Alexa Dretzke
Alexa Dretzke is a children’s & YA book specialist at Readings Hawthorn
Review — 26 Mar 2024
The Night War by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
This beautifully compassionate story set in the Second World War is written by the author of The War That Saved My Life and The War I Finally Won, two…
Review — 26 Feb 2024
Minka and Curdy: The Enchanting Story of a Writer and Her Cats by Antonia White
Antonia White first published this delightful children’s classic in 1957, and it is as appealing now as it was then. As a cat owner, she knows the ‘real’ owner is…
Review — 26 Feb 2024
11 Ruby Road: 1900 by Charlotte Barkla
The ‘olden days’ hasn’t featured often in Australian middle-grade fiction in the last few years.
Except for Jackie French’s recent books, the Our Australian Girl series, and Katrina Nannestad’s wonderful…
Review — 1 Feb 2024
A Friend for Dragon by Dav Pilkey
A Friend for Dragon is an illustrated junior-grade fiction tale that features a sweet, lonely dragon who is keen to find a friend. For one reason or another, the creatures…
Review — 23 Oct 2023
Kimmi: Queen of the Dingoes by Favel Parrett
Kimmi is a companion book to the moving Wandi, who was an Alpine dingo rescued as a pup when he fell from the sky (literally!). Kimmi opens like the…
Review — 25 Sep 2023
Kip of the Mountain by Emma Gourlay
This is a terrific story set in South Africa in 1985, when apartheid was still official policy. A young girl called Kip is living a life that excludes her participating…
Review — 25 Sep 2023
Light Over Liskeard by Louis de Bernières
If all the computers and machines in the world stopped due to a cyber attack, then in all probability humanity would dissolve into anarchy and at its bleakest would be…
Review — 1 Sep 2023
In My Garden by Kate Mayes & Tamsin Ainslie (illus.)
Starting with the lively endpapers, we join different children around the world in their gardens.
Mostly, these gardens comprise indigenous plants of their country, but sometimes it is the wildlife…
Review — 1 Sep 2023
We Know a Place by Maxine Beneba Clarke
Bookshops are magical places and each one has its own charm. They contain the dreams and mysteries of authors’ imaginations; the amazing facts of our world and animals. Maxine Beneba…
Review — 30 Jul 2023
The Concrete Garden by Bob Graham
Bob Graham’s latest picture book displays all the wonderful hallmarks of his children’s books: community, diversity, acceptance, and, best of all, there is always a dog! Set amidst an enormous…
