Mike Shuttleworth

Mike Shuttleworth reviews four children's non-fiction books

March 2009, no. 309 • 01 March 2009

As I sat down to write this review, two news stories jostled for prominence on the ABC’s website. One was the unfolding story of two brothers who were trapped on Mt Cook, New Zealand’s highest mountain. Only one brother would come back (the other fell 500 metres to his death). Lincoln Hall would understand what the brothers went through. Hall is an Australian mountaineer who was, famously or i ... (read more)

Survey of YA Non-Fiction 2008

February 2008, no. 298 • 01 February 2008

Historian John Nicholson has never written about war or sport – two of the pillars of Australian identity – yet he remains our leading writer of history for young people. I reviewed Songlines and Stone Axes (ABR, April 2007), the first book in a five-volume series of trade, transport, and travel within Australia. The book won the Young People’s History Prize in the 2007 New South Wales Premi ... (read more)

Mike Shuttleworth surveys Children's and Young Adult Non-fiction

April 2007, no. 290 • 12 September 2022

Publishing non-fiction books for young adults and children demands creativity, invention and a dash of bloody-mindedness. Our relatively small population means that non-fiction books must make their way in an ever-tightening market. Big-budget ‘wow factor’ titles like the design-heavy Pick Me Up (Dorling Kindersley) and the best-selling The Dangerous Book for Boys (Conn and Hal Iggulden) are l ... (read more)

Mike Shuttleworth reviews 'Becoming Kirrali Lewis' by Jane Harrison

November 2015, no. 376 • 29 October 2015

While Becoming Kirrali Lewis is being marketed as a Young Adult novel, this big-hearted Australian story could fruit-fully be read in many other ways. Playwright Jane Harrison's début novel about a young indigenous woman's political and personal awakening could be labelled as historical fiction, indigenous writing, or even political fiction. Maureen McCarthy's recent novels The Convent (2012) and ... (read more)

Mike Shuttleworth reviews 'The Flywheel' by Erin Gough, 'A Small Madness' by Dianne Touchell, and 'For the Forest of a Bird' by Sue Saliba

June-July 2015, no. 372 • 29 May 2015

Publishers Hardie Grant Egmont established The Ampersand Project in 2011 as a platform for new writing. Erin Gough’s suburban drama/comedy The Flywheel ($19.95 pb, 306 pp, 9781742978178) is the second book to appear under the Ampersand banner. It is a contemporary slice-of-life tale painted with broad comedic strokes. Set in Sydney’s inner-west, the novel follows three months in the life of se ... (read more)

Mike Shuttleworth reviews 'Slice: Juicy Moments from My Impossible Life' by Steven Herrick

December 2010–January 2011, no. 327 • 08 June 2011

In the Young Adult novel Slice: Juicy Moments from My Impossible Life, you will meet Darcy Pele Franz Walker, a boy named after famous international footballers, but one who has no interest in the game. There is no death or sex (though Darcy wonders frequently about the latter). Nobody has cancer (though a friend’s father suffers a stroke). There are no divorced parents and no drug-taking (thoug ... (read more)