Tag: Hachette

It’s Okay to Be Different – Todd Parr

It’s Okay to be Different is such a bright and cheerful picture book. See those quirky DayGlo illustrations on the front cover? That is the kind of smiley fun you’re in for throughout the book. At once a self esteem booster and a celebration of individuality, kids young and young at heart will love this book. Each page tells you it’s okay to be, have or do something and is supported by cute illustrations that even I, wanna be artist that struggles to create a legible stick figure, could attempt to trace draw.

Whether it’s being okay to:

  • Be a different colour – a black and white zebra standing next to a red, green, blue and yellow one
  • Talk about your feelings – I’ll listen to you, Mr Lion
  • Eat macaroni and cheese in the bathtub – permission granted. Woohoo!
  • Have different Mums and Dads – these are some seriously awesome looking parents
    … this book includes lots of serious and seriously fun statements that will make you proud of being you.

And let’s face it, who you are is pretty darn wonderful anyway! I wouldn’t change a thing about you! 😃

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

It’s okay to be a different colour. It’s okay to dance by yourself. It’s okay to wear glasses. It’s okay to have a pet worm … It’s okay to be different!

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The Visitors – Catherine Burns

CLIENT REPORT – CONFIDENTIAL

Client Name: Marion Zetland

Age: 54, but looks 60

Personal Appearance: Frizzy brown hair that looks like she stuck her finger in a powerpoint, in desperate need of surgery to implant a sense of fashion

Relevant Family History: Rich in money (business: Zetland’s Fine Fabrics) but not affection. Emotionally unavailable mother. Weirdo father. Psycho brother

Education: Attended three schools yet appears to have learned little at any of them

Lives: In her own little world

Home Life: Resides with her older brother, John, and various ‘visitors’ in her childhood six-bedroom home. Sleeps in her childhood attic bedroom

Home’s hoarder level: Expert

Cleanliness of home: Sorry, but I can’t see under the dust to assess this

Social Life: Does being friends with stuffed animals count?

Culinary Prowess: Toast, reheating tinned or packet food

Maladaptive Coping Mechanisms: Denial, binge-eating, denial, daydreaming, denial, living through TV shows, denial

Special Abilities: Invisibility, ability to transfigure into a doormat

Mantra: If I don’t pay attention to it then it’s not really happening

Favourite Books: Include The Secret Garden and the Harry Potter series (OK, so she has some redeeming qualities after all)

Relationship and Employment History: Did you just hear a pin drop?

Overall Assessment: This woman, whose emotional and social development halted somewhere in early childhood, needs a big dose of ‘wake up to yourself!’ A victim of her upbringing but complicit in her failure to get a life, her only expertise appears to be in not having any accountability for how her life has turned out or the choices she’s made or refused to make (honey, refusing to do anything is also a choice).

And the winners of the You Should’ve Been Sterilised at Birth category … 🥁… Marion and John’s parents!

Is it possible to want to keep reading a book when you despise the two main characters and wish them slow, excruciating deaths? Apparently.

Is it also possible to wander aimlessly between empathy and wanting to knock some sense into one of the main characters for almost the entire book? You betcha.

The Visitors is a difficult book to review. There’s so much I want to say but don’t want to give anything away. It was well written and a scarily accurate fly on the wall look into the lives of one seriously dysfunctional family. I’ve heard some seriously dysfunctional people saying some of the things that come out of these characters’ mouths almost word for word.

I imagine this will be a polarising book as it delves into some disturbing themes and although evil is most certainly committed by multiple characters, you can also see enough of the gears working inside their heads that you get an understanding of why they may choose to behave that way. I’m definitely not giving them a free pass here. Their actions are reprehensible and yet, there was a part of me that still wanted to empathise with them, just a little bit. I guess my obsession fascination with why people do the evil they do had a morbidly enjoyable feast during this book.

My main annoyance with this book came at the ending. I was hoping it would turn out differently (that’s being nice – I actually wanted to punch someone) but perhaps I can borrow a smidgen Marion’s fantasy world ability and imagine my own end to the story. Love it or hate it, this is going to be a talked about book. I can see it working well as a book club read.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hachette Australia for the opportunity to read this book. I’d also like to say a special thanks to Erin at Hachette Australia for her excellent customer service.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Marion Zetland lives with her domineering older brother, John in a decaying Georgian townhouse on the edge of a northern seaside resort. A timid spinster in her fifties who still sleeps with teddy bears, Marion does her best to shut out the shocking secret that John keeps in the cellar.

