Monthly Archives: November 2018

Bone Talk

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Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay

Book of the Week: 25 November 2018

Illustration by Kerby Rosanes

The Costa Book Awards were announced last Thursday and Bone Talk was one of the four shortlisted books for the Children’s Book Award:

2018 Costa Children’s Book Award shortlist

David Almond for The Colour of the Sun (Hodder Children’s Books)

Candy Gourlay for Bone Talk (David Fickling Books)

Matt Killeen for Orphan Monster Spy (Usborne)

Hilary McKay for The Skylarks’ War (Macmillan Children’s Books)

It is set in the Philippines at the end of the nineteenth century, when the Americans were invading that country, and told from the point of view of Samkad who is looking forward to becoming a man of his tribe, much to the disgust of his female friend Luki who thinks herself just as capable, but who is limited to ‘women’s work’. Samkad’s sense of resentment when his initiation ceremony is delayed fades into the background slightly when he discovers a brother he didn’t know existed and meets outsiders who bring weapons of destruction.

The original setting and the quality of the writing make this a memorable read. If you would like to know about the author’s inspiration for writing the book, here she is talking about it.

The Chaos of Now

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The Chaos of Now by Erin Lange

Book of the Week: 18 November 2018

Cover design by Faber. Illustration @Shutterstock

A return to fiction this week, but still concerning the online world. The Chaos of Now is about coding, friendship, families and online bullying.

When a student at Haver High School resorts to suicide in a shocking way it affects the lives of everyone in the community. Much to the annoyance of keen coders Eli and Zach, surveillance and internet regulations are ramped up as a result of Jordan’s death which was partly a result of online bullying. Eli’s dad reckons he spends far too much time on his computer anyway and should be trying to build a relationship with his girlfriend Misty who has come to live with them. Eli has other ideas. He misses his mum, who died some years ago, and wants to work for a big company like Google rather than going to university.

One day, someone leaves a message in binary code on the mirror in the school toilets which leads hims to the basement of a house in a nearby neighbourhood. Seth, an older student, and Mouse, a nervy boy who he only knows slightly, want him to help enter a national coding competition and created a website that will take revenge on all those who drove their friend Jordan to take his own life in such a horribly public way. Eli is tempted but wary of breaking the rules. Can he trust Seth and Mouse or should he listen to his long-time friend Zach and get out while he still can?

Due to strong language throughout and some challenging issues, this may be more suitable for older readers.

Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

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Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier

Book of the Week: 11 November 2018

Cover photograph: Getty Images

This week we have a factual book with an intriguing title. Jaron Lanier is employed by Microsoft and worked in the field of virtual reality in the 1980s, so has the knowledge and authority to write about the digital world. Whilst not being against use of the internet, he believes that companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter have created huge problems that they are only recently starting to acknowledge and attempting to solve. What worries him most is that tech companies have created a culture of surveillance and manipulation that we are willingly participating in. His arguments assert, amongst other things, that social media is undermining truth, destroying your capacity for empathy, making politics impossible and making you unhappier. Many of us will be familiar with these ideas (often, ironically, from using social media sites) and there are books that explore the subject in greater depth, but if you want a short and snappy summary then this provides an outline and an introduction.

Jaron Lanier claims to have no social media accounts but will his book make you want to delete yours?

No Fixed Address

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No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen

Book of the Week: 4 November 2018

Cover design by Kate McKendrick Grove

Many years ago, I had a few days camping with friends. The tent was cramped, it was pitched on a slight slope so everything kept rolling to one side and there was a long walk to the shower block. This only lasted a day or two. Imagine having to live somewhere so impermanent with no bathroom, hardly any room to prepare food, very little space to store your belongings and nowhere to hang out with your friends. This is the life of Felix Knutsson and his mum, Astrid, who are reduced to living in a Volkswagen Westfalia Camper van which they move around Vancouver plugging into power sources outside empty houses, using bathrooms in coffee shops and cooking tinned goods on a tiny stove. Felix can’t tell anyone how he lives in case he gets put into care and Astrid is always hopeful that she will find a permanent job and be able to provide a home for them both, yet the situation drags on for months.

If all this sounds grim, note that this is a book by Susin Neilsen so there will always be humour and understanding and likeable characters. Felix has advanced Powers of Observation (or P.O.O. as he calls it) and a huge store of general knowledge which he intends using to find a better life for his mum and himself. With support from his best friend Dylan and a ultra-organised girl called Winnie Wu, whose mission seems to be to get Felix and Dylan to join her in creating a hard-hitting school newspaper, he enters a televised general knowledge quiz with a huge prize. Will he be able to overcome all the obstacles to change his life for the better, or is the fact of no fixed address too huge a problem? The author manages to make a serious subject into a sympathetic and light-hearted read that never glosses over the real problems of homelessness.