A review by Nalini Haynes Space Alien at Planet Dad is a picture book for young children. Every Saturday Jake visits Planet Dad where Dad …
Book reviews
Liveship Traders Trilogy by Robin Hobb
A review by Nalini Haynes I wrote this review in 2016 and left it in drafts. With uni, disability discrimination and assaults, this review of …
Stop Being Reasonable by Eleanor Gordon-Smith
Gordon-Smith is a philosopher and reformed debater. Her mind was changed. She says it’s time to stop being reasonable because coherent logical argument is futile when money-hungry agent provocateurs
Cyclone by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley
A review by Nalini Haynes Cyclone tells the story of the cyclone that destroyed Darwin in the 1970s in rhyming verse with evocative watercolour illustrations. …
99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne
A review by Lynne Larby Darcy Barrett and Tom Valeska have known each other since they were eight years old, and Darcy has had a …
Pocket Dogs and the Lost Kitten by Margaret Wild and Stephen Michael King
A review by Nalini Haynes The Pocket Dogs and the Lost Kitten is about two toy dogs who love their carer, Mr Pockets, but a …
Emergency Contact by Mary H K Choi
A review by Lynne Larby Emergency Contact is a young adult coming-of-age romance. Penny heads off to college, relieved at leaving behind her mother who’s …
Vox by Christina Dalcher
A review by Nalini Haynes Jean McClellan is a wife and mother, removed from the workforce by white male supremacists who’ve decided the way to …
Cicada by Shaun Tan
A review by Nalini Haynes Cicada works in an office job, possibly in the public service or at a university. He’s been there a very …
No Limits by Ellie Marney
No Limits for Harris Derwent, a bad boy but he’s not so bad that he wants to be a drug mule, not even when a friend offers him a job could get him out of his father’s house. Amie is a nursing assistant in the local hospital. Her Punjabi family ties keep her in this small town although she had dreams of being a photographer. They meet in hospital, Amie caring for Harris after he was shot helping a friend. Sargent Blunt, Amie’s father, encourages Harris to accept a job as a runner for a drug ring so Blunt can take down some local drug dealers before his health forces him to retire.
Wisp: A Story of Hope by Zana Fraillon and Grahame Baker-Smith
A review by Nalini Haynes One day a wisp lands at Idris’s feet, feet trapped in a dark refugee camp surrounded by rolls of barbed …
Pirate Songs in the Accessing the Future anthology
A review by Nalini Haynes I began reading the Accessing the Future anthology (edited by Kathryn Allan and Djibril al-Ayad) at the beginning because that seemed to …
Daintree by Annie Seaton
A review by Lynne Larby A while ago I read Daintree by Annie Seaton, a romance between two doctors based in — you guessed it …
Disabling Characters: Representations of Disability in Young Adult Literature by Patricia A Dunn
Patricia Dunn selected several Young Adult literature texts for discussion in Disabling Characters: Representations of Disability in Young Adult Literature, which focuses on teaching disability …
A Curse of Ash and Embers by Jo Spurrier
A Curse of Ash and Ember is book 1 of the Tales of the Blackbone Witches. Elodie is restless; she’s a prisoner in her own …