‘Blue Bottle Mystery — an Asperger Adventure’ by Kathy Hoopman

This is a warm, fun-filled fan­ta­sy sto­ry for chil­dren with a dif­fer­ence: the hero is Ben, a boy with Asperg­er Syn­drome. When Ben and his friend Andy find an old bot­tle in the school yard, they lit­tle real­ize the sur­pris­es about to be unleashed in their lives. Bound up with this excit­ing mys­tery is the sto­ry of how Ben is diag­nosed with Asperg­er Syn­drome and how he and his fam­i­ly deal with the prob­lems and joys that come along.

Blue Bot­tle Mys­tery is a delight to read that is more than just anoth­er kid’s book. For the first time, the issues and frus­tra­tions that a child may have with Asperg­er Syn­drome are explored with­in a fic­tion­al for­mat espe­cial­ly for chil­dren. Its por­tray­al of Ben as the cen­tral char­ac­ter offers oth­er chil­dren with autis­tic spec­trum dis­or­ders and their peers a pos­i­tive role mod­el. It is a valu­able teach­ing tool that demys­ti­fies chil­dren with Asperg­er Syn­drome, jus­ti­fy­ing their indi­vid­u­al­i­ty as valid and interesting.

In Blue Bot­tle Mys­tery Kathy Hoop­mann has com­bined her love of chil­dren with her pas­sion for fan­ta­sy lit­er­a­ture to pro­duce a delight­ful read for any­one who loves an adven­ture and wants a unique insight into the mind of an Asperg­er child.

 

‘Do You Speak Chocolate’ by Cas Lester

A sto­ry of friend­ship, laugh­ter … and more than a lit­tle chocolate

‘Do you speak choco­late?’ Jaz has found the best way to make friends with new girl Nadi­ma, who does­n’t speak any Eng­lish — by offer­ing her a choco­late bar. Nadi­ma grins and offers back some Turk­ish Delight, the ice is bro­ken, and a spe­cial friend­ship begins …

Jaz is out­go­ing, rebel­lious, gump­tious and a lit­tle bit bol­shy — but it does­n’t stop her from find­ing it hard that she does­n’t have a best friend at school any more. Not since Lily went off with Kara … She’s not one to get down about things, though — and things start to look up when Nadi­ma comes into their class­room. Before long the girls are firm friends, even when Nadi­ma, recent­ly arrived from Syr­ia, can’t speak much Eng­lish. The path of true friend­ship does­n’t run smooth, though … Jaz, ever the entre­pre­neur, cooks up a plan to sell Turk­ish Delight at school, with dis­as­trous results. A dra­ma project with Nadi­ma about fam­i­ly his­to­ry proves impos­si­ble to man­age. And Char­i­ty Chal­lenge Week puts the icing on the cake as Jaz puts every foot wrong pos­si­ble. Can she find a way to put things right, and restore the won­der­ful and unique friend­ship that she has with Nadima?

In a sto­ry of friend­ship, fam­i­ly and entre­pre­neur­ial wiz­ardry, Cas Lester deft­ly nav­i­gates the tri­als and tribu­la­tions of girl­hood, and exam­ines with the light­est of touch­es and gen­tle humour the thorny and com­pelling issues of inte­gra­tion, belong­ing and identity.

 

‘Kick’ by Mitch Johnson

Budi’s plan is simple…

He’s going to be a star, instead of sweat­ing over each foot­ball boot he makes, each stitch he sews, each box he pack­ages. He’s going to play for the great­est team on earth, rather than in the square behind the fac­to­ry where he works.

But one unlucky kick brings Budi’s world crash­ing down, because now he owes the Drag­on, the most dan­ger­ous man in all Jakar­ta. Soon it isn’t only Budi’s dreams at stake, but his life.

A sto­ry about dream­ing big, about hope and heroes, and nev­er let­ting any­thing stand in your way…

 

 

 

 

‘The Black Lotus — The Samurai Wars’ by Kieran Fanning

Ghost, Cor­mac and Kate are junior recruits of the Black Lotus, a school for nin­jas – they are not like oth­er kids. Ghost can turn invis­i­ble, Cor­mac can run up walls and Kate can talk to ani­mals — all abil­i­ties which make them per­fect recruits for the Black Lotus, a train­ing school for ninjas.

But when the Moon Sword – a source of unimag­in­able pow­er – is stolen by samu­rai, the three must put their new skills to the test and bat­tle through six­teenth-cen­tu­ry Japan plus present-day New York to stop a pow­er-hun­gry shogun from destroy­ing the city.

 

 

 

 

 

‘Two Truths and a Lie’ by Ammi-Joan Paquette & Laurie Ann Thompson

‘Two Truths and a Lie’ is the first book in a fas­ci­nat­ing new series that presents some of the most crazy-but-true sto­ries about the liv­ing world as well as a hand­ful of sto­ries that are too crazy to be true – and asks read­ers to sep­a­rate facts from fakes!

Did you know that there is a fun­gus that can con­trol the mind of an ant and make it do its bid­ding? Would you believe there is such a thing as a corpse flower – a ten-foot-tall plant with a blos­som that smells like a zom­bie? How about a species of octo­pus that doesn’t live in water but rather lurks in trees in the Pacif­ic Northwest?

Every sto­ry in this book is strange and astound­ing. But not all of them are real. Just like the old game in this book’s title, two out of every three sto­ries are com­plete­ly true and one is an out­right lie. Can you guess which? It’s not going to be easy. Some false sto­ries are based on truth, and some of the true sto­ries are just plain unbe­liev­able. And they’re all accom­pa­nied by dozens of pho­tos, maps, and illus­tra­tions. Amaze your­self and trick your friends as you sort out the fakes from the facts!

 

‘What Elephants Know’ by Eric Dinerstein

Aban­doned in the jun­gle of the Nepalese Bor­der­lands, two-year-old Nan­du is found liv­ing under the pro­tec­tive watch of a pack of wild dogs. From his mys­te­ri­ous begin­nings, fate deliv­ers him to the King’s ele­phant sta­ble, where he is raised by unlike­ly par­ents-the wise head of the sta­ble, Sub­ba-sahib, and Devi Kali, a fierce and affec­tion­ate female elephant.

When the king’s gov­ern­ment threat­ens to close the sta­ble, Nan­du, now twelve, search­es for a way to save his fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty. A plan to rein­vent the ele­phant sta­ble could be the answer. But to suc­ceed, they’ll need a great tusker. Their future is in Nan­du’s hands as he sets out to find a bull ele­phant and bring him back to the Borderlands.

In sim­ple poet­ic prose, author Eric Din­er­stein brings to life Nepal’s breath-tak­ing jun­gle wildlife and rur­al cul­ture, as seen through the eyes of a young out­cast, strug­gling to find his place in the world.