Latest Review Copies From Allen And Unwin!

This morning, I stayed at home, after an exhausting night of tossing and turning and barely any sleep. Teaching is one job in which you just can't fake it. If you're too tired to teach properly the kids will notice. And it's no good either for them or you. 

So I stayed in bed for two hours more, made breakfast a bit later than usual and went outside my door to collect my box of fresh fruit, delivered fortnightly, to find an exciting-looking parcel on top of my fruit box. It contained two brand new books for reviewing. 

And here they are!

This is the sequel to Captain Jimmy Cook Discovers The Third Grade, which is on this year's CBCA long list. So far, the same over-the-top humour and cartoons, which is good, because young readers want more of the same. I haven't finished it and anyway, the embargo is the end of the month. This will go to my nephew's older boy, Eden, when I have finished with it. I gave him the first one and saw him reading it. Hopefully, he enjoyed it and will like the sequel.

And here's another sequel.

As you can see, it's Volume 2 of "Quest Of The Sunfish", a sequel to Escape To The Moon Islands, in which four children are having adventures on a boat in a world whose geography has been altered through climate change. 

I'd forgotten about it, to tell the truth. I have heard no promotions, and I get through so much children's and YA fiction in a year. This is definitely children's fiction, which will, all going well, be donated to the primary school down the road from my secondary school, which has a small but decent library. It's likely to be a good adventure story, if it's like the first one. In fact, the cover is oddly like the Famous Five novels, isn't it? Thank heaven there's no Julian!