Faelan The Wolf Bk3. Faelan the Fearless by Juliette MacIver. Pub. Scholastic, 2024

Faelan the wolf is one on the best characters I have read about in a children’s book. He is brave, fearless and different to the norm. A wolf who loves music, plays the harp, is selfless, is a vegan and is best friends with a chicken and a skunk.

This last book in a trilogy ties up all the loose ends from the first two books which are also reviewed elsewhere on this blog. Questions like Who is Faelan’s real father? Is it Varg the beast from a rebel wolf pack? and if he is not Varg’s son then who is and does he pose a danger to the pack?

With the death of Bardolf who will become pack leader? Weylin or somebody else? Will Avian and Faelan free the chickens from man and take them to the promised land?

The conclusion to this story is stunning but not surprising considering Faelan’s character. Don’t miss this easy to read adventure, it’s one of the best of the year.

Take Me To Your Leader by Leone Agnew. Illus. Paul Beavis. Pub. Puffin, 2024.

Ashton Hill primary school has 17 students of which Lucas, his sister Ellie and friend Harriet are students. The Minister of Education Mrs carter decides to close the school down and the children want to protest.

Their teacher Mr Ngata tells them protest will fall on deaf ears and any petition will be put on the scrap heap. Lucas wants to persist and so does his friend Harriet.

While flying a kite marked with high-viz tape in the evening causes a fuss when a local chicken farmer Mrs Jones reports a UFO in the area and it is printed in the national newspapers. Tourists start clambering into the town poking their cameras and noses into recycling bins almost like they were hoping to find dead alien bodies.

Lucas, Harriet and co promote the alien theme in the hope that it will create jobs and people will stay in the town of Ashton Hill and the school will be saved. Lucas has another reason to stay as his father is buried in the town and he wants to keep in touch. Will it work? read the book and find out..

Very funny in places and other issues like the treatment of battery chickens, vegetarianism, climate change, government responses to protest, school closures etc come into the story. The kids also use a blog, Twitter and other social media to promote their actions.

A modern story and great read -a – loud.

Koro’s Star by Claire Aramakutu. Pub. Scholastic, 2024.

Good old fashioned story telling from the winner of the 2023 Tom Fitzgibbon Award.

Set in the 1960’s when there were no cell phones, no computers, no online games and kids played outside and made fun by themselves and their friends. Marbles was a competitive sport and kids did jobs to get pocket money.

Atama is 10 years old and his sister Maia is 6yrs. They live in Burnham army camp as their father is sent to Vietnam. he is good father and close to his son in particular. When he leaves he gives Atama a gold Star medal that his grandfather Koro, was presented with after the battle of Crete during World war 2.

Atama finds new friends at the camp and to get into the group called the fear Crushers he has to do an initiation by going underground into some old tunnels that go under the army camp. Atama makes it but when his new friend Eden has to do the same she gets into bother fully testing the courage of Atama and his friends.

There is something eerie underground, I wonder what it is and will Koros Star medal have an influence on what is going on. read it and find out.

Short easy to read story and a deserved winner of the Tom Fitzgibbon literary award.

Avis and the Call of the Kraken by Heather McQuillan. Pub. Cuba Press, 2024.

This very good fantasy novel about dragons and the mythical undersea beast the kraken is a sequel to Avis and the promise of dragons.

In the previous book Avis became the nursemaid for two dragons owned by the far out Malinda Childe. The two dragons named Humber and Princess have grown and want to stretch their wings and Malinda decides they need somewhere safe to stay where they will not be found by humans.

Avis and Malinda stay in contact with the dragons by means of a dragon teardrop which they wear around their necks like a cell phone. When that communication is hacked by something else they start to worry what it is.

Out at sea is a drilling platform and when Avis is flying undetected over the sea she sees a disturbance under the sea which she also detects is the force hacking her communication with the dragons.

While flying over the sea Avis finds an island that is suitable for Humbert and Princess to live but the mysterious force is going to have an effect on this. It is a Kraken called Mother and she is disturbed at the mess the drilling rig is making on her environment.

Also introduced are two new characters Mr Papalu and a young aspiring journalist called Lulu. They discover the secret of the dragons but will it remain a secret and what will happen when the dragons eat chocolate bars especially the chilli chocolate bar.

a fun story with a serious aspect to it. Well written and cleverly paced with a very good role model in Avis.

Lulu La Ru Steps up as a Step-Mum by Gina Bartlett. Pub Moxie Press, 2024

A delightful short rhyming text novel about a glamorous wealthy young woman with a big house and no worries who suddenly becomes a Step-mum – a Super Terrific Extra parent.

There is no preparation for being a parent you just have to get in there and do it and this is what Lulu has to do when her new man Hugh comes around “as cute as before but wait there was more. behind his legs…one with straight, one with curls, big eyes staring at her – were two little girls”. Rosa and Coco.

Lulu is not prepared. They mess up the house, barge in when she is having a shower exposing her wobbly bits, test her powers of making a school lunch, watching scary movies with them and meeting all the other mums at the school gate.

All told with a tongue in cheek humour and splendidly illustrated. Lulu is hubba hubba material and the girls are little rascals but we never see Hugh.

Step mums do not always have a good reputation but Lulu is the exception.

For primary and Intermediate readers especially reluctant girls and it looks like it is going to be a series.

Henry Appleton, Boy Hero and the Burgess Gang. An Adventure Story from Johnny Slick by John Evan Harris. Pub. Roiall Emerald 12 Feb 2024.

This very readable adventure story of New Zealand in the goldrush days of the 1860’s is told in the style of Dime western novels popularised by Johnny Slick and is the prequel to The Physician’s Gun which is reviewed elsewhere on this blog.

