The Famous Five: Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton. Graphic Novel retelling by Béja and Nataël, Hachette Children’s Books, ISBN 9781444963670
REVIEWED BY JACK, 7, NSW
This adventure graphic novel is about five amazing friends on a treasure island by the famous author Enid Blyton and illustrated by Béja and Nataël.
I like this book because it has lots of action, drama and it makes me feel emotions. The youngest kid cried for her mum when she got dropped off at her aunty’s house. But then they travel far and wide, and explore new places no one has discovered before – they find valuable things too.
If you like this book, you should read the rest of the series. There are some illustrated versions and some non-illustrated versions.
This book makes me want to read the rest of the series. I would recommend this book for ages 8 and over. I am rating it 4.5 out of five.
Renée Treml is an award-winning writer and illustrator based in Fremantle, WA. She has written and illustrated several picture books including the award-winning Once I Heard a Little Wombat, and Wombat Big, Puggle Small, which was read on ABC’s Play School. Renée is also the creator of the hilarious graphic novels featuring Sherlock Bones and Ollie and Bea. Today we’re thrilled to be chatting with Renée about her latest graphic novel: The Thylacine and the Time Machine.
From the publisher:
Buckle up! The time-machine awaits! Join twelve-year-old Violet, her dog Tassie and her new friend Thyla – the ghost of the last Tasmanian tiger – on a wild ride to learn all about the legendary, elusive and extinct thylacines. Packed full of fascinating facts about the terrible past and (potentially) exciting future of the Tassie tiger.
What brought you to create a graphic novel about the de-extinction of the thylacine?
I am fascinated by the idea that scientists can bring an animal that no longer exists back to life. It’s like science-fiction except in real life!
Do you have a favourite thylacine fact?
Is it okay if I include a few? Thylacines are fascinating (and very misunderstood) creatures.
Until about 4,000 years ago, thylacines roamed all of Australia … so calling them a ‘Tasmanian tiger’ is a bit limiting. Plus, they are a marsupial, and we humans are more closely related to tigers than thylacines are.
European colonists on Tasmania believed the thylacines were killing their sheep, so they hunted the thylacine to extinction. It turns out bad farming practices, wild dogs, and other humans (thieves!) were to blame. Now we know that thylacines hunted alone and were not big or strong enough to take down an adult sheep.
How do you approach the first draft of a graphic novel? (Do you write the text as prose or a playscript?)
For this graphic novel, I first wrote a summary of what would happen in each chapter, then I drafted the story as a script. My next step was to create the sketches that would accompany the words.
What is the editing process like for a graphic novel? Is the artwork edited as well as the text?
For a graphic novel, we edit both the text and the artwork – and the process is very intertwined (and sometimes messy!) because the words influence the pictures, and the pictures influence the words. We edited The Thylacine and the Time Machine at several stages. Our goal was to catch any major problems in the scripting or sketching stages because that’s when it’s easiest to make changes. We saved the nit-picky grammar and punctuation edits until the very end because I often change and edit the text while I’m drawing.
Can you tell us a bit about what you’re working on next?
I am working on my first collaborative graphic novel mystery series with author Nova Weetman titled Mystery Beach. (Aside note: it is so much fun to co-write with another person!) We were inspired by our beloved childhood series Trixie Belden, Girl Detective, and our stories are set in current-day Australia. The first book will be out in 2026.
The Thylacine and the Time Machine is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.
Crunch by Kayla Miller, Walker Books Australia, ISBN 9781760655181
REVIEWED BY AASHI, 10, VIC
Aashi reviewed her own copy of this book.
I recently read Crunch and I LOVED it! It is a must read for any avid readers from the age 8 to 12. This graphic novel is part of the Click series. The whole Click series is about Olive, a smart and kind sixth grader.
Olive loves to try new things with a positive attitude, so she signs up for many things. Between film making, homework, scouts and even a fashion show, Olive feels overwhelmed. Olive begins to wonder if she really can juggle all of her actives or will she fail at everything?
