Catherine Ann Cullen

Welcome to Bugville by Paul Howard
Paul Howard is best known as the illustrator of books such as The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson. Welcome to Bugville is his…
Posted 23/04/2013 in Reviews

Meet the Weirds by Kaye Umansky
When my seven-year-old devours a trilogy over an hour or so, I know I'm on to a good thing. We've been here before with writer Kaye Umansky,…
Posted 15/04/2013 in Reviews

Unleashed: A Life and Death Job by Ali Sparkes
 

Fans of Ali Sparkes's best-selling Shapeshifter saga will enjoy her new five-book series. Each book features one character, A Life and…
Posted 24/05/2012 in Reviews

The Girl Savage by Katherine Rundell
 

Wilhelmina Silver – mostly Will – lives on a farm in Zimbabwe. In her sunny, all-male world, she rides with the horse boys, keeps a monkey…
Posted 18/08/2011 in Reviews

Olivia Goes to Venice by Ian Falconer
The peppiest pig of them all goes the whole hog as usual, this time on a family trip to Venice. Only Olivia could love airport security, even…
Posted 16/06/2011 in Reviews

Lunatics and Luck by Marcus Sedgwick
Your third chance to read the annals of the Otherland family, as told by their guardian, a raven called Raven. And caw blimey, this raven…
Posted 1/12/2010 in Reviews

Judy Moody’s Way Wacky Uber Awesome Book of More Fun Stuff to Do by Megan McDonald
Admirers of Judy Moody will know the character is curious and creative, with interests ranging from yoga to advanced mathematics to…
Posted 1/09/2010 in Reviews

The Sticky Doll Trap by Jessica Souhami
Souhami takes the story we know as ‘Brer Rabbit and the Tar-Baby’ back to its gum-tree roots in the jungles of West Africa in this tale about…
Posted 1/09/2010 in Reviews

Oi, Caveboy! by Alan Macdonald
Scrawny Stone Age boy Iggy is the nephew of the Urk Chief. But Iggy is more interested in inventing the wheel than in being an invincible…
Posted 1/09/2010 in Reviews

The Story of the Rabbit Children by Sibylle von Offers
Writer and illustrator Sibylle von Olfers is often compared to Kate Greenaway. Both women’s lives straddled the 19th and 20th centuries, and…
Posted 1/06/2010 in Reviews

The Yetis Hunt for Sir Quinton! by Kaye Umansky
Told in the indignant tones of the explorer Sir Quinton Quest himself, this is a follow-up to Sir Quinton Quest Hunts the Yeti. The book opens…
Posted 1/04/2010 in Reviews

The Santa Trap by Jonathan Emmett
The prolific Jonathan Emmett comes up trumps with this plum of a Christmas story. Not since Ebenezer Scrooge have we met such a…
Posted 1/12/2009 in Reviews

Kave-Tina Rox by Jill Marshall
‘I’m Kave-Tina Rox with scrunchies in my bunches. And I throw them over my shoulder. On my boulder eating Crunchees.’

So opens the tale of…
Posted 1/09/2009 in Reviews

Donkey’s Busy Day by Natalie Russell
Donkey is left in charge of the farm for a day and has to persuade the lazy animals to help with a plethora of chores. Everyone has an excuse…
Posted 1/06/2009 in Reviews

Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett
Monkey and me
Monkey and me 
Monkey and me
We went to see
We went to see some 
Elephants!

At first glance this story seemed just a…
Posted 1/12/2007 in Reviews

Eliza and the Moonchild by Emma Chichester Clark
Emma Chichester Clark is a wonderful illustrator and a successful writer too, but in this book I think her writing takes a poor second place…
Posted 1/12/2007 in Reviews

Tell Me Something Happy Before I Go to Sleep by Joyce dunbar
A bedtime story that suggests getting out of bed, first to peer underneath it, next to look around the room and finally to go downstairs and…
Posted 1/09/2007 in Reviews

Butterfly, Butterfly by Petr Horácek
‘One day Lucy found a beautiful butterfly. She played with it and chased it all around the garden.’ The next day Lucy can’t find the…
Posted 1/09/2007 in Reviews