The Ghost House by Bill Nagelkerke, illus. Theo Macdonald. Pub. Cuba Press, October 2022.

If you ask a group of children on a school camp what type of story they like best, a large proportion of them will say ghost stories. This is a ghost story about an old kauri villa, “as empty as the inside of a base drum’, still standing in the Red Zone created by the Canterbury Earthquakes.

David is recovering from a serious illness and is being baby sat by his older teenage sister who doesn’t mind the sitting, it’s the baby part she worries about. David just wants to get back to playing cricket so to ease the boredom he goes walking in the Red Zone which is now devoid of houses and full of trees and shrubs that have flourished since the earthquake.

On his first journey into the Red Zone he comes across a house that seems to be saying Help Me. When he enters he meets an old lady called Agnes and they talk. Who is she and what is she doing there? You will have to read the novel to find out, and you will not be disappointed.

A whimsical and easy story told in short chapters and characterised by rich descriptions and a cool relationship between the old and the young. It also describes the Red Zone and what it was and what it hopefully will become. Bee keepers already work the area and public gardens are growing. The encounter between Agnes and David unravels the history of the area.

A well told tale for junior and intermediate readers.

The Shark Caller by Zillah Bethell. Pub. Usborne, 2021

This is one of the most memorable novels I have ever read. I will not forget this in a hurry and nor will you.

It is set in New Ireland, a part of Papua New Guinea that is under going great change as the old culture is infiltrated by the modern World. A small coastal village is headed by the all powerful, Bigman, who wants to set the old ways in the past and embrace the new ways of modern culture. He has a jukebox in his hut.

Siringen is a Shark Caller a respected post that worship the shark which in the past was seen as a mirror of the fortunes of the village. Siringen looks after Blue Wing a young girl whose parents were killed by a shark called Xok. Blue Wing wishes to inherit the title of shark caller but Siringen will not teach her as she is a girl.

Into the village come an American History Professor and his daughter Maple who have lost a wife and mother and are struggling to deal with her death at the expense of their relationship. Maple and Blue Wing become friends and all the things that bother them are going to come to the surface in a most delightful and spiritual way. There will be tears.

The most delightful part of the writing is the inclusion of pidgin in the narrative which is done by Blue Wing. Words like liklik for little, nogut for bad and my favourite, longlong for crazy. As well there are a couple of wise sayings that apply to the story and to life itself. “A smile can mean many different things. Happiness might not be one of them” and very importantly “You cannot look for ghosts because they have not accepted death. If they wish to be seen they will come to you”

It is a wonderful story and the surreal ending will have you thinking but like me you will say that is very reassuring.

Don’t miss it. It is deep yet accessible for young readers. The chapters are short and the font large. One of the novels of the year.

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Pub. Penguin Books, 2020.

Avery Kylie Grambs is 17 years old, she lives in her car, her mother is dead, she has nothing to do with her father and she has a sister who is in a dysfunctional relationship with her boyfriend. She is positive in her attitude to life but the future doesn’t look hopeful.

Then she is visited by a lawyer who tells her she is a beneficiary in a will left by an eccentric billionaire Tobias Hawthorne who has four sons of similar age to Avery. When the will is read Avery has inherited $46 billion and the rest of the Hawthorne family are left scraps. Why?

The terms of the will are iron tight and if the family challenge it, they get nothing. Avery is taken by the family lawyers to Hawthorne Mansion, a fabulous house with a theatre, bowling ally and a thousand rooms, plus staff. Avery is advised by a lawyer and has a bodyguard who was same for Tobias Hawthorne.

The family are hostile and the terms of the will mean she has to stay in the house for a year in order to inherit what has been left her. She fears for her life and rightly so.

The paparazzi are all over the place and everybody wants to know who this Avery is. She has to relate to the four sons two of which she is attracted to.

The old man Hawthorne was a game player. He liked mysteries and promoted competition and games amongst his sons. The biggest mystery is Why Avery? She doesn’t know herself. The rest of the novel is spent working out the mysteries that the Old Man has set.

This novel is written in 91 short chapters that will keep you in the book long after you want to stop reading. It is compelling and very clever. I loved it you will too.

Alice-Miranda in the Outback by Jacqueline Harvey.

Alice-Miranda in the Outback by Jacqueline Harvey. Pub Puffin Books 2020.

This is an adventure mystery novel for middle school readers set in the outback of Australia and it is the latest in 19 books about the same characters set in other parts of the World.

