Publications date: 6th December 2021

She obtained a degree in Creative and Professional Writing and studied numerous courses and books, applying everything she had learnt to her first book. It took a short six years and now Snotlings is ready to be shared with everyone.
Challenges Entered: Australian Women Writers Challenge AWW2021
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Photo credit: Goodreads |
As they walk the hallways, attend class and navigate the dreaded lunchroom, they experience all the messiness of middle school - the fragile friendships, the peer pressure, the fickle social hierarchy and the relationship drama. Issues at home and interactions at school influence how they relate to one another, their classmates and their teachers throughout the day.
The five pre-teens, Ashley, Kenisha, Ryan, Andrew and Taara, all have different backgrounds and family dynamics and through these characters Minery shows how upbringing and family circumstances can affect a child’s actions.
The school counsellor has an important role in this story and I liked the way the children stopped and thought about the lessons from the counsellor and how they could use these lessons in the situations they found themselves in.
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Credit: Pan Macmillan |
Max Crack and best friend Frankie Doink are back again with more quests, bigger and better than before.
Max starts a new journal/diary which runs from November to end of February. A four month period that includes the end of year school holidays which gives the boys plenty of time to complete new quests.
After seeing a shooting star and feeling a shudder like an earthquake the boys think it could have been a meteorite. Their first quest: find a meteorite.
At school their class will be involved in trying to break a world record. They will also be having a movie making competition.
I loved that the stories weren’t all about winning but working together and having fun.
The boys are eager to attend their first pop concert and find work mowing lawns for an elderly local resident who tells them of her falling out with her sister. Thus prompting their next quest: to reunite the sisters.
The boys take the ups and downs of life in their stride. Max eager for his own smart phone is happy to take his father’s hand-me-down and the rules that go with owning a phone.
We see the comparison of Frankie’s large rambunctious family to Max’s only child family. Both families are caring and interested in the boys activities.
As an adult I am keen for young children to read books with good role models and I think Max and Frankie have achieved this status. They have fun, are a little dorky, are respectful, don’t expect to be given the world, argue and make up, give everything their best effort and never complain.
I loved the second book in this series even more than the first.
There are blank pages at the end to write your own quest list, favourite movies, world records you want to set, places you wish to explore and also a few pages to try your own sketches.
My rating 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
He's also illustrated David Warner's 'Kaboom Kid' series Michael Pryor's 'Leo Da Vinci' series, Alex Ratt's 'Stinky Street Stories' and some of Dr Karl Kruszelnicki's science books.
When he's not illustrating books, Jules loves reading books and graphic novels, and collecting comics. he has served four, two-year terms as the president of the Australian cartoonists Association and is a member of the CBCA NSW Committee.
This review is part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie author challenge