Pocket Observology: A Field Guide

                                                                                                     

Pocket Observology: A Field Guide
Giselle Clarkson (text and ill.)
Gecko Press (2026)
Information
96 pages, Paperback
ISBN 979 8348 042 42 4

 

‘Any scrappy patch of weeds has a hundred things just waiting for your eyeballs.’

 

Giselle Clarkson was already celebrated for her witty illustrations and searching comic-strip analysis of children’s classics on The Sapling website, not to mention winning a shelf of awards before the publication of her light-hearted nature guides: Omnibird: An Avian Investigator’s Handbook (2025) and The Observologist (2023) gave her an international reputation for making wildlife studies both amusing and enjoyable.

 

Pocket Observology: A Field Guide (2026) is a good size for parka pockets (171mm x 222mm) and has a weather-resistant cover.

In fact, the fold-out cover is so impressive that it deserves its own review. The swing-out fold on the front cover shows both sides of a large leaf. From the front, the reader sees only an odd yellow patch, some insect droppings and a few nibbled holes. Flip it over and the back of the leaf makes all become clear. A suspicious silhouette is a stink bug resting near a clutch of its tiny eggs. Aphids are sucking the leaf and turning it yellow. A ladybird is eating the aphids. An ant is harvesting the ‘sugary aphid poop,’ while a snail is sheltering from the sun.  And so, a new generation of junior Sherlock Holmes of the natural world has been created by Giselle Clarkson.

 The rest of the front cover holds a handy measurement guide, for young observologists, showing the outlines of some helpfully-sized everyday objects such as a green pea, an almond, a hen egg, a matchbox and a ballpoint pen. The ‘ostrich’s brain’ seems tiny but accurate. The carefully-labelled ‘grain of sand’ may be there somewhere but I can hear Giselle Clarkson laughing.

Over on the back cover, there’s a real fold-out ruler for measuring critters, with a 200 mm worm neatly stretched out alongside it. There’s also a race-track for snails, complete with sensible guidelines for racing.

The book itself is every bit as good as its cover.   In clear simple language, it tells us how to look more closely at the natural world around us and how to understand what we see. Observology, for example, is defined as ‘the study of looking’.

  The Contents List and the sections are colour-coded, so it is easy to leaf through to the exact topic you need. The invertebrates (insects, worms, spiders) have blue-edged pages while birds have orange, and plants and fungi are green. (Design is by the ever-reliable Vida Kelly.)

 

My favourite section (red margins) is the amazingly practical ‘How to …’ pages which cover things young people often want to do. If you wish to aid an exhausted bee, rescue a worm, pick up a hen, relocate a spider or help a bird to get out of the house, you are given step-by-step practical advice and amusing diagrams. The best tip is how to encourage a fledgling bird to leave a dangerous spot. ‘Don’t pick it up, just slowly walk towards it and encourage it to hop away.’ The illustration shows how to creep calmly and slowly, with arms stretched wide to herd it in the right direction. The accompanying portrait of a wide-eyed fledgling is a gem, worthy of Durer.

 Giselle Clarkson writes well and wittily. Her explanations are always clear, brief and to the point. She gives young readers guidance on the many signposts to look for as they enter the world of insects, plants and birds. These pointers include leaves, webs, beaks, flowers, footprints, feathers, seeds, shed skins, vomit pellets, droppings, and even sticks and stones. Each is shown to tell its own story and take its place in the nature of things. Also included are creatures to listen for, and these are not just bird calls. Who knew that ‘an unhappy, disturbed snail will squeak and start frothing’? There’s even a page of diagrams showing Worm Body Language.

 Giselle Clarkson’s colour illustrations are both accurate and exuberant. In particular, the full-page, annotated pictures of such critters as the worm, the centipede, the ant and the wasp are a visual delight and an invitation to learn more. The same applies to her excellent mushroom diagram.

 You can tell that Giselle Clarkson loves invertebrates. Who else would describe a worm’s colour as a ‘lovely, pretty shade of pink, like a rose or an iced bun’?

