New Reviews

Phew! What a busy day. I have been busy on a big update of Aussiereviews and have finally finsihed. There are twenty new reviews for your enjoyment. You can click on the links to peruse the ones you're interested in:

Children's Book Review: The Visconti House, by Elsbeth Edgar Reviewed by Sally Murphy
Solving a mystery brings two friends together.
Children's Book Review: Australian & World Records 2010 Reviewed by Calum Murphy
More than 250 amazing records.
Children's Book Review: Pilot and Huxley, by Dan McGuiness Reviewed by Claire Saxby
Hop aboard for a wild ride.
Graphic Novel Review: Captain Congo and the Maharaja’s Monkey, by Ruth Starke Reviewed by Claire Saxby
Captain Congo’s new adventure.
Children's Book Review: Dog Squad, by Meredith Costain Reviewed by Claire Saxby
A new Lightning Strikes novel.
Children's Book Review: the Locket of Dreams, by Belinda Murrell Reviewed by Claire Saxby
A gold link to the past.
Picture Book Review: I Love My Dad, by Anna Walker Reviewed by Claire Saxby
Ollie and his dad.
Children's Book Review: By the Picking of My Nose, by Martin Chatterton Reviewed by Claire Saxby
A wacky tale of Shakespeare's childhood.
Picture Book Review: Together, by Anna Pignataro Reviewed by Claire Saxby
Mother-child love.
Picture Book Review: Clem Always Could, by Sarah Watt Reviewed by Claire Saxby
Learning to swim.
Children's Book Review: Robot Riot, by Andy Griffiths Reviewed by Claire Saxby
A new 'Schooling Around' story.
YA Book Review: In the Shadow of the Palace, by Judith A Simpson Reviewed by Claire Saxby
An adventure in long-ago India.
Children's Book Review: The Smartest Dog of All, by Ian Horrocks Reviewed by Claire Saxby
A boy and his dog.
Children's Book Review: Pyro Watson and the Hidden Treasure, by Nette Hilton Reviewed by Claire Saxby
Adventures by the sea.
Book Review: Picnic at Hanging Rock, by Joan Lindsay Reviewed by Sally Murphy
Another Popular Penguin.
Book Review: Of a Boy, by Sonya HartnettReviewed by sally Murphy
A gently moving tale.
YA Book Review: The Immortal, by Michael Panckridge Reviewed by Sally Murphy
A gripping story.
Graphic Novel Review: Scarygirl, by Nathan Jurevicius Reviewed by Sally Murphy
Amazing.
Children's Book Review: Yikes! by Alison Lester Reviewed by sally Murphy
In Seven Wild Adventures Who Would You Be?
Children's Book Review: The Land of Mirthful, by Sally Morgan Reviewed by Sally Murphy
Book Two in the Stopwatch series.

Have added eight new reviews to Aussiereviews tonight. Enjoy.

Children's Book Review: Thorpey, by Ruth Starke

Part of the Mates series.
Children's Book Review: The Toilet Kid, by Pat Flynn
A sequel to The Tuckshop Kid.
Children's Book Review: Mostly Sunny With a Chance of Storms, by Marion Roberts

A sequel to the glorious Sunny Side Up.
YA Book Review: Pink, by Lili Wilkinson
Ava is trying on a new image.
Children's Book Review: Don't Breathe a Word, by Marianne Musgrove
A gentle exploration of some difficult topics.
Children's Book Review: The Hottest Boy Who Ever Lived, by Anna Fienberg
A heart warming story.
YA Book Review: They Told Me I Had to Write This, by Kim Miller

Excellent.
YA Book Review: Dust, by Christine Bongers
A fantastic debut novel.

Today I added six new reviews to Aussiereviews. Youc an read them by clicking on the links.

Book Review: Gladiatrix, by Rhonda Roberts

Time travel adventure.
YA Book Review: Jatta, by Jenny Hale

Thrilling fantasy.
Children's Book Review: Edzel Grizzler, by James Roy
Book one Voyage to Verdada.
Picture Book Review: I Love Christmas, by Anna Walker
A gentle Christmas offering.
Nonfiction Book Review: Riding the Black Cockatoo, by John Danalis

A true story.
Children's Book Review: All the Colours of Paradise, by Glenda Millard
The fourth title in the Kingdom of Silk series.

Have just finished adding seven new reviews to Aussiereviews. Click on the links to read them.

Children's Book Review: The Puzzle Ring, by Kate Forsyth Reviewed by Sally Murphy
An absorbing fantasy.
Children's Book Review: Ramose - Valley of the Tombs, by Carole Wilkinson Reviewed by Tom Murphy
A bind-up of the Ramose series.
YA Book Review: The Night They Stormed Eureka, by Jackie French Reviewed by Tom Murphy
A gripping time travel adventure.
YA Book Review: Third Transmission, by Jack Heath Reviewed by Tom Murphy
Third and final story in the Six of Hearts series.
Children's Book Review: The Python Problem, by Darrel & Sally Odgers Reviewed by Sally Murphy
Fourth title in the Pet Vet series.
Children's Book Review: The Wombat and the Grand Poohjam, by Jackie French Reviewed by Sally Murphy
Part of the new Mates series.
Children's Book Review: Inspector Jacques, by Darrel & Sally Odgers Reviewed by Sally Murphy
Jack Russell Dog Detective, book number 11.

