Book: Conspiracy 365: June

Conspiracy 365: June
Gabrielle Lord, 2010

*Spoiler warning: I'll be mentioning things that have happened before*

So, Cal was in a tight spot at the end of May, trapped in a burning plane. Well he manages to escape and makes his way back towards the city and back towards solving the mystery. This time we see him move from a scout camp to a caravan to a mansion. We also see him reunite with Griff (bad consequences) and Repro (good consequences) and he finally gets his hand on the lost Ormand jewel.

There was some development in this book, with the retrieval of the jewel and information about Cal's upcoming birthday. That was very welcome, because the books do tend to be a bit repatative - it's the problem with having such an orderly and well set out time line.

I'd connect this book with the 39 Clues books - probably the next step up in a reading ladder.

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Book: UFO in the USA

UFO in the USA
Dave Hackett, 2007

Our school had a visit from Dave Hackett, aka Cartoon Dave for Book Week this year. Although he mostly talked about comics, we also got the chance to buy signed copies of his books, which is really an offer I couldn't refuse.

This book is the sequel to UFO (Unavoidable Family Outing) and follows the same hapless family as they head off to the USA in the pursuit of BRAD's dream. (BRAD has to be capitalised. It's a thing. It's also a thing to work out what BRAD stands for. Like Bad Reviews Always Die.) In typical UFO style, nothing really goes right, and they end up interacting with pigeons (not The Pigeon though), spandex-wearing jugglers, Elvis, world's worst gifts for Sophie and a couple of real life stars.

This is a completely wacky book and you're really not reading it for the deep character analysis or for any kind of sensible plot. Instead you read it to find out what BRAD explanation will come up next and what on Earth Dad will get up to. It ends up being highly amusing, even if it isn't highly logical.

Connect it to the other UFO books (and btw, grab Dave Hackett's cartooning books if you get a chance - they're really great), and the Just . . . series by Andy Griffith.

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Book: Conspiracy 365: May

Conspiracy 365: May
Gabrielle Lord, 2010

*Spoiler Warning* Fifth book in a series that really does follow on . . .

Cal's stuck in an asylum with someone elses identity. As far as he can see, there really is no way out. No matter what he does, he can't get them to realise who he is. Then Boges and Winter come through with an utterly ingenious plan allowing Cal to finally make it to Mt Helicon and his great uncle's place. Turns out that Uncle Barty's a bit of a wild genius, and the visit will have long lasting effects.

This is a bit of a quieter book as far as the series goes, and a lot of it is occuring in Cal's head, especially as he begins to make connections. Barty is a delightful character, and very helpful, particularly when they work out how the bad guys keep tracking Cal down. The action rises again at the end ready for June.

I'm interested to see the working group of two boys and a girl dynamic is at play here. This seems to be a popular trio in children's fiction. Of course it's most prevelant in Harry Potter, but it was also in the recent Australian book Noah's Law, Sticks by Joan Bauer and the 4 Powers of Daren Saner. Any ideas on why that combination is so popular?

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Book: Conspiracy 365: April

Conspiracy 365: April
Gabrielle Lord, 2010

*Spoiler warning* - This is a series best read in order as each book will spoil the previous ones . . .

Cal has managed to escape from a high speed chase and crash, turning the care of Lachlan over to an unsuspecting police officer. But there's no way he's going to make it to his great-uncle's place. Instead he needs to head back into the city to stop his mother from turning off Gabbi's life support. Cal keeps escaping from both the crims and the police, and we have the welcome return of Repro. There's also a couple of new possible allies in Griff the runaway and Melba, the old lady.

This book brings the first third of the series to an end with a particularly neat twist - Cal is landed in an asylum with his identity removed. Some interesting relations occur between Cal and his family here, along with the reveal of the Ormond Riddle. I did feel, however, that this book was a bit of a place filler as we waited for the action to heat up again.

Want to connect with other books with riddles - you can't go past Gregor the Overlander and the other books in that series or The 4 Powers of Daren Saner.

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Book: Pastures of the Blue Crane

Pastures of the Blue Crane
H. F. Brinsmead, 1964
(Reread)

I got this book from my aunt and uncle as a 9th birthday present, so there's no telling how many times I've reread it. And with so many books that you read first as a child and later as an adult, there are many layers that you keep peeling back everytime you read.

It tells the story of Ryl, the lonely but aloof 16 year old girl whose spent most of her life in boarding schools in Melbourne while her father worked in Papua New Guinea. After her father's death, she discovers that she has a grandfather she never knew about, as well as a property in northern New South Wales. Ryl doesn't take to her grandfather, Dusty, immediately, but when they discover that the property was where Dusty was born, they grudgingly decide to go and check it out.

