Guest Post: Q & A with Alexia Paglia: My Strong Heart

At only 24 years of age, Sydney’s Alexia Paglia is adding to her already growing list of achievements by releasing a new children’s book all about maintaining good heart health called My Strong Heart, just in time for Heart Health Week from 6th to 12th May.

With cardiovascular disease (CVD) affecting 1 in 4 Australians (that’s over 4 million people), clinical researcher and medical student Alexia Paglia's mission is to lower the rates of CVD, improve health outcomes and educate children at a young age so they can take positive health behaviours well into adulthood. As well as recently winning a Young Citizen of the Year Award for her volunteer work in educating children about their health, My Strong Heart is Alexia’s first children’s book in a series of Dr Zig Zaccy Zoo books on living a healthy lifestyle.

Review: Tidemagic: The Many Faces of Ista Flit

In Shelwich, the tide has gifted tide-blessings to practically everyone in varying forms.

Ista Flit’s gift is the ability to take on the appearance of any person she has seen, amongst other things.

Her Pa had left Aunt Abigail’s house and come to Shelwich to work and buy a flat for them to live together.

When his clarinet is delivered to Ista at her aunt’s place with a letter, she learns that he has disappeared.

Ista leaves secretly and arrives in Shelwich to try and find him.

The sinister Alexo Rokis, fox-faced and wolf-eyed, on her arrival, steals the clarinet, the only thing left of her father, and holds it to ransom, forcing Ista to steal for him. The deal is twenty errands for the return of the clarinet and freedom from his power over her.

Junior Review: Amanda Commander: The Blues Day Tuesday

In Amanda Commander The Blues Day Tuesday, Amanda gets sick and has to stay home from school. She’s excited to get back to her friends, but when she’s finally better, things have changed.

Her friends, Lu and Mai, have been playing with other people and she’s behind in pottery classes.

Amanda feels left out and alone. She isn’t enjoying being back at school at all. And turns out she isn’t the only one going through this. Other kids get sick, and they also find it hard when they come back to school.

Amanda knows she has to do something, and she also knows her friends will support her. So she tells them how she feels and comes up with a plan to make sure everyone is included.

Review: Brittany And Co Take On Paris

With a title so hefty it needs its own aeroplane seat, it’s no wonder that the laughs from this book are also weighty in the extreme.

Author John Larkin (appropriate name!) may well be the ultimate dad-joker. In the best ways.

Although Brittany & co are banned from bringing their horses to school, they figure out a way to travel for free to Paris and compete in an international event without a scrap of training. As you do.

The tongue in cheek, rogue nature of Larkin’s prose mean that Brittany is at once a biting, visceral, naïve yet overall, (surprisingly!) accurate representation of an 11-year-old girl.

This book is a riot, a joy, a hoot, an absolute corker – and not just because it’s got a whole section devoted to The First Inaugural International Hobby Horse Riding Championships in Paris (TFIIHRCiP). 

Review: Smarty Pup: Talent Quest

Smarty Pup, the smartest dog in the world, is back in an all new story, Talent Quest.

The fourth book in Anh Do's Smarty Pup series is packed full of everyday adventures for new readers. 

It begins with Dad's birthday. Birthdays mean presents and if they're to find the right one, JJ will need to remain strong against deliciously distracting food smells at the shops. 

But what to buy for him? And do they have enough money to buy it? 

JJ and Lily hunt for spare change without much luck. Then they discover they have the chance to win a cash prize at the school talent quest.

What will JJ do for his talent? Recite Shakespeare, because of course he's brilliant at it. Or perhaps disco dancing, because he can dance like he's done it for years.

Review: My Heart

Kids do all sorts of things to our hearts, and this is the concept My Heart by Katrina McKelvey and Deb Hudson explores.

When I found out you were coming … my heart glowed.

When we shared our first snuggle … my heart melted.

Review: Mia Megastar

Mia and her family live above their fruit shop. Their extended family are always around with lots of Greek food at the centre of their gatherings. 

Mia loves to sing, dance, and entertain at every opportunity.

She is excited because her stylish, beloved aunty - theia Athina who lives in Paris, is coming to visit. (Mia is her theia’s ‘one’ and ‘only’. That’s what her name means in Greek).

The family is preparing a party to welcome her, with lots of traditional food.

Review: A Small Collection Of Happiness

Hettie is a smallish girl with a biggish imagination. She also has a biggish personality, that much is evident from the first pages of this new very different, somewhat off-beat new Zana Fraillon middle grade novel. 

She lives in a very unprepossessing block of flats, which look out over an equally unprepossessing yard, in an even more unprepossessing part of town. 

