Sugarcane Kids
Charlie Archbold: The Sugarcane Kids and the Red-bottomed Boat (Text Publishing 2022) Andy lives in a small coastal town with his mother and her new husband in tropical Australia. His best friend Eli’s cousin Jacob is arrested for stealing jewelry, but the boys know he is innocent. With the help of their friends, the boys must find the culprits before Jacob’s trial begins. One of the pieces of the puzzle is a red-bottomed boat, which lies abandoned somewhere deep in the mangrove swamp. However, the way to get there is through the territory of Sebastian the legendary and gigantic crocodile. The main message of the story is the importance of friendship and the truth. The characters are nice and real. During the investigation, they do not perform neither fantastic nor incredible actions, but use their own strength to uncover the truth. I especially liked that the author depicted the landscapes…
Tomorrow’s End
Mark Shirrefs – John Thomson: The Girl from Tomorrow (Hodder & Stoughton 1990) Mark Shirrefs – John Thomson: Tomorrow’s End (Hodder & Stoughton 1991) „The future of the Earth is in all our hands.” These are the words of the Mother of the Reconstruction that every child must learn in the 31st century. In 2500, they don’t know exactly why, but the Great Disaster occurred and the northern hemisphere became uninhabitable. It was through great efforts that life was saved in the south. Since then, people have learned from their (countless) past mistakes. Now they live in peace with the nature, nothing can be heard except for the sound of birds and insects, there is no hum of engines – internal combustion engines had gone the way of the dinosaurs. That’s when they invent the first time machine, which they want to use to find out the causes of the…
Mysterious sea creatures
Ash Harrier: The Strange Sighting (Pantera Press 2024) The third volume of one of my favorite Australian series. Alice England lives with her father, who runs a funeral home. Her friends are also eccentric, in their own way: Violet is allergic to sunlight, and Cal is a really bad student. Alice has a special ability that allows her to contact the personal belongings of the recently deceased and get to know them better. Being a big fan of scientific facts, she definitely wants to find some logical explanation for this oddity. The trio has already managed to solve two mysteries together before and it looks like they are dealing with another strange case now. After a busy summer, the school year begins at Damocles Cove. Cal is visited by his cousin from Korea, who is thirsty for adventure. Meanwhile, a strange legend is coming to life in the seaside town.…
Cursed excavation
Ash Harrier: The Eerie Excavation (Pantera Press 2023) The second volume of one of my favorite Australian series. Alice England lives with her father, who runs a funeral home. Alice was teased because of this at school, but she still managed to make friends. Both Violet and Cal are eccentric, but in their own ways: Violet is allergic to sunlight and Cal is a really naughty student. Death is almost natural for Alice, because she lived her whole life among funerals, and her own twin was a stillborn. The girl somehow has a special relationship with the personal belongings of the deceased and helps her get to know them better. One of her favorite habits is to imagine what kind of coffin would suit a person. From these details alone, it is clear that this is an unusual and unique story. Alice persuades her friends to participate in an archaeological…
Is it easy to murder or not?
Agatha Christie: Murder Is Easy (first published in 1939) Carla Valentine: Murder Isn’t Easy (Sphere 2021) ‘It’s very easy to kill – so long as no one suspects you.’ This is what Miss Pinkerton, the lovely old lady, says to the surprised Luke Fitzwilliam on the train, when she is about to report a serial murder at Scotland Yard. The man did not think it is important until he saw the lady’s obituary in the next day’s newspaper. The old lady did not make it to Scotland Yard, she was killed in a car accident. The story won’t let the man rest, so he sets out to find the murderer himself. The novel was first published in 1939 and, like many of her other books, exemplifies Agatha Christie’s extensive knowledge in the field of forensic science. Carla Valentine fell in love with the author’s works as a child, and this…