Dim's Write Stuff

It's interesting the number of kids' stories I'm encountering of late addressing social issues surrounding AI and tech advancements. It's little wonder actualisation of this concerning reality is becoming more subject-worthy in kids' lit. Ask any older Gen Alpha or Gen Zer how they feel about the advent of these often-invasive AI platforms and you might be surprised by their response. Middle grade and young adult author, Emily Gale takes this premise and massages it into an action pumped adventure taking us into The Wild Unknown . Incredulously, some 11 or so years ago, I penned a virtual reality YA short story set in 2040. That date seemed eons away at the time but it's the exact decade Eddie and his mate Kit find themselves in The Wild Unknown;  2045 to be precise, but a skip and hiccup around the future corner! It's an interesting future, too. Sophisticated AI tech dominates human existence, dictating outcomes wherever possible, guiding humans who appare...

We're all guilty. Spurred by an impulse too intense to ignore. Rationale and logic shoved to the backseat in favour of letting impetuousness drive. Despite knowing better, validation for such behaviours is often reduced to a dismissive, all encompassing, we did it anyway, which is the haunting underlying premise of Carla Salmon's latest young teen novel, We Did It Anyway. Hot on the heels of our first encounter with the youths of the coastal Red Sands community, this racy adventure focuses on other erstwhile members of the friendship circle; Alex, Otto and Jasper. The spotlight doesn't just rest on the boys however with Luna and best mate, Milly, firmly lending narrative nouse and balance. Set on the rugged island of Talmar, the group gather to partake in an Easter holiday life-saving club training camp. Opinions oscillate wildly about this; the boys are all up for a bit of freedom. Luna is less convinced about the camping vibe but with the twins' dad there to supervi...

When an adult picks up a junior fiction chapter book and is transported back to a time when nothing else mattered but page turning until the end, you know you're on a winner. Why? Because for me, that time, when I was so utterly absorbed by books my surroundings, time and even food failed to penetrate my intense committment to story, was one of the most joyous in my life.  The Silver Series of chapter books aimed at youngsters between the ages of five to nine not only fuelled that transportation, it actually made me feel like one of those book-loving kids again; like I was nine. This cleverly curated ensemble of engaging stories for kids however is first and foremost that; for kids not a wannabe kid again! And it does so with carefully considered intelligence. So far, I've enjoyed the first three. All sport bright inviting covers, clear theme discriptions and ... joy of joys ... rounded edges! I'm not sure why I like that but feel sure kids with differing tactile sensitivi...

Charlie lives in a regional Australian town with a colourful past. Charlie also has synaesthesia. To describe her as supersensative is not quite right. She just senses things differently, intensely. Days of the weeks have colours. People have auras and sounds have scents.  She's accustomed to her unique ways of perceiving the world, it is after all all she has ever known. But when Japanese exchange student, Kenichi is relegated to her dead brother's bedroom for part of her new school term, Charlie's senses intensify to the point she begins to suffer flashbacks accompanied by violent and unpredictable visceral reactions.  Despite Charlie's determined stance to keep Kenichi, aka Ken, at arm's length (loving the Japanese culture is her mum's jam not hers), they soon come to realise they are inextricably linked not only to each other but to unravelling a puzzling mystery surrounding the infamous Cowra Breakout.  Sandy Fussell has a natural flow and rhythm to her st...

I'm a bit of a junior fiction fan, a genre I believe is almost as exacting as picture books to pen. They rely on just the right tempo, vocab choice and audience engagement with the added complexity of appealing to newly independent readers. The new Riz Chester series champions all these qualities. Here is my KBR review that appeared earlier this month. Riz is a 10-year-old primary schooler with a penchant for noticing the unnoticeable. She is reticent to share this phenomenon with others even her closest friends for fear of seeming odder than she already feels. Instead, Riz records her observations in her ‘Weird Stuff Log’ with enough detail and smattering of sass to make Miss Marple grin. And grin young readers will for Riz’s abilities are about to be stretched to the limit after she notices some faulty banknotes on a shopping expedition with her mum. Suspicions are raised. Police are engaged and for Riz, doubts set in. Has she done something wrong just because she has identified...