 Handy pages show how to distinguish between wasps and bees, millipedes and centipedes, crickets and grasshoppers, or slugs and snails. Lively flow charts enable readers to make connections and encounter more Clarkson humour. They also learn to identify insects by noting their legs, antennae and even their eggs. (Snails and slugs lay ‘translucent little pearls’ while earwigs produce eggs that are ‘pearly but ovoid, not spherical’.)

 This book is not all about cockroaches and spiders, however. There are equally large sections on birds and plants. Also, some good bits on mosses, lichens, mushrooms and even sticks and stones. No wonder the title page shows a small child bent over, with their nose very close to the ground.

 

The most intriguing picture shows a child seated on the ground and waving at the world around them, shouting, ‘An abundance of curiosities!’ Or, as the author sweetly points out, there is almost certainly an invertebrate in the room with you now. Better keep the book handy.

 

Trevor Agnew
4 Sep 2026  [Review 3861.]

  

 

The Pizza Shape Book   
Adam Thompson  Ill. Erica Harrison 

The Pizza Shape Book
Mog and Morris series
Adam Thompson
Ill. Erica Harrison
Messy Press (2026)
Hardback, 32 pages
AUS $24  NZ $28
ISBN 978-1-0670985-2-0 

Messy Press caught public attention in 2026 when it won the Bologna Children’s Book Fair award as Oceania’s ‘Best Children’s Publisher of the Year.’ With its use of cheerful storytelling, eye-catching illustrations and an amusing introduction to basic concepts, The Pizza Shape Book is a good example of why they won the award.

 More specifically, the Pizza Shape Book uses Mog (a cat) and Morris (a dog), as well as a touch of humour, to introduce the subject of shapes. The result is an amusing picture book, which also provides a stealthy introduction to basic shapes.

Mog has been sitting in her armchair, musing on shapes. ‘The world is full of shapes,’ she declares, ‘Big ones. Small ones. Funny ones.’ In the steam from Mog’s cocoa, visions of bananas, socks, hungry caterpillars, doughnuts and mushrooms whirl. All shapes.  (Hungry caterpillars, it turns out, are a series of overlapping circles.)

Morris has a dogged determination to find out what she’s talking about.   

‘But what is a shape, Mog?’

‘Let me explain, Morris,’ says didactic Mog.

 She introduces Morris to a world of shapes, pointing out squares, triangles, circles and rectangles. Everything in their house has a shape. ‘Bricks are rectangles,’ catsplains Mog, ‘A roof is a triangle. Triangles. They have three sides. This lamp is a triangle.’

‘Like your ears, Mog!’ says Morris.

 Those reading this book aloud will have to produce sound effects as they read Morris’s realisation of what the full moon’s shape is: ‘The moon is a big circle. Like a … ding dong … pizza!’

The ding dong is being made by a delivery-dog. A pizza delivery-dog.  

Before long, Morris has realised that a pizza box is a square with a circle inside, ‘Circles smell good.’

As they eat, Mog and Morris find that pizzas can also display the features of a semicircle and a triangle.

‘One slice is a triangle.’

Morris, of course, has trouble identifying the shape of the pizza topping

‘A ham shape?’

Mog puts him right, ‘It has four sides. Two short and two long. It’s a rectangle.’

‘Shapes taste delicious.’

With Adam Thompson’s lively, witty dialogue, and Erica Harrison’s charmingly stylised colour illustrations, The Pizza Shape Book is a picture book that will be read again and again. Fortunately, it is a sturdy hardback which will survive in the busiest libraries and classrooms, as well as in the wear and tear of bedtime storytelling.

A pictorial Glossary of shapes is included.

Who can resist a book which offers ‘circles, squares, triangles and pizza?’

 

Trevor Agnew

4 Sep 2026  [Review 3860.]

 

Dad Needs a NEW BUM!  
Dawn McMillan Ill. Ross Kinnaird

                                                                                                 

Dad Needs a NEW BUM! 
Dawn McMillan
Ill. Ross Kinnaird
Oratia Books (2026)
Picture book
32 pages, Paperback
ISBN 978 1 991353 04 7

 

‘Poor Dad’s face is red. He’s shaking his head.
And I know I have to help.’

