Dogs of the Deadlands, by Anthony McGowan & Keith Robinson (Rock the Boat, $19)
Life goes on. The Earth renews itself. Feral populations re-establish. In perhaps “the world’s greatest experiment in rewilding”, 30-something years on from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the compulsory exodus of humans, wild animals – bears, bison, lynx and wolves – have returned to the Ukrainian region’s regenerating forests, which now boast some of the highest biodiversity in the Northern Hemisphere. And on the fringes of abandoned villages, dogs descended from those left behind fight for survival. In his “biggest ever writing challenge” – Carnegie Medal winner McGowan sees it as Call of the Wild meets Watership Down meets War and Peace – a child evacuating with her family on one of the last buses out of Pripyat must leave behind her new puppy, a cute one-blue-one-brown-eye bundle of white fur. Insightful and entertaining, this is animal storytelling at its best.
The Little Match Girl Strikes Back, by Emma Carroll & Lauren Child (Simon & Schuster, $22.99)
Emma Carroll, writing her own version of the original Little Match Girl story – which many know doesn’t end well – sets her story in Bryant & May’s factory in the poorest part of Victorian London. Redheaded Bridie sells matches on the street, her six-year-old brother makes boxes – though both should be in school – and their mum, along with thousands of other women and girls, dips the matches in toxic white phosphorus, leading to a painful condition known as “phossy jaw”. Always cold and hungry, Bridie is sustained by the magic of story. Lauren Child has fun with a limited palette that makes the most of a fiery red. Based on real events, following wrongful dismissal of a woman in 1888 when other workers went out on strike, this brings social history to life.
Running with Ivan, by Suzanne Leal (HarperCollins, $19.99)
An intriguing time-slip story which, while covering some of the most awful years in recent history, ultimately brings hope. In the present, Leo grapples with a new family, including two stepbrothers he can’t stand. Still grieving for his late mum, he finds her music box, which transports him to Prague as World War II threatens to break out. Running becomes his solace, as well as the thread that links the two time periods, and school history lessons in the present give Leo just enough foreknowledge to warn his friend Ivan, and divert tragedy – more than once. Australian author Leal drew her inspiration from a neighbour sent as a teen to the Theresienstadt Jewish ghetto whose oral history she recorded. Dropping her young runner right into the action, she brings an immediacy to wartime Europe that helps readers understand what actually happened, and conveys the enormity of the Holocaust. And there are clever plot twists right up to the end.
Jack & Sandy, by Bob Kerr (Bateman, $27.99)
A tribute to his late father, whose photo album he found in a suitcase on top of a wardrobe, Wellington author-illustrator Bob Kerr’s three-generational story is told in a variety of formats to capture the most reluctant of readers – illustrated text chronicling a rafting trip in the present, short stories cameoing key characters in (grandad) Sandy’s younger life, graphic novel segments, and a liberal lacing of those suitcase images through the ongoing life story of the missing grandfather. In the way that running links the different eras in Running with Ivan, here it’s water that flows throughout – a river journey in kayaks and a shipbuilding town upbringing morphing into a merchant navy career that becomes war service by default. Historical endnotes fill in the facts on Operation Substance, a supply convoy that provisioned the port of Malta – “our aircraft carrier in the middle of the Mediterranean”, as Kerr describes it. Oh, and in an autobiographical undertone, there’s a charming subplot bearing witness to the importance of art in these characters’ lives.
Here Upon the Tide, by Blair McMillan (Bateman, $27.99)
The aftermath of a still current war makes itself felt on the outskirts of Christchurch in Here Upon the Tide, by a first-time author. Milly, grieving for the loss of her mother in childbirth, finds solace in surfing off Christchurch’s coast. She rescues Syrian Amir, dumped from a refugee boat, and hides him in one of the cottages at the iconic Taylor’s Mistake. While the story itself stretches credibility at times, Amir’s own background is perfectly plausible – similar to Zoulfa Katouh’s YA novel of last year, As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow – and all the more horrific for it. But it’s also Milly’s own account, of finding her strength through helping her new friend and coming to terms with the bullies who make her own life miserable, that is perhaps the most rewarding part of this tale.
