Funny books are the perfect go-to when kids are ready to step up to chapter books. What kid can resist reading a book that comes with loads of laughs, right?
Continue reading “9 super funny chapter book series for kids (that aren’t Wimpy Kid or Treehouse)”
Got a teen or tween who devours books like that weird-arse gobbledok from the ’80s Smiths Chips ads? Then this is your lucky day.
Continue reading “The best fantasy and science fiction books for teens”
My daughter is mad for dance. Doesn’t matter if it’s ballet, jazz, contemporary or whatever … a LOT of dance goes on at our place. She also loves books. And that’s the problem, you see. Because my dance-loving daughter tells me that most books about dance and dancers are just plain rubbish.
Continue reading “9 books for teens who love dance that are actually good”
Refugee. It’s a word that should evoke compassion, that should make us open our hearts and our borders to people fleeing war. To families, desperate for a safe place to call home. To children who have seen and suffered terrible things. Instead, it’s a word that is used to spread fear and even hate.
Continue reading “11 books about refugee children that will break your heart”
Kids are naturally anxious about what’s happening with coronavirus. There’s no escaping the constant and grim news updates of spiralling death tolls and infection rates.
Children are kept at home, separated from their friends, their schools, their grandparents and relatives. Details on what we can and can’t do – and when or with who – change every day. And when even the adults don’t know what’s going on, what hope do the kids have?
Publisher Nosy Crow has teamed with The Gruffalo’s Axel Scheffler to create a book to help debunk the COVID-19 fear factor for kids. And the best bit? It’s free.
Continue reading “Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler made this free book to help kids cope with coronavirus”
Think Star Wars is just a movie? Think again. Sure, it’s one of the biggest movie franchises of all time. With epic battles, dastardly villains, fallen heroes and plot twists aplenty. But there’s other ways to enjoy Darth Vader, Princes Leia, Luke, Hans Solo, Chewie and co than on the big screen.
Yep, I’m talking books. There are books that let you explore everything Star Wars in more thrilling, up-close detail than anything you’ve seen on the big screen. Don’t believe me? I find your lack of faith disturbing.
Continue reading “These are the 7 books every Star Wars fan needs”
We’re a couple of weeks into remote learning at home thanks to the coronavirus school shutdowns. And here in Victoria at least, and a few other states around the country, there’s still quite a few weeks to go before we can send the kids back to their classrooms.
Continue reading “21 best websites for kids when remote learning at home is driving you nuts”
Hear that? It’s the sound of a thousand mini footy-mad hearts breaking now that coronavirus has put the 2020 junior footy season on a semi-permanent pause.
Well, kids might not be able to play as a team while we’re in a COVID-19 lockdown, but that doesn’t mean they can’t read like one.
Here are 11 excellent books and book series’ about Australian Rules Football – better known as footy – for kids. From picture books to junior fiction and middle-grade reads, there’s a football book for every kid.
Continue reading “11 specky-tacular footy books for kids”
Take a pinch of fantasy, a whack of adventure, a smidge of mystery and a skerrick of historical fiction. Mix them all together and you get Tiger Heart.
Continue reading “Review: Tiger Heart by Penny Chrimes”
Need a new book for the kids to get lost in? You’re in luck! The Children’s Book Council of Australia has just announced the shortlist for its 2020 Book of the Year awards. Get ready to have your book brains blown…
Continue reading “All the books on the CBCA 2020 shortlist”
Kenneth Oppel’s The Nest is one pretty scary book. But not scary in an in-your-face, crazy clown-slash-serial-killer kinda way. No, The Nest is wa-ay more frightening than that.
Continue reading “Review: The Nest by Kenneth Oppel”
I Think the Cover Was Red ... 