 

This picture book is a sequel to such familiar volumes as I Need a New Bum! (2012), I’ve Broken My Bum! (2019), My Bum is So Noisy! (2021), My Bum is So Cheeky! (2022), My Bum is So Chrismassy! (2022), My Bum is So Spooky (2023), My Bum’s on the Run! (2023), My Dad’s Runaway Bum! (2024) and Santa Needs a new Bum! (2025). In other words, welcome to the world’s longest-running fart joke.

 

Dawn McMillan writes witty verses, and Ross Kinnaird creates witty illustrations. They have worked hard to achieve their international success. Amazingly, they have also managed to deliver an amusing surprise ending to this thirteenth volume.  Pun-lovers will have spotted that is published just  in time for Farters’ Day. [Meanwhile a Texas court has ruled that librarians have to reinstate the McMillan-Kinnaird titles, previously removed after objections to the term New Butt used in the USA versions. No problems in Australia or the UK with the New Bum titles.]

 

Dad needs a New Bum! begins with the usual suspects. For once, the ‘boy in red pants’ is not in trouble. Instead, he is virtuously pointing the finger at his Dad, while Sister sulks, Mum frowns, Grandpa holds his nose and the dog rolls his eyes. Seated in his armchair, Dad is surrounded by noxious fumes (depicted as an acid-green fog).

‘And everybody says, “Oooh, Dad, that has to be you!”
But Dad says, “No! Not me! Not True!’

 

Bright colours and simple shapes are Ross Kinnaird’s pictorial hallmark and his illustrations are a riot of movement and colour, perfectly matched to Dawn McMillan’s verse storytelling. I have often mentioned the way the boy’s dog manages to pop up in every picture but in this story the nasty green miasma also appears in every picture. 

 

Does Dad really need a new bum? The mystery smell problem only worsens as members of the extended family arrive. Grandma tries bringing roses, without success. Aunty and the ‘boy in red pants’ go for a (very funny) hi-tech solution which fails to solve anything. Perfumes and diets don’t help. Then, just as the cousins arrive, the ‘boy in red pants’ spots something which the reader should have noticed right from the first picture. The cause of the pong is identified and a much-higher-tech solution to the smelly problem is produced.

‘And poor Dad’s had the blame!’

 

The cheerful conclusion sees order restored, Dad vindicated and the home environment protected. A perfect ending for the series, perhaps? Not at all. A new volume can be looked for in 2027

 

Trevor Agnew

25 July 2026  [Review 3855.]

 

Royalslinger   Graci Kim

Royalslinger 
Graci Kim 
Penguin (2026) 
Novel 275 pages 
Paperback 
ISBN 978 1 77695 345 5 ‘

Aria knew she sounded desperate, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t want to be stuck inside a library reading scrolls when her mother was out there plotting world domination.’ 

Graci Kim really knows how to get a story rolling.

  Royalslinger is the sequel to Dreamslinger (2025) where Aria Loveridge gained entrance to the Royal League of Dreamslingers and become a citizen of the enchanted Kingdom of Hanguk, which is nestled on an island within the city of Seoul. 

As Aria starts her second year of training to become a fully-fledged Fellow, the Kingdom and its dreamslingers face a major crisis. A rival faction of dreamers – the freedomslingers – have stolen a powerful relic, the Bleeding Bloom, which can kill anything it touches. The rebels, who plan to destroy the Kingdom and take control of the world, are led by Ko Iseul, who is Aria’s estranged mother! 

 Graci Kim does a brilliant job of reintroducing all the characters from Dreamslinger in Chapter 1 as they gather to view the first sunrise of the New Year, then unleashes the lively action in the pages which follow. Aria and the other novices are ordered to research the threat posed by the Bloom, while the qualified Fellows ‘enact an in-person retrieval strategy.’ [Who would guess that Graci Kim spent a decade as a New Zealand diplomat?] 

 Naturally Aria wants a chance to prove her loyalty to the kingdom, so she and two of her friends, Lion Lee-Hendrick (the crown prince) and Tui Walker (a New Zealander, who often says, ‘Yeah, nah’) make an undercover foray to a freedomslinger recruitment meeting in Seoul. There the trio make the gruesome discovery that the freedomslingers are using the Bloom to make people believe a fatal virus is spreading. 