Until, suddenly, John has a heart attack and Marion is forced to go down to the cellar herself and face the gruesome truth that her brother has kept hidden.

As questions are asked and secrets unravel, maybe John isn’t the only one with a dark side.

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Surf Riders Club #1: Ava’s Big Move – Mary van Reyk

Where was this book when I was growing up?! Girls are going to adore and be empowered by Ava’s story. This story is so sweet it may as well be coated in sugar but young girls love that!

I spent most of my childhood weekends and school holidays at the beach, reading until I got too hot, then swimming or bodyboarding until it was time to read again. Back in the olden days I didn’t see female surfers but longed to be one, even though I adored bodyboarding. Had I read this book as a kid I’m positive I would have had the confidence to ignore all of the boys in the water and claim my right to be a girl surfer.

When Ava finds out her parents are moving their family to Beachcrest to fulfil their longtime dream of opening a café, Ava is devastated. She can’t imagine not living in the city across the road from her best friend Sarah.

When Alex, the first girl Ava meets at her new school, tells her the school is offering surfing as a sport for the first time that year, Ava decides to join as well. Together with Molly, Janani and Bronte, they are the only girls to join the beginners class. Also in that class are a couple of confusing boys, James who used to be nice but isn’t anymore and nice boy Tom. My favourite character was prickly Bronte who appeared somewhat confused by her own desire to join in with this lovely bunch of girls.

Ava spends plenty of time practicing surfing with her new friends, waitresses at the opening night of her family’s new café, hosts a sleepover, and eats plenty of pizza and ice cream. I’m definitely craving pizza now…

To graduate from beginners to intermediate next term each surfer needs to be able to catch five waves in the final lesson of the term. Ava is anxious about the possibility of being left behind in beginners while all of her friends move up a level. What will happen when the big day arrives?

I love that this book is endorsed by Surfing Australia and really appreciated that while this is a great book about friendship, girls will also learn some useful information, including:

  • How to identify rips and what to do if you’re caught in one
  • How to bodysurf
  • Tips for choosing a good beginner’s board
  • Surfing lingo and etiquette
  • How your body needs to be positioned on the board to catch waves on both a bodyboard and surfboard.

While most of the sugary sweet sections had me thinking about how much I’d have loved reading that as a kid, one scene really annoyed me. Ava and her Year 7 friends are dancing around in the lounge room during a sleepover and her Year 11 brother gets home and joins in with the dancing. Huh? Really? I would have found this so much more realistic if the brother simply rolled his eyes and smirked at the girls on the way to his bedroom to escape the giggling.

Adding to my growing list of insults to store in my head for future use, telling someone they’re “the stink that lingers around a dead rat”.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hachette Children’s Books, Australia for the opportunity to read this book. I’ll be continuing to read this series and look forward to getting to know Ava and her new friends better along the way.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Join the girls as they take on the world, one wave at a time!

Meet five very different girls with one thing in common: they’ve caught the surfing bug!

Ava has grown up in a big city. But everything changes when her parents decide on a sea change – they’re moving to the small town of Beachcrest to open a cafe. Ava will be starting high school that year, and now she has to say goodbye to her life in the city. Her new school is very different and Ava misses her friends. When she hears that surfing is going to be offered as a sport for the first time, Ava uses her snowboard skills to give it a try. Not everyone thinks she can become a surfer but Ava is determined to prove them wrong, and she’s making new friends along the way!

Ava, Alex, Bronte, Janani and Molly form the Surf Riders Club to help each other practise, but it quickly becomes much more than that. Whether it’s learning how to get barreled, problem parents or annoying boys, the Surf Riders Club are there for each other, no matter what.

Officially endorsed by Surfing Australia.

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Ventura Saga #2: The Glow of Fallen Stars – Kate Ling

DNF @ 42%

I really enjoyed The Loneliness of Distant Beings and so I was intrigued to find out what lay in store for our castaways after living their entire lives until now travelling through space with no hope of ever setting foot on land. While I’m allergic to romance I actually thought the forbidden romance between Seren and Dom in the first book was adorable.