Alice-Miranda Highton-Smith-Kennington-Jones is a pre teen girl with a vivid and enquiring mind. She likes to solve mysteries and with her friends Millicent and Jacinta,  and cousin Lucas and others she sets about solving mysteries on a huge outback station near opal center Coober Pedy.

Something has gone wrong with the water supply around Hope Springs Station,  outback legend  Taipan Dan has gone missing, his friend an fellow character Sprocket McGinty is kidnapped and a ginger cat Junie turns up at Hope Springs Station where Miranda and her friends and family are staying. Then a young deaf girl goes missing, a mystery map is found and there rumours of a lost opal mine start circulating. Plenty for Miranda to get her teeth into and she does.

Easy to read with the Outback being a major character in this book. I read it quickly and so will you. Good family values.

The Inkberg Enigma by Jonathan King.

The Inkberg Enigma by Jonathan King. Pub. Gecko Press, 2020.

This is one of the best graphic novels for readers 8-14 years that i have ever read and it is by New Zealand film maker and comic book writer Jonathan King.

Miro  is a smart lad with a green hat and glasses who is a reader. He loves books. Zia his friend is a photographer and between them they unravel a mystery that affects all the people who live in the small fishing town of Aurora.

The origin of the mystery that enabled Aurora to become a wealthy fishing town is the Antarctic adventures akin to those of Shackleton of a man called Danforth who built a castle on the cliffs across the water from the town.

As his men hauled a lifeboat across the ice that crushed their ship they come across a dark ink coloured ice peak sticking up from the sea through the pack ice. They discover  an abundance of sea life beneath the black peak and have an encounter with a huge squid like creature. Danforth keeps a diary written in the ink from the dark peak and discovers it has a power that is very dark indeed. Read it and see what it is.

Comic book styled images and believable characters make this a sound reading gem for readers who are visual. It would make a wonderful film.

Don’t miss this you will kick yourself.

One of Us is Next by Karen M. McManus

One of Us is Next by Karen M. McManus. Pub. penguin Books, 2020.

If you are ever in an on-line Truth or Dare scenario take the Dare. That is the message of this compelling mystery novel about the toxic danger that on-line social media Apps can have.

This novel is a sequel to One of us is Lying in which high school student Simon arranged his own death to make it look like his friends murdered him. Sick ? yes I know. These friends who include a champion gay baseball pitcher, a courting couple and a girlfriend, are in this novel but a new generation have taken over.

A Truth or Dare App has taken over the lives of the students of Bayfield High School run by an anonymous sicko called Darkestmind. He taunts the students to play truth or dare and all the memories and sick behaviour shown when Simon was around come to the surface again.

The students of Bayfield High School are mesmerised by the new game and show behaviours that no school or society should condone. The school doesn’t but the students do. All they had to do was ignore the App but they flocked to it like lambs to the slaughter.

The main characters in this are Maeve, sister of Bronwyn from the earlier novel, and a leukemia sufferer who is in remission. Knox a law student and shy boy who is treated cruel in the Truth and Dare game and Phoebe who has a fling with her sisters boyfriend and suffers the consequences in the game.

Crisis time comes when a member of the school is killed, but is it murder?

Structured in two parts this novel has much to say about teenage relationships and the dangers of on-line social media Apps. Then there is the mystery of who is behind the Truth and Dare game.

Superbly written by Karen McManus who keeps the tension flowing and gives a satisfying ending, but the human behaviour amongst the young is often appalling. One comment stands out to me. When the girls look up Knox’s website this comment is made “No selfies. What kind of weirdo is he?” Astonishing!

You just have to read it. Senior high school and young adults

My New Red Car by David Minty.

My New Red Car by David Minty. Pub. Mintybooks.co.nz, 2019.

I read this book the way I read all picture books. I blocked out the text and looked at the illustrations first to see what they told me.

From this I saw that it was about colours and particularly about red cars. There seemed to be a lot of red cars in a state of destruction or in precarious positions such as up a tree or flattened or in power lines. Then I saw a dinosaur like monster with the outline of a car stuck in it’s neck.

Then I read the text and it all came together. Yellow square has a red car which he wants to show to yellow square with goggles but it is missing. Where can it be? I think you can guess from the last paragraph.

They get the car back but it’s a bit smelly. I wonder why? But the yellow squares have suddenly turned brown when inside the red car. You work it out.

I enjoyed the mystery of the picture book and loved the way it used space. Simple text and bright colours. Go see for yourself

I, Claudia by Mary McCoy

I, Claudia by Mary McCoy. Pub. carolehoda Lab, 2019. Imprint Walker Books.

