The Mapmaker Chronicles: Beyond the Edge of the Map by A.L. Tait

Mr 9 devoured the first three The Mapmaker Chronicles books recently and was thoroughly unimpressed when I told him he had to wait a month until the release of the fourth.

            “Argh! I want to read it now, Mum! A month is TOO LONG!”

When Beyond the Edge of the Map arrived he was one happy bookworm.

While Mr 9 is a great fan of the series, I hadn’t dipped my toe into the world of Verdania yet, but picked up the story and found myself immediately drawn into a new world.

“…Quinn’s mouth was dry. What did all this mean for Verdania? And if the King couldn’t keep Quinn safe, then who could?”

Beyond the Edge of the Map continues the story of Quinn, who in the previous books, trained as a mapmaker and took to the sea to create the first map of the world for King Orel. Quinn is now enjoying a quieter life working on the family farm when the King’s enemies come looking for him. For his own safety, and that of his family, Quinn has no choice but to set sail again.

Quinn and his crew fend off animal attacks, unscrupulous enemies and nature in all its fury. He is forced to take up responsibilities beyond his years and with every hardship overcome, new troubles present themselves. Beyond the Edge of the Map is always a fun, swashbuckling adventure even when Quinn’s chances of survival seem grim.

A.L. Tait creates characters that are relevant to modern readers without compromising the authenticity of Quinn’s time and place. Quinn is also a hero children can relate to, struggling with fear and self-doubt and, at times, a longing for home. We feel Quinn’s joy when he greets a friend and his fear when faced with an old foe.

I particularly enjoyed Quinn’s crew who provided comic relief and good natured banter at just the right moments as they complement Quinn strengths with their own skills.

Mr 9’s favourite character is definitely Quinn and he has decided to dress as Quinn for Book Week in August. A.L. Tait has some excellent costume tips on her website for kids wanting to do the same, so we’ll be taking our cues from there.

Mr 9 and I really enjoyed reading Beyond the Edge of the Map, and while Mr 9 is hoping Quinn will have a fifth adventure, I’m looking forward to introducing the books to Mr 7 soon.

The official The Mapmaker Chronicles website has some great links to extension activities including crafts, book recommendations and further reading about cartography.

Post book activity

As a children’s storyteller in my day job, I was preparing pirate stories this week, so dug out the map I made last year to use as a treasure map prop. It worked well to set the scene for the story and the children responded well to it.

With that in mind, and after reading Beyond the Edge of the Map, Mr 9 and I felt making our own maps was the perfect post book activity. We decided on a family walk on a sunny Canberra afternoon, to map a section of Lake Burley Griffin. Mr 9 and Miss 11 were armed with clipboards, paper and pencils to draw significant landmarks and chart a course which was at times challenging and full of peril.

The life of a mapmaker is fraught with danger as we dodged cyclists, Segways, fishermen and runners and the most terrifying creatures of all, dogs.

We passed the tunnel playground but decided not to stop, as it was swarming with frightening creatures (teenagers) and continued on, stopping to admire the view and sketch landmarks.

We saw plaques honouring Australians of the Year, the Captain Cook Memorial Jet and the statue of Robert Menzies. We also noticed how many Canberra landmarks were beyond the edges of our maps, such as the National Museum, the Australian War Memorial and Parliament House. The kids squished some of these onto their pages, while others remained in the distance, perhaps to be mapped another day on another walk.

The weather was nearly thirty degrees so we stopped for rations at a safe port (ice creams at a coffee van) then continued on into the sunset. We finished our activity where we started, more tired and sweaty than when we began but with a sense of satisfaction. The siren call of the cool shower whispered across the water.

When was your last adventure into the unknown and how did you capture the moment?

The Mapmaker Chronicles – Beyond the Edge of the Map was written by A.L. Tait and published by Hachette Australia.

Josh Earl - Oliver Up a Tree - Canberra Comedy Festival

I love going to comedy shows. My lifelong dream is to go to the Melbourne Comedy Festival for my 40th birthday.

