Review: All The Colours Of The Rainbow

The travesty over on the other side of the world has filled so many of us with utter disbelief, shock, horror and very real trepidation, because we know that we have certain elements who think in exactly the same way, have the same agenda and are determined to lie their way into positions of power.

I have many gender diverse friends, and, in fact, have always had them for my entire adult life. 

It has just been an acceptance, in just the same way that a friend might have brown hair or blue eyes – just who they are. I also have quite a few friends with children, young adults, who are part of the LGBTQ community.

Review: The Humungous Humdingle Family and the Tiny House

The Humdingle family is large. 

Their house is tiny, consisting of only one each of the most necessary items of furniture.

Imagine the chaos of eight people waiting their turn to use the one toilet. 

Bedtime comes with other challenges. 

Lots of complaining, moans and groans, echo through the small areas.

Imaginings of a place catering for each person’s needs, frequently occupies everyone’s mind.

12 Curly Questions with author Cassy Polimeni

1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you.

I once appeared on Deal or No Deal. Being on a game show had been on my bucket list so when I got the chance I took a day off work and dragged a friend and our mums along. They filmed a week’s worth of shows at once so we spent six hours playing audience members before getting called up onstage. When my moment finally came to guess how much was in my suitcase I was so dazed and delirious from the lights and the long day that the host had to call my name three times before I answered.

2. What is your nickname?
I don’t really have one – despite years of campaigning! During the height of my nickname campaign some workmates took pity on me and tried out ‘Casio’ and ‘Cassiopeia’ but neither really caught on.

Guest Post: An Interview with Allayne Webster

Allayne Webster's latest novel, Selfie, is highly appropriate and current. At a time when Social Media Influencers control and break apart many people’s lives, comes the brilliant, riveting Selfie, by Allayne Webster.

Allayne speaks with Anastasia Gonis about her novel.

You have two leading characters, Tully and Dene, total opposites. Their friendship, initiated too fast by Dene, is cryptic, therefore suspect. An Insta famous influencer and a lonely girl. Is this unusual friendship the central theme of the story? One hundred and ten percent. This story is about relationship power dynamics—who holds power and who relinquishes it, and the interchangeable nature of that. It’s about the desperate need for connection and friendship in the face of living up to other’s expectations and keeping everyone happy (and failing dismally in the process.) Selfie is about how individuals may employ manipulative tactics to achieve desired relationship outcomes, but how they often fall victim to their own guilt/moral compass and regret certain decisions. Ultimately this novel is about settling into the idea of letting go, of ceasing to attempt to control everything and everyone, and to simply trust in another person. It is also about dodging grief—as we soon learn both girls are grieving the loss of loved ones who are not yet in fact dead.

Can Selfie be described as an exploration or an uncovering of the roles played by Social Media Influencers, to manipulate and gain power and control over their followers?

Definitely. There’s a blatant portrayal of this in Selfie when it comes to Dene’s engagement and likes on posts. Influencers do their best to harness social media algorithms and make them work in their favour, and so invariably, their decisions are strategic and not necessarily from the heart.

Too soon, Tully is emotionally controlled by Dene, and the relationship totally consumes her. How difficult was it to write the powerful scenes surrounding Tully’s conflict?

I think Tully presents herself as relatively confident, but internally she struggles with self-belief and confidence like anyone else. The opening scenes of Selfie highlight the things she values; signposts or markers, if you will, are provided to the reader with what Tully thinks makes a person valuable. As the novel progresses, these values come into question. In a way, Tully is the victim of capitalism and the messages she’s internalized about money, status and value.

When writing any emotionally powerful scenes, I need to tap into my own fears and misgivings and harness them for the story. Writing is like acting on paper. I think I very much feel/react emotionally when writing and this helps to make my characters believable. You must be honest with yourself. You can’t ‘put on a show or a brave face’ when writing. You effectively have to let it all hang out—as soul-cringingly embarrassing as that can be. No shame here!

You have perfectly captured the gap between adolescents and adults, and the attitude and behaviors of teenagers. Please comment.

I often give myself pause for thought about what makes me an adult. I mean, quite often I just feel like a big kid. At what point did I grow up? Perhaps we’re the same person, just a little wiser with every passing year? When writing for young adults, I speak to them, not down to them.