The main character is Henry Appleton who becomes a hero in Nelson after he helps capture bank robber “Deadeye Dick”. The book tells of episodes in the life of Henry aged between 10 and 15, his horse Duke, his father before his death in the gold fields and his mother who is trying to settle in the Nelson province.

It is written in an era when small towns were a scenes of settlement, entertainment and wealth and the country was rugged and lawless with gangs robbing banks and living off the wealth found by the multi national miners who came seeking their fortune.

Henry worships guns, he thinks they are necessary while his mother considers they are not. Henry is going to get and use a gun as he encounters a bunch of London born crooks that became famous in this era and known as the Burgess Gang. They were later convicted of the infamous Maungatapu Murders.

The adventure is gripping and the book is a short easy to read novel that will appeal to reluctant readers.

Big Little Blue Bk2 Rockybottoms by Raymond McGrath. Pub. Scholastic, 2023

This easy to read graphic novel about self worth and being yourself is the second book in a series for junior and intermediate readers and is absolutely brilliant. The first part is reviewed elsewhere on this blog.

Big and little Blue are friends and penguins but they are different. In this 3 story book Big Blue likes to do absolutely nothing on a beautiful day and little Blue cannot understand that. He thinks doing nothing is easy and lazy while big Blue knows that it is good for his health. And it is, I like doing nothing too but not all day and Big Blue knows this too.

To emphasise this message little Blue meets a seal called Bubba Lubba who misses his mermaid girl friend and is waiting around in case she shows up. Bubba Lubba sings a sea shanty about his love and on prompting by little Blue decides to stop doing nothing and go find her.

When little Blue goes back to his mate Big Blue he has decided to do something and has finished doing nothing. Good stuff but people think doing nothing is easy. from experience it takes a lot of skill to do nothing.

Will have great appeal to reluctant readers.

Caged by Susan Brocker, Pub. Scholastic, 2023

Susan Brocker has mostly written about horses but this time she writes about dog breeding for profit and welds it in with a story about poverty, drug dealing and survival on the streets of Auckland.

Sam is a 14 year old girl whose family are in emergency housing and her family live in poverty. The decisions she makes are guided by that poverty and the need to survive and she takes on jobs that normally no-one unless they were desperate would take. Poverty does that.

When Sam burgles a vape shop on the orders of a criminal called Fowler, she is chased by a police dog and eludes it by climbing a high fence into a yard swarming with puppies who are in poor shape , hungry and dirty. She finds a helpless puppy and takes it home to her one roomed house but her parents tell her they are not allowed pets by their tenancy agreement.

She finds a car in a river bed that she calls Cherry Bomb and keeps the puppy she calls Bobby there. A flash storm sweeps the car away but Bobby is saved and rehoused with a vet who urge her to report the distressing situation with the dogs.

Sam through an old lady she meets living with dogs discovers a link to Fowler, the man who has hired her to deliver parcels and collect money. She finds out he is a drug dealer of meth Amphetamine and the action begins. Read it yourself and find out what happens, the ending is tense.

Well written with modern themes and technology involved. Sam is an excellent character and but for poverty would be living an entirely different life. There is a lesson there for Government.

Other Susan Brocker novels are reviewed elsewhere on this blog.

Faelan the Wolf Bk 2. Into the Lockjaws by Juliette MacIver. Pub. Scholastic, 2023

Faelan the wolf with a difference, goes on a mission into the Lockjaws, a dangerous mountain system that is part of the territory ruled by the ruthless and dangerous leader of the enemy wolf pack, Lord Varg.

Accompanying Faelan are the daughter of Faelan’s pack leader, Tala, plus friends Luna and Ralph. The mission is to avoid war with Varg by offering him territory and at Varg’s request to meet his son who is suspected to be Faelan.

Things don’t go as expected and there is a fight and an escape that will have you excited and breathless. Into the fray comes Avian the ninja chicken who has mastered fire, something feared by all wolves. But Avian has a mission of her own – she plans to free all 1008 chickens including her mother from the human farm and take them to safety and she needs Faelan to help her.

Like the first part this novel is short, easy to read exciting and with good messages about friends and loyalty. But there is much danger with Varg and his pack determined to wipe them out. Is Varg Faelan’s father, what will happen if the skulking Weylin becomes leader? Will Avian be able to free her chicken’s and is this a wise thing to do amidst a pack of wolves?

I look forward to Book 3 Faelan the Fearless.

Tails of Tangleby Gardens 2 by Sue Heazlewood, illus. Jane Smith. Pub. Auckram Publishing Ltd, 2023

When I picked up this hardback picture book sized creation I knew immediately I was in the presence of something special. It is the sequel to the first Tangleby Tails book which I never saw but have since viewed.

Tangleby gardens is a real garden and all the action takes place somewhere in this garden which is full of animated animal children. There are cats, mice, hedgehogs, frogs, rabbits, birds and they all love cooking and eating easily made food.

The book is full of recipes that children can make themselves and there are three stages of ability denoted by 1, 2, or 3 tomatoes. Children generally love to cook and create yummy food and that is what the animals do here.

Jane Smiths animated characters are a joy to read about. It begins just before Christmas when two ducks turn up after a bit of and accident. The picture of them top and tailing on the couch is a delight but then all the pictures are a delight. I loved the hedgehog with her little doll.

There is drama in the script as “the rats laughed their evil laugh and then left the little ones in the cage and in the dark”. Rats do that. A good lively story that concludes with a mysterious map at the grown-ups Ball.

Check it out, it is adorable. Good read-a-loud for pre schoolers and juniors and for kids up to 10 years old.

A quality publication.