As much as I love comedy, it is typically an adults only event, so when I heard that Josh Earl was bringing his kids’ comedy show, Oliver Up a Tree, to the Canberra Comedy Festival I booked straight away.

We took our seats at the Courtyard Theatre and Mr 9 asked me, “how many minutes to go?” “Fifteen,” I said. He asked the same question fourteen more times, so I was relieved the show started right on time.

Oliver Up a Tree is the tale of a boring town called Greyston and a boy called Oliver, who accidentally brings the town together when he climbs up a big tree, next to the public toilets.

As Josh told us about Oliver, he sang songs about Greyston and its residents (who were far more than they seemed), each with their amusing quirks. There was the librarian, who spent her days laminating signs in the book-less library. There was Oliver’s dad, a cleaner obsessed with toilets. And there was Nigel, the naughtiest boy in the town, who has a hilarious rant about a classic nursery rhyme.

In additions to these, Mr 7’s favourite character was the baker, who comes to the rescue with sandwiches and something bigger and sweeter. Mr 9 loved Mr Bill, the grumpy postman with a softer, squishier side and Miss 11 loved the pair of bumbling policeman, She also loved the message of the show, that everyone has a story to tell.

As the story unfolded there were some particularly fun moments of audience participation that took us right into the story: I don’t want to spoil the show, all I’ll say is the kids in the audience were up and out of their seats, running riot and giggling maniacally.

I know how hard entertaining kids can be. I have told stories to kids who fidget, pick their noses and interrupt to tell me they have Ninja Turtle socks. So seeing a roomful of kids so engaged for an hour is testament to Josh Earl’s comedy, his characters and the power of a good story.

We had a great time, we laughed a lot and the story was utterly charming.

Josh will be performing Oliver Up a Tree at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival this April. if you're in Melbourne, I'd recommend you get your tickets as soon as possible as the Canberra shows sold out!

What was the last live show you enjoyed with kids? Can you remember a great show you saw when you were a kid?

Frankie Fish and the Sonic Suitcase by Peter Helliar

 “You took too long getting ready for bed, so you only get that one chapter tonight,” I said to Mr 7 and Mr 9. It was the ultimate threat.  

“Noooo!!! Read more, read more!”

“Ohhhh, okay, just one more chapter.” I was too easily swayed, but I really wanted to read one more chapter too. The boys loved Frankie Fish right from the beginning and so did I.

Frankie Fish is a prankster, and after a prank goes wrong at school, he is forced to spend the school holidays with his grandparents – his grandmother and grumpy old fart grandfather, Alfie Fish. Frankie and Alfie don’t see eye to eye and Frankie quickly becomes bored. Before long, an experiment of Alfie’s goes awry, and Frankie and Alfie head off on a journey through space and time to save Frankie’s family.

Along the way the Fish men meet familiar faces from the past, and there’s a hook hand, a forbidden shed and even a villain to boo and hiss at. We also see a relationship blossom between a crusty old man and his cheeky grandson.

Many of the chapters in Frankie Fish end on cliffhangers leaving Mr 7 and Mr 9 to speculate as to Frankie’s fate as they fell asleep each night, desperate to know what happened next. Would they save Frankie’s family? Would they be trapped in another time? Would Frankie’s face become a bad knock-off of a Picasso?

With five chapters left, we headed to the coast for the Canberra Day long weekend with every other Canberran. The kids shared a bedroom and I read a chapter of Frankie Fish to them on our arrival. Miss 11 listened in and the next morning decided to read it too. She refused to leave the house until she had read up to our bookmark. When she finally did, we gathered around to finish the book, Miss 11 and Mr 9 on the edge of their seats, while Mr 7 read over my shoulder, bouncing up and down with each plot twist until the satisfying conclusion.

