THE AMBIDEXTROUS LIBRARIAN

My Life as a Hashtag (Gabrielle Williams) I’ve been reading so much more these last few months (as I have consciously moved away from social media - much to the improvement of my mental health and attention span!) but it’s been a while since I have picked up a YA novel. I’m not even sure what drew me to this title - I might have spotted it in the Readings catalogue? Anyhoo, long story short it’s also been ages since I have finished reading a book in a day. Like, I had to set my watch timer to 15 minute intervals so I didn’t just sit for hours reading. I could get away with that when I was younger, but now I have to complete adult-esque things in my day! The ingredients of this book throw toegether a bunch of close teenage friends, a boy, a secret Tumblr blog, and a viral post. Nothing too extraordinary, and to be honest the story itself is a fairly unsubtle warning about being careful what you post to social media, but you know what? I didn’t care about the ordinary or t...

MUSIC AND WORDS The other day my favourite bookshop (Readings) opened a new branch in a mega mall in Doncaster.  I'm not usually one for mega malls, but I felt the need to go and support Readings and basically give myself an excuse to browse and buy books (accompanied by another Librarian friend, of course). One of the books I bought was Music and Freedom by Zoe Morrison.  It so happens that this title just won the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction for 2016.  Totally justified win, it has to be said. I am a Librarian.  I am a mediocre musician.  I love all things creative that centre around words and sounds, so this book spoke to me in spades.  But spades of what?  Spades of discomfort and rage.  Spades of melancholy and infuriation (is that even a word).  Spades of happiness and hope.  Spades of curiosity.  A wide spectrum of spades. I would suggest that you start reading this book with the author's biograph...

THE CAT WITH THE COLOURED TAIL (GILLIAN MEARS) I'm a Librarian, so there is a high statistical probability that I am also a cat lover (yep, it's true).  I gravitate towards cat themed stories with the same level of uncanny intuition that primary school girls have for horse and pony stories.  It's a gift. When one of my colleagues suggested we obtain The Cat with the Coloured Tail , I naturally thought it was a fabulous idea.  It arrived a couple of weeks ago and has already been borrowed once; when I put it back on display I was reminded that I should really take it home and read it one evening. And then Gillian Mears died. Gillian Mears - Sydney Morning Herald I knew of Gillian Mears; you can't be a Librarian and not know of  Foals Bread,  and I have The Grass Sister sitting on my bookshelf downstairs.  But I had not yet delved into her children's fiction, and so on the news of her passing I felt it was time to read what was to be the final fru...

GOTTA #LOVEOZYA I actually went and did a little "Professional Development" the other day, dragging myself into the city to attend a Teacher/Librarian do that Readings Hawthorn hosted.  The evening consisted of four fabulous Australian YA authors talking on their latest middle years and YA offerings (and there was also wine!). I didn't really know what to expect, but I certainly didn't expect to walk out of there feeling as inspired as I did.  It was awesome, and really quite uplifting. Emily Gale and Leanne Hall tackled the difficulties of writing for those odd middle years - not really a kid, but not quite a teenager.  If you can cast your minds back (I found it hard) it's a time when your folks are expecting you to act more mature, and you're feeling more mature, but no one is really giving you any credit or independence.  How do you reach that readership, and as an adult write something that doesn't sound either too simple, or like you're ...

TALES FROM OUTER SUBURBIA (SHAUN TAN) When I was at high school, I drew a picture of the shopping centre that was across the road from the school. It was one of those 80's-designed affairs with an empty open-air square in the middle; furnished with uncomfortable metal seats painted in faded primary colours, uneven cheap pavers and geometric planters full of thin, sandy soil, cigarette butts and the stringy brown remains of palm trees.  And of course there were empty shops. That's a given.  When I drew the shopping centre, I made the shop-front display windows completely black.  The colours I used were all dark, there was no people or movement.  I didn't think of it at the time, but my Art Teacher said it was a creepy drawing, there was no life to it, and there should be because it's a picture of a bloody shopping centre.  I don't know why I drew it like that, but that's how that place felt to me; it made me uneasy.  Shaun Tan's pictures and narratives ...

