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Into The White, Scott’s Antarctic Odyssey by Joanna Grochowicz and illustrated by Sarah Lippett

A first children’s book for Joanna Grochowicz and an amazing start to a career in writing.

The book is full of adventure from beginning to end. This is a journey into the unknown, into a world full of extremes and hardship. It is an amazing story of a team bound together with courage and endeavour.

If you’re into happy endings, best look some place else. This story does not end well. This is a story where men die and their dreams of greatness with them. But it is a fine story and one that is worth telling, from heroic beginning to tragic end.

This is the story of Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova expedition and the memorable characters, who with a band of shaggy ponies and savage dogs, followed a man they trusted into the unknown. Battling storms at sea, impenetrable pack ice, man-eating whales, crevasses, blizzards, bad food, extreme temperatures, and equal measures of hunger, agony and snow blindness, the team pushes on against all odds.

A thrilling story about leadership, resilience and facing adversity with courage, Into the White will leave you on the edge of your seat, hoping against hope that Scott and his men just might survive their Antarctic ordeal and live to tell the tale.

Joanna Grochowicz was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1972. Following a career as a business writer, Joanna decided to take the plunge and did a Masters in Creative Writing. Into the White is her first book.

“People fascinate me. I love oddballs and misfits, saints and creeps, the selfish, the needy, the dreary, the nerdy and the enormous tangle of real life characters you come across in life. History offers a boundless source of fascinating characters to reanimate. It can be a wonderful thing to rehabilitate a great story – like restoring a dilapidated castle and making it magnificent again.”

Sarah Lippett, the illustrator has created some classic drawings of the characters and the teams of ponies and dogs on the journey. For a book for 9-14 year olds, the sketches add hugely to the feel of the time period and of the difference in equipment between 1912 and 2017. The maps are wonderful and are a great help to plot the journey as you read through the book.

Into the White, is published by Allen and Unwin, Australia, who have created a wonderful paperback book of this epic journey.

It has just been released in the UK, on November 2^nd 2017 and is available to purchase in most good stores and on-line. (Link below…).

At Books Go Walkabout, we are delighted to be working with Joanna on her first visit to the UK from November 3rd 2017.

Sue Martin

Bookmonitor is our news source for reviews and project information.

Books go Walkabout is our international books and literacy project - connecting authors and illustrators with children and young people around the globe.

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Maralinga’s Long Shadow

Yvonne's Story — Yvonne’s Story – review or purchase this book from Amazon.co.uk here…

Maralinga’s Long Shadow is an incredible book, an amazing and daunting story. Written by Christobel Mattingley and published by Allen and Unwin, Australia.

In the vast outback of South Australia lived Yvonne, she was part of the Anangu people who had lived on that land for generation after generation.

‘They passed on this precious knowledge , sleeping under the stars through all cycles of the seasons.’

They knew this land and needed no maps, shops or anything other than that which the land would provide. And they were happy.

‘Then the walypala, (whitefellas) came, who did not know the land and they called it desert.

They brought sheep and other animals and started to build a railway.

They brought the need for other things that this land could not provide and they were greedy’.

In 1950, the United Aborigines Mission, had many women who now wore clothes and learnt the walypala’s ways. But one day they took one of their women away from the missions as she was to give birth to her new baby.

Yvonne was born, slightly paler skin than normal, but then her father was a walypala.

She went on to live through enormous change, tragedy and family sadness, with courage and, hope, giving strength to her people, leading them and giving grace.

In 1953, town atomic bombs were exploded at Emu Field, 320 kilometres from Maralinga. In 1956, when Yvonne was 6 years old, they exploded the first bomb of 15,000 tons, part of Operation Buffalo at Maralinga, followed by three further bombs.

And there was still more testing of atomic bombs.

But, strangely, life continued at the camps at Maralinga. The Anangu people were involved in working in the area, usually barefoot with no protective clothing for many years. The effect of this work directly on radio-active lands, and in the breathing of toxic air, meant that there were many deaths, many birth defects in babies and unbelievable suffering.

The book is a story of Yvonne, her life, her family and her ability to challenge and receive some support for her family and her peoples. It is a remarkable story and an insight into the life of an Australian indigenous people in the 1950’s.

The book is beautifully presented in a glossy finish. It is packed with wonderful photographs and artwork by Yvonne Edwards, of the families and the land of Maralinga.

It is a book to keep and treasure, and you can purchase on line too. We recommend for ages 10 and above, and it’s definitely a book for adults too.

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout

The Truth about Peacock Blue by Rosanne Hawke

The Truth About Peacock Blue cover image... — Buy this book from Amazon here…

An immensely powerful story of truth about todays hard world in the life of Peacock Blue, written by Rosanne Hawke and published by Allen and Unwin.

This is a powerful story about one girl’s fight for justice in Pakistan. Quietly getting on with life, Aster faces huge changes when her brother dies. Instead of finding a suitable husband, her parents decide that she will be educated, which to a western mind is a good idea.

But she attends a school for Muslim girls and is in the minority being a Christian. At her examinations a teacher who finds her difficult as a Christian accuses her of blaspheming. It was a simple spelling mistake with enormous consequences.

Aster is imprisoned, her family and the whole village have to move away and she faces the death sentence.

In Australia, there is an online petition which gathers amazing results, but will it really help?

I read to the end in absolute unbelief…. a must read book. Excellent blog by Paula Vince, worth reading.

We recommend for ages 10 and above and for adults too.

Sue Martin Books Go Walkabout and Dolphin Booksellers

The Unexpected Crocodile
by Kim Kane and Sara Acton

Peggy’s family is hosting a barbecue for their neighbours, the Dawsons. Peggy is not sure about the Dawson boys but she is delighted with the unexpected arrival of a crocodile.

What an unfortunate habit though of eating the guests!!

This book is brilliant, the story just leads you on into the world of a very polite but yet hungry crocodile. The illustrations are a real joy of the book, simply drawn yet captivating, especially the expressions.

Kim Kane has been short listed for many awards and now lives in Melbourne,Australia and this partnership with Sara Acton, is one to watch.

Sara lives near a beach in Sydney, just how awesome is that! From there she writes and draws in her studio for children’s books.

The Unexpected Crocodile is published by Allen and Unwin, and is part of their excellent portfolio of children’s books.

It can be purchased on line and if you buy through Dolphin Booksellers, we will donate 10% to Kalpana finding a home again in Nepal.

Sue Martin Dolphin Booksellers and Books Go Walkabout