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Walker Books

Rebel Skies (#1) by Ann Sei Lin – Skyships, Flying Cities & Origami Magic.

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Origami magic system? Say no more, I am reading!

Rebel Skies was such an action-packed adventure. It feels like one of those perfect middle-grade to young-adult crossovers with a focus on adventure and friendship and a younger teen main character, plus all the face-paced scenes you could ask for.

The story follows Kurara who works as a drudge maid in a spectacular flying city, only to receive a visit from a gruff and mysterious young man who knows she has powers. She’s a Crafter and can use magic to wield paper and create sentient paper creatures. Kurara ends up swept up into an adventure aboard a flying skyship with a goal to save best friend’s life.

I’ve heard it pitched as having Ghibli vibes, but it also was a throwback to Disney’s Treasure Planet for me too. Those epic flying ships and the gruff mentor to young whipsmart determined protagonist with Himura and Kurara. I also loved the friendship bond between Kurara and Haru, they were definitely easy to root for. The magic system and the world-building do take the forefront in the book overall, but it does have a big fast and a motley crew onboard the ship. It also has a lot of themes about autonomy and respect of non-human creatures, which I quite enjoyed the exploration there.

It’s also a great time to pick this up as the sequel, Rebel Fire, comes out later this year!

Would recommend if you like…

  • East-Asian inspired fantasy, with plenty of Japaense folklore
  • Action and face-paced plot centric stories
  • Sentient paper creatures who hearts of gold
  • Twists and some betrayals as well as surprising new friends
  • skyships! cumulous whales! flying cities!
  • sweet MG-to-YA crossover vibes

Thanks to Walker Books for the ARC!

Date Published: 4.5.2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Walker Books
Purchase: Book Depository, Dymocks
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A beautifully written and pacy teen fantasy adventure, set in a world of flying ships, sky cities and powerful paper spirits. Inspired by Asian cultures and exploring themes of empire, slavery and freedom.
Kurara has never known any other life than being a servant on board the Midori, but when her party trick of making paper come to life turns out to be a power treasured across the empire, she joins a skyship and its motley crew to become a Crafter. Taught by the gruff but wise Himura, Kurara learns to hunt shikigami – wild paper spirits who are sought after by the Princess.
But are these creatures just powerful slaves, or are they beings with their own souls? And can a teenage girl be the one to help them find their voice – and change the course of an empire?

Different For Boys by Patrick Ness – Bittersweet Illustrated Novella

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When a new Patrick Ness book comes out, I always want to read it.

This one is a novella that packs an emotional punch about a 15-year-old queer boy struggling with internalised homophobia and what it means to be intimate. It contrasts physical and emotional intimacy in a thoughtful yet sometimes sad way. I always like how Ness books take on quite big topics and then show them through the factual and raw view-point of a teen. (A Monster Calls did this with blistering poignancy.)

I loved how the novella was illustrated. The style felt perfect: scratchy and wild at times, and just really seemed to capture the narrator’s tumultuous perspective. There are also lots of blacked-out words when talking about swearing and sex — because, as the narrator points out, he’s too young to read it but he is old enough to live it. It was a very good way of pointing at a problem in censoring literature.

“Certain words are necessary because this is real life, but you can’t actually show ’em because we’re too young to read about the stuff we actually do, yeah?”

Ant is fifteen and life is complicated. His best friend is Charlie who has a difficult home life and is boiling under the surface with a lot of rage and unresolved internalised homophobia…and then Ant’s old friend Jack is seated next to them in class again. Jack is described as “campy” and it immediately sets Charlie off. He goes from being clearly jealous that Jack might take Ant’s attention — to being outright abusively vicious as casts slurs at Jack for being gay. The irony? Charlie and Ant have sex, quite often, though both claim they are not gay.

And that’s the Charlie no one knows but me. The one who grins like that. And I want to kiss that grin so bad I could cry.

Since it’s such a short novella, it’s just a peek into this situation Ant is tangled in. I liked how it felt like just looking through a window. Ant is clearly in pain; struggling with admitting who he is while also dealing with the toxic love/hate whiplash Charlie gives him. I just wish it had explored why Charlie was doing what he was doing and unpacked the patriarchal toxic concept of virginity. I love the power of a short novella, but feel this could have been longer to delve deeper into all the tough topics it brought up.

