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.
Shoe Trouble by Eleanor Neil, Illus. Lisa Allen. Pub. Upstart press, 2023
Released 10 August
Eleanor is so busy having fun at school that she forgets to bring home her shoes. On consecutive days she forgets her gumboots, sandals and slippers and on Friday she forgets something else. What do you think it is? Read this very amusing picture book and find out.
Every parents worry is that your children will lose their belongings at school through forgetfulness. School lost property bins are the most clogged in any school. Eleanor is no different to any other child but very annoying.
Lisa Allen’s superb pastel water colour illustrations enhance Eleanor Neil’s witty text with her facial expressions on the character’s faces, priceless.
Children will relate well to this good read-a-loud for juniors.
Toku Whanau Rerehua. My Beautiful Family by Rauhina Cooper. Illus. Isobel Joy Te Aho-White
This is a lovely, positive picture book about the difference in family structures and celebrating them all.
Huia is a shy girl “like the kiwi who hides in it’s hole“. When saw is asked, along with her classmates, to bring a picture of her family to school, she feels nervous about it.
Her mother helps her choose a photo but when Huia goes to school she leaves it behind. I wonder why?
When her friends are showing their photographs to each other Huia makes herself scarce.
As all her classmates show and talk about their families the teacher is very supportive and Huia starts to feel better. Then her other mother shows up at school with Huia’s photograph and Huia feels much happier talking about it.
Huia is lucky she has two mothers.
Excellent illustration show the children in the classroom with smiling faces and happy to talk about their families. Great for juniors, primary and even up to intermediate aged children.
Rauhina Cooper said she wrote the story “so that tamariki from different whanau groups could see themselves in the pages of a book and feel included“. She succeeds.
Text is in both Maori and English language.
You’ll Be the Death of Me by Karen M. McManus. Pub. Penguin Books, 2021.
This is the fifth Karen McManus novel and is every bit as good as the others which are reviewed elsewhere on this blog. It is a whodunnit in a high school setting and is a page turner. Once you start this you won’t want to put it down.
Ivy, Cal and Mateo have been friend since they were 12 years old. One day they bunked school and they all regarded it as one of the best days of their lives but the three have secrets from each other and 6 years later after some dramatic school events they do the same thing again. This day is one of the worst.
The novel opens with a profile of the lives and families of Ivy Cal and Mateo with each narrating a chapter as they do throughout the novel as the action changes after they decide to bunk school leave Carlton and go downtown to Boston. They stumble across a murder of a known school acquaintance and the rest of the action takes place in one day when secrets will out, and you will be kept guessing as to who is behind the murder and the reasons for it.
Caught in the action is a beautiful young art teacher called Lara, a mystery man called D, and someone called “the weasel who is running the drug business around town. There are other family members of each of the main characters involved and action that will keep you guessing.
A beautifully crafted plot where apart from the opening chapters and the clean up at the end, the action takes place in less than 12 hours and there are plenty of high points.
See if you can work out who the villain is, I thought I had but I was wrong. If you want a change of scenery over the holidays you will not regret reading this.
There is also a quirky ending which ties all the strings together.
Hattie + Olaf by Frida Nilsson, illus. Stina Wirsen. Pub. Gecko Press, 2021.
Bizarre story telling of the highest order about a pre teen girl named Hattie who is bonkers about horses. She and her best friend Linda plus other classmates play horses at school all day. Hattie desperately wants a horse but her family cannot afford one.
One day her father brings a horse float home and Hattie thinks her birthday has come but when the float is opened out comes a donkey with floppy ears and she hates it immediately. A donkey is no substitute for a horse and the donkey who is called Olaf knows it straight away. Olaf stands out in the field all day and brays. He is not happy with humans and was mistreated by his previous owner. Hattie and Olaf have not got off to a good start but can it improve? read it and find out.
Hattie goes to school deflated but makes up a story about Olaf that is completely untrue but it makes her very popular with her classmates. however to be a liar you have to have a good memory and circumstances have to go your way. They don’t and Hattie becomes an object of contempt and her life becomes a misery. How can this change because change it must.
Great story telling from this Scandinavian writer who illustrates the lifestyle of people in the far north and their relationships. Illustrated in equally bizarre style by Stina Wirsten who shows the character of Olaf very well and Hattie in all her moods.
Told in short chapters which are easy to read and draw you in. Another gem from Gecko Press.
Under the Radar by Des O’Leary. Pub. Cuba Press, 2021.
One of the most entertaining novels for high school and intermediate students I have read this year. It is the sequel to the excellent Slice of Heaven novel which was about a rough and ready racially diverse high school group who are forced to form a softball team as punishment for misdemeanors. This novel is about the same group of students plus a couple of new ones and how their lives and relationships develop in the following year.
Sione and TJ are the central characters again with Sione after parental pressure deciding that this year he is going to stay under the radar. Fat chance of that but he resists. A new big girl comes to school and he is assigned the task of showing her the ropes which he does reluctantly. Her name is Teresa and she has a shit attitude “I don’t want to make an effort. I don’t want friends. I don’t care if they don’t like me”.
This is not the only problem Sione faces. His younger brother Ronnie is seduced by the gangsta culture and wants to join a gang as a wannabe. Three of Sione’s softball buddies form a crew called FBK and want Sione to join. get respect, have your back covered, the gang is better support than your family, you will be safe on the streets. When Sione resists violence results but there is a guardian angel afoot called Turtle a big connected gang leader who drives a Mercedes and has an offsider called Ponytail. Why is Turtle looking after his back?
Lots of street action but the star of the writing is the banter between the characters. It is fast and witty with verses of rap lyrics in between. When big boy Jordan takes part in the shotput at the school sports day “he took it slow, he let it go, in that last throw. he felt the flow?
Sports Day and a after school Mathematics class are highlights and help bring Teresa out of her attitude. The discussion amongst the school mates over how the school Houses got their names is hilarious.
A great portrait of the community of South Auckland and of a school culture. The gangsta wannabe culture is exposed for what it is and the novel stresses family and community values. It you miss this one you will kick yourself. Very entertaining and easy to read in short chapters.
I am sure there will be another novel about this community. Bring it on.
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