Alexa Dretzke
Alexa Dretzke is a children’s & YA book specialist at Readings Hawthorn
Review — 29 Mar 2022
Whisper on the Wind by Claire Saxby
Dreams and breezes and moonbeams introduce us to a sleeping child, Ren, safe in her lighthouse home. As she sleeps, a whisper from her dream is carried by the wind…
Review — 28 Mar 2022
The Bookseller at the End of the World by Ruth Shaw
I knew nothing about Ruth Shaw or her Two Wee Bookshops in beautiful tiny Manapouri on New Zealand’s South Island. An author photo in her memoir shows a smiling older…
Review — 28 Feb 2022
When You're Older by Sofie Laguna
As Richard Branson once said, ‘imagination is one of humanity’s greatest qualities’.
Books such as When You’re Older fuel the imagination, encouraging children to dream and wonder. As a young…
Review — 26 Apr 2022
How to Tackle Your Dreams by Fiona Hardy
The joy of How to Tackle Your Dreams is the meeting of AFL with fashion design, well, a sort of fashion design. All from a young boy trying to navigate…
Review — 24 Jan 2022
In an Artist's Garden by Claire Orrell
‘Have you ever wondered where magic is found? Why it’s in the garden, of course.’
So begins this gorgeous, fun seek-and-find book which introduces young readers to the gardens of…
Review — 2 Nov 2021
Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller by Nadia Wassef
Let me tell you where I have been this week – Cairo! Jealous? Of course, but the good news is you can go too. I loved the visit: it was…
Review — 4 Oct 2021
The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo
In a medieval land, where monks produce illuminated manuscripts, Brother Edik adds a prophecy to the book of the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing. Edik lives in a violent…
Review — 6 Sep 2021
The Tiny Explorers by Kat Macleod
Sometimes a lovely picture book comes along and inspires the imagination. The Tiny Explorers is such a book with its mixed-media illustrations and sumptuous palette. A group of miniature young…
Review — 1 Aug 2021
Aven Green Sleuthing Machine by Dusti Bowling
In this funny and quirky story, the wonderful author Dusti Bowling introduces younger readers to Aven Green – the main character from Bowling’s Insignificant Events in the Life of a…
Review — 1 Aug 2021
Mim and the Baffling Bully by Katrina Nannestad
All bookshops are magical places but the Travelling Bookshop takes magical to another level. Wherever it goes, enchantment follows, and usually it’s for a good reason: a problem to resolve…