One of the best things about Crunch is the pictures. They are full of colour and pop. It makes you want to keep reading. The pictures look really good and make you feel like you are in the book.
Olive is not perfect, no-one is, and this made me really like her. She is really brave and outgoing. By the end of the book she learns how to say No and how to juggle her life.
I think that anyone who loves friendship and school stories will enjoy Crunch. Be sure to check out the rest of the Click series.
Penny Draws a Class Trip by Sara Shepard, Text Publishing, ISBN 9781922790712
REVIEWED BY AASHI, 10, VIC
The publisher provided a review copy of this book.
Sara Shepard has written a great story about Penny Lowry, a girl who loves drawing and writing. Penny is 11 years old and in 5th Grade. She was delighted to find out that her class is going to meet and work with a best-selling author, Billy J Plumberry.
Penny is thrilled that she will be spending the weekend in the big city. Penny is also nervous about the different things in the city like falling pianos or aggressive pigeons.
The thing that worries Penny most is being Violet’s buddy. This means she will have to spend the whole trip with Violet. Violet Vance is her ex-best friend.
The story is very funny and heartwarming. I loved how Sara wrote the story through Penny’s eyes and how the doodles connect with the words.
I would recommend this book for 7–12-year-olds. I think this would also be a good class novel. I hope you read the book.
Real Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham, Roaring Brook Press, ISBN 9781626727854
Aashi reviewed her own copy of this graphic novel memoir.
REVIEWED BY AASHI, AGE 10, VIC
Meet Shannon, a girl who has four siblings and lives in a squishy, noisy house. She wants her best friend, Adrienne, all to herself. She has a challenging middle school, trying to fit in. Shannon has problems with finding people to play with, every day.
Jen, the leader of Shannon’s unstable friendship group, always has lining where she orders her favourites to her least favourites. Everybody in the friendship group must always listen to Jen, or else. One day, Shannon had enough! She was ready to make a revolution, but would it work?
Shannon enjoys playing imaginary games, with herself or others. Everyone loves the games except for Jennifer, Jen’s best friend. Jennifer has never liked Shannon, and never will. Jennifer gossips and is mean to Shannon for no reason, could things get worse?
Real Friends is an inspiring book showing love and loyalty. This is a great book, showing how Shannon keeps hope, even when things get tough. I would recommend Real Friends for young readers who enjoy friendship and drama.
Kylie Howarth is an award-winning, internationally published children’s author-illustrator from Western Australia. Kylie has swum with whale sharks, manta rays and humpback whales in Ningaloo, piranha and pink dolphins in the Amazon, braved scuba diving with lionfish in Egypt, marine iguanas and hammerhead sharks in the Galapagos Islands and encountered great white sharks in South Africa! Today Kylie is visiting to talk about her latest book, the first in her graphic novel series, Kev and Trev: Snot Funny Sea Stories!
The publisher provided Alphabet Soup with a reader copy of Snot Funny Sea Stories.
From the publisher:
Join Kev and Trev’s epic deep-sea adventure – full of kraken laughs and comic commocean! Dodge flying coconut cannonballs, outrun ghost pirates, escape big sharks, pig sharks, and a punch-throwing pelican, all while hunting for mysterious merpugs and the missing emergency boat snacks! Water you waiting for? Jump on board Kev and Trev’s popcorn powered houseboat … and cross-your-claws it doesn’t sink!
You have published picture books and junior fiction novels and this is your first graphic novel. What brought you to create the Kev and Trev series?
I once made rhyming mini-books for my kids which I’d pop in their school lunchboxes. The kids loved these short, funny stories and often shared them with their friends and teachers. This inspired me to create a graphic novel series, that included lots of short funny stories written by the characters, Kev and Trev.
What tools do you prefer to use to create your graphic novels?
I use sketch books and a pencil for my initial ideas and story planning. I then use a program called Procreate (on my iPad) to illustrate my books. I also use anything from seaweed to broccoli dipped in paint and pressed on paper, to create interesting textures for my illustrations.