A short but emotional story of a boy forced to take apart self-denial of his own queerness and ask himself what is the difference between physical and emotional intimacy.

Thanks to Walker Books for the review copy!

Date Published: 8th of March, 2023
Genre: YA Contemporary, Novella
Publisher: Walker Books
Purchase: Book Depository, Dymocks
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A poignant and moving LGBTQ+ story that explores sexuality and masculinity with a touch of humour, by twice Carnegie Medal-winner and bestselling author Patrick Ness.
Ant Stevenson has many questions, like when did he stop being a virgin? Are there degrees of virginity? And is it different for boys? Especially for boys who like boys? Ant tries to figure out the answers to his questions as he balances his relationships with three very different boys: Charlie, who is both virulently homophobic and yet close friends with Ant; Jack, whose camp behaviour makes him the target of Charlie’s rage; and finally Freddie, who just wants Ant to try out for the rugby team. From the bestselling author of the Chaos Walking trilogy comes a timely and important story about inclusivity, prejudice and friendship.

The First Thing About You by Chaz Hayden – Slice-Of-Life Contemporary About A Teen With Muscular Dystrophy

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As soon as I heard about this book, I was so keen to read it.

It’s a checklist of things I love in contemporary books, including witty writing and stellar banter, complex and layered characters who have hearts of gold as well as their own demons to fight, and incredible disability rep by a disabled author. It was also thoroughly unputdownable (pretend like this is a word) and I read it in one day. Just felt so good to be really invested in a great book. Perfect way to spend my Sunday. 💛

The story follows 15-year-old Harris as he starts at a new high school with a lowkey plan to reinvent himself and finally make some friends. I also loved that it was by a 15yo because we so rarely get that POV in YA these days. Harris was instantly loveable. I love his wit and quips, I love that he didn’t hate his disability while at the same time he was frustrated at what he couldn’t do. He has spinal muscular atrophy and needs help with pretty much everything so he required a full time aid at school (a little less awkward than having his mum along, aka executive assistant). The book is also about him meeting Miranda, a young and cool and beautiful aid, who is both amazing and…questionable. There’s a lot of their (working) relationship that is a bit iffy and more than a few yikes moments. While at the same time you have to love their camaraderie and the difference she made in Harris’s life.

I wish I could’ve told him that inclusivity was not making someone feel uncomfortable for the enrichment of others.

I know the tagline is that it’s a love story, but it’s also super focused on all types of relationships. Friendship, parent relationships, sibling relationships…I totally loved this?! It shows us the good and bad and awkward and wonderful of Harris’s family life (his mum truly is amazing) and the struggle of making friends (and keeping them) and his budding relationship with Nory…who he struggles to know if she is actually into him or not. Mixed signals galooore here. I loved the deep dive into all these relationships dynamics. Which brings me to ANOTHER thing (of many 😌 I know) that I loved…

The book really talks deeply about the multifaceted nature of humans. Harris is really obsessed with colour theories, what your favourite colour says about you, etc. He uses it to judge/define people he’s just met because he’s so used to the instant, snap-judgements of people who see him in a wheelchair. The book handled this theme so exellently, how it showed us all these different characters who really were never surface-level simple. Harris makes his own crappy decisions as well — and has a good bit of growth throughout the book. He’s a 15-year-old kid just trying to figure life out. And yup, this book does a great job of capturing the Pains Of Being Fifteen.

Also absolutely loved the poignant and crisp disability advocacy throughout the book. The pointing out how thoughtlessly abled people act about accessibility. The everyday fights to be treated as a full human. The joy but also pain that comes with a disabled life. This is also not a book about self-hate, it doesn’t feel like it’s for an abled audience — it just exists, free and loud.  As an autistic person, I crave more good disability rep and seeing disabled authors actually get the space they deserve in publishing. More of this please. 🙌🏻

An explosively colourful story full of complex characters and amazing banter that read like a slice-of-life from a teen with muscular spinal dystrophy. Totally recommend!

Thanks to Walker Books AUS for the review copy!

