Wednesday Weeks and the Dungeon of Fire by Denis Knight and Cristy Burne, Lothian Children’s Books, ISBN 9780734420237
Emily received a review copy of this book.
Wednesday Weeks and the Dungeon of Fire is a thrilling science fiction book and the third book of the Wednesday Weeks series. In this adventure book Wednesday is given the chance to eliminate the tyrannical Goblin King, Gorgomoth, once and for all. But in order to do that she must beat the savage Gorgomoth to the powerful Stone of Power. To get to the Stone of Power Wednesday must face physical and mental challenges, all to save the world.
I loved this book because it’s a bit different from the other Wednesday Weeks books, seeing that the challenges that Wednesday and her friends have to confront are more exciting and harder. Another outstanding feature of this book is to explain about how meaningful having friends is.
I recommend this book to ages 7+ but it can be enjoyed by people of any age. Fans of Wednesday Weeks and the Tower of Shadows and Wednesday Weeks and the Crown of Destiny will also love this book.
Mars Awakens by HM Waugh, A&U Children’s, ISBN 9781760526979
The publisher provided a review copy of this book.
Mars Awakens is a sci-fi novel written by H. M. Waugh. The book is set in the future after humans colonised Mars. Something falls out of the sky near two separate colonies. Is it backup and resources from Earth? Holt from the first colony and Dee from the other one separately fly over to the crash site to investigate and meet for the first time. One of the colonies thought they already knew about the other colony and despised them, while the other didn’t even know that the first colony existed.
Dee and Holt face many troubles and will need to work together to survive and tell their communities about some new information they just obtained.
What I liked about the book was how the author used science and accurate facts to form the story. I also appreciate it because it has a fun and enjoyable storyline.
I recommend the book for people in primary school around 3rd to 6th grade, also for children that enjoy sci-fi and science.
HM Waugh is the author of books for children and young adults. She’s also an environmental scientist, and educator with a love of wild places and high mountains. This has led to icy feet and sunburnt cheeks in magical countries like New Zealand, Nepal, Bolivia and Switzerland. She has studied dolphins in New Zealand and rare plants in the Wheatbelt, and worked in mining and construction projects across Western Australia. Her latest book is Mars Awakens, the unputdownable first book in a duology.
From the publisher:
Raised in two colonies on Mars each long ago abandoned by Earth, Dee and Holt have been brought up to hate even the idea of each other. But when a mysterious object crash-lands on a far-flung plain, they are both sent to investigate and their fates intertwine. Together they must battle epic storms and deadly bioclouds while unpicking the web of lies they have been told about their planet.
What brought you to write a book set on Mars? Did you need to do much research before you began writing?
I love space and the idea of going to other planets, and we’re so close to being able to send people to Mars – kids reading my book could absolutely be a part of this – that one day the idea to write a book based on Mars just popped into my head. Mars is a real place, so I did have to do a lot of research. Not only about the Mars we know – like its gravity and size and moons and what it looks like from the surface – but also into the Mars we could create. The plants we would need to make wax and rope and clothing. To feed the population. To stabilise the planet. It was a lot of fun!
What’s your favourite unusual fact about Mars?
There are so many! I think one of my favourites is how rovers have been detecting strange levels of methane (like fart gas) on Mars. And recently they discovered rocks on Mars that contain substances that, on Earth, can be created by methane-producing bacteria. Did Mars once have life? Does it still?
Dee uses kites to travel long distances across Mars on her own. What gave you the idea? Did you test a prototype or put trust in your imagination?
The kites came from an epic brainstorming session. I knew Mars was too big to walk around, so I needed some low-tech way for Dee and her colony to travel long distances. And what did Mars have going for it? Much less gravity than Earth so you can leap higher and run faster, and some serious windstorms. And I thought about sailboats, and umbrellas in storms, and kite-surfers, and combined them all to create the Martian kites. I did not test this out! I’m not even sure they’d work on Earth? But I did use my experiences doing things like sailing, skydiving and ziplining to create the feel of kiting with the wind.
If there was a callout tomorrow for volunteers to move to Mars – would you be tempted to put your hand up?
Absolutely! Try out for all the things. What’s the worst that could happen? Either I don’t get selected and I’ve lost nothing, or I do get selected and get to decide whether to accept the place or not. If it was a one-way ticket I honestly think I’d find it very hard to say goodbye to my family. Maybe they could come with me?