Your characters Kev and Trev write and illustrate their own rhyming short stories inside the book. Do you have a tip for kids wanting to experiment with rhyme?
Keeping a consistent rhythm and beat for each line of rhyming text really helps the story flow for your reader. To hear if your rhythm is working, try clapping along as you read your story out loud.
How does your editor feel about being turned into a squid? 😆
Ha ha! Kev and Trev’s editor is a grumpy squid named Mr Happy. Luckily my editor is never grumpy. She is also my publisher so identifies more with the lovely character of Tess the pug-lisher.
The book is stuffed full of puns and hilarious play-on-words conversations. What’s your favourite pun from Snot Funny Sea Stories?
I love the mixed-up book titles like THE BUFFALO (instead of The Gruffalo) and POSSUM TRAGIC (instead of Possum Magic.)
What’s next for Kylie Howarth?
I’m now working on the second graphic novel in this series – Kev and Trev: Snot Scary Jungle Stories.
Kev and Trev: Snot Funny Sea Stories is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.
AWESOME EXTRAS:
See a short video of Kylie designing a character in the book [Instagram]
Positively Izzy by Terri Libenson, HarperCollins Publishers, ISBN 9780062484963
Aashi reviewed her own copy of this book.
Positively Izzy is about two girls – one named Brianna and the other named Izzy. It is a beautiful story that takes you through the ups and downs of two interlinked stories.
Izzy is a girl who loves drama but isn’t the best at other subjects. She has been preparing for a talent show for months. Her mum is a nurse who works weird shifts so Izzy and her sisters must do lots of chores. Lately, Izzy has been getting bad grades and since her mum is all about grades, it is not going well for her.
Brianna, on the other hand, enjoys academics and always gets good grades. Both her parents are teachers, her dad works at a local high school while her mum works at Brianna’s school! Her mum is a fabulous drama teacher who everybody loves. She is always encouraging Brianna to join the Drama club.
Positively Izzy is a fun book to read as it provides the reader with a good sense of humour and gives two different but linked stories. It could improve on giving a bit more information about Brianna.
The age group I would recommend this book for is 9–10-year-olds. They will enjoy it and cherish it. I rate it 4.5 out of 5.
HiLo by Judd Winick, Penguin UK, ISBN 9780141376929
Ezra read his school’s copy of this book.
Have you ever read a graphic novel with a funny robot? Well then HiLo is the book for you. I think you should read it because there are portals and powers/magic.
In the story, HiLo and Izzy came from a planet of powers/magic. And they are both robots. Their best friends are DJ and Gina. DJ is funny and is a normal person. Gina, on the other hand, is also a normal person but she learns crazy good magic from their friend, Polly. Polly is a cat that can talk and he came from the same planet as RAZORWARK. RAZORWARK was a good robot to protect the earth. But then someone changed his orders.
One reason I like this book is because I like robots. In the story HiLo is a robot and he shoots coins out of his bellybutton! Another reason I like this book is because HiLo and Izzy are hilarious. For example HiLo and Izzy poop out pencils! And that is my favourite part of HiLo. The third reason why I like this book is that in the story Polly makes up the funniest jokes EVER!
I hope you can read this book right away. I recommend this book for kids ages 6 and up. I give this book 10 out of 10 stars.
Second grade students at Glenridge Elementary School (Missouri, USA) are guest reviewers at Alphabet Soup. Click here if you’d like to read more book reviews by Glenridge Elementary School. To send us YOUR book review, check out our submission guidelines. Happy reading!
Pow Pow Pig is about a pig named Piccolo who joins an organisation called CHOC because he wants to help animals in need, but he ends up always on kitchen duty …
My favourite character is Piccolo. Books about pigs always seem like funny books. This is a hilarious book. I even love the cover. The size of the title makes me laugh. The illustrations suit the story and are also hilarious. There are also stickers inside, at the back of the book.
