A family of Strangers
Fiona Lowe
Read by Rebecca Macauley
Bolinda Audio

Fiona Lowe knows women. As with Lowe’s Home Fires and Just an ordinary family, she has an innate ability to portray women through many generations, in recognisable and realistic depictions. Each has their own struggle, and each benefits from the friendship that develops throughout the story.

In all of Lowe’s stories, she paints a vivid setting and selects a medium for bringing her women characters together so that they can support each other when in need. In A family of strangers, it is a beach town in Tasmania that sets the scene, and a community choir to bring each character’s problems to a head.

Addy has returned to the Cove and bears a shameful secret that she won’t tell anyone. She battles her secret trauma through being a work-a-holic and drinking. Neither of these strategies do her any good and she is unsure who she can turn to for support.

Steph wants to conceive. She and her husband Henry have hatched a dream-like plan for their life that begins now, when they move to the cove. Only, things don’t go at all like planned, and the unexpected addition of Steph’s 13 year old step-daughter adds some potholes to the already rocky road.

Zoe has been sent to live with her dad and step-mum, Steph. She must change schools, change locations and make new friends. There is one girl who wants to be her friend. She’s bubbly and naïve. At first Zoe tolerates her but soon realises that good friends are like gold.

Brenda has a secret. One that she can’t bear to tell her adult children, especially her over controlling daughter Courtney. She does everything she can to keep up appearances and maintain the image of herself as a farmer’s wife, but the secret is doing more damage than it’s worth.

Courtney needs control. When she discovers that her daughter has befriended the far from poster girl Zoe, she fears that the influence of this new 13 year old will lead her own daughter on a terrible path. She uses all of her powers as a mother to roadblock the friendship.
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This is a story that you’ll find difficult to put down and as always, as an audiobook, Rebecca Macauley does each character perfect justice!

Garlic and the Witch
Bree Paulsen
Quill Tree Books 2022
 
Garlic and the Witch is an adorable graphic novel pitched perfectly for middle primary aged children. The story is a modern fable that tackles the fears and challenges of a person going through changes. The lovable characters include little Garlic, a witch called Agnes and a vampire called Count.

As Garlic grows and transforms, she learns that in time, everyone goes through their own changes. The characters in Garlic and the Witch are friendly and accepting of each other’s differences. With gorgeous pictures and unique characters, this story is inclusive and guiding for any young one who feels nervous about changes the future may hold.
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Bree Paulsen is a Canadian born comic writer and illustrator. With her expressively drawn characters and cartoon-like settings, the pictures are reminiscent of Ghibli studio images, which may be partly why I fell so quickly in love with this comic book. Paulsen studied animation at Laguna College of Art and has created a webcomic called Patrik the Vampire, as well as the first of this series called Garlic and the Vampire (2021).