Imagine my surprise when after the initial awe of exploring this unknown land along with Seren, Dom and their companions I wound up bored. I would’ve been happy to plod along had it not been for the extremely unbelievable development at 41%. I stopped at 42% because even though it was slow going beforehand the unnamed spoiler took me right out of the book and made me wish the author had left The Loneliness of Distant Beings as a standalone.

Having said that I’m certainly interested in The Truth of Different Skies because I love a good prequel and I’d like to find out how the events in Loneliness came to be. If I enjoy that one I’ll be revisiting this book because I’m hopeful that the prequel gives some sort of explanation that turns my unbelievable stance into an “oh, so that’s why that happened!”. If/When I make it to 100% on this one I will update this review.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hachette Children’s Books, Australia for the opportunity to read this book.

Once Upon a Blurb

I longed so hard for all the things that make life life, and I never thought they’d be mine. But now … now they are. Now I have something to lose.

Seren and Dom have fled their old lives on board spaceship Ventura in order to be together. They crash-land on a beautiful, uninhabited planet, which at first seems like paradise.

There is no one to answer to … but no one to ask for help. And with each new day comes the realisation of how vulnerable they truly are.

This planet has secrets – lots of them. Uncovering them could be the key to survival, but at what cost?

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This is What a Librarian Looks Like: A Celebration of Libraries, Communities, and Access to Information – Kyle Cassidy

I didn’t think I could have any more admiration for the work librarians do, but that was before I read this book. This Is What a Librarian Looks Like is a celebration of the unsung superheroes of the literary world. They are the keepers of knowledge, protectors of words, and walking and talking book recommending extraordinaires! I’m sure they get their superpowers from inhaling the smell of new books. They perform surgical procedures second to none repairing stories that have been loved to pieces. They know the secrets of how to reserve the upcoming bestseller before there’s a queue 50 deep waiting for it (and if you’re nice to them they may even share this coveted knowledge with you). They are the holders of the key to unlocking the universe, a library card, and they’ll give you one for free! Friends to book nerds everywhere, librarians are underappreciated paperback royalty.

This Is What a Librarian Looks Like is a fantastic book and should be required reading for any politician or government official who has any say in how much funding libraries receive. I’ve haunted libraries for as long as I can remember yet I still didn’t realise how integral libraries and librarians are to society. While this book’s focus is America its principles are universal. In a nutshell, libraries and librarians are awesome!! This book is chock full of photographs and quotes from librarians who work at various public, school, prison and hospital libraries across America, along with essays about the history of libraries and personal library experiences of authors including Neil Gaiman and George R.R. Martin.

My Mum was the one who introduced me to our local library (A.K.A. the most magical place on earth). I’d marvel at the selection of books on offer that I got to choose from, knowing that the next time we visited I’d get to do it all over again. Mum and I would visit the library not only for ‘just for the pleasure of reading’ books but also for help with school projects.

The librarians knew everything! Mum and I would tell them what my project was about and they’d lead us to wherever Mr Dewey called. They’d make personal recommendations about the best books for the topics I was looking for and even let me in to the special back room that held the super important local history archives and other curiosities that you could photocopy but could never, ever cross the seal. Oh, wait … that was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but I swear I felt important enough that I may as well have been holding the Holy Grail.

When I came across Roald Dahl’s Matilda I wanted to read all of the books in my local library but ended up in awe of her because there were just so many to choose from. Some of my all time favourites that I first discovered on a library shelf as a child have made their way to my own personal library as an adult. I loved my school libraries as well and became a library monitor in high school. Even when I wasn’t ‘on the job’ I could be found hanging out chatting to the school librarians during my lunch break. Not much has changed. Just ask my local librarians!

Decades later Mum and I once again haunt our local library together, but now my local library doesn’t just have books. Between us we borrow books, magazines, CD’s, and DVD’s, along with electronic books, audiobooks, music, magazines, comic books, movies and documentaries. My local library doesn’t even charge for reserving items from another branch and getting them sent to our Mother Ship branch, so I spend time every weekday scouring the new acquisitions and ordering everything Mum and/or I are interested in. There’s even the option to ask the library to buy something they don’t have in stock and I feel like a child at Christmas every time a librarian gives me an item I asked the library to purchase.