The whole town has an unloved, unkempt and barren look and feel about it, despite its ironic name of The Gardens. Yet, within this dreary landscape, there is still life and colour, certainly to Hettie’s mind, and as the narrative unfolds, that life begins to revive and restore the colours and happiness it was once designed to hold.

Announcement! New Junior Reviewer

Fear not, you are not seeing double. We are super excited to introduce another new Junior Reviewer into our illustrious KBR family. 

Last week we met the delightful, Elle Freestone. Now it's time to put your hands together for the utterly fearless and fabulous, Asha Freestone. 

Like her sister, Asha will be sharing her enthusiastic love of all things literary with us in the months to come. 

We simply can't wait to read more, Asha! Meanwhile, welcome! Discover more about Asha via her 12 Curlies, below.

Review: How To Find A Rainbow

One of the first things that is apparent with this stunning picture book, is the slightly subdued nature of the divine illustrations. Set on a rainy day, these pencil drawings are anything but gloomy – rather, they have an air of magic and mystery about them. Indeed, they are totally compelling in all the best ways.

Reena hates rainy days. She hates the way the dark clouds make everything look so dull.

Rekha loves rainy days. She loves the way the rain makes the earth smell.

Review: Saturday Is Pancake Day

It’s hard not to wonder, with the visual riot and chaos of cooking pancakes in this fabulous book, whether there have been spies in my household for years...

Saturday is Pancake Day is a gorgeous, messy and delectable (I use that word loosely) rendition of a family tradition taken to extremes. The huge pancake on the cover is tactile with those little holes that signify the very best of pancake-dom. Fancy.

Milo makes the best pancakes, but today, Henry doesn’t feel like them. What? Why? Who in their right mind doesn’t like pancakes?

Meet The Illustrator: Blithe Fielden

Name: Blithe Fielden

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.
Fun, playful, colourful, scribbly, imaginative, narrative, child-like, nostalgic

What items are an essential part of your creative space?
If there is one thing I have learnt since my move from England to Australia 18 months ago, it is that it's possible to work almost anywhere as an illustrator. As long as I have a sketchbook on hand, a pencil case filled with an assortment of colourful pencils and somewhere to sit down - whether that is a table in a park, a blanket on the grass or a bench in the city, I can happily sit for hours, scribbling away.

Sometimes, I love to listen to music or have a TV series on in the background (admittedly, I watched all six series of Gossip Girl whilst working on ‘Dinosaur in my Pocket’ over the two and a half month time frame).

Review: Her Majesty's League Of Remarkable Young Ladies

Move over MacGyver, there’s a new Queen of Improv in town and her name is Miss Weatherby; that’s Winnie to you and I. 

Young teen, Winnie rocks as an inventeress. Yes, the gender specification is acceptable because the time period Winifred rocks in is the late 1800s as in the latter part of Queen Victoria’s reign, which adds a delicious extra layer of richness to Alison Stegert’s first middle grade fiction, Her Majesty’s League of Remarkable Young Ladies.

This astoundingly long-titled novel is an extravaganza of remarkable indeed. An exciting mash-up of Nancy Drew come Famous Five sporting the Victorian era qualities of A Little Princess. Somehow, Stegert sews it all seamlessly together in a gripping tale of espionage, mystery and for want of a better word, MacGyverness.

12 Curly Questions with author/illustrator Ryan Abramowitz

1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you.

Waddling around the north end of Albert Park Lake are a pair of black-and-white ducks. I am obsessed with watching them and how in-sync they are.

2. What is your nickname?
Abro, or as my high school jumper had embossed FABROLOUS.

3. What is your greatest fear?
Snakes - yikes! Or, not having access to a waterway for an indefinite period of time. I need my oceanic fix.

4. Describe your writing style in 10 words.
Whimsical, heartfelt and harvested by metaphors of the natural world.

Junior Review: The Sun Is Also A Star

A touching story based on the author’s real-life, features Natasha, a Jamaican teen facing imminent deportation in the next 24 hours, and Daniel, who has been living in the shadow of his older brother his entire life. 

When they cross paths at a bookstore, neither of them knows that this is the start of a unique and heartwarming love story.

Both Natasha and Daniel have their own demons to fight, with each of them living in homes that feel broken as they dream of a way to escape their reality. 

Ironically, 'dream' is not a word in Natasha’s vocabulary as she only sticks to the facts and science. On the contrary, Daniel fantasizes about saying his poetry out loud, a thought he keeps hidden from his Korean parents. The reader gets to dive into each of their perspectives with chapters alternating between the two.