Frankie Fish and the Sonic Suitcase was full of laughs from the get-go, with some delights sprinkled through for the adults too. In the first chapter, I chuckled at a 90s reference that went right over the boys’ heads but they didn’t miss the Doctor Who references, as we’re a family of geeks counting the weeks until the new series comes out (FIVE WEEKS!).

Helliar’s writing style is a masterclass in the use of simile and given that many of his readers would be learning about metaphors and similes at school, he shows how much they can add to the colour and humour of a story when done well. One in particular amused me so much I kept quoting it to the kids., “her red hair flowed down her back like a waterless hairy waterfall.”

“Mum! Did you see, there’s a number one on the spine. That means there’s going to be more! Do you think the author is writing it now?” Mr 9 squealed. I was very glad to read that Frankie Fish is set to be a series. I love it when I find a book that appeals to all three of my kids and this one certainly did. We had such a fun time reading the book and can’t wait for the next instalment.

Post book activity – Prank-o-rama (aka “Let’s Prank Dad!”)

After reading Frankie Fish, Mr 7 asked me if I had ever played any pranks as a kid. Why, yes I did.

I once dressed my little brother in my clothes with an ash blonde wig to pose as my friend. He climbed over our side gate and knocked on the front door. When our Nana answered, he asked if he could come in and play with Holly. Nana fell for it hook, line and sinker! She later said, “I couldn’t get over what a strange looking little girl she was.”

When I was older, I phoned my Dad from another room, convinced him I was a client wanting to arrange a meeting. If I hadn’t told him the truth later that night, he was going on a four hour car trip the following week to meet the staff at my fictional winery.

In my first year of high school, I told my best friends, on April Fool’s Day, that we were moving from Perth to Sydney. They were rather upset. This one backfired a few months later when another member of our group told us she was moving to Melbourne. We didn’t believe her, we made her swear on a stack of lunchbox lids that she was telling the truth. She was! She moved to Melbourne, boohoo!

After sharing my fond memories of pranking, I did what any good parent would do and said, “Let’s prank Dad!”

The easiest option would be to tamper with his breakfast cereal, a hidden plastic spider, or a generous sprinkling of salt, perhaps? We could log into Netflix, delete his bookmarked shows and replace them with Fuller House, but I’m not a monster!

Dad is not easily fooled. He is logical, cynical and observant. Not like me, as after reading the book, we went to the beach where I sat on the water’s edge with my feet buried in the sand. Mr 9 convinced me my own toe was a seashell and I reached to pick it up. In the words of Bugs Bunny, “what an ultra-maroon.”

We were having churros with strawberries, melted chocolate and ice cream for dessert. Yummy. What could we do to the dessert? Pepper on the churros, yeahhhhh. So we served up everyone’s dessert and sat and waited…Dad tucked into the ice cream first, swirling the melted chocolate around his plate and started to dip in the churros and gobble them up. Four small churros on the plate…three…two…any minute now…one.

My own, non peppery, churros

“So, what did you think?”

"It was alright.”

He didn’t notice. He didn’t notice that one of his churros was covered in black pepper! After all our anticipation, our prank was a total fail. Now we’re going to have to wait a long time to prank him again. He’s onto us now.

Have you played a prank on someone? Was it successful? Please let me know in the comments.

The Other Christy by Oliver Phommavanh

Miss 11 and I read The Other Christy last week after I heard Oliver Phommavanh interviewed on the So You Want to Be a Writer podcast.

The Other Christy is about family, school and the struggle to make friends when you are a bit different. Christy Ung lives with her grandfather and enjoys baking with her Aunty Mayly. At school Christy is in the same class as Christie Owens, an outgoing and popular girl who overshadows Christy and earns her the nickname The Other Christy.

Christy desperately wants to fit in. She and her family moved to Australia from Cambodia when she was in grade four. Now she’s in grade 6 and she wants a real friend, a best friend. Her approach to making friends is to try and win them over with her baking.

