Kathryn's Inbox

It's been a long time since I bought an Uncle Scrooge comic. Well, actually, the last time I bought one was in 2005 when Otter Press tried to bring it, and a number of other Disney comics back in print in Australia. Sadly, the Australian revival of Uncle Scrooge and other titles was short lived, lasting about six months or so. Back in the 1980s and early 1990s, Disney comics (usually imports from the US,) were far more abundant in Australia.* I used to buy them (mainly Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse ,) from a comic shop in Twin Street where my Uncle T used to work. (Later, Uncle T ran a comics stall at the Reynella Markets, and eventually became a bookseller.) Anyway, on a whim, I stopped by Pulp Fiction comics and had a look at their well stocked younger readers section, which was abundant with some lovely imports from the US. This Uncle Scrooge comic was one of them. Anyway, this particular comic featured Whom the Gods Would Destroy , an adventure that was originally publ...

Imagine a world where you are billed for every word you speak. A world where some words have a greater price than others, and where almost everything, from gestures to clothing, is subject to copyright. That's the world that Speth Jime is facing. From the day she turns fifteen, like all adults she will be charged for every word she speaks. Her transition will begin at her Last Day speech. The only trouble is, Speth is refusing to give her Last Day speech.  She has taken a vow of silence. And she might just spark a revolution. This was an intriguing read. Though a little farfetched, the novel has a lot to say about personal freedoms, and the dangers of regulating every aspect of our lives through lawsuits. Speth herself make for an interesting heroine--her vow of silence was unplanned, and now, such a drastic measure cannot be undone. And, of course, it turns out that silence has a very high price. The world building is done quite well. Ultimately, it's a gre...

When I was asked if I would like to review I Have Lost My Way , I responded almost immediately with an emphatic yes. I've read about half of Forman's novels and have enjoyed every one of them. I felt certain that I would enjoy this one too, and I'm very pleased to report that I was not disappointed. Told over the course of a single day, I Have Lost My Way tells the story of three very different young people who find each other in New York--Freya, a young musician on the cusp of fame, Harun who wants to run away from his family so that he can be with the person he loves and Nathaniel who has found himself alone after a family tragedy. The trio collide--quite literally--in Central Park. From there, I experienced a roller-coaster ride of emotions as their stories played out as flashbacks, while their present situations and newfound friendships helped each of the characters to influence one another for the better. (On a side note, I loved the trip to Hayden's offi...

Estonia in the tumultuous days following the Soviet Occupation is the setting for this novel about knitting, friendship and, ultimately, survival. Kati is the daughter of farmers who has seen her dreams of an education dashed when her parents decide to sent her brother to university instead. With her homeland now being taken over by the Red Army, her family survive only because their farm is able to provide them with much needed essentials. Kati's only solace is knitting, a skill that her beloved grandmother has passed down to her. With the other women from her knitting circle she makes beautiful lace shawls but even that is soon under threat. Meanwhile, many, many miles away, Lydia, a wealthy young woman longs to get away from her controlling uncle. A visit to her father who is stationed in Estonia will lead to some shocking events. Truths are uncovered, but new friendships and new loves are discovered amid a brutal regime ... Having been an avid knitter since the age of t...

Betty and Veronica are back and still fighting for Archie's attention in this neat little digest. Most of the comics have a winter theme, and fun abounds as we read the comic capers of these BFFs and a selection of stories that feature some of their friends--from Archie and Jughead to the glamourous Katy Keen.  This was my first visit back to the original Archie universe after reading Riverdale , and I was surprised at just how young the comics seem--it's definitely the sort to thing that would be of more interest to pre-teens and nostalgia buffs, rather than a strictly teenage audience. This book was published in digest format, and features comics from the Betty and Veronica series which was published between 1987 and 2015. (The series itself was recently relaunched with a more teenage and contemporary feel as part of the Archie reboot.) Lots of fun. Recommended.