Title: The First Thing About You
Author: Chaz Hayden
Date Published: 7th of September, 2022
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publisher: Walker Books
Purchase: Book Depository, Dymocks
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A high school student with spinal muscular atrophy is determined to reinvent himself.
When fifteen-year-old Harris moves with his family from California (home of beautiful-but-inaccessible beaches) to New Jersey (home of some much-hyped pizza and bagels), he’s determined to be known as more than just the kid in the powered wheelchair. Armed with his favorite getting-to-know-you question (“What’s your favorite color?”), he’ll weed out the incompatible people—the greens and the purples, people who are too close to his own blue to make for good friends—and surround himself with outgoing yellows, adventurous oranges, and even thrilling reds. But first things first: he needs to find a new nurse, stat, so that his mom doesn’t have to keep accompanying him to school.
Enter Miranda, a young nursing student who graduated from Harris’s new high school. Beautiful, confident, and the perfect blend of orange and red, Miranda sees Harris for who he really is—funny, smart, and totally worthy of the affections of Nory Fischer, the cute girl who’s in most of his classes. With Miranda at his side, Harris soon befriends geeky Zander (yellow) and even makes headway with Nory (who stubbornly refuses to reveal her favorite color). But Miranda is fighting her own demons, and Harris starts to wonder if she truly has his best interests at heart.

Gleanings (Arc of a Scythe #3.5) by Neal Shusterman – Short Story Collection

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We’re back in Neal Shusterman’s Arc of a Scythe world for a short story compilation!

Time for a fresh addition to the Scythe series with short stories that range from exciting, emotional, cute and eye-opening. There are 13 tales here, and each follows a different POV, some from characters we know and love from the original trilogy and others from new perspectives of people just existing in the world. Some origin stories come to life (especially for Goddard and Scythe Marie Curie) and it pulls other characters from the shadows to tell us what happened with them (like Citra’s little brother, Ben). None of the stories are about Citra/Rowan but they do make cameos and are referenced.

Admittedly, it’s been a while since I read the trilogy so I didn’t remember a lot, and maybe didn’t recognised some reoccurring names. But I think anyone who’s a big fan of the series will definitely enjoy the references and cameos. Some of the stories are also co-authored, so that was pretty cool to see the collaborations.

Highlights from some of the stories:

A Martian Minute — This one was chilling and interesting in turn, giving us the backstory of Scythe Goddard. Also it’s set on Mars as well, which was super interesting. Definitely a complex story with dark turns and highlights more of the scythes’ corruptions.

Meet Cute And Die — This one was fun fluff, but it probably my favourite! It’s just about two random people who get into an accident together that renders them both mostly deadish. They get put back together and sort of shyly agree to go out for lunch. It was a fun meet cute. 😂 And I loved where it went. Also brought up the interesting (aka kind of terrifying) result of this style world that “killing” people (since they come back to life) doesn’t have as much weight. How it becomes an…option…when someone pisses you off. 💀😂

Anastasia’s Shadow — This one was sad/happy…?! I don’t even know. Many emotions. It’s about Ben, Citra’s little brother, who of course grows up and then is manipulated into training to be a Scythe against his wishes. Just the emotional abuse and isolation he goes through and the fear to even fall in love. He is also queer! And the ending did bring a spark of hope, I felt.

Never Work With Animals — Also a notable one, about a corrupt scythe and the dog who ends up getting one over him. I was Team The Dog the whole way tbh and that scythe so got what he deserved.

There are many more stories to discover and enjoy! Check Gleanings out if you’ve been following along Arc of a Scythe and want to see more of the world and the interesting, complex characters.

Thanks to Walker Books AUS for the review copy!

Title: Gleanings (Arc of a Scythe #3.5)
Author: Neal Shusterman
Date Published: November 16th, 2022
Genre: YA Sci Fi, Dystopian
Publisher: Walker Books
Purchase: Book Depository, Dymocks
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The New York Times bestselling Arc of the Scythe series continues with thrilling stories that span the timeline. Storylines continue. Origin stories are revealed. And new Scythes emerge!
There are still countless tales of the Scythedom to tell. Centuries passed between the Thunderhead cradling humanity and Scythe Goddard trying to turn it upside down. For years humans lived in a world without hunger, disease, or death with Scythes as the living instruments of population control.
Neal Shusterman—along with collaborators David Yoon, Jarrod Shusterman, Sofía Lapuente, Michael H. Payne, Michelle Knowlden, and Joelle Shusterman—returns to the world throughout the timeline of the Arc of a Scythe series. Discover secrets and histories of characters you’ve followed for three volumes and meet new heroes, new foes, and some figures in between.
Gleanings shows just how expansive, terrifying, and thrilling the world that began with the Printz Honor–winning Scythe truly is.