Some adults infantilize young people, which helps no one, and certainly doesn’t foster strong open communication. Stop. Listen. Learn. Don’t discount young people’s experiences as being somehow world’s away from your own. They’re not. We exist in the same space. Our feelings and our reactions are valid, no matter what our age. If anything, young people are learning to access their internal toolbox for dealing with complex social situations; they’re learning self-reflection, endurance, self-confidence, empathy… Allow them the space to do that and to f*ck it up.

Your leading character Dene is complex, Insta famous; a pyramid character created by her exploitative mother. How difficult/easy was it bringing her to life?

I will confess Dene took a little more work than Tully. Dene is more often than not the antagonist in the story, and I think I struggle to inhabit that as a writer. When I removed blame from Dene, she became easier to write. In order to write about her successfully and three-dimensionally, I had to consider her actions with a level of empathy; I had to think about the drivers making her behave in the manner she does. Are they really her fault? That said, Tully is by no means a saintly character either. They’re both flawed, which is what makes them interesting, and is what makes the reader invested and (hopefully!) question whose side they’re on.

 

There are several sub stories that enrich the storyline, such as Tully’s family upheaval, the ending of Kira and Tully’s friendship, and crushing outcome of Dene and Tully’s relationship. How important are these stories to the novel?

The sub stories of any novel should always enrich the overall narrative. All killers, no fillers—as they say. In the case of Dene and Tully, what goes on for them in private at home, or when separated from each other, has a compounding impact on the overall story. How they perform in other relationships says something about their character and their nature. Humans are multi-faceted. We all know that in the company of some people we present a different face or a different version of ourselves. The same thing goes on in the story. That said, I think the most powerful and telling part of any story is what is revealed via the character’s internal monologue versus their action/what they actually do and say. That’s why I love writing in first person—because our actions don’t always marry our words, nor our thoughts. I love the interplay between these. 

Full of tension and at times painful to read, how important was writing about this theme for you?

In all honesty? It was cathartic. Authors have a responsibility to assist publishers to promote their work, and this means regularly and actively being online. Adults are just as suspectable to subliminal messaging, just as vulnerable to images of perfection, etc. For me to write Selfie, I had to be in touch with those positive and negative emotions produced by social media.  If I, as a rapidly ageing adult, sometimes struggle with the messaging of the online world, what on earth is going on for our young people? I am always thinking: Thank God I didn’t have social media as a teenager, I would’ve embarrassed myself no end. I would have over-shared, overthought, potentially shared dangerous images of myself for attention and validation, and I would have written/said things that two seconds later I would have evolved from, yet would be recorded for years to come and for history to judge. The idea frightens the hell out of me. In a way, writing this novel was protecting younger me from the things I could have done had I grown up in the era of the online world.

What do you hope readers will come away with from Selfie?

As a writer, I hope to hold up a mirror and reflect society back at the reader. I would hope Selfie provides Aha! moments, or vigorous head-nodding, or exasperated sighs of OMG, that’s me! I’ve felt like that! Or I’ve been guilty of that. I don’t ever hope to deliver moral judgements or to lay foundations for what might make things better.

What I hope to do is A) create empathy, B) incite questions; make readers interrogate their own viewpoint and consider other angles. Ultimately, at the core, I want young readers to know their self-worth is not defined by the adulation or condemnation they receive from friends or strangers online.

Selfie is about empowering young readers to see through the glossy veneer of the online world. In moments of vulnerability, I would hope they remember Selfie and question any unhealthy thoughts induced by online interactions. I would hope it’s a tool in their toolbox for thinking beyond surface level.

 

Review: Saturday, Sunday

Everyone's weekend is different. What does yours look like?

Saturday, Sunday depicts one family’s weekend routine.

Rhyming text by Natalie Kate Forbes both stands alone and flows beautifully. It’s complemented by Danny Snell’s gentle, connected illustrations. 

As you follow the words and pictures, it feels like you’re right there among the family, being led along as they progress through the weekend.

Meet The Illustrator: Caroline Magerl

Name: Caroline Magerl

Describe your Illustration style in 10 words or less.
Loose, emotive and painterly.

What items are an essential part of your creative space?
For starters....space!
I am messy when I work, so I will say for starters, a broom and a big bin. I love music and my little portable speaker is essential. 

In my workroom, I love to have picture books, books on painting techniques, novels and books with covers that I particularly like. I just enjoy having book piles, it makes the space mine. 

Review: Searching for Treasure

When you’re at the beach, do you head straight for the water, or do you wander along the sand? How much notice do you take of where you walk? 

Searching for Treasure by Johanna Bell and Emma Long is a beautiful walk along the high tide line of a beach. 

