found anywhere. A big storm happens and the friends need to work together to find a safe place. What they do together shows us that heroes and friends can be found everywhere.

The brightly coloured illustrations are delightfully comical.

Two good books to open discussion about WW1 and WW2 : Please write soon by Michael Rosen, illus. Michael Foreman @MichaelRosenYes : ANZAC Day Parade by Glenda Kane and illus. by Lisa Allen.

Please write soon

By Michael Rosen

Illustrated by Michael Foreman

ISBN 9780702315572

Scholastic UK

I was quite moved by this book. It is an extended read, with 74 pages, illustrations on every one, but aimed at older children. Perhaps nine year olds through 12, 13. It is based on a real person, a cousin of the author’s father during World War Two.

The story begins in 1939 with a boy named Solly. He lives in London and writes to his older cousin Bernie in Poland. At school Solly is asked to share a project he has been working on and he shares letters written between himself and his cousin.

The letters detail what it is like for Solly and his family to hide in bomb shelters in London, to be evacuated and to fear what might happen if the war continues. For Bernie, he shares the sadness he feels missing his family, being persecuted for who he is, and fighting in a war against the Nazi soldiers.

The cousins share a bond through their writing. They both want the war to end and to be able to meet up with each other. They want peace at a time when war is all around them.

The illustrations are black and white with the occasional, purposeful touch of red, symbolic of hope, of love and remembrance. Poppies have an important place in this book too.

I loved watching the two cousins grow closer, the more they communicated, especially their openness to discuss their feelings, and fears. Solly talks about being sent away to the countryside, like so many children were. Bernie discusses what it is like in a Russian labour camp.

A thoughtful, respectful account of the lives of two cousins during World War Two.

At the back of the book, the author discusses war in general. He discusses Covid-19 and how there are so many people who help others, risking their own lives; soldiers, nurses, doctors and more. The author asks us to consider that remembrance days mean so much more than past wars. It means to remember and reflect on all those people, who help when the need is greatest.

ANZAC Day Parade

By Glenda Kane

Illustrated by Lisa Allen

ISBN 9781776890149

This book was first published in 2010 but this new hardback edition still has much relevance today.

As we get closer to ANZAC Day commemorations, we know that because of the current Covid-19 conditions, many memorial mornings will not be happening this year. However, it is still a day to remember those people who gave their lives, over 100 years ago.

This picture book, with its soft autumnal colours, shows a young boy asking an elderly veteran on his way to an ANZAC Day Parade, questions about the war. For the elderly veteran, the war has always been part of his life. He remembers those soldiers who did not come back from the battle with him. He remembers the young man he once was and you can see how war has impacted on his whole life. You can see the pain in the old man’s eyes through the moving illustrations. The young boy, slowly begins to understand that the war was not glory, but pain and sorrow. He lays a poppy at the foot of the memorial as the old soldier walks away.

Definitely a book to add to library collections and for teachers to read aloud to young children to open discussion on ANZAC’s, war, and why we must remember the past and the people who gave so much, all those years ago.

Ain’t burned all the bright by Jason Reynolds with artwork by Jason Griffin. Profound YA book that captures what it is like to be black in America. Stunning, powerful and simply unique @JasonReynolds83

Prepare yourself for something unlike anything: A smash-up of art and text for teens that viscerally captures what it is to be Black. In America. Right Now.

Ain’t burned all the bright

By Jason Reynolds

Artwork by Jason Griffin

ISBN 9781534439467

Simonandschuster Teen

What an amazing book! At over 350 pages long, there are only a handful of run-on sentences making it a quick read. However, the words are profound. Their message even more so. I preordered this from my local library and was pretty much first in line. I have read this a number of times already and I keep finding something new. Some new symbolic meaning I didn’t quite connect the first time. I am going to have to purchase my own copy just so I can keep rereading.

Broken into three parts, written as if in a notebook, and illustrated profusely throughout, this book is stunning, both visually and textually.

The first part uses subtle and not so subtle references and images to African Americans and the number of cases where police arrests have resulted in physical restraints where people were unable to breathe. It references the struggles of being, young and black in a world where the freedom to belong, to breath, seems to be different to non-blacks. Police riots, red flames imagery symbolically showing flames of fury. It is powerful and haunting.

The second part is about the struggle with Covid-19 and the ability to breathe with the illness, with and without masks. A father is separated from his family through a bedroom wall; he is coughing and spluttering, trying to breathe. One son, continues to play games on his screen, a sister chats with friends via her phone screen. The mother barely turns her head from the tv screen and all the news; Covid-19, American riots, murders and beatings of black folk. The opening page of the book is a screen door. Screens keeping things in, keeping things out and everyone just trying to breath in between.

The third part to me, is hopeful. It’s about everyone breathing the same air, the same hopes and dreams and most importantly having family to care for, to love and be loved back. If everyone takes the time to share and care, there is room enough for everyone to breathe easy.

The book is poetical, in a found poetry kind of way. Like Jason Reynold’s book Long way down, words matter, repetitions are deliberate. He thinks about every word choice and the result is first class.

Jason Griffin’s art work is equally profound. Images are provocative and haunting. You just know he has thought about every word before he has created his images. A real and rare partnership of author and illustrator.

Love, love, love this amazing book. High school libraries need to add this to their collections.

The invisible by Tom Percival. A gentle, yet thought-provoking picture book about poverty and feeling invisible when you don’t belong and how one girl makes a difference.

The invisible

Written and illustrated by Tom Percival

ISBN 9781471191305

Simon and Schuster UK

I had already read good reviews of this book, so when I saw it sitting on the bookshop shelves, I had to pick it up. Even without the reviews, the cover stood out so much that I would have picked it up anyway. The soft cool tones, the child and her dog, standing in the centre of the cover just wanting to be seen. So yes, this beautifully illustrated picture book went straight into my basket.

Isabel loves her family but they are poor. They miss out on things other people take for granted. The house is so cold, the ice forms on the inside of the house. Isabel feels invisible in this world where others pretend not to see her. The time comes when the family can no longer afford to live where they are and they are forced into a different kind of life, cold and gloomy.

Isabel however, wants more. She notices other invisible people and that is the turning point in this story.

Simple, clear text without being too harsh, shows readers a world that may or may not be like theirs. It is a world that sadly, too many people have to share. The illustrations are lovely especially with the choice of colours reflecting Isabel’s moods and surroundings.

A good purchase for families and definitely school libraries. I really like this and it fits a need. Lovely!

Here is the author and illustrator Tom Percival reading his book.