Now, I’m definitely not biased and I’m not one to boast, but my librarians are the best in the entire world! They’re so friendly and so helpful, and over the years have become friends I look forward to seeing and catching up with. I go to my library on certain days to see my favourite librarian and love hearing about their life, seeing their holiday photos, and of course hearing about what they’re reading. The best librarian in the world has recommended books to me she knows I’ll love, patiently explains when my brain decides it doesn’t want to understand something, has been a social worker to me when I’ve had bad news, is happy for me when I’m excited about something (like writing book reviews), and laughs with (and at?) me when I’m being weird, eccentric me.

Back to the book, I had too many favourite quotes to list but here are some that made the short list:

“The library was a safe place filled with thousands of potential life-changing friends who couldn’t talk to you, but would tell you a story nonetheless.” – Kyle Cassidy

“Libraries are the connective tissue of the community; connecting people with the resources they need and want in order to do, see, and be all they aspire.” – Brian Hart

“Libraries are very much like oysters; common, abundant, and seemingly ordinary. That is, until you find the endless beauty held within.” – Majed Khader

“Libraries are a safe space where you can challenge your views about life.” – Scott Nicholson

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Hachette Books for the opportunity to read this book. I love it!

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

In 2014, author and photographer Kyle Cassidy published a photo essay on Slate.com called “This is What A Librarian Looks Like,” a montage of portraits and a tribute to librarians. Since then, Cassidy has made it his mission to remind us of how essential librarians and libraries are to our communities. His subjects are men and women of all ages, backgrounds, and personal style-from pink hair and leather jackets to button-downs and blazers. In short, not necessarily what one thinks a librarian looks like. The nearly 220 librarians photographed also share their personal thoughts on what it means to be a librarian. This is What A Librarian Looks Like also includes original essay by some of our most beloved writers, journalists, and commentators including Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, Nancy Pearl, Cory Doctorow, Paula Poundstone, Amanda Palmer, Peter Sagal, Jeff VanderMeer, John Scalzi, Sara Farizan, Amy Dickinson, and others. Cassidy also profiles a handful of especially influential librarians and libraries.

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Beatrice Zinker, Upside Down Thinker – Shelley Johannes

Some girls are happy wearing pink dresses with ruffles. Others are ninjas who climb trees and are cofounders of top-secret organisations. Beatrice Zinker definitely isn’t a fan of pink dresses with ruffles.

Beatrice is a middle child. Her older sister, Kate, is just like her Mum. Her younger brother, Henry, is just like her Dad. Beatrice does all of her best thinking upside down and finds it difficult being the only upside down daughter in a right side up family. Even Oliver, the Zinker’s cat, is right side up!

Beatrice meets her friend Lenny on Halloween night in first grade. They were alike and enjoyed playing pirates, ninjas, zombies and knights. Beatrice is now starting third grade at William Charles Elementary and is ready to start Operation Upside with Lenny, a plan Beatrice has been working on all summer.

Everything changes for Beatrice when Lenny walks into the first day of third grade, not wearing her ninja suit, but pink! With sparkles, no less! And Lenny’s made a new friend! Is Operation Upside doomed for failure before it even begins?

This is such a heartwarming story. You feel better about yourself and the world after you finish reading it. Beatrice teaches us the importance of being yourself. She learns that you can turn a confusing day into a good one if you look at it the right way and that there are always things you can do to make a bad day better.

There are plenty of adorable illustrations that add to the story and bring Beatrice’s upside down thinking to life. The quirkiness of the illustrations remind me of Quentin Blake’s illustrations in Roald Dahl’s children’s books.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hachette Children’s Books, Australia for the opportunity to read this book. Beatrice is funny and spunky, and is soon to make friends with young girls all over the world. She will resonate with so many girls that feel different and she’ll teach them that their differences are special and deserve to be celebrated. I can’t wait until the second Beatrice Zinker book is released!

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Beatrice does her best thinking upside down.

Hanging from trees by her knees, doing handstands . . . for Beatrice Zinker, upside down works every time. She was definitely upside down when she and her best friend, Lenny, agreed to wear matching ninja suits on the first day of third grade. But when Beatrice shows up at school dressed in black, Lenny arrives with a cool new outfit and a cool new friend. Even worse, she seems to have forgotten all about the top-secret operation they planned!

Can Beatrice use her topsy-turvy way of thinking to save the mission, mend their friendship, and flip things sunny-side up?

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