Sometimes there comes a novel that you don’t want to ever finish and this political thriller about a student council in a Los Angeles high school is one of them.

I savoured this novel over 10 days and was not disappointed by a thing. Yes I was. I was disappointed that the Head and Board of Governors of the school did not step in earlier in spite of ample evidence to do so, but then that would have ruined the story

The Imperial Day Academy is a prestigious school that is run by a student body titled the Honour Council which is structured somewhat like the Roman Senate with representatives from each class level and a President and vice President. The candidates are elected annually and have as many qualities as everyday American politics – liars, cheats, bullies, power freaks and idealists. . The aim is to destroy your opponents character and intentions and make you seem like the only wise choice. Whether it is true or not.

The novel is told by Claudia McCarthy in the form of a testimony and you the reader will find out why this is when you finish the book. The aim is to work out who are the bad guys and who are the good guys and it is not easy. Claudia’s approach is this “I make a habit of identifying the psychopaths in my environment as quickly as possible”. But is she right? Claudia’s character is charismatic. She appears to be a nobody and describes herself as an historian and is ultimately totally brave.

The characters are stunningly conceived from the ruthless, manipulative Livia, to the power crazy Cal and the heroic Claudia. There are deaths, there are inhuman episodes, there is corruption, there is sexual violation and there is love albeit misused.

The tactics used by Nixon during the Watergate scandal are a blueprint for the political drama at Imperial Day school and there is a lot of Trump’s America in there too.

This is a novel of today’s America and if you miss this one you will kick yourself. The ending provides all the answers but leaving some doubt as well. In politics do we ever learn the truth?

For High school students and Young Adults. Just superb. Stunning cover.

Circus Quest Bk1: The Playbill by Maureen Crisp, illus. Irina Burtseva.

Circus Quest Bk1: The Playbill by Maureen Crisp, illus. Irina Burtseva. Pub. Marmac Media, 2018.

This is the first of 10 books from the Circus Quest series for junior and newly confident readers. Each novel has a clue to solve which leads to the next one.

The Circus Charles will finish if they don’t complete a challenge and if they do complete the challenge they will join the top circus companies at the Circonvention.

Budding trapeze artist Skye and her brother Kestrel who is a clown are responsible for solving a series of clues that will give the circus a chance of survival. On top of that their mother is missing, their father is behaving mysteriously, and a series of accidents

suggests there is a traitor in their midst.

Firstly they have to solve the problem of where the clues are. See if they do.

Easy to read with big font, short chapters and only about 80 pages per book. A great way to get  youngsters into reading.

 

Circus Quest Bk2: Magician’s Moustache.

The first venue of the Circus Charles tour is at the island town of Papenton,  which is famous for it’s hundreds of clocks.

Skye and Kestrel after finding the key to the clues of the challenge to save the circus, deduce that the next clue is in a clock. But which one?

Already the traitor has sabotaged a rope to the big top and other accidents are about to happen. Who is masterminding these acts? There are some shifty characters involved.

Skye deduces the rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock is a clue and if you know the rhyme you the reader are half way there. Skye shows her trapeze skills to find the next clue which is a written code. I solved it but can you?

Another good thing about the series is that the characters are drawn at the front by illustrator Irina Burtseva who captures the characters, the circus and the action very well in black and white pen drawings.

A series to keep an eye on.

The Turnkey by Allison Rushby

The Turnkey by Allison Rushby. Pub. Walker Books, 2018.

This award winning novel from Australia is a delight to read. It has a believable plot, interesting characters and is written in a style that is reminiscent of old style writing.

Set during the Blitz in world War 2 it pits the twilight world of the dead against a Nazi plot to win the war.

Flossie Birdwhistle died of rhumatic fever when she was twelve, now she is the Turnkey of Highgate Cemetery responsible for looking after the needs of the dead. She is in the twilight world and can function in the world of the living but cannot be seen or heard.

During a bombing raid of London she sees a Nazi officer on top of St Pauls  and realises he too is of the twilight world. He clutches a bright skull in his hands and when he sees Flossie he vanishes.

What is the meaning of the skull. Is Viktor Brun, the Nazi officer, spying for the Nazis? Can he communicate with the living? and is Highgate cemetery and the other six cemeteries of London involved in a Nazi plot to win the war?

The beginning of each short chapter announces what is going on in the chapter and there are hooks at the end of each chapter to keep you reading. The tension in the plot is spellbinding and the ending is gripping.

For confident junior readers and intermediate readers. Check it out you will be moved.