Nor is the Kingdom of Hanguk safe from the terrible influence of Aria’s mother. Soon, the Librarian has been poisoned and the King is in a coma. The League’s guiding ideals of Peace and Harmony are endangered as pressure builds for a violent counter-attack on Ko Iseul and her freedomslingers. Caught in the middle, Aria is anguished and uncertain. Her situation becomes even more difficult when her mother finds a way to send her messages. 

 All this sounds a touch depressing but Graci Kim has a light touch in her storytelling. Much of this story is about the growing friendship and interdependence among the novices, as they develop their new powers. Even better is the young people’s interaction with their dreampanions, the magical creatures they have bonded with in their dream state. Lion is now accompanied by a golden dragon, while Mason has a frost-turtle, Daxia has a phoenix and Tui has a dragon with rainbow scales. Aria’s coral- coloured dragon, Rio, is still developing, so has no tail and no interest in flying, but she is irresistibly cute and constantly looking for snacks. 

  Rio’s whiskers twitched with a smile. ‘It’s because I am smartish and braveful, of course!’ Then she let out a huff. ‘But I’ll have you know, I’m not so little anymore, Ari-Ari. I’m actually quite big now.’ 

 A pony-sized, talking dragon must be everyone’s idea of the perfect companion. Less desirably, Rio is also fast-moving and impulsive, which makes some key events more dramatic, even as they break Aria’s heart. 

Royalslinger examines some fascinating topics, including death and the afterlife, as Aria tries to cope positively with a series of daunting setbacks. Does she have the physical strength and moral courage to confront her mother, Ko Iseul? Are the Freeslingers really traitors? Is her mother really ‘a power-hungry monster wanting world domination at any cost’? The challenges keep coming. 

 Aria fortunately also finds a heart-warming, peaceful refuge celebrating Makariti in Aotearoa New Zealand with Tui. But she has to return to Hanguk for a final, fateful confrontation. This story is richly detailed and fast-moving, with crafty plot-twists which keep the reader always slightly off-balance, just like Aria, who is trying to make sense of the two worlds she inhabits. 

 Graci Kim has created a complete fantasy universe for her characters. 

 Royalslinger is the best young adult novel of 2026. 

 Trevor Agnew 4 Aug 2026 

 [Review 3858.]

 

Song of the Saltings  Rachael King

                                                                                                   

                                                                               

Song of the Saltings
Rachael King
Allen & Unwin
Novel
336 pages, Paperback
ISBN 978 1 99100 665 3

 

 The main character in this marvellously-imagined novel is the isolated island of Brack. ‘Even the name lingers on your tongue like the musty taste of stagnant water.’

 Rachael King has drawn together the power of myth, the bleak truths of ancient folklore and the grim history of small, closed communities to create an utterly convincing story of a world where life seems a daily struggle for survival. Completely cut off from the rest of the world by a hostile ocean, most of the island folk live in the stone houses of the village built by their ancestors and survive by subsistence farming.   

 

The landscape bounded by cliffs and salt marshes dominates their lives, as the Prologue makes brutally clear:

‘Out, beyond the village, the moors are wide open spaces where the wind howls at you all year long and the ground wants to suck at your boots with every step. Where makeshift stone huts shelter lonely shepherds, where barrows house the bones of the ancient dead, and the lights from the bog lure weary night-time travellers to their death.’

 And you haven’t even started Chapter One yet!

 Sixteen-year-old Lotta, first encountered riding a horse across those moors, has a dramatic past. The Council, which rules the island, has a long tradition of an annual sacrifice of a child to the Glimm, a creature of the salt marshes. This ensures good harvests. Eight years earlier, however, Lotta had been chosen to be the victim but her pony sprang to protect her and the Grimm consumed it instead. Since then, the Council has ordained that a horse will be sacrificed instead of a child.

 

As a result, Lotta is regarded with a mixture of awe and suspicion, especially as recent storms have led to poor harvests. Some think she may be to blame.