The perspective throughout most of the book is looking down from a child’s height. With each step there are new things to discover. Look out for bluebottles though! 

Review: (Be Smart About) Screen Time!: Stay Grounded, Set Boundaries, and Keep Safe Online

(Be Smart About) Screen Time!: Stay Grounded, Set Boundaries, and Keep Safe Online is a great book for kids of all ages, not to mention adults.

We're surrounded by technology. In fact it's hard to avoid it.

While access to devices of various kinds can have advantages, there are also disadvantages, some of which you might not even realise.

(Be Smart About) Screen Time! is a guide, a series of questions and answers, and a non-fiction graphic novel. It presents key concepts and issues in a simple and easy to understand way.

Specifically aimed at children, but helpful for everyone, it covers some of the pros and cons of having the world at your fingertips, and touches on media literacy by discussing whether or not seeing is believing.

Review: Taronga Presents - Bk #3, Baby Boom & Bk #4, Night Owls

It is baby birth time at the Taronga Zoo. Sophia and best friend Ollie now have official volunteer status, so they spend most of their free time at the Zoo.

While helping with the wildlife, Sophia realises that due to the different type of interests they have, a rift could easily occur between them. 

This fear surfaces when Ollie’s little sister is left in his care for a few hours and Sophia begins to feel cheated of time with her friend.

When it happens again, Sophia is further disgruntled with Ollie, without understanding why.  She must accept and adjust to situations that can change suddenly, to retain Ollie's friendship.

It is a busy week for the volunteers. There are the usual emergencies that call for attention at the Wildlife Hospital. Some are humorous incidents concerning animals.

Review: Australia's Baby Animals

If I had to choose just one word out of all the words in the world to describe this Non-Fiction Picture-Book, I think I’d have to go with ‘phenomenal.’ 

Oh sure, the scope and quality of information and artwork is wonderful, clever, wholesome, uplifting and any manner of others, but still my one-word description stands.

Published in a large format which best showcases its many beautiful artworks, this is a collectible companion book to Australia: Country of Colour!

Award-winning author/illustrator Jess Racklyeft takes us on an incredible journey across earth, sky tree, river and sea, to explore and celebrate the baby animals found within Australia.

Review: Dog Beach

Stunning covers, and end pages full of warmth and doggie beauty bid the reader welcome. 

The 32 eye-catching images of different breeds of dog, dressed and au natural, appear in various poses within frames.

You never know what you will see at the dog beach. 

These dogs are sniffing and digging up strange and familiar things from their soggy sand hiding place.

Seagulls keep their distance.

They are gathered here on the beach, to frolic and play.

Review: The Hullabaloo About Elephant Poo

Somewhere, in the recesses of my memory, I recall the ancient use of animal poo for building dwellings and being burnt as fuel for heat. 

But I don’t ever remember there being such a hullabaloo about its multitude of uses. Until The Hullabaloo About Elephant Poo kersplatted onto my desk.

If you are in any doubt as to the sensationally sustainable qualities of elephant poo, look no further than this humorous homage to an elephant’s busy behind.

Renowned author, Dee White escorts readers through a giddy roundup all things great and glorious about the waste product of the largest mammal on earth. Facts and figures come fast and furious. Faster in fact than it takes for elephant poo to hit the ground! From how much they deposit daily to the number of times they need to do so.

Review: Be the Bus

Review: Dr Seuss Graphic Novel - Cat Out of Water & The Grinch Takes a Vacation

Introducing the first Dr Seuss graphic novel! 

Each title in this series has an individual author and illustrator.

The Cat in the Hat just wants to have fun. 

Fish initially convinces Sally and her unnamed brother not to open the door for Cat. 

His previous shenanigans caused chaos and an  inevitable reprisal for their combined actions.

So, the siblings pretend they are not home, but the shrewd Cat talks through the door until his persuasive suggestions change the course of their good intentions.

And they let him in.

Let’s get this party started is a powerful expression.  

Review: The Five Rules Of Friendship

Sometimes, the ‘simple’ things shine the brightest of all.

With its warm, friendly voice alongside bold and colourful illustrations, this picture book is deceptively simple, very practical and completely engaging.

From the creator of ‘Life Lessons For Little Ones,’ ‘The Five Rules Of Friendship’ is exactly that: five practical, useful and solid ideas around how to be a friend, and how to treat a friend.

In clear and chatty language with no hint of judgement, the book reminds us that friendship can be awesome when it’s good, and downright tricky when it’s not-so-good.