This begins a strange set of relationships for Ryl - between herself and Dusty, the ramshackle house, the view, the neighbours, the local 'surfy' kids, the taxi driver descended from Australia's slave population and even the strange bird who visits the pink pastures. Soon Ryl is learning more about herself and the people around her than she ever thought possible.

This is, in many ways, a book of its time. Some of the language is cringe-worthy to us now, even though a book which place people of non-European background as 'just like us' was revolutionary for its time. It pays to remember that this was still a time of the White Australia Policy, and even non-English European immigrants were treated with derision and bigotry. The book also delves into the history of slavery in Australia. There was a time period when 'blackbirding' - taking slaves from the Pacific Islands to work on farms in Australia occured. It's a period of Australian history pretty much forgotten by all and sundry, but well described in this book.

The reason I keep coming back to this book is the layers in the characters. No one's all good or all bad. They interact with each other in very human ways. Ryl in in some ways a grown woman at 16, and in others still a little girl. It's a really lovely book and one that's well worth reading.

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Book: Conspiracy 365: March

Conspiracy 365: March
Gabrielle Lord, 2010

Once again, a quick reminder that there might be spoilers for earlier books in this review. It's a little unavoidable.

Interestingly, although Cal began the year almost completely alone in the world (literally at one point where he's in the water, with only sharks for company), as the year goes on he's collecting a bunch of people who can help him out as he tries to solve his father's mystery (and avoid being killed). March keeps him in contact with Boges (becoming more and more a Q like figure) and the might be helpful/might be trying to betray him Winter, but also introduces Repro - the man who lives off lost and abandoned property, the mysterious Jennifer Smith with her never-ending rotation of jobs and the kindly ute driver who's more than willing to participate in a high speed car chase.

The chase is, of course, just one of the dangers. We also have police officers closing in, and (in one of the most hideous scenes I've ever read) deadly snakes. Will Cal survive and will he keep his humanity intact as he does so? (Interesting to see him struggling with looking after others and right and wrong).

One of the things I'm quite enjoying about the series is the Australian-ness of it. It's not overtly in-your-face, but it feels like an Australian story set in Australian locations. Hopefully the younger authors also feel that.

Some more books that might connect to the series include John Marsden's Tomorrow When the War began series - particularly in the ways Cal/Marsden's characters use anything to keep themselves safe.

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Book: Conspiracy 365: February

Conspiracy 365: February
Gabrielle Lord, 2010

After I read the first Conspiracy 365 book (reviewed here), it was inevitable I would have to move on to the next one. After all, the first one left on a cliff hanger (which I fear will be a constant through the 12 books). Also, I promised my students I would.

Just a fair warning - obviously it'll be hard not to spoil little plot points from previous books. I'm trying not to give any more away than is on the back cover. However, if you're really spoiler phobic, I recommend going and reading the books themselves.

So, Cal's year of horror is continuing, as he escapes from the sump oil well (ugh) of January and launches into February. We soon meet a new friend (or is she?) in the floaty girl, Winter. Meanwhile, Cal's best friend Boges is still managing to be indispensable, despite the fact that school is returning.

These books definitely reside on the other side of reality. Cal, Boges and Winter are all Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu ish - able to leap tall buildings with a single bound (or break in to houses, zoos and other places where they shouldn't be). The events can be rather unrealistic too. Yet the build and release of suspense seems to work in this case, along with the 'how on earth can it get worse for Cal' wondering. (This book includes flooded drains, a lion and a battle with a train).

I think this book series would go well with other adventure types, including CHERUB, Percy Jackson and the Alex Rider series.


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Book: Conspiracy 365: January

Conspiracy 365: January
Gabrielle Lord, 2010

I wasn't too sure about this series at the beginning of the year. Quite frankly, it looked like a gimmick, a trick set of books. One would be released each month for a year, each book took place over the space of one month, and each book counted down until the end of the year. But I bought the first couple with the intentions of reading them and passing them on to my students.

I never got the chance to read them.

These books were devoured by my students. And the biggest readers weren't the boys who I think they were kind of aimed at. It turned out three girls were the most active readers of the books, even working out a complicated system of working out who got to read them first (often based on birth months). Since I've finally been able to get my hands on them, I thought I'd give them a go.

Callum Ormond is chased down a street by a staggering man telling him to be careful; he has to survive the next 365 days. No sooner than the new year starts, Cal finds himself in ever deeper trouble, from boating accidents to kidnapping to the attempted murder of his uncle and sister.

The book is really broken into short, kind of choppy sections which at first made it a little difficult to read. But it did work in keeping the action moving forward. You've got to read it properly though, so you can keep an eye on the passage of time.

All in all, a pretty exciting opening to the series.

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