I could tell by the cover that Backyard was going to be a gorgeous book, so I was delighted when Walker Books sent us a copy for review.


This one is an exploration of the sorts of things you might find in a backyard at dusk. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful, and the words are lyrical and read like poetry (but not in the rhyming poetry way of many kids' books) - with text like "one last-light dragonfly making infinite swooping eights" this one was also a great vocab builder for my mini-bookworm.


I feel like the joy of this book is in how lovely the words sound read-aloud, and how gorgeous the illustrations are, so I don't think it really has a minimum age for children to enjoy it. The gentle and peaceful tone of this book, along with the night time setting, and appearance of the moon at the end, make Backyard perfect for a bedtime story.

xo Bron

***Backyard***
Available now
Source: Sent to me by Walker Books
Ages: 0+
Themes: Nature

This weekend just gone was four weeks until the Canberra Writers Festival, and I've been pulling together a pre-festival reading stack. I'm always a bit torn before festivals and other events, about whether I want to read ahead of the event, or wait until I have heard the author speak, which gets me excited about the book, and read it with the extra info from the author in mind. So, for the CWF I've pulled together a couple of titles I thought sounded interesting, and maybe I'll pick up a few more after the event. Here's what I have (so far!).


We See the Stars - Kate van Hooft
This is (I think) the only YA event at the CWF. It looks excellent and I'm looking forward to reading it!

Every Lie I've Ever Told - Rosie Waterland
I'm a little bit embarrassed to admit I don't really know very much about Rosie Waterland at all, but some of friends were really keen on her event at the festival and her memoir looks really interesting. Also, this will count toward my Read Harder Challenge, for the prompt about a celebrity memoir.

Mullumbimby - Melissa Lucashenko
Melissa Lucashenko is going to be a part of the panel discussion at the event An Evening with First Nations Australians - this is one session that I'm sure will inspire me to pick up more books after the event.

Room on Our Rock and Are You My Bottom - Kate and Jol Temple
We've already read these two a bunch of times (I wrote a bit about them both in my post on Living Arts Canberra) and I think this event is going to be super fun!


These guys are all going on my August TBR - pop back next weekend when I will (hopefully!) have pulled together my August TBR stack!

xo Bron

One of my favourite picture books this year has been Some Girls by Nelly Thomas and illustrated by Sarah Dunk - this was one of the kids' books that made it into the book stack I talked about in my first post on the Living Arts Canberra website. I think I first saw this one on Instagram, and as soon as I saw the cover I fell in love with it and knew we had to have it!

I actually think this is pretty close to the perfect picture book. The text in this one is fantastic - it is all about how all girls can be whatever they want, look however they want, wear whatever they want, like all kinds of things, be gross sometimes, be mad sometimes, and all girls are really good at something. I love love love it!



Along with the amazing message, I absolutely adore the illustrations. It is so important to me that when we read picture books the characters in them don't all look like us. You can see just from the cover Some Girls features girls from diverse backgrounds, as well as including girls with disabilities. This books has given us some great opportunities to talk about how people are different, but how really we are also the same.

My daughter is at pre-school this year, so I feel like she is right in that age group where the kids are talking a lot about gender stereotypes - this is only for girls, or only boys can do that - so this one has been great for us to do some busting of those sorts of comments. We'll definitely be getting a copy of the follow up book Some Boys, which is out now! Go out and get them, people!

xo Bron

*** Some Girls***
 Available now
Source: I rushed out and bought a copy after seeing the cover on Instagram and falling in love!
Age: 3+
Themes: Gender stereotypes, identity
Find Nelly Thomas and Sarah Dunk at Some Kids Books here

Hello!
Here we are over halfway through the year, so I thought it was a good time to check in with how I'm doing with the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge! 

First, a little reminder of what the challenge is about. The Read Harder Challenge is an annual reading challenge hosted by Book Riot. The challenge encourages participants to do exactly what it says - read harder - by reading books to meet each of 24 different tasks, with a particular emphasis on increasing the diversity of books read, and reading outside one's comfort zone. (You can read more about it on the Book Riot website here).


You can see this year's prompts below - I've put the ones I've done already in bold font, and the ones still on my list are in italics. There is more info about the books I've read for each of the prompts over on my Read Harder page here.

1. A book published posthumously
2. A book of true crime
3. A classic of genre fiction (i.e. mystery, sci fi/fantasy, romance)
4. A comic written and drawn by the same person
5. A book set in or about one of the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, or South Africa)
6. A book about nature
7. A western
8. A comic written or drawn by a person of color
9. A book of colonial or postcolonial literature
10. A romance novel by or about a person of color
11. A children’s classic published before 1980
12. A celebrity memoir
13. An Oprah Book Club selection
14. A book of social science
15. A one-sitting book  
16. The first book in a new-to-you YA or middle grade series
17. A sci fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author
18. A comic that isn’t published by Marvel, DC, or Image
19. A book of genre fiction in translation
20. A book with a cover you hate
21. A mystery by a person of color or LGBTQ+ author
22. An essay anthology
23. A book with a female protagonist over the age of 60
24. An assigned book you hated (or never finished)

If I've managed to count correctly, I've completed 11 of the challenges and have 13 left to go.

The easiest challenge for me so far has probably been number 16 - the first book in a new YA/middle-grade series. I have read at least 5 books that fit into this category already!

The most difficult one that I have managed to tick already off was number 20 - a book with a cover you hate. I chose Red Clocks for this one, but to be honest, the cover really grew on me as I read it!

I have some idea of what I think I'll read for some of the remaining prompts - I think Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia will count as the essay anthology, and Fremantle Press very kindly sent me a copy of The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt, which will be my book with a female protagonist over the age of 60.

The two challenges that I am most unsure about are 2 - a book of true crime (I am such a wimp!) and number 7 - a western (although maybe this has more to do with not being entirely sure what comes under that genre). Any suggestions welcome for both of these ones!

I'd love to know how everyone else is doing!

I have some book stack news to share today! While I'll still be sharing regular stacks here, each month I'm also going to be posting about some of my favourite books over on the Living Arts Canberra website!
 
Living Arts Canberra is a new Canberra-based, not for profit arts media company, and I was thrilled to be asked to contribute to their website with a monthly blog. On my Bron's Book Stack posts I'll be sharing my favourite adult fiction, YA, and picture books from the month.

You can find my first post, featuring the lovely books pictured in the stack above, over on the Living Arts Canberra website now. If you do pop over to read it, I'd love if you came back and left a comment here to let me know what you thought!

xo Bron