THE AMBIDEXTROUS LIBRARIAN

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...

LITTLE REBEL CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARDS 2016 Subversive, intelligent children's books.  Could I find a better topic to talk about? The Little Rebels Children's Book Awards ( administered by the UK's Letterbox Library as part of the Alliance of Radical Booksellers )  are a relatively new thing, having been around for only a few years (since 2013 it seems).  Is this because it is only recently that authors have felt the need to tackle big societal issues in children books?  I pondered this for a while and then realised that Dr. Seuss would argue with me (and win) on that point. Let me start by saying that although I think the title "Little Rebels" is awesome, I am actually going to say that I think there should be nothing deemed "rebellious" about reading literature that encourages us to think and form our own opinions.  In fact, I dislike my own description of the nominees as "subversive", but I'll maintain that adjective to argue my...

WONDER (R.J. PALACIO) This book lives up to its name.  Totally.  I had heard about it and seen it kicking around at my previous school, and then the Grade 5 teacher at my current school requested it.  Good choice - all school libraries SHOULD HAVE THIS BOOK.  Yes the CAPS is for EMPHASIS. August (Auggie) was born with some pretty serious facial defects.  He gets stared at - like, most of the time.  And it's not "nice" staring, it's staring in shock and horror, can't-believe-what-I'm-seeing staring.  Auggie for the most part has learnt to ignore it, but it still gets under his skin, and still makes him dread going into situations with new people. So the idea of going to school for the first time? Utterly terrifying.  LOTS of new people, everywhere, and he is stuck with them for hours a day, and they will all stare, and comment, and pretend to look away, and talk about him behind his back.  Auggie knows exactly what it will be like and...

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...

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....

Cicada Summer (Kate Constable) I stumbled across Cicada Summer in a very "professional" attempt to increase my general knowledge of junior fiction. I had heard of Kate Constable, most recently through her acclaimed novel Crow Country , which won the 2012 CBCA Young Readers Book of the Year (haven't read it yet - should do soon!)   Cicada Summer  wasn't quite what I expected, mainly because I totally judged the book by it's cover and didn't read the blurb at all.  Regardless though, I found it to be quite an engaging story, and surprisingly atmospheric for a junior fiction novel. Eloise doesn't speak much.  Actually, she doesn't say anything at all, and hasn't really spoken since her mother passed on a wee while back.  Instead, Eloise speaks through her art, as she is quite a talented artist. Eloise's father, who is an "entrepreneur" and forever chasing his next big bucks breakthrough, has just been given a beautiful, but deca...

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...

The Witches (Roald Dahl) Don’t be fooled – REAL WITCHES exist, and their sole purpose is to eradicate ALL children due to the vile stench they exude!  REAL WITCHES are, of course, terribly icky, but they parade the world as lovely ladies and can only be spotted by those in the know! So begins the telling of a classic good vs. evil fairy-tale, where a young boy and his grandmother unwittingly find themselves in the midst of a large gathering of witches, led by none other than the Grand High Witch herself who plans to rid England of all children, forever!  Will their terrible plan be foiled in time? Packed with larger-than-life characters, colourful accents and disgustingly descriptive narrative, The Witches is bound to be a hit with children who enjoy a squeamish read! Dahl, R 1983,  The witches , Jonathan Cape, London. Children's - Horror