CROW COUNTRY (KATE CONSTABLE) I tried, I really did.  It has a CBC Council Shortlist medal on it and everything.  But I just couldn't make it to the finish line. It was a good concept, mother and girl move out to the country, girl discovers old Aboriginal site of significance and is mystically and magically drawn into the stories that the land has to tell - as told by the crows.  She is also drawn back in time to witness a crime against the people of the land many, many years ago - and she must decipher what it is the crows want, so the same mistakes aren't made again (or something along those lines - like I said, I didn't make it to the end!). I am not sure why this story didn't hold my attention.  I really wanted it to.  Perhaps the plot didn't move fast enough?  The main character, Sadie, wasn't really all that interesting?  The crows weren't quite a strong enough feature of the narrative?  None of these reasons seem to really hit the na...

Sandy Feet (Nikki Buick) This bright little number caught my eye a few months back, as it subconsciously spoke to my longing for some sort of beachy, sandy, tropically, salty, breezy, sunny, happy respite (I love a good adjective list to emphasis a point) to the misery that is a Melbourne winter in the perpetually sodden Dandenong Ranges .  The cover of the book is yellow with a palm tree... it says "sandy".  That was enough for me. So I read the book and it was OK.  Perhaps not as sunny and sandy on the inside as the cover would have you believe (if you judge books by their cover - which I do), but it certainly kept me coming back despite being a bit slow to get off the ground.  Basically, the protagonist, Hunter, is a guy who has a few issues in life; his mum suffers from depression, his stepdad (endearing called "Step"), is a bit of a toss, and his sister is a pain.  And he is stuck on a loooooooong family car trip up north to "getaway" and "f...

Zac & Mia (A.J. Betts) I am back on the rickety reading wagon, and it's trundling along slowly, and the path meanders all over the shop, but I am finally getting places! Next stop?   Zac & Mia by A.J. Betts.  Let me start by saying that I did NOT know this was another YA cancer story.  Should I really say "another"?  I am obviously referring to The Fault in Our Stars  which immediately springs to mind with thoughts of oxygen tubes and unrealistic teen dialogue (don't get me started on that novel!).  I found Zac & Mia to be, I dunno, a bit more down to earth than The Fault in Our Stars.   That novel had me eye-rolling frequently throughout the first few chapters.  I only read the first few chapters. But enough.  I digress. So, Zac & Mia .  Engaging story, nice use of statistics; as a Librarian I always approve of the use of well researched facts throughout a narrative.  Both Zac & Mia are likeable, enga...

Millie and the Night Heron / Rain May and Captain Daniel (Catherine Bateson) Please remember I have only "officially" been a school librarian for a little over a year, so when it comes to getting to know children's authors, I am but a babe in the woods.  In my latest endeavour to chop back some of the forest I picked up two books, completely separately, and thought "I'll read those".  Turns out those two books were Millie and the Night Heron  and Rain May and Captain Daniel.   I didn't look at the author at all, and it wasn't until I started Rain May  I realised they were both by Catherine Bateson. An author who lives in my area of Melbourne.  Who, for all I know, may even live up the road from me. Anyways, turns out that any self-respecting children's librarian should immediately know of Catherine Bateson.  Well, now I do. I have only read these two examples of her work, and let me say, there are quite a few similarities between the two....

Laurinda (Alice Pung) I remember being a girl in high school.  The constant worry of what others thought of you, the fear of speaking up in case what you say was ridiculed, the conflicting desires of fitting in yet also standing out, the desire to achieve and compete whilst casually pretending you couldn't care less.  It all boiled down to the struggle between who you thought you should be, and who you actually were.  Of course you didn't know that at the time.  Reading Laurinda  brings all these thoughts back to the foreground, and sadly reminds me that the struggles of school life don't seem to have changed much. Laurinda  is a novel set in the fictional all-girls school named, unsurprisingly, Laurinda.  It follows the narrative of Lucy Lam, a Chinese-Vietnamese immigrant who earned the inaugural "Equal Access" scholarship, and soon discovers that surviving Laurinda has little to do with academics and achievement, but more to do with politics, p...