 

Ironically, Lotta now works as a groom caring for the horses belonging to the Judge. The Judge heads the Council which oversees both the legal and spiritual lives of the islanders, operating in a cult-like manner. At weekly services the villagers are urged in sermons by the Judge to tithe their food and goods to the Council.  Sinister masked riders enforce the Council’s rule and punish miscreants.  

 

 Out on the moors, Lotta comes to the rescue of a horse which is sinking into a bog. Her rapport with horses enables her to get the horse free but at the same time Lotta becomes aware of a supernatural bond between herself and the land.

‘She can feel it through her feet; she can hear its song in her dreams.’

 

 The horse, named Hannah, belongs to Moss, a member of the reviled outcast group known as the Hidelings. Shunned because, in the past, they hid their children to avoid them being sacrificed to the Glimm. Now, Hidelings live out on the moors, gathering peat to sell for a living.

 

The relationship between Moss and Lotta gets off to a bumpy start partly because of her mixed feelings about Hidelings and partly because of Moss’s strong sense of the injustices laid upon his people.  They have to depend on each other when it seems there is a vindictive plan to make Hannah this year’s sacrifice. 

Together, Lotta and Moss have to venture into the forbidden northern reaches of the island where they make a series of deeply disturbing discoveries. But will they be able to use their knowledge to change the island’s way of life? Or will the forces ranged against them prove too powerful? Especially now that the Council is planning to re-introduce child sacrifice.

 

Rachael King has written a richly atmospheric supernatural thriller with special appeal for young adults. The characters are believable and the setting is fully realised. The supernatural theme is well handled and the action keeps the pages turning.

 

Reviewers are comparing this novel to works by Susan Cooper (The Dark is Rising) and Alan Garner (The Owl Service). My preference would be for Margaret Mahy, except that Rachael King is rapidly putting herself in a class of her own..

 

Trevor Agnew

4 Aug 2026  [Review 3859.]

 

Cass and the Beast 
Claire Mabey  Jill Calder  

                                                                             

                                                                        

Cass and the Beast
Claire Mabey (2026)
Ill. Jill Calder
Picture book, 32 pages
Hardback
ISBN 979 8 348037 7

 

‘The Townsfolk had given it a name: Beast.’

This handsome picture book has a dramatic opening scene, with alarmed people looking at huge paw-prints at the edge of the forest. They are frightened of the beast and see it as a danger. Young Cass ‘who was hardly ever scared’ thinks differently.

In telling the story of Cass’s encounter with the beast, Claire Mabey uses words with power and confidence. ‘The beast ran like thunder. It devoured the ground.’

Unlike many story characters in this situation, Cass takes the initiative. She goes out into the forest offering food to the beast, ‘with nothing but her thin winter coat and a scrap of bread.’

The creature’s response is abrupt: ‘Mouth, teeth and tongue roared foul and fierce.’

Undaunted, Cass continues her offer of food and the beast takes it ‘with precise lips.’

Then, taking the collar of Cass’s coat into its mouth, the beast hoists her onto its back.

 ‘Run,” says Cass, burrowing her hands into thick, warm fur, ‘made of all the light and all the dark of the world together.’ What follows is a fantastic journey through night and day. (We also discover the beast’s food of choice which may alarm the squeamish.) Cass makes a dramatic return to the town, capturing the attention of the townsfolk, as she farewells the beast, kissing its snout without fear of its teeth.

The stage is set for the charming revelation in the final pages of the book.

 

Jill Calder’s beautiful illustrations form a crucial part of this story. Her dramatic pictures embody the spirit of the tale on every page.

When Cass muses that ‘it was people who frightened her, not beasts,’ the accompanying double-page illustration shows a mass of faces; all people talking about the danger that they feel is posed by the beast. Each face is a portrait of fright, anger and anxiety.  Eyes show fear. Mouths are passing on their alarm. The clamorous scene has only one face that is at ease, almost smiling, and it is Cass’s dog. This is picture book illustration at its highest level.

Jill Calder gives visual hints of the beast throughout the story. The readers can see massive teeth and thick fur but the creature’s true identity is not revealed until the wonderful final pages. (No spoilers here.)