Pow Pow Pig is similar to the Captain Underpants books and The Bad Guys series. Kids who like pigs, funny books, exciting books and novels (there are nine chapters in this book) will love this too.
I think 7 to 10-year-olds would enjoy this book most. Kids older than 10 would still enjoy it though, and kids who are younger than 7 would enjoy it if someone reads it to them.
I give it 5 out of 5 stars!
Pow Pow Pig: An Unexpected Hero is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library!
James Foley is a Western Australian author, illustrator and graphic novelist. James uses a variety of materials and tools to create his books: pen and ink, pencil, charcoal and watercolour. He also uses digital tools: Adobe Photoshop, a Wacom graphics tablet, an iPad Pro and the Procreate app. His latest book is the fourth instalment in the hilarious S. Tinker Inc series: Chickensaurus.
From the publisher:
Sally Tinker, the world’s foremost inventor under the age of 12, is back with a new adventure in invention. When Sally’s nemesis hatches a fowl and poultry plot, there’s no room for the lily-livered. Sally and co will need all their pluck to return the world to its rightful pecking order.
On with the questions!
Assuming you’ve never seen a real chickensaurus, how did you design your dinosauric creatures in Chickensaurus?
I started off with some of the dinosaurs that everyone is most familiar with – T-Rex, velociraptor, stegosaurus, triceratops and pteranodon (though technically that last one is a pterosaur, not a dinosaur). I drew them normal to start with, then added chicken-y details on and gave them silly names. Sometimes the bits I added were suggested by the silly name I gave them – for example, the stegosaurus became an eggosaurus, so it’s basically a giant walking egg. Some of them just started out as a silly drawing and then I found an even sillier name for them – for example, the velociroosters turned up in my sketchbook in 2016, and there were other versions of lizardy chickens in my sketchbooks as far back as 2012.
Just how many chicken puns do you have in your archives? (Would Chickensaurus win the record for the most chicken jokes in one book?)
I hope so! (Though is that really a record that I want my name to be on? Should I be proud or ashamed?) I gathered as many silly jokes as I could and then found places for them in the book. There’s one particularly pun-filled part that I’m strangely proud of, where a character gives a long ‘villain speech’ using as many chicken and egg puns as I could fit in. It’s very, VERY silly.
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Chickensaurus is Book 4 in the S. Tinker Inc series of graphic novels. You also write and illustrate picture books. What’s different about the way you go about creating your graphic novels, compared to your picture books?
They’re basically the same process; graphic novels just have A LOT more drawings and A LOT more words. But there is one difference with my writing; when I’m writing a graphic novel I write it out like a movie script. It’s mostly just what the characters say to each other, with a few descriptions of the settings or the action that are basically notes for myself. On the other hand, when I’m writing a picture book the text is usually more than just what the characters say.
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Do you have one tip for young storytellers who’d like to create their own comic books or graphic novels?
Yes, and it’s an easy one – read lots of comics! It doesn’t matter if they’re superhero comics, or funny comic strips, or big fancy graphic novels … just read lots of them. And while you’re reading them, pay attention to the ways that the authors and illustrators tell you the story. Notice the things you like about the comic and maybe have a go at trying some of the same drawing or writing techniques. Notice the things you didn’t like so much about the comic and then ask yourself what you would have done differently. You can learn HEAPS just by reading other people’s work.
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Can you tell us a bit about your next project?
My next two projects are a short Sally Tinker comic adventure that will go into next year’s School Magazine, and a picture book about animals in space!
James Foley is a Western Australian author, illustrator and graphic novelist. James uses a variety of materials and tools to create his books: pen and ink, pencil, charcoal and watercolour. He also uses digital tools: Adobe Photoshop, a Wacom graphics tablet, an iPad Pro and the Procreate app. His latest book is the fourth instalment in the hilarious S. Tinker Inc series: Chickensaurus.
AWESOME EXTRAS:
alphabetsoup.net.au 