The Secret Wild by Alex Evelyn – Magical Botanical MG Adventure

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The Secret Wild is a green explosion of botanical whimsy and it was such a lovely read!

I have such a soft spot for books about wild, sentient plants and vines taking over the world and this just fulfilled every need. 🍃 Fern is a curious, smart, and fearless main character and so loveable. Plus she befriends a hybrid plant that gave me total Groot vibes and together they discover a plot from an eco-terrorist who is trying to make jungles take over London and destroy everything. The book had really themes about nature vs people and how we don’t need violently extreme measures to make a difference to the planet. And the whole story is just infused with love for plants and exploring and nature that it will bring smiles to old and young readers alike.

Fern is around ten-years-old so this is also the perfect read for the younger end of middle-grade. It’s not too action packed and while the stakes are high, it’s not a super stressful read. It’s also packed full of relatable themes: like how hard it is to make friends (especially if you’re out of practise) and how to be true to yourself but also make compromises.

The book kicks off with Fern living with her botanist parents who travel the world hunting for plants to study. But while Fern is a thoughtful and clever little girl, her curiosity is utterly wild, and she can’t control her impulses to explore — which gets her in dangerous situations. Her dad is dismissive of her not knowing enough Latin and her mother pretty much says nothing (lol) so Fern is sent to live with her uncle in London. Uncle Ned was lovely and quite funny, always preoccupied by his writing and chatting about his characters as if they’re real (relatable 😂) but he is also kind of neglectful of Fern. She ends up basically exploring London on her own. Though on the plane trip over she steals a little super-hybrid plant from a travelling botanist: and it turns out she can speak to the plant and it understands her. She names the plant Special. It’s definitely a stand-in for all the neglectful adults in Fern’s life. My heart ached for her. (Though I have to be honest…it’s my least favourite trope when parents are super absent/neglectful by choice and yet never apologise. I would’ve liked some consequences for the parents at the end.)

Fern meets Woody while in London, and I loved how they were such opposites. Fern hates wearing shoes and is obsessed with plants and wants to explore and climb things. Woody likes only puzzles, hates the outdoors, and pretty much is horrified by Fern’s messiness. (Woody did seem coded as autistic but the label isn’t mentioned.) Their friendship is slow to build but lovely.

There’s a bit of mystery solving, as Fern tries to keep Special fed and well, plus find out who the Guerrilla Gardener is. And there’s plenty of empowerment for STEM girls and curious girls and wild girls.

A tale of lonely kids finding solace in friendship and nature; and a total love letter to botany. It’s just this little girl and her little groot-like buddy against an overgrown London and some possibly man-eating plants.

Thanks to Walker Books for the review copy!

Title: The Secret Wild
Author: Alex Evelyn
Date Published: 1st December 2022
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Publisher: Walker Books
Purchase: Book Depository, Dymocks
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A fantastical, botanical adventure about friendship, bravery – and finding home in a new place.
Fern has spent her whole life in the rainforest, and loves nothing more than climbing, exploring and talking to the trees. When she suddenly has to leave all that behind and move to London, with only an eccentric uncle for company, Fern feels entirely uprooted.
But when she meets a little plant that can understand her every word, it seems that things are looking up! That is until strange things start happening in the city: giant lily pads on the Thames, monkey vines on the London Eye, and now her new friend is starting to wilt…
Can they solve this growing mystery together – before it’s too late?

Nowhere Girl by Magali Le Huche – Beautiful Graphic Novel Memoir

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This is a lovely memoir graphic novel about growing up and fear and escapism.

I really enjoyed reading this one! It has beautiful art and was easily relatable and beautifully told. It’s set in Paris (translated to English now!) and follows the life of 12-year-old Magali as she has a nervous breakdown over school and tests when she’s twelve years old. Things are just very hard for her; the perfectionism, the irate teachers, the crushing test score demands. When Magali realises she absolutely cannot cope, she quits going to school and begins working from home. Though this also ushers in a really lonely and isolated time of her life. Her anxiety twists higher and higher and I really appreciated how it showed what life was like for her. Also knowing this is autobiographical was especially 💔. I’m sure so many kids face this: the cracking under extreme school pressure and the subsequent fall out.

