BOOK REVIEW: Chalk Boy by Margaret Wild & Mandy Ord Allen & Unwin June 2018 Hardcover, $24.99 Reviewed by Steph O’Connell Picture Book / Australian / Art 8/10 A soulful and heartwarming story about what happens when a pavement artist’s drawing comes to life. Barnaby is a pavement artist. This morning he started drawing me. […]
BOOK REVIEW: After the Fall by Dan Santat Lothian Children’s Books June 2018 Paperback, $16.99 Reviewed by Steph O’Connell Picture Book 8/10 Everyone knows that when Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. But what happened after? Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat’s poignant tale follows Humpty Dumpty, an avid bird watcher […]
BOOK REVIEW: Folk by Zoe Gilbert Bloomsbury March 2018 Hardcover, $35.00 Reviewed by Steph O’Connell Short Stories / Speculative Fiction 8/10 Every year they gather, while the girls shoot their arrows and the boys hunt them out. The air is riddled with spiteful shadows – the wounds and fears and furies of a village year. […]
BOOK REVIEW: Clutter Intervention – How Your Stuff is Keeping You Stuck by Tisha Morris Llewellyn Publications, U.S. February 2018 Paperback, $35.99 Reviewed by Natalie Salvo Non-Fiction / Mind, Body, Spirit 5.5/10 Writer, Benjamin Law once described his childhood home as like a “Lasagne of shit.” There are a lot of homes waging a war […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Memory Chamber by Holly Cave Quercus February 2018 Paperback, $29.99 Reviewed by Steph O’Connell Fiction/Speculative/Mystery 3/10 YOU ARE GOING TO DIE. YOU CAN PRESERVE A HANDFUL OF SPECIAL MEMORIES FOREVER. WHICH ONES WOULD YOU CHOOSE? True death is a thing of the past. Now you can spend the rest of eternity reliving […]
BOOK REVIEW: Gloria’s Voice: The Story of Gloria Steinem—Feminist, Activist, Leader by Aura Lewis Sterling Publishing Co Inc March 2018 Hardcover, $24.99 Reviewed by Natalie Salvo Picture Books / Early Learning 6/10 It is encouraging to see the recent increase in the number of non-fiction picture books dedicated to inspiring women and men from history. […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Greater Good by Tim Ayliffe Simon & Schuster May 2018 Paperback, $29.99 Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar Political Thriller 8.5 /10 Introducing John Bailey, a man who drinks to deal with his past – which includes the trauma of a ten-month stint being tortured in Iraq after being kidnapped while there reporting on […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Grip Of Film by Richard Ayoade Faber October 2017 Paperback, $29.99 Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar Comedy 8.5 /10 There are only two kinds of readers – those who will appreciate funny-without-trying-man Richard Ayoade’s dry-as-a-cracker delivery of this tongue in cheek A-Z of film making, delivered under the guise of Gordy LaSure, a […]
BOOK REVIEW: ANIMAL – A Beastly Compendium by Rémi Mathis and Valérie Sueur-Hermel Bloomsbury November 2017 Hardcover, $54 Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar Art history 9/10 A fascinating collection of artistic renderings of animals real and mythical taken from the treasure trove of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France archives, it is debatable whether the true treasures […]
BOOK REVIEW – The 50 Greatest Musical Places of the World by Sarah Woods Icon Books September 2017 Paperback, $25 Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar Music history 5/10 Sarah Woods is “the author of over a dozen travel books, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the British Guild of Travel Writers.” […]
COOKBOOK REVIEW: The BBQ Cookbook ABC Books November 2017 Paperback, $35 Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar Cookbook 6 ½ /10 Assembled to accompany the Australian family film The BBQ, the first thing to notice about this compilation of recipes and hints is how anonymous it is. Sure, it has Shane Jacobson on the cover, in his […]
BOOK REVIEW: Peg + Cat – The Camp Problem by Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson Candlewick Entertainment March 2018 Paperback, $9.99 Reviewed by Steph O’Connell Beginner Readers / Kids Fiction 5/10 Can Peg and Cat figure out the winning pattern? Friendly competition between bunks at summer camp leads to a hands-on lesson in counting by […]
BOOK REVIEW: Splish, Splash, Ducky! by Lucy Cousins Walker Books March 2018 Hardcover, $24.99 Reviewed by Steph O’Connell Picture Books 6/10 Revel in the rain with a little duckling and friends in a bright adventure from the creator of Maisy that kids will find just ducky. Oh, goody, hooray! It’s raining today. When I’m feeling […]
BOOK REVIEW: Hexes for the Modern Age by Val Brains Skyhorse Publishing December 2017 Hardcover, $22.99 Reviewed by Steph O’Connell Humour 4/10 Let’s face it: most people irritate us. Hexes for the Modern Age is a tongue-in-cheek approach to giving these folks a taste of their own medicine. While inspired by witches’ curses of the past, this […]
BOOK REVIEW: Bird Builds a Nest by Martin Jenkins, illustrated by Richard Jones Walker Books March 2018 Hardcover, $24.99 Reviewed by Steph O’Connell Picture Books / Science & Education 6/10 A gentle, sweetly illustrated concept book takes on physical forces as young children learn about pushing and pulling. It’s time for Bird to build […]
BOOK REVIEW: How the Finch Got His Colors by Annemarie Guertin Familius February 2018 Hardcover, $24.99 Reviewed by Steph O’Connell Picture Books / Folk Tales 7.5/10 Many years ago, before the world bloomed in magnificent colors, the Earth lay stark and gray. The animals that graced its skies and roamed its lands were the colors […]
BOOK REVIEW: Dig, Dump, Roll by Sally Sutton and Brian Lovelock Walker Books March 2018 Hardcover, $24.99 Reviewed by Steph O’Connell Picture Books 6/10 Guess what kind of truck is at work in this interactive book by the bestselling creators of Roadworks. Crash-a-rumble Smash-a-grumble What’s at work? Here’s a clue: It will clear the ground […]
BOOK REVIEW: Theft by Finding – Diaries: Volume One by David Sedaris Little, Brown Book Group May 2017 Paperback, $29.99 Reviewed by Natalie Salvo Non-Fiction / Literature, Poetry & Plays / Non-Fiction Prose 9/10 Reading someone’s diary is an intimate, voyeuristic experience. This is even more apparent in the case of author, humourist, and professional […]
BOOK REVIEW: My Brigadista Year by Katherine Paterson Candlewick Press February 2018 Hardcover, $24.99 Reviewed by Steph O’Connell Middle Grade / Historical Fiction 6.5/10 In an engrossing historical novel, the Newbery Medal-winning author of Bridge to Terabithia follows a young Cuban teenager as she volunteers for Fidel Castro’s national literacy campaign and travels into the impoverished countryside […]
BOOK REVIEW: Deception by Teri Terry Ochard February 2018 Paperback, $16.99 Reviewed by Steph O’Connell Young Adult / Speculative Fiction 5/10 This review will contain spoilers for book 1, Contagion. An epidemic is sweeping the country. You are among the infected. There is no cure, and you cannot be permitted to infect others. You are […]