To throw the reader immediately into the action is a writing pre-requisite we authors often hear or try to adhere to. Doing so creates an immediacy that snags attention in the snap of just a few lines. Accomplished children’s writer of historical fiction, Pamela Rushby, achieves all this and more in each and every one of her novels. The Mud Puddlers is no exception. Oozing with atmosphere, animated characters and a fascinating glimpse into London’s not so distant history, this middle grade fiction beckons kids to believe in the possibility of time slipping. Twelve-year-old Nina is relegated to spend a year in London while her parents head to Antarctica on a research mission. Although she and Aunt Bee are close, Nina succumbs to a state of insubordinate gloom. Nothing Aunt Bee does or says can shake Nina out of her blue funk resentment at being left behind. Not even the adventure of living on her aunt’s converted barge on the river Thames is enough to enthuse. Nor the fact that her a...

Stressed Anxious Nervous Drunk Overtired Suffering from Tourette Syndrome? Answer: A Streamer No, not a party streamer, but a video gamer who regularly broadcasts live using the Twitch platform . And while this little black duck may be more inclined to dance around with streamers in her hair rather than pretend to understand the online world of live gamer streaming, she can now claim to have yet another SM platform that she barely comprehends! The good news is, she shares this new found space of interactive entertainment with the clever clogs at Story City and did so in hilarious fashion recently as part of their weekly Adventure Hour eps . Let me explain. Several moon dips and rises ago, I was part of an immersive, interactive storytelling project with Story City. The result was a WA Premier's Book Award shortlisted locative digital narrative cheekily entitled, The Chapel of Unlove . This immersive, choose your own styled, multi ending adventure is a slapstick, riotous romp throug...

Holidays are the best. Christmas is up there as one of my favs and to celebrate my chapter junior novel title: PS WHO STOLE SANTA'S MAIL? is featured on SCBWI's 2022 December Reading List. Pop over to their site to explore the huge range of other celebratory titles of the season. To keep the merry going, PS WHO STOLE SANTA'S MAIL? is flying high with Santa at the crazy price of just $10! Click on the contact link, here to order yours and mention the Code: ReadingList2022 Please note: Postage and packaging rates apply both within Australia and internationally. Postage times may vary. No guarantees for arrival prior to Christmas 2022. 

I read What We All Saw some months ago and what I can’t remember of the storyline is better ingrained in the intense feeling of creepy spinechilling awe that distilled to pure enjoyment. So much so, I want to re-read it and have recommended it as Book Club read. Mike Lucas is no stranger to books and curating stories however this, his first foray into YA, is astonishing. Swift moving narrative is gilt with historic horror, suspense-filled seesawing moments and just enough humour to keep the whole thing real. References for this tale involving four tweens embarking on a nightmarish summer of terror and its resemblances to The Body (Stand By M e) and IT are many but I honestly didn’t make these initial comparisons because Lucas’ writing is so assured and vivid, I was never not in the cul de sac or by Hags Drop with Sam and his mates. In fact, for me, there are more imbued elements of Yann Mantel’s, Life Of Pi in terms of surreal reality. There is no mistaking the premise of this ...

Nerdy swerving, mind-bending mysteries have always been lightbulbs for my moth-like curiosity, so action orientated whodunnits like this new Eddie Woo? series have serious appeal. Breakneck bewilderment and equally rapid problem solving provide plenty of page-turning moments for fans of adventurous lateral thinking. And you don’t even have to be a whizz at numbers to appreciate the analytical aspects of these storylines … thank goodness! Maths genius and revered Australian maths teacher (shortlisted as one of the top ten teachers in the world!), Eddie Woo co-authors each story injecting the snappy storylines with intriguing maths equations, dilemmas and revealing details for fans of facts and factoids. He is also the self-named main character of these junior novels. Accompanying school-aged Eddie are his two valued sidekicks, DT and Rusty – a super sleuthing prerequisite. These three share a love of mathematical conundrums as well as a deep passion for their seaside suburb of Red H...

Of the many literary lures to entice kids to page turn into the wee hours of the night, the thrill of a mystery is one of the strongest. Give them great characters with plenty of purpose and pacy plotlines that they can adventure with more than once and well, you might not see said kids for weeks or months. My 34 copies of the Trixie Beldon mystery series are testimony to the power of a good series and Nicki Greenberg’s latest middle grade literary escapades harness that power in the most appealing way. Meshing the past with adventure, Greenberg takes primary readers on an exhilarating tour from London, across the Atlantic and through one of America’s most bedazzling cities. Mystery and a slapdash of mayhem are never too far away. The cast of tween teen characters is led by robustly intelligent 13-year-old Pepper Stark whose heart tugging family backstory is neatly woven through each book. The extravagances in Pepper’s life are extreme and jaw dropping yet she exudes a down-to-eart...