Magali’s refuge is obsessing over music and she discovers the Beatles and absolutely falls in love. I loved these pages in the book so much because they were just livid explosions of colour — such a perfect peek into Magali’s rich inner world.

It’s a quick read and very personable and lovely. Perfect for middle-grade readers to teens.

I only struggled with the choice of text for the speech bubbles as it was super light/cursive and my eyes are too tired these days 🤣 Just wish they went for a more accessible font.

If you’re a fan of graphic novels, mental health representation, Parisian books, and music — this one is for you! I’d definitely like to read more from this author.

Thanks to Walker Books for the review copy!

Title: Nowhere Girl
Author: Magali Le Huche
Date Published: 1st December 2022
Genre: MG Graphic Novel / Memoir
Publisher: Walker Books
Purchase: Book Depository, Dymocks
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The story of a young Parisian girl lost in the gulf between childhood and adulthood, navigating depression… and discovering the Beatles.
This is the story of a girl growing up in the 1990s – a middle-schooler who finds herself lost in the gulf between childhood and adolescence, developing paralyzing fears of failure, school, other people, and her own changing body. Along the way, she becomes obsessed with the Beatles… which might be just what she needs to find her way back to being okay. Yeah yeah yeah!

All Our Hidden Gifts & The Gifts That Bind Us by Caroline O’Donoghue – Witchy Twisty YA Paranormal!

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I finally started the Hidden Gifts series this year!

I’d seen this highly recommend on bookstagram and the hype always leaves me very curious. 😌 It reminded me a little of The Graces meets Moïra Fowley-Doyle’s books (all excellent vibes pls do check them out) where we get introduced to a (seemingly) inconsequential girl living in a (seemingly) inconsequential town. It tackles some hard topics and is full of flawed characters with big arcs. And at the heart? Magic and witches and tarot and empowerment.

All Our Hidden Gifts is book one, and we start off meeting Maeve Chambers who isn’t anyone’s favourite person. She isn’t clever at school, dumped her long-term BFF to get with the “popular girls”, and manages to make poor jokes that get her detention. While serving detention, cleaning out a cupboard, she finds a pack of tarot cards. And thus finds she has an affinity for reading them. I did enjoy learning more about the cards and their meanings, and Maeve takes us on a bit of a journey learning too with watching youtube tutorials (she is relatable in that) and explaining the cards as she gives readings. This is sort of the tip of the iceberg to the much bigger plot of: Maeve’s reading for her ex-BFF, Lily, goes awry and later that night Lily vanishes. Permanently. Maeve is pretty much strangled with guilt for her part in it.

But the whole thing spirals. Their town is full of twisted magic and there’s an extremist cult group entering the area, attacks on the lgbtqia+ community, and creepy things happening. It’s all very connected. The book definitely takes on a lot. It has the: “teens get left to handle the world going to hell in a handbasket” vibe. Unsuspecting chosen ones. Empowerment for teen girls. All the classic tropes.

Maeve is not a very likeable character, pulling a lot of selfish moves that harmed her friends, but it was good to see her mature as the book went on. She becomes friends with Filipina-Irish actress, Fiona, at school, and then begins to accidentally fall in love with Roe, Lily’s sibling. Roe was definitely my favourite. 🥺 He’s queer and gender-nonconforming and questioning, and it was nice seeing that rep. We don’t get to know Lily deeply because she’s missing, but she is Deaf and wears a hearing aid.

A big part of the book is trying to figure out what this extremist religious cult group is doing and what their goals are, and Maeve’s friends often end up in harms way. I do wish a book that heavily featured marginalised pain had been from the lens of a marginalised person, though. Maeve is straight, white, and middle-class and has to be called out on her privilege a lot.

The Gifts That Bind Us is book two and is set a few months after the ending of book 1! I won’t go into deep detail for this book because of potential ✨spoilers✨ so don’t read on if you don’t want to know anything about the sequel too early. 😂

The trio has become a quartet now that Lily is back, and they’re spending the summer trying to master their gifts. Maeve is a telepath, Roe can convince objects to bend to his will, Fiona can heal, and Lily commands electricity. Lily still hates Maeve for her cruelty and betrayal in book one, so it was interesting seeing their dynamics play out. Roe features less in this book as he is hard at work with his band and starting college, and I missed him!! It was nice to see Maeve has grown as a person though. I also appreciate when books take the time to talk about the trauma characters carry after life-threatening, death-defying events of their adventures. That stuff changes you.