I'm going to start this review with a confession. When I was thirteen, almost fourteen, I got ditched by a girl that I had been friendly with for some time. I was rather hurt about this and got my revenge in a rather strange (and mean) way. Her favourite book was A Wrinkle in Time . Now, at that time, this book was out of print in Australia, and ordering books online wasn't really a thing, so the only copy that my (former) friend had access to was at the local public library. I took great delight in borrow the single copy and keeping it for as long as I could without incurring a fine, or sometimes, I'd find it on the library shelves and go and hide it somewhere else in the library. Over the course of a few months I put it with the dog books, in the knitting section among the small range of VHS tapes and well ... you get the idea, until I eventually got bored with it and moved on. The only problem with this nasty little scheme of mine (apart from the fact that it prevent...

Beloved Australian author Tim Winton's latest novel is a timely mediation on toxic masculinity that packs a powerful--though occasionally depressing--punch. Jaxie Clackton is a teenage boy whose life is altered forever when he discovers the body of his abusive father crushed beneath the family car. Believing that he'll be accused of murder, Jaxie packs his things and decides to find refuge with the one person who understands him. To reach her means a long trek through the saltlands--harsh, dangerous country--and it's a journey that yields surprising results when he encounters an isolated hut and an eccentric Irish priest who believes that Jaxie is an instrument of God ... This was a novel that was in beautiful and disgusting in equal parts. Winton has a knack of getting inside the minds of his young male protagonists and sharing that journey with the reader. Jaxie's life has been shaped by the worst kind of masculine influences, as has the lives of other key cha...

I suspect that I've never seen this particular episode of the BSC TV series before, as I could not remember a thing about it, whereas with some of the others, I could remember a thing or two, whether it be a pie in the face of a mean girl, or a slogan that was yelled out several times during the episode (count on Court.) Or maybe this episode is just less memorable for me, because it moves away from the core themes of the series, babysitting and responsibility, and moves a little closer to romance, a theme that was often included but was never a core part of the BSC books.  Anyway, in this episode, Dawn becomes a bit infatuated with Jamie Anderson, a boy from their grade who plays on the school soccer team. Only trouble is, she has never even spoken to him. Never mind. It turns out that he and Mary Anne have English together.  In a further stroke of luck, Mary Anne has been tasked with collecting Jackie Rodowski from soccer lessons which are being taught by none o...

Seen this cover before somewhere? It's the first instalment of the Sabrina reboot from 2014. Like all good comic books there is a bit of parody in there as well ... and this one takes on none other than... ... Flowers in the Attic! It's cheeky and very clever considering that both Sabrina and FITA resonate with a similar target readership, along with the fact that Sabrina and Cathy Dollonganger are not only about the same age, but similar in appearance. I love it! 

This middle grade graphic novel certainly packs a punch for realism. And that's no surprise, considering that it is an autobiographical account of author Shannon Hale's experiences at Elementary School in the 1980s. All young Shannon really wants is a friend. She finds one in Adrienne, but as they get older, Adrienne wants to expand her social circle, which leads her to becoming friends with Jen, the most popular girl in their grade and the leader of 'the group.' From here on the author recounts her experiences with the group--their rules and complexities--and Shannon's experiences as a kid who wants to hang on to her friendship with Adrienne but who doesn't want to be a part of the group. Suddenly, every day at school is like torture, where Shannon doesn't know if the other girls will talk to her or not, if she'll be teased or not and what lies ahead. Meanwhile, life at home isn't great either. The middle kid in a family of five, Shannon often f...

Picking up from A Street Cat Named Bob, The World According to Bob tells us a bit more about the lives of Bob, a particularly intelligent cat and his companion, busker, The Big Issue seller and recovered addict, James Bowen. Their friendship is a remarkable story, as is the way that James has and continues to turn his life around, despite the numerous challenges that he faces such as ill health, people making false allegations about him to the police and various bureaucratic matters that he has to put up with as a seller of the The Big Issue.   James owns up to his past and takes responsibility for it, which is a big part of what makes this memoir so interesting. Well, second biggest part. Obviously his friendship with Bob is the most biggest part of this book. I was also interested in reading the parts about how the first Bob book was written and published--the author had no idea how his life was going to change, or how many readers would want to hear his story. This...

