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Children's and YA book reviews and interviews

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Feature

Claire Zorn

All the rage: Claire Zorn on ‘One Would Think the Deep’

author Randa Abdel-Fattah

Race relations: Randa Abdel-Fattah on ‘When Michael Met Mina’

Feature review

Forgetting Foster
Dianne Touchell, A&U, July 2016, reviewed by Meg Whelan

Picture books

My Brother
Dee, Oliver and Tiffany Huxley, Working Title Press, July 2016, reviewed by Margaret Hamilton

This profoundly moving picture book is about the overwhelming sorrow and sense of loss that follows the death of a loved one. The simple, expressive text, with carefully chosen words,... Read more

Steve Goes to Carnival
Joshua Button & Robyn Wells, Magabala, July 2016, reviewed by Louise Pfanner

A picture book can often be a happy collaboration between an author and an illustrator; far more rarely is it the product of two artists. In Steve Goes to Carnival,... Read more

Younger readers

Dragonfly Song
Wendy Orr, A&U, July 2016, reviewed by Tehani Wessely

Born into privilege that is swiftly taken from her, Aissa learns early how painful life can be. In servitude at the age of four, never speaking and frequently mistreated, she... Read more

The Other Christy
Oliver Phommavanh, Puffin, July 2016, reviewed by Jarrah Moore

Eleven-year-old Christy Ung has tried hard to fit in and make friends since she and her grandpa moved to Australia from Cambodia. At school, though, she’s almost invisible: thanks to... Read more

Young adult

Black
Fleur Ferris, Random House, July 2016, reviewed by Suzanne Garcia

Is Ebony Marshall cursed? Three of her closest friends have died in separate accidents, and some people in her small Victorian country town are convinced she is bad luck. Ebony... Read more

One Step
Andrew Daddo, Penguin, July 2016, reviewed by Natalie Crawford

Dylan is an average young guy; his life revolves around school, his family and his burgeoning interest in girls. However, all is not as it seems, and after bearing the... Read more

One Would Think the Deep
Claire Zorn, UQP, June 2016, reviewed by Bec Kavanagh

When Sam calls his Aunty Lorraine for the first time in seven years, it’s to tell her that his mum, her sister, is dead. It’s also to tell her that... Read more

The Road to Winter
Mark Smith, Text, July 2016, reviewed by Meg Whelan

Since the virus, Finn lives alone in his small coastal town with just his dog for company. He keeps his head down and lives off the supplies his father stored... Read more

When Michael Met Mina
Randa Abdel-Fattah, Pan, July 2016, reviewed by Frances Atkinson

Michael and Mina could not be more different: she’s a ‘scholarship girl’ originally from Afghanistan and about to begin Year 11 at a posh new school in Sydney; he comes... Read more

On tour

author Michael Grant

On tour: Michael Grant