Samantha Wheeler’s philosophy that ‘Everyone can make a difference’ not only appears in all of her eco-themed middle grade novels, it inspires youngsters to strive determinedly and dream big. Devils in Danger embodies this notion in forest-fulls namely, Tasmanian forests. Grader sixer, Killarney is not a lover of school. She believes learning is best left to those without ambitions of becoming an ace hairdresser, like she has. Using her talented hair-styling mother as a role model, Killarney struggles to involve herself in studies, preferring the robust life of walking the neighbour’s dog around her Tasmanian hometown when not performing barista duties for her mother’s clients. When the horrific screaming and yelping begins, Killarney’s family are thrown into confusion. Could a murderer be on the loose in their sleepy township? Why would a murderer steal towels and scarves? Killarney soon discovers the cause of the hellish night noises and mysterious going-ons with the help of a v...

Twelve-year-old Matthew Corbin is your regular pre-teen boy living in an unspectacular cul-de-sac deep in British suburbia. The major difference between him and the other inhabitants of Chestnut Close however is the state of his red-raw hands and tortured mind and the fact that he barely steps outside his terraced-home second story bedroom. Matthew is afflicted with severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, OCD and can barely function as a result. From his fishbowl vantage point, Matthew keeps track of his neighbours, dutifully recording their every movement, their comings and goings, and their habitual rituals in his notebooks. In this way we are introduced to the residents and their characteristic irks and quirks from the get go in a way that is both intriguing and comical. Matthew’s observations allude to his condition; he is both analytical and detailed in his approach. The orderliness of his notations suggest a mind used to repetition and accuracy, an intense desire to ‘get things r...

Anyone who knows me well knows I harbour a deep fondness for feathered things. Chooks, ducks, quails, budgies, galahs, turkeys and even rosellas have all graced my childhood at some point or another. And don’t even get me started about the pigeons! That’s a whole other story, right, Pippa ?! So it’s little wonder these next few books enthralled from the get go. They all incorporate avian expression and characteristics in some way that contributes a sky-full of heart and soul to these stories. Take off with them soon! Twitch Twitch is a young lad residing in the English countryside surrounded by broads teaming with birdlife. Like me as a child, he prefers the company of winged creatures to the two-legged ones who frequently ridicule and bully him. His reticent and reclusive ways belie his quick wit and sharp intelligence. He despises school but takes infinite pleasure in his own company. He homes a family of pigeons on a rooftop loft and communes daily with his cackleberry-laying girl...

The Grandest Bookshop in the World It’s something I’ve always wanted to do – live in a bookshop and be surrounded by the magic of words and other spellbinding things, like cake. Siblings Pearl and Vally Cole are living that dream. But it’s not just any old bookshop; it’s the Cole’s Book Arcade in Melbourne. Their fantastical story germinates from their father’s own stirring rags to riches tale and meanders closely to the actual chronological time line of the eccentric Edward Cole, founder of Coles Book Arcade in the late 1800s. The key thing to remember be you staff, family member or patron of the Arcade is that buying a book is secondary to enjoying your visitation. Customers are encouraged to relax, read, dine on tantalising fare, wander through the exotic gardens harbouring monkeys, or perhaps select a curious toy for a well-behaved youngster. These fascinations really did exist and in the Cole children’s thrilling tale form the critical backdrops to their chilling (fictional) a...

They say large overwhelming tasks are best tackled in small meaningful mouthfuls. I say this approach should also be applied in generous dollops to all things Christmas. From menu planning and execution to home decoration, from salutation spreading to the all-important gift selection, my recommendation is to go in well-armed with list-making materials and a calm uncluttered mind, perhaps accepting the odd recommendation or two to help the selection process. Throughout the month of December until Christmas Day, I will endeavour to deliver a new, tantalising and truncated sample of some highly recommended Christmas stocking stuffers – a la kids’ book style. And fret not if they don’t make it under the tree in time…these are gift ideas that can be shared any time of the year in my book. Nine Open Arms As the translator of this Dutch novel explains, Nine Open Arms is indeed a story built like a jigsaw and told in stages . Like a jigsaw puzzle one is compelled to move around from s...