The Winglets Quartet
Tui T Sutherland

“Fiercetooth, a NightWing obsessed with what could have — and should have — been. Deathbringer, desperate to prove himself as the next great NightWing assassin. Six-Claws, a loyal SandWing, who will soon find that loyalty comes with a price. Foeslayer the NightWing, a dragon in love turned kidnapper, and Prince Arctic of the IceWings, a runaway turned captive.”

This is a combined review from my daughter (11 years) and myself. She’s still getting the hang of book reviews, but I have great hopes for the future! Her comments:

This book was Wonderful, I enjoyed reading immensely. I think it’s one of the best books in the Wings of Fire series [Rose notes here that she has spent most of her pocket money buying these books, despite finding free copies online]. There are several different stories and I liked that the dragons then had some back story. The second and third short stories go together, which was pretty awesome.

The fourth was my favourite because I really like the ice kingdom and it’s really cool. [Rose: No pun intended!]. The third one was pretty good two because we met the Nightmare Assassin’s mother (the one that Glory met). The second one was a let down, the ending wasn’t as good.

Rose: From my adult standing, and the fact that I generally hate short stories, I felt frustrated by this book. It also didn’t help that I felt somewhat rushed into reading it because I needed to deliver it to my daughter (the new COVID-normal, apparently). I had finished reading the first three books of the Wings of Fire, but hadn’t started the next ones. I think it’s essential to finish reading those first five books to enjoy this one to its fullest.

Thanks for Scholastic for sending this one for my review! I’m not going to reread it (but I’m not its major audience), but my daughter would go out and buy it herself if she hadn’t gotten a copy. She’s also rereading all of these to the exclusion of other books – so they must be good. 4 combined stars. I’d recommend it to any book buyer who has a crazy dragon-fancier in their house. I don’t think you could go wrong buying this for budding dragonologists!

Scholastic | October 2020 | AU$6.99 | paperback

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The Unadoptables
Hana Tooke

The five oldest children of the Little Tulip Orphanage were left there in unacceptable circumstances. In their various ways they aren’t popular enough to be adopted – some of them going so far as to destroy the chances of their adoption so that they can stay together. After an escape and a little bit of magic, the five are free to make puppets. But will their past catch up with them?

There’s plenty of orphan and adoption stories out there. Batman is perhaps one of the most famous, but Batman at least has his beloved butler to care for him. Or, there’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, where the children did have parents, and now they are being ?watched? by Lemony Snicket. The original orphan story is Oliver Twist, or maybe Mowgli, and then there’s Anne of Green Gable. All of these stories have white protagonists.

How about Despicable Me? You don’t see people up in arms about the fact that all three girls are white. While I don’t think that it should be acceptable that there ONLY stories about white people being ‘adoptable’, I don’t think that too much should be called out about a period novel that is accurately depicting the adoption environment of the times. It’s a fiction, and it shouldn’t be interpreted too deeply. I liked it because it let these orphans not be defined by who adopted them, but that they were able to define themselves regardless of where they came from.

As a geneticist polydactyly is an interesting inherited trait. In fact, it is inherited in a dominant pattern – so someone who has one parent with extra fingers/toes will have a 50/50 chance of also having multiple digits. It’s also really uncommon in Caucasians. Oh! And a bonus fact that I found out was that there is a “Rotterdam registration form for congenital anomalies”. I can see the Dutch connection there as well.

I understood how Egg behaved in regards to finding his own family, but I was frustrated by the fact that the end of the novel was, well, just an end. Yes, the twists and turns to the end were horrifying, but gratifying as well. I also liked the ways the different sections of ‘evidence’ came together. It was almost left open for another novel, but not quite.

I read this in what was hopefully the way it was intended to be written – as a lighthearted romp of five unusual children in the best (and worst) act of their lives. Who doesn’t like a good orphan story? Upon clicking the novel into GoodReads however, I discovered a range of opinions that hadn’t even occurred to me. For a 19^th century Gothic novel, it’s probably appropriate that the ‘unadoptables’ are disfigured (12 fingers), mute (selectively) and the wrong appearance (Asian). HOWEVER. There are many people who are adopted or who have been part of the foster system that have objected to this novel, and so in good conscience I can’t recommend this book.

Sometimes the curtain is just blue.

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No Fixed Address
Susin Nielsen

Felix and his mom Astrid live in a van. It’s a pretty cool van at the beginning, but as months go past, Felix gets more and more uncomfortable. He doesn’t get to shower every day, and school seems like the only place he’s warm and safe. Felix has a chance to go on a TV trivia show though and win the answer to their problems.

