New ‘Books+Publishing Junior’ reviews out now

Books+Publishing’s latest Junior newsletter contains 15 reviews of books publishing in September and October 2016.

Art critic Jennifer Higgie’s debut picture book There’s Not One (Scribble, September) received the highest star rating, scoring 4.5 stars from reviewer Anica Boulanger-Mashberg. Higgie’s art background is evident in the ‘bold, bright, energetic collage-like images’, and the ‘simple story—that while there are billions and zillions of all sorts of things, there is only one you—is full of heart yet stays well away from sentimentality,’ writes Boulanger-Mashberg, who also interviewed the author here.

Reviewer Suzanne Garcia interviewed mural artist and designer Joel Moore, also known by the alias ‘Mulga’, about his transition into children’s picture books with Mulga’s Magical Musical Animals (Hachette, October). It is one of five picture books in the newsletter to receive four stars, and Garcia writes that ‘there is a bit of dreamlike wonder in this book for everyone’.

Also reviewed are:

Picture books:

Agatha and the Dark (Anna Pignataro, The Five Mile Press, October); The Gobbledygook and the Scribbledynoodle (Justine Clarke and Arthur Baysting, illus by Tom Jellett, Viking, October); Hello, Sydney! (Megan McKean, Thames & Hudson, October); If I Was a Banana (Alexandra Tylee & Kieran Rynhart, Gecko Press, October); Molly & Mae (Danny Parker, illus by Freya Blackwood, Little Hare, October); Shiver Me Timbers! (Oakley Graham, illus by Nina Caniac, Big Sky Publishing, September); Spark (Adam Wallace, illus by Andrew Plant, Ford Street, October); and That’s Not a Hippopotamus (Juliette MacIver, illus by Sarah Davis, Gecko Press, September).

Younger readers:

The Twins of Tintarfell (James O’Loghlin, Pan, September).

Young adult:

The Book of Whispers (Kimberley Starr, Text, October); Elegy (Jane Abbott, Random House, September); Goldenhand (Garth Nix, A&U, October); and Our Chemical Hearts (Krystal Sutherland, Penguin, October).

Finally, Books+Publishing’s work experience student Alexandra Pixton interviewed the teen judges of this year’s Inky Awards in advance of the shortlist announcement on 16 August. Read the combined interviews here.

To read the full newsletter, click here. Sign up to the Junior newsletter here.

Category: Recently published by B+P