Jasper Jones (Craig Silvey) I first came across Jasper Jones as a prescribed text at the school in which I worked.  Half the kids complained about it (but hey, any text prescribed for English is bound to get a few complaints) but those who were brave enough to actually confess they enjoyed it, said it was "pretty good" (from a teenager, this translates to a glowing and hearty recommendation).  If you believe the publishers spin on the cover, it's billed as an Australian "To Kill a Mockingbird", and I guess once you get reading you can see the strong parallels.  Aside from the fact that Atticus Finch is mentioned numerous times. Jasper Jones is the outcast of the small (fictional) mining town of Corrigan, the teenage scapegoat who is seen as the source and instigator of anything that remotely resembles "trouble".  He is also the son of a drunk, and half aboriginal, so he is basically a happy blend of many of society's prejudices.  So when Jasp...

Diary of a Penguin Napper (Sally Harris) Diary of a Penguin Napper is the first novel from Melbourne-based author, Sally Harris, which I discovered upon wandering into a bookstore in Richmond the other day.  I started chatting with a nice guy who I can only assume was the owner, and he convinced me to buy a copy (evidently he's a good salesman!).  I then proceeded to enjoy reading the book. OK, so I am a lot older than the target audience of 8-12 year olds, but hey, I can appreciate a good junior novel when I read one! Basically, Marty and his amusingly-named best friend Turds (yes, Turds) need to raise money fast so Marty can go on camp with the love of his eleven-and-a-half year old life, Jessica.  I won't go into too much detail, but in the end, kidnapping a penguin seems to be the best option to raise the bucks. Told as a kind of retrospective from Marty's point of view, the story is well paced and has it's amusing, if not slightly predictable scenarios an...

Alex as Well (Alyssa Brugman) Alex as Well is a book that should be required reading for all those living through gender identity issues, or those who want to obtain a deeper understanding of the struggle of teenage years for those who are born transgender.   Alex is born "a bit of both", but her parents choose to raise her as male.  Alex hits puberty, and decides to stop taking her testosterone - she is a female, and wants to start living life as a female. The narrative begins with Alex enrolling herself in a new school as a female, electing to become vegetarian, and so beginning her journey of true identity.  Unlike Raven Girl , the story of Alex's transition to her true identity is not met with support from those who surround her.  In fact, the characterisation of Alex's mother, who writes down her horrendously selfish thoughts via an online "Motherhood Shared" blog, are enough to make anyone cringe.   Alex as Well  is a well written, engaging a...

Girl Defective (Simmone Howell) As a teenager, did you ever look longingly at other people’s apparent domestic bliss, and wonder just why your family was so damn weird? Girl Defective’s protagonist, Skylark Martin, laments that her family are “like inverse superheroes, marked by our defects”.  As the daughter of an absent, artist mother, a borderline alcoholic father, and with a brother who is “on the spectrum”, Sky certainly has her share of domestic challenges.  Throw into the mix an older, unpredictable best friend, an intense teenage romance and a mysterious death (all against a St. Kilda backdrop) Girl Defective certainly delivers a colourful, engaging narrative.  A novel that tackles the issues of self-identity and familial relationships within romance and suspense, Girl Defective certainly offers the reader a little bit of everything! Howell, S 2013,  Girl defective , Pan Macmillan Australia, Sydney. Young Adult - Family

Head of the River (Pip Harry) Leni and Cris are rowers and twins, and with Olympic rowers as parents, the twins see competition in everything.  Rife with sporting metaphors, the clear message of this story is the price you are willing to pay to win.  The book charts the slow decline of each character as they continue to sacrifice their true identities to “win at all costs”.  Leni cuts herself off emotionally from friends and family in the belief that frivolity does not fit with perfection.  When Cris starts struggling emotionally and physically to stay on top, he chooses to take steroids, despite knowing how ashamed his parents would be. As events progress, each character slowly realises their choices are actually making them miserable.  It is only after some choices lead to unintended (and tragic) consequences that both characters begin to understand their true selves, and what brings them happiness.