I didn’t feel convinced that Felix was 13. I felt that maybe he was a bit younger? I feel like by 13 I was a bit more put together, but maybe that’s because I’m a girl and we develop slightly faster than boys. I loved his relationships with his friends! And I liked how the novel was a mix of past and present tense – initially I felt a bit hesitant of it, but in the end it made sense.

I liked how it was just a slippery slope from a month’s holiday in a van through to spending a couple of months in it. It wasn’t ‘bam’ they’re homeless. I also liked how Felix described his mother’s depression slumps. To me, I don’t think her medication was doing a great job though.

This asks the reader to consider hard questions – what makes a good parent? Is foster care the right solution to problematic homes? Is stealing ever ok? Also it wants the reader to think about what they might feel like in that situation. Also, there were a couple of times where Felix made a statement to the police, yet it wasn’t followed up on.

This was entertaining (and sad) at the same time. I was particularly fond of Felix’s classifications of different types of lie. It was a very comfortable and undemanding holiday read.that I’d absolutely recommend for middle grade readers. 4 stars for its target age group.

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Songbird
Ingrid Laguna

Jamila has come to Australia from Iraq with her little brother and her Mama. Her English is no longer the best in her class – she’s the worst, and her Mama always needs her to come home to help her carry out daily tasks. Jamila is waiting for her Baba to come, but in the mean time can she fit in by joining choir and making a new friend?

This is a sweet little novel that will hopefully help primary school aged children understand how it can feel to be different in a new place. The character of Jamila could be slipped into by anyone at a new school, not just refugee children. I could empathise with Jamila wanting to make a good impression.

I loved how Jamila was able to stand up for herself, and that her hijab (which is usually the thing ‘picked on’ by other children in other novels) isn’t even a big deal for her. If anything, Jamila is a little more plucky than I would expect for someone her age – but I’m not going to complain about that. Her new friendship was a little too neat though (it’s always the new kids that stick together, right?).

I think this novel does a good job of being both age suitable but also exploring greater problems. Jamila and her Mama are lucky that there are great refugee services near them and that Jamila’s school is happy to help out. There are many people that don’t have these opportunities, or like Jamila’s Baba, are trapped in their old, unsafe country. Hopefully some of that uncertainty comes through to readers.

This novel is going to be suitable for younger readers, perhaps ages 10 and up. I read this novel very quickly, but it will take younger readers longer. I’m giving it 4 stars.

Text Publishing | 7th May 2019 | AU $14.99 | paperback

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The Firefly Code
Megan Frazer Blakemore

Old Harmonie is a utopian community where almost all diseases have been cured, and children at the age of 13 are granted access to their special talent. But is everything as good as the children have been taught?

I didn’t always understand Mori’s motivations. I actually wondered at the beginning if her own parents or Ilana had somehow coerced her into taking Ilana into her secret place. Or can it be excused by the power of ‘beautiful people’ to get what they want? I find it so funny how Mori can think that Ilana must be a ‘natural’ because she looks perfect. Dude! Everyone knows that natural genetics for humans doesn’t always turn out well. If someone is a ‘natural’, it’s likely that they don’t look perfect – they will resemble their parents more than Ilana does hers. Also, she should also totally blame her parents for her eyeball problems.

Looking for a YA version of this novel? Read Breaking and Burning by Danielle Rollings. Or perhaps Because you’ll never meet me. Playing around with genetics is so dangerous. We don’t even always get it right with mice – and it’s scary to think that scientists in poorly regulated countries such as China are already performing human cloning and no doubt some serious genetic engineering. It’s the ethics that always makes things complicated. How far is too far?

This novel has real potential for introducing younger readers to important genetic concepts. I’d set it at maybe age 10 up, just because the ideas behind changing people’s very genetic makeup is a hard one to grasp. They may also struggle with the idea that adults don’t always tell the truth, and that adults don’t always know everything. Being able to read the words and being able to understand the concepts are two different things.

Oh dear. This novel has made me want to read Sapient or The Ego Cluster again (PS: I did just reread Sapient – so good!). If only I had a printed copy of The Ego Cluster! I’ve just gotten a fancy copy of my PhD bound, so maybe I could do the same for it… Better ask the author (and see if he has written any more fantastic novels yet). I’m giving this 4 stars. It gets off to a really slow start, but certainly ‘heats up’ towards the end. And it has a sequel coming. Sigh. Why always with sequels? At least it mostly concluded properly.

Bloomsbury | 1st December 2017 | AU$14.99 | paperback

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