Can you tell us something about your next writing project?
Well, obviously, my next project is Mars Book 2 and I’m not giving away any spoilers! Beyond that, I have ideas simmering away in my head for a new project and I’m just letting them develop. It can take a while for the right collection of ideas to come together, and then I suddenly know I’ve got the ingredients for a book.
Mars Awakens is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.
When Gorgomoth steals an oh-so-important crown he unleashes power that only the crown holds. Then, wanting revenge, he turns Wednesday’s Grandpa into a frog. However, this was only the beginning …
I liked the fact that Adaline, who had been really helpful, got a good title as the summer princess and that everything went well in the end. I also liked how I had to keep on guessing what would happen and it certainly kept me on the edge of my bed.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes magic and evil (stinky) sorcerers, regardless of your age.
Science fiction and fantasy author Denis Knight is a computer programmer who grew up geeking out about the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. He has also worked as a technical writer, a delivery boy, a tutor, and, for one glorious summer, a tour guide on Rottnest Island.
Cristy Burne has worked as a science communicator for nearly 20 years across Australia, Japan, Switzerland, the UK, US, South Africa and beyond. She has performed in a science circus, worked as a garbage analyst, and was a reporter at CERN when they turned on the Large Hadron Collider. Her books include To The Lighthouse, Off The Track, Beneath the Trees, and a non-fiction book, Zeroes and Ones. In 2020, she told the story of the inventor of spray-on skin in Aussie STEM Stars: Fiona Wood.
Denis and Cristy decided to collaborate on a book and the result is a hilarious new series featuring the adventures of a girl named Wednesday Weeks. Today Alphabet Soup is super excited to have Denis and Cristy visiting to tell us about co-writing Book 1 in their series – Wednesday Weeks and the Tower of Shadows.
From the publisher:
Wednesday Weeks never wanted to be a sorcerer’s apprentice. She’d rather study science than magic. But when her cloak-wearing, staff-wielding grandpa is captured by a power-hungry goblin king, Wednesday must find a way to embrace her magical heritage and rescue him from the dreaded Tower of Shadows.
One book, two authors. What was it like trying to write a book using two brains?
DENIS: Writing a book with two brains! I love that. It’s actually a great way to describe it. Although sometimes it feels like we only have half a brain between us. Ouch! Cristy just kicked me under the table.
CRISTY: Only because you kicked me first! It was actually really exciting, writing with Denis, because I could never predict what he would write, and I was always literally laughing out loud to discover what Wednesday and Alfie had been up to while I was away.
DENIS: Right. It was a lot of fun. But it was challenging, too – in a good way. When you’re working on your own, you can let yourself get away with stuff. But when you’re writing with a partner, you can’t do that any more. You have to level up.
How did you come up with/agree on the name for your main character?
CRISTY: Denis came up with the concept of Wednesday Weeks, a reluctant sorcerer’s apprentice, and in that very first chapter, he invented many of our favourite characters and names: Wednesday Weeks, Alfie, Mrs Glock … and of course, Abraham Mordecai Weeks (otherwise known as Grandpa).
DENIS: That’s true. Although, Wednesday’s character started out as something quite different from where she ended up. Cristy doesn’t know this, but my first idea was for a space bounty hunter named Serenity Weeks.
CRISTY: A what? Pardon?
DENIS: Then she was going to be a paranormal investigator named Wednesday Weeks. Wednesday’s character and voice started to develop when I wrote some short scenes where she and Alfie were searching for Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster. Then the reluctant sorcerer’s apprentice idea popped into my head, and that was kind of the final piece of the puzzle.
CRISTY: More like the first piece of the puzzle. From there, we started writing. At first, it was literally a game. Denis wrote Chapter 1, and after reading this chapter, I wrote Chapter 2, and then Denis wrote Chapter 3. And we just trusted the story to evolve.
DENIS: I think the lesson here is to give yourself the time and space to play with an idea and see what develops. Also, that space bounty hunters are awesome. What do you think of the name Serenity Jones?
CRISTY: …
CRISTY: …
CRISTY: … I hope you’re not asking me?
How did you know/agree when Book 1 was finished and ready to submit?
DENIS: We wrote our first super-quick, super-short draft of Book 1 in early 2018.
CRISTY: That first draft was only around 25,000 words long, but it was enough for us to get to know Wednesday and her world, and to know we wanted to write more.