I would’ve liked more answers about the cult’s intentions, other than “amassing power” (to do what with?). But the ending ups the stakes even higher with big action scenes and new character betrayals and vicious twists. It also has a bit of a twist for book 1’s villain which lends some moral questions to the readers about redemption arcs. I could see this making a good TV series with some Shadowhunter vibes too.

Witchy, twisty and full of high stakes and dark magic spilling all over an Irish town, this series is definitely a whirlwind to read.

Thanks to Walker Books for the ARCs of book 1 and 2!

Title: All Our Hidden Gifts #1
Author: Caroline O’Donoghue
Date Published: 3/2/2021
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: WalkerBooks
Purchase: Book Depository, Dymocks, Amazon AUS
Add it on Goodreads
Maeve Chambers doesn’t have much going for her. Not only does she feel like the sole idiot in a family of geniuses, she managed to drive away her best friend Lily a year ago. But when she finds a pack of dusty old tarot cards at school, and begins to give scarily accurate readings to the girls in her class, she realizes she’s found her gift at last. Things are looking up – until she discovers a strange card in the deck that definitely shouldn’t be there. And two days after she convinces her ex-best friend to have a reading, Lily disappears.
Can Maeve, her new friend Fiona and Lily’s brother Roe find her? And will their special talents be enough to bring Lily back, before she’s gone for good? 

Queer Up by Alexis Caught — An Uplifting Self Help Book for Teens

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If you’re looking for a queer self-help book that’s both heart-warming and full of love…this is for you!

This was a quick and lovely read, the kind of book that presents itself as both a hug and an encouragement. The author introduces themselves as not a mentor or a teacher, but as a friend. Your older queer sibling. They’re also a therapist so the book was filled with a lot of self-love reminders and grounding techniques and reminders to breathe and remember you are loved. When you read this book, you get such a strong sense of community. It’s full of snippets and perspectives and stories from other queer people from all walks of life, so it just felt like a group of your queer elders coming together to tell you everything’s going to be okay.

The book covers…

  • basic education on lgbtqia+ labels and identities (it’s an overview, probably designed to give you a starting point to go do more research now that you have accessible language and understanding of labels, rather than going into super deep detail about each label)
  • brief notes on queer history and rights
  • some sex-education and discussions on things like boundaries and being safe (emotionally and physically)
  • questioning and understanding yourself
  • tips for allies
  • finding a queer community
  • help lines and resources
  • the trans community and trans+ identities

I think it was great that it included sections, comments and thoughts for allies to read. And while it DID say that the “A” stands for asexual, it didn’t mention aromantic at all in the book, and it said A also stands for “ally”. I have to disagree there. And I don’t understand why people think ally should be part of the queer spectrum letters because, as the book literally said, you don’t get an award for showing up to be a decent person!? Anyway 😂👌🏻 A tangent.

The design is also really nice! There are speech bubbles and little cute illustrations, and it just all felt so friendly and easy to read. Truly a book designed to make readers feel welcome.

While it didn’t get very deep into anything, and did read like an overview, I think it did exactly what it set out to do: be an uplifting guide. It’s definitely great for younger teens and honestly anyone new to information about queer identities.

A kind and caring book aimed at young people exploring or wanting to learn more about the lgbtqia+ spectrum! Definitely worth picking up.

Thanks to Walker Books AUS for the review copy!

Title: Queer Up: An Uplifting Guide to LGBTQ+ Love Life and Mental Health
Author: Alexis Caught
Date Published: May 4th, 2022
Genre: YA NonFiction, Self Help
Publisher: Walker Books
Purchase: Book Depository, Dymocks, Amazon US
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A positive and uplifting book for young people who are queer or curious – and their allies looking to support them.
In this empowering and uplifting book, award-winning podcaster Alexis Caught sets out to help queer and curious teenagers explore their LGBTQ+ identity and understanding. Alongside the author’s personal experiences are first-hand stories from notable LGBTQ+ figures, providing a inclusive account of what it means to grow up queer. With chapters on questioning, coming out, friends and family, love, sex, shame, pride and allyship, this is insightful, thoughtful and reassuring book is essential reading for any questioning teen and their allies looking to support them.