Miss 11 and I loved the parts of the book where Christy and her aunty bake treats together. Some of their creations sounded most appetising, such as the triple berry muffins and white chocolate chip cookies. Other food in the book, like bitter melon soup, sounded less appealing.

Christy spends much of her free time helping her grandpa to clean their house and her lunch breaks at school watching over the children like her, the others who can’t find their place in the social pecking order.

Oliver paints a realistic picture of an Aussie classroom and the struggles of fitting in when you’re a bit different. Plenty of kids will relate to Christy as she tries to balance her love for her quirky grandpa, with the fear of being embarrassed by him.

My children attend a school with many students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Every year they celebrate Harmony Day and share food and activities from around the world. They have classmates from all over the world, but The Other Christy offered something else, it gave Miss 11 a chance to see an Aussie school through the eyes of a new Australian, in the way that some of her classmates might see it.
 

Post book activity

Blackberries, white chocolate chips.

Our post book activity was to do a spot of cooking! I tend to bake more with the little brothers and it was lovely to get a chance to cook with Miss 11.

We made Blackberry and White Chocolate Muffins inspired by the triple berry muffins and white chocolate chip cookies Christy makes with Aunt Mayly in The Other Christy.

“How many chocolate chips?” asked Miss 11.

“About half a cup.”

“Oops…this much?” she asked, holding up nearly a full cup of white chocolate chips.

“Sure, chuck ‘em in!”

The batch of muffins came in handy as the school swimming carnival was the following day and Miss 11 needed an energy boost after her races. I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of blackberries, but in this recipe they were yummy and much appreciated before my early morning walk.

Shall we make bitter melon soup next?

The Other Christy was written by Oliver Phommavanh and published by Penguin.

Film Review - Hidden Figures (PG)

I took Miss 11 and Mr 9 to see Hidden Figures last weekend. Hidden Figures tells the story of three trailblazing African American women working at NASA in Virginia in the 1960s: Katherine Gobel, a brilliant mathematician, Mary Johnson, an aspiring engineer and Dorothy Vaughn their unofficial supervisor.

The women work as human computers, performing calculations that were used to launch Friendship 7 in 1962, when John Glen became the first American to orbit earth.

We follow Katherine (played by Taraji P. Henson), Mary (Janelle Monae) and Dorothy (Octavia Spencer) in their careers and home lives and see how segregation in the southern states of the US impeded their chances for career progression. Even the tiniest things made their lives so much harder than their white counterparts. Segregation in basic amenities, access to education and opportunities for promotion and fair pay all stood in the way and they had to worker harder and achieve more than their counterparts just to be recognised.

If your kids don’t know about segregation, it would be a good idea to give them an overview before you go. My kids already knew that in parts of the US during the 1960s, African American people weren’t legally permitted to use the same bathrooms or restaurants as white people and were forced to sit up the back on buses. We had talked about it before the movie and they had seen a Horrible Histories segment about Rosa Parks.

Hidden Figures Trailer 1 (2017) Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monáe Drama Movie HD [Official Trailer]

Hidden Figures is a terrific family film with enough drama and humour to entertain and challenge people of all ages as well as great role models and touching performances. There isn’t anything in the film that I would consider inappropriate for kids, but the content might go over the heads of anyone younger than around 9 or 10.

If you have a child with an interest in the space race, take them to see Hidden Figures. If you have a daughter with an interest in STEM, take her to see. If you have a daughter with no interest in STEM, take her to see it, it might change her mind!

Post film activity

Hidden Figures had plenty of material to inspire post-film discussions, so we had a chat in the car on the way home about our favourite scenes and characters and wondered which scenes in the film were closest to the true story.

For kids who are interested in learning more about pioneering STEM women we can recommend the following books:

o   Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly (the basis for the film – there is a young reader edition too)

o   Bessie Coleman’s Story by L.J. Maxie

o   I Am Amelia Earhart by Brad Meltzer

o   Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World by Kate Pankhurst

o   Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History by Sam Maggs