DENIS: We had the first ten pages critiqued by a publisher in June 2018, and she gave us some really good feedback.
CRISTY: Over the next year, we both worked on other projects, but we kept coming back to Wednesday.
DENIS: We rewrote the opening chapters based on the publisher’s feedback, and we fleshed out the middle section, adding in the Sword of Reckoning and the laundry kraken. In June 2019 we had the opening chapters critiqued again by a different publisher, and she loved it. So that’s when we knew it was ready to submit.
CRISTY: Later, as we worked with Hachette to progress the manuscript through the various editing stages, we had three different editors all offering their advice, and there were thousands of new notes on each fresh edit that we completed. Getting the story just right was a whole lot of work!
Do you have any ‘Must Do’ or ‘Must Not Do’ tips for young writers who might like to collaborate on a story?
CRISTY: Respect for the other author’s creative brain is really important. A big part of the game we play as we write each Wednesday Weeks book is to take up the reins from where the other author has left off, and to then drive the adventure where we think it needs to go.
DENIS: Be open to your partner’s ideas, and have fun.
CRISTY: Another Hot Tip is to trust. As you write, remember that you teamed up with this other creator for a reason, and although smooshing two brains into one story can be difficult, the results will be worth it.
DENIS: Also, don’t expect it to be brilliant right away. It won’t be! But if you keep working on it, you’ll get there.
Can you tell us a bit about what you’re writing next?
CRISTY: We’ve just finished putting the finishing touches on Book 2 of the Wednesday Weeks series.
DENIS: It’s called Wednesday Weeks and the Crown of Destiny and it’s out in September 2021.
CRISTY: We love it because it has all our favourite characters, plus more page-time for Adaline, our punk faery-friend from the laundry.
DENIS: There’s also some advanced magic for Wednesday to tackle, a hippo-bugamus, a giant pinball machine of death, a visit to outer space and, of course, some snarky Bruce-jokes.
CRISTY: And don’t forget a whole lot of dirty-rotten evil-doing from Gorgomoth.
DENIS: Right. Oh, and also, Grandpa gets turned into a frog for a while.
Wednesday Weeks and the Tower of Shadows is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, Penguin Books Ltd, ISBN 9780241331163
Matilda borrowed this book from the library.
This is a science-fiction novel about a family whose dad is missing. The little brother discovers three ladies who seem to be able to travel to other dimensions, and they tell Charles Wallace that they know where his father is.
I like time-slip novels — this is sort of a dimension-slip novel. I really enjoyed it because it was so different from our world, and I liked the characters in the other world.
The copy of the book I read was a movie tie-in, and had photos from the movie in the middle pages of the book. That was annoying because I had an idea in my head of all the characters and then suddenly I came across the movie photos and they were completely different. (But I’d still like to see the movie.)
Kids who love weird fantasy adventure books will love this.
Song Bird Superhero by Karen Tyrell, Digital Future Press, ISBN 9780994302168
Matilda received a review copy of this book from the author.
This book is about a girl called Rosella Ava Bird whose big dream is to fly. In her nightmares she is trying to save people while she’s flying and in those nightmares she always fails. She also lives next door to Frank Furter the school bully. Rosella’s singing shatters windows, she can’t fly, and she has been banned from the science fair. What can she do?
When I started reading Song Bird Superhero I thought it would be an adventure story. It turned out not to be my style of book but readers who love science fiction and fantasy might enjoy this book. The overall theme is friendship and family and finding what you are good at. It would suit 6 to 11 year olds best.
Miranda borrowed this book from her school library.
EJ12 Girl Hero: Ciao EJ! by Susannah McFarlane,ej12girlhero.com, ISBN 9781921931666
This book is part of the EJ12 series. It is about the two spy agencies Shine and Shadow. The main characters are Shine’s most trusted special agents EJ12, IJ12, EL12, HJ12 and EK12.
The evil spy agency Shadow unlocks the golden statue of the Italian God of the sun and moon. The Shine agents go to Italy to stop Shadow from stealing the statue.
Most of the time Shine manages to stop Shadow with their most trusted agents around. Would you like to become a secret agent? I like reading these books because I like to pretend that I am a secret agent like EJ12! Maybe you would too!
Ciao EJ was very unpredictable. I loved this book!
REVIEWED BY MATILDA, 12, WA
alphabetsoup.net.au 