Middle Grade Mini Reviews! Loki, The Astronaughties & The Great Fox Illusion

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Helloooo it is time for some middle grade mini reviews!

I received these three books with thanks from Walker Books and thought I’d do a little review for each here. They’re all quite short and pretty fun reads 🤗 So if you’re a middle-grade lover or have a small human in your life who needs books, hopefully these recommendations will help you!

 

Title: The Astronaughties by Andrew Cranna
Date Published: May, 2022
Genre: Middle Grade SFF
Purchase: Book Depository, Dymocks, Walker Books
About the book: It’s 101 years in the future and the Moon has been transformed into the ultimate super-cool intergalactic amusement park. The Astronaughties, the children of some of the park’s designers, get a chance to visit the Lunar Park before it officially opens. But when they arrive, they discover their parents are missing. Now their mission is to find them, defeat the baddies and free a trapped alien. Hold on tight, this is going to be one wild rocket ride!

This is a silly and fun story about three naughty little kids who end up on the moon. It definitely leans into the nonsense aspect and as the story goes, the adventure just gets more wild and random. It’s definitely perfect for younger readers with big, fun font, and it’s entirely illustrated as a graphic novel. At the beginning the book is told by the kids’ robot nanny who is overheating his little batteries trying to keep the kids out of trouble. The villains are all very nefarious and foolish, and the kids end up doing the right thing on…accident. Also add in aliens and roller coasters on the moons and slimy eggs and buying milk in the milky way.

Title: Loki: A Bad God’s Guide to Being Good by Louie Stowell
Date Published: May 18th, 2022
Genre: Middle Grade SFF
Purchase: Book Depository, Dymocks, Walker Books
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About the book: After one prank too many, trickster god Loki has been banished to live as a kid on Earth. If he can show moral improvement within one month, he can return to Asgard. If he can’t? Eternity in a pit of angry snakes. Rude! To keep track of Loki’s progress, King Odin (a bossy poo-poo head) gives him this magical diary in which Loki is forced to confess the truth, even when that truth is as ugly as a naked mole rat. To make matters worse, Loki has to put up with an eleven-year-old Thor tagging along and making him look bad. Loki is not even allowed to use his awesome godly powers! As Loki suffers the misery of school lunch, discovers the magic of internet videos, and keeps watch for frost giant spies, will he finally learn to tell good from bad, trust from tricks, and friends from enemies?

I liked the premise of this one! Reminded me of Rick Riordan’s retelling of the god Apollo being turned into a teen boy as punishment. Except this time it’s Loki, god of mischief, being made into an 11-year-old disaster child who has to earn points to prove he’s Good to be allowed back into this god form. It eludes to a lot of Norse mythology too, but in a lowkey way. It also has lots of illustrations and fun font changes, to keep young readers engaged.

But some of the underlying messages didn’t sit right with me. Telling kids you need to “earn points” to be good isn’t great. And while Loki was deliberately obtuse, I feel like the few times he tried to be good and ended up making things worse were reminiscent of telling the “bad kids” that they’re always going to be bad. Especially when Loki took a lot things literally (which made him feel coded as neurodiverse). I’m sure the book is meant to be silly, light-hearted fun, but I wouldn’t recommend it for neurodiverse or black-and-white thinking children.

Title: The Great Fox Illusion by Justyn Edwards
Date Published: April, 2022
Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary
Purchase: Book Depository, Dymocks, Walker Books
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About the book: Thirteen-year-old Flick Lions has won a place on a new television show, in which young people compete to win the legacy of the Great Fox, one of the world’s most famous magicians. But Flick isn’t interested in uncovering the Great Fox’s tired old magic tricks – she’s after something much more important. The magician destroyed her family, and this is Flick’s only chance to put things right. Inside the Fox’s house is a secret that will change the world of magic for ever, and Flick will go to any lengths to find it.

This was a really fun and cute story of friendship and magicians, and I really enjoyed it! It features the unstoppable and determined Flick, who has entered a TV reality show contest to uncover the secrets of a great magician. The winner gets to inherit his WHOLE estate. Tricks. House. Fortune. The works. Flick is a talented little magician herself, but also wants answers why her father disappeared — and the Great Fox stole her father’s greatest magic trick. Flick wants it back.

