Monuments (Will Kostakis, Lothian)
4 July 2019
Award-winning young adult author Will Kostakis makes his first foray into urban fantasy with Monuments, book one in a duology that has a massive scope but a local setting. Sixteen-year-old...
The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling (Wai Chim, A&U)
4 July 2019
Sixteen-year-old Anna comes from a relatively traditional Chinese-Australian family. Originally from Hong Kong, her father owns a restaurant while her mother stays at home to look after the children. Anna...
Grace’s Secrets (Louise Park, Berbay)
4 July 2019
Having relocated to a Scottish castle with her mother, Grace discovers a way into the past and promptly sets about helping her predecessors, even as her actual life seems to...
Kulinmaya! Keep Listening, Everybody! (Mumu Mike Williams, A&U)
4 July 2019
Pitjantjatjara artist and activist Mumu Mike Williams, aka Kunmanara, sought to hold the government to account on Indigenous issues through his subversive artwork, which repurposed Australia Post mailbags into painted...
Cryptosight (Nean McKenzie, MidnightSun)
4 July 2019
Cryptosight is a fun romp through regional Victoria, following Raff and his younger sister as they try to track down their missing monster-tracking father, while out-swerving the baddies at every...
The Gift (Michael Speechley, Picture Puffin)
4 July 2019
Rosie is a lonely little girl who misses her mum. Across the street from Rosie’s place is a scary and neglected-looking house. Rosie has never seen the person who lives...
I Am Change (Suzy Zail, Black Dog)
4 July 2019
Suzy Zail's latest novel tells the story of young Lilian, who wants nothing more than to go to school. However, poverty, outdated traditions and the simple fact she was born...
Jinxed!: The Curious Curse of Cora Bell (Rebecca McRitchie, illus by Sharon O’Connor, HarperCollins)
4 July 2019
Rebecca McRitchie follows the success of her ‘Whimsy and Woe’ duology with a new middle-grade fantasy series, of which Jinxed! is the first instalment. Cora lives in the tumbledown city...
The Lords of Melody (Phillip Gwynne, Puffin)
4 July 2019
Suzi Lord lives on a street full of mansions in an old weatherboard house bought by her ex-rock star parents while they were at the height of their fame with...
It Sounded Better in My Head (Nina Kenwood, Text)
6 June 2019
Natalie is caught in-between: between year 12 exams and uni results, between her parents’ slow-motion divorce, between her two best friends, Zach and Lucy, who have been dating for a...
Bitsy (Nicki Greenberg, Affirm Kids)
6 June 2019
We all know that bats are nocturnal creatures, but writer/illustrator Nicki Greenberg’s latest picture book takes this fact and subverts it: her bat, Bitsy, dares to behave differently from its...
All That Impossible Space (Anna Morgan, Lothian)
6 June 2019
Lara Laylor just wants to get through year 10 without too much drama, but between a controlling best friend and the shadow of an older sister with a much bigger...
A Boy Called Bob: Becomes an AFL footballer (Bob Murphy & Tony Wilson, Piccolo Nero)
6 June 2019
Bob is a boy from country Victoria who grew up loving footy. His first oval was actually a gravel-covered rectangle, but he dreamed of one day playing on the green...
Fashionista (Maxine Beneba Clarke, Lothian)
6 June 2019
The ever-versatile Maxine Beneba Clarke has worked within a number of genres (nonfiction, fiction, poetry, essays and children’s books) and now she is back with another picture book. The point...
Horatio Squeak (Karen Foxlee, illus by Evie Barrow, Walker)
6 June 2019
Horatio, the smallest and shyest in a large family of mice, lives in a very big house on a very grand street. One day he is invited to a party...
Argh! There’s a Skeleton Inside You! (Idan Ben-Barak & Julian Frost, A&U)
6 June 2019
Quog and Oort are two aliens. Quog is blobby and green; Oort is a pink gas cloud with three eyes. While on their way to a mate’s birthday their purple...
Promise (Alexandra Alt, Omnibus)
6 June 2019
Fifteen-year-old Lene wishes only to live a peaceful and happy life in Berlin with her family and neighbour Ludwig. But all around her World War II is raging: bombs are...
My Name is Not Peaseblossom (Jackie French, HarperCollins)
6 June 2019
Much-loved children’s author Jackie French brings us a new addition to her Shakespeare series with My Name is Not Peaseblossom. French has previously reinterpreted Shakespeare’s work, giving it a 21st-century...
Vincent and the Grandest Hotel on Earth (Lisa Nicol, Puffin)
6 June 2019
Not 10 pages after inheriting his grandfather’s ostensibly magical shoeshine kit, Vincent is scouted to shine shoes at the Grandest Hotel on Earth—a job that entails far more than it...
100 Ways to Fly (Michelle Taylor, UQP)
6 June 2019
100 Ways to Fly is Michelle Taylor’s third poetry collection for children. She is also a published poet for adults. This book contains a generous number of poems, usually one...
The Brilliant Ideas of Lily Green (Lisa Siberry, Hardie Grant Egmont)
6 June 2019
This debut middle-grade novel, which won Hardie Grant Egmont’s Ampersand Prize, ticks many familiar boxes. The main character: a 12-year-old on the cusp of maturity. The challenges: friendships, enemies, family,...
Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories (ed by Michael Earp, Walker)
16 May 2019
Among the boon of recent #LoveOzYA anthologies (Begin, End, Begin; Meet Me at the Intersection; Underdog), Kindred takes the unique position of being entirely devoted to stories by and about...
Fox & Bird (Edwina Wyatt, illus by Alice Lindstrom, Little Hare)
2 May 2019
Edwina Wyatt’s picture book is about testing the bonds of new friendship. Fox’s loneliness lends him to do strange things. He tries to befriend a bird but she has a...
One Careless Night (Christina Booth, Black Dog)
2 May 2019
Christina Booth is an award-winning author and illustrator who has previously collaborated with well-known Australian authors such as Colin Thiele and Jackie French. In One Careless Night, Booth recreates the...
Lights Out, Leonard (Josh Pyke, illus by Chris Nixon, Puffin)
2 May 2019
This book has a perennial theme—a child who’s scared of the dark—but with a really original twist: parents who write a manual on how to scare monsters. Chris Nixon’s illustrations...
So She Did: The Story of May Wirth (Simi Genziuk, illus by Renée Treml, Affirm)
2 May 2019
Born in Bundaberg in 1984, May Wirth showed an unusual knack for acrobatics at an early age. So much so that she was adopted by an equestrienne from the famous...
Cheeky Dogs: To Lake Nash and Back (Dion Beasley & Johanna Bell, A&U)
2 May 2019
Dion Beasley’s illustrated memoir details his early life moving between a couple of remote communities in the Northern Territory before settling at Tennant Creek. Both profoundly deaf and suffering muscular...
My Book (Not Yours) (Ben Sanders, Lothian)
2 May 2019
This is the first in what is slated to be a series of picture books featuring Lento (a sloth) and Fox (a fox). It joins the growing trend of books...
Secrets of a Schoolyard Millionaire (Nat Amoore, Puffin)
2 May 2019
In her first children’s book, Nat Amoore has created such a likeable heroine in Tess Heckleton, entrepreneur and life advice-giver, that her unlikely adventures and somewhat unlikely personality are entirely...
My Culture and Me (Gregg Dreise, Puffin)
4 April 2019
This beautiful picture book presents the voice of an Indigenous child relating the importance of knowing and living your culture. Beginning with an expression of love for Country and family,...