Cass and the Beast is a beautifully presented and original interaction of Claire Mabey’s story and Jill Calder’s pictures, creating a modern fable. The designer is Vida Kelly

 

Trevor Agnew

12 July 2026  [Review 3849]

NOTE: In July 2026 Claire Mabey was awarded the 2026 Lynley Dodd Children's Writers Award of $30,000 for her contributions to children's literature in Aotearoa New Zealand.

 

A Flame in the Dark  Maria Gill

                                                                                     

A Flame in the Dark (2026)
Maria Gill
One Tree House 440 pages
Paperback
978-1-990-03549-4

 

‘Watch out world,’ she whispered, ‘Here I come.’

 Maria Gill’s first young adult novel is a stunner – a fast-paced account of war hero, Nancy Wake’s life in the French wartime resistance.

 A Flame in the Dark begins dramatically, with Nancy hiding underneath a verandah while police tramp over it, searching for her. But this is not a wartime escape from the Gestapo. Nancy was a 16-year-old runaway, escaping from a difficult home life. Her family background and upbringing in New Zealand and Sydney are lightly sketched in, so that within a few pages Nancy has begun to satisfy her wish for travel and adventure. She sails to Europe and works as a freelance reporter based in Paris. 1930s Europe is full of tense situations and dramatic moments. Nancy thrives, even witnessing the assassination of the King of Yugoslavia. Readers also see the rise of fascism in Germany and Austria through Nancy’s eyes.

 Maria Gill has created a well-structured story, so that her chapters usually end at a turning point or key moment in Nancy’s life. The best example comes when Nancy is about to marry Henri, a charming French businessman, and enjoy a life of bliss in Paris but, while she is in London, war is declared. Nancy’s strength of character is often shown in this account by the way other people respond to her.  Thus, the impact of news of the outbreak of war is seen through Nancy’s comforting of a weeping French schoolgirl who is at boarding school in Britain.

 After her attempt to join the military is rejected, Nancy marries Henri.  She is working as a volunteer ambulance driver when the Germans sweep into France. Most of the novel is still to come, almost all of it portraying Nancy’s experiences with the Maquis, the French Resistance. The action scenes in German-occupied France are vivid and gritty. Mocked-up newspaper headlines at the beginning of each chapter keep the reader aware of the date and how the war is developing. The claustrophobic atmosphere and the constant fear of betrayal and death are well conveyed. Skilful flashbacks provide telling details about Nancy’s courage. At one dangerous period, Nancy always carried a hand grenade when there was a knock at the door.

 Many of the Maquis were doubtful about women taking part in the resistance and Nancy had to prove herself just as hard-talking, hard-fighting and hard-drinking as the men she led. She not only succeeded but also showed that the Germans would be less suspicious of a woman cyclist carrying groceries in her string bag than men in a car. ‘They’ll think I’m a farmer’s wife, going shopping,’ says Nancy. Thus, she pedalled over 500 km to make a desperate search for a contact to deliver a crucial radio message. She succeeded and then returned safely, although exhausted and in great pain. Nancy’s other wartime exploits are well described, along with the intense personal and emotional costs involved. 

 Rather than rehash history books, Maria Gill has made use of her detailed research to construct convincing conversations which carry Nancy’s story along and pass on information.

‘The Gestapo have put a price on the head of the woman helping refugees escape.’
’Me?’
‘They don’t know who you are. They call you the ‘White Mouse’ … because you’ve been hard to catch. 

 A Flame in the Dark is an exciting page-turner of a novel, immensely readable and continually surprising. It is full of action, drama, suspense and even has romance and humour. As a historian, I am impressed by the skilful way Maria Gill retells Nancy’s story as a novel that will attract and inform young adult readers.  Because it is so well written, it should also become a ‘cross-over novel,’ one that is enjoyed by adult readers as well.

 Fifi Coulston’s striking cover portrait captures Nancy’s appearance and spirit perfectly.

 A glossary, photos and an author’s note are included.

  Trevor Agnew [Review 3832]

Note: This review originally appeared in the July 2026 issue of Magpies magazine.