Flick is impossible not to love. Tenacious and very self-sufficient, she’s easy to root for. She also is an amputee and wears a prosthetic leg, and I felt the book was so respectful yet mindful of her abilities and limitations. It took time to talk about pains from prosthetics and gave Flick logical accommodations. Too often I feel like kids’ books have the message of “you can do it DESPITE your disability!” But there wasn’t that tone here. Flick is disabled, needs help, and can still do all the things. Loved this.

There’s also lots of disclosing on how magic tricks are done, which is so fun. And Flick makes a talkative friend named Charlie with secrets of his own as to why he wants to win. (I suspect Charlie is coded as autistic?) They’re up against two other kid aspiring magicians who nicely balance between being lowkey bullies vs just kids desperate to win for their own parents’ approval. There’s lots of puzzles to unravel, secret rooms, mysteries, and nods to famous magicians. Lots of fun, fast-paced and easy to read. Recommended for ages 10+!

The Bravest Word by Kate Foster — Tender Story About Depression & Rescuing Dogs

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The Bravest Word is really something special.

This is such a gentle and powerful story about an 11-year-old kid who is suffering from depression, and look, let’s be real here, I teared up. 😭 Not because the book was hopeless — rather because it was so infused with hope and love that it just wrecks you in a really lovely way. I genuinely recommend this to everyone. It doesn’t just explain things like panic attacks and depressive episodes to kids in an accessible way, but it also says how you can help. From giving Matt a father who listens to him, to friends who stick around. It’s just 🥺💛 Plus add in some adorable dog content and you have just an amazing little book that should be on all shelves.

Matt is a pretty regular kid with two loving parents and a nice school and friends and a place on the football team. He doesn’t understand his sudden tiredness, his loss of motivation and hunger, the way he just keeps crying and doesn’t want to be around people. The panic attacks. The dread over football. Why he just wants to sleep. He knows something is wrong, but he doesn’t have the language to articulate it. And of course so many adults’ mentality is “kids can’t get depressed” so his mother dismisses the problems. Only his dad gently notices and tries to be supportive. Matt overhears the word “depression” from his dad talking to his mum and that leads Matt to research it a little. But still — talking about it? Facing it? He doesn’t know how.

I love Dad, and Mum, but talk to them? About all this, my weird crying and chest tightening, how I feel scared all the time? I don’t know. I don’t think I could ever tell them about all this stuff happening. How do you tell the people who love you most, the ones who give you everything and want you to be happy, that actually you aren’t happy but you don’t know why?

The only thing keeping him going is the desperate hope to adopt this little abandon dog that Matt and his dad rescued while on a hike. I loved the rescue scenes. It will punch your heart, because little Cliff is so hurt and scared (and look, animal abuse makes me furious). The little dog just up and STEALS Matt’s heart and he becomes such a loving, tender carer for Cliff.

And I adored the way Matt realises Cliff is saving him as much as he is saving Cliff.

The whole book is just so tender. There’s heartache and mistakes (especially on the mother’s part), but there’s also growth and communication. I remember being 14 and having my first panic attack with no words to know what I was going through — so just knowing that kids can have access to books like these is so important.

Sad and bittersweet, but also infused with soft hope, The Bravest Word is a book about boy and dog rescuing each other and the reminder that no one should suffer alone. It takes bravery to ask for help.

Thanks to Walker Books AUS for the review copy!

Title: The Bravest Word
Author: Kate Foster
Date Published: May, 2022
Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary
Publisher: Walker Books
Purchase: Book Depository, Dymocks
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A rescue story of love and trust between a boy and a dog from the talented author of PAWS.
“Do you hear that? You’re Cliff now, and your life is going to get better, I promise.”
When eleven-year-old Matt finds Cliff, a hurt, neglected dog abandoned in the bush, he knows the brave little pup needs saving. He wants to help. But can he?
Lately, Matt has had way more bad days than good days. The pieces of his life just don’t seem to fit together any more and he doesn’t understand why. He’s finding it impossible to concentrate at school and has lost interest in the activities he used to love. Plus, he’s tired all the time.
Matt’s too afraid to share what’s really going on in his own head with anyone. His friends and family will never understand . . . maybe it’s not only Cliff who needs saving.