Author Interview: Gabrielle Williams

Today I am delighted to welcome Gabrielle William, the author of new YA novel Beatle Meets Destiny to my blog. Welcome, Gabrielle, and congratulations on the release of Beatle Meets Destiny

1. Your last novel was for adults. What prompted the change to writing for a young adult audience?
Being an adult is full of responsibility and housework. I wanted to relive the fun days of being a young adult, so I created these characters that I would have liked to hang out with when I was younger. Then I spent the next 18 months with them each day, writing about their misadventures, which was great. Very invigorating. It inspired me to go out and misbehave in real life.

2. Were there any challenges in writing for a younger audience than previously?
The challenges of writing for a younger audience are much the same as writing for an older audience – namely the challenge of sitting still at the computer writing, instead of checking emails, reading the newspaper, doing the sudoku, looking up obscure sites on the internet, drinking coffee and hanging out with friends. Over the years I’ve discovered it’s very difficult to write a novel if you’re not actually sitting down writing it. Rule number one: sit down and write the damn thing.

3. There are lots of issues which arise in the book – fidelity, stalking, drug use, health issues, superstition, family loyalty... Did you set out to write an issues based book and which of the issues do you see as being most important?
When you put it like that there ARE a lot of issues in the book. I didn’t really set out to write something issues-based, and I certainly would never want to get all preachy about things, but I suppose I explored concepts and ideas that I personally find interesting. And also things that have happened to me or friends of mine.

4. Why John Lennon? What inspired you to use a famous person’s name for your main character – and why John Lennon specifically?
Hm. I’ve been asked that a lot and I’m not really sure. His name just kind of came to me. I guess I liked the idea of a character who’s named after a famous person. It seemed to say a lot about his mum, that she would name him John Lennon. It also opened up opportunities for a bit of comedy.

5. Now, about you. What lead you into writing as a career?

I worked in advertising for a long time. But after I had kids and started working part-time, the juicy jobs I’d been getting in advertising started going to other people who were still working full-time. And I found myself writing Myer catalogues and retail television spots and I found it incredibly unsatisfying. So then I applied to RMIT to do the Creative Writing Course where I had this fantastic teacher, Olga Lorenzo, and as I went on, I found that I really wanted to write novels.

6. Do you write full time? What else makes Gabrielle Williams tick?
I’m lucky enough to be able to write full time, which is brilliant (in between sudoku, emails, trawling through the internet, etc). As for what makes me tick; I’ve got a hubby and three children who keep me quite busy, and then I’ve got my buddies who I catch up with a lot, and I do karate, and I sometimes manage to squeeze housework in there somewhere (but let’s be honest, I don’t manage to squeeze in the housework a whole lot. Busy. Doing other stuff).

7. What advice would you give to others who want to write for young adults?

Do it. Do it now. Just don’t write about vampires (seriously, how many vampire novels can the market sustain because it collapses in a toothy, bloody heap?).

8. Lastly, what are you working on now? Is there another novel brewing?

Yes, I’ve got another novel in the pipeline, but I can’t tell you much about it because if I tell you I’ll have to kill you.

Thanks so much for your time, Gabrielle. And thanks for not killing me.
You can see my review of Beatle Meets Destiny here.

Have just finished adding seven new reviews to Aussiereviews. Enjoy!

Book Review: Tropic of Death, by Robert Sims

An idyllic resort with a heart of darkness.
YA Book Review: Word of Honour, by Michael Pryor
The third in the Laws of Magic series.
YA Book Review: Beatle Meets Destiny, by Gabrielle Williams

Imagine your name is John Lennon and you meet a girl whose surname is McCartney.
YA Book Review: Brown Skin Blue, by Belinda Jeffrey
A wonderful debut novel.
Children's Book Review: Untangling Spaghetti, by Steven Herrick
A wonderful collection.
Nonfiction Book Review: How to Balance Your life, by James O'Loghlin

Practical ways to achieve work/life balance.
YA Book Review: Worldshaker, by Richard Harland

A page turning fantasy.

I have just added eleven new reviews to Aussiereviews. Enjoy - especially the review of Just Macbeth, reviewed by another of the Murphlets.

YA Book Review: Little Bird, by Penni Russon Reviewed by Claire Saxby
A new Girlfriend Fiction title.
Children's Book Review: The Chimpanzee Book, by Dr Carla Litchfield Reviewed by Claire Saxby
Our closest animal relatives.
Picture Book Review: Her Mother's Face, by Roddy Doyle Reviewed by Claire Saxby
About remembering.
Children's Book Review: The Great Barrier Reef Book, by Dr Mark Norman Reviewed by Claire Saxby
Visible from space.
YA Book Review: Something More, by Mo Johnson Reviewed by Claire Saxby
Even sisters sometimes need a friend.
YA Book Review: Bloodflower, by Christine Hinwood Reviewed by Claire Saxby
An intriguing read.
Children's Book Review: The Gorilla Book, by Dr Carla Litchfield Reviewed by Claire Saxby
2009 is Year of the Gorilla.
Children's Book Review: The Crocodile Book, by Malcolm Douglas Reviewed by Claire Saxby
Not a good pet.
YA Book Review: Pop Princess, by Isabelle Merlin Reviewed by Claire Saxby
An adventure in Paris.
Children's Book Review: Firesong, by Libby Hathorn Reviewed by Claire Saxby
Set in 1950’s Blue Mountains.
Children's Book Review: Just Macbeth! by Andy Griffiths Reviewed by Calum Murphy
Double, Double, Toil and Trouble.