Sydney in 1932 is the setting for this paranormal story featuring two young women who are very different, but for one quirk. Both can see ghosts. Kelpie is a kid living on the streets of Sydney. The ghosts help (or sometimes hinder,) her survival. Meanwhile Dymphna is the girlfriend of a gangster who has long learned to ignore the ghosts. The pair bond over the corpse of gangster Jimmy Palmer, and Dymphna declares herself Kelpie's new protector. But things in Sydney are changing and neither Kelpie nor Dymphna is safe ... Told over the course of a day, Razorhurst is a mostly entertaining read. I say mostly as it had some faults that hindered the storytelling--in many ways it feels overlong and a little claustrophobic. The depiction of Sydney, and of the era, feels quite authentic. In some ways, the book felt a bit like a Sydney version of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, bigger, showier, bolder and with a bit more gore. Recommended. This book was read as part of ...

As comic and TV fans will no doubt be aware, the quirky and dark teen drama series Riverdale is a re-imagining of the Archie Comics, with Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica facing new challenges after one of their classmates drowned. And now the TV series has made its own transition into comic book form. It's like an Archie comic, only darker and characters who look more like the actors from the show than their original comic book counterparts. This series of comics tells shorter stories of what happened in between episodes of the television series. I have only seen bits and pieces of the television series, so it was interesting to come into all of this with my memories of comic book Archie still at the forefront of my mind. I was expecting something quite dark, and Riverdale provided me with just that. While you might be able to share an Archie comic with a twelve-year-old (because who loves reading about high school kids more than twelve year olds,) this is definitely ...

A post shared by Kathryn White (@kathrynsinbox) on Mar 3, 2018 at 4:25am PST I snapped this one at Adelaide Railway Station. Love the bit that says "No Sleeping on Platform Only Dancing".

Claudia has started making funky jewellery and she already has a buyer! A lady who runs a jewellery store in town loves what she sees when she discovers Claudia selling her wears at a local fair and puts in an order--complete with a fifty dollar deposit--for Claudia to make some more. After working with Kristy and Kristy's young stepsister Karen on the jewellery one afternoon, Kristy and Claudia are shocked to discover that the jewellery is missing. Could Julie, the mature age student who Kristy's Mum hired to do odd household jobs at the Brewer/Thomas house be a thief? The Baby-Sitters are determined to find out! Once again, this episode works around the premise of the BSC jumping to conclusions without all the facts, and the question of whether they spend too much time with the club and not enough with their families. This is the only episode in the series to feature Karen as a leading character, and sadly, she's reduced to being an annoying little sister, rather ...

The interesting thing about Sesame Street was that in between all of the lessons about well, everything for small children, there were also many great comic moments, usually between two muppets. In this particular scenario (which would have worked just as well on an episode of the Muppet Show,) the Count gets a job as an elevator operator and works with his usual, well, enthusiasm.

There is plenty of gore--and a very sinister crime to solve--in Gallery of the Dead , the latest thriller from bestselling author Chris Carter. Detective Hunter of the Ultra Violent Crime Squad is called to a shocking crime scene and it soon becomes clear that the killer is intent on making his victims into a well, disgusting piece of art. A hardcore psychological crime novel is a bit of a departure for me as a reader, but it was interesting to give this novel a chance and to piece things together to see if I could guess at what was to happen next. (Turns out I can't.) I found the whole thing interesting in a morbid kind of a way. This title will probably appeal to readers who are interested in reading about the darker side of humanity. Thank you to Simon and Schuster Australia for my review copy.