Thursday, 31 May 2018
There have been some beautiful, compassionate picture books that feature the plight of refugees and their search for a peaceful life away from war and poverty. Joining these is this...

Thursday, 31 May 2018
A fable about a young girl in Kabul during the Taliban occupation hardly sounds like the stuff of picture books so Sonam and the Silence was warily approached. However, fear...

Thursday, 31 May 2018
Caroline Magerl has a very distinctive style of illustration and this book does not disappoint. It’s full of cats. ‘On a roof, as wet as a seal, as grey as...

Friday, 4 May 2018
Twelve-year-old Clara wakes up one day to a city where all the men and boys are afflicted by a mystery illness that leaves them unconscious and unresponsive but thankfully still...

Friday, 4 May 2018
Five teenagers living in a small town become anonymous online friends, without realising they hate each other in real life. The common thread they share is that they all believe...

Friday, 4 May 2018
Hayley is a beekeeper, content with her place in her small, rigid, underwater world ruled over by a shadowy council. But while her friend Celia dreams of marrying a ‘netter...

Friday, 4 May 2018
Wren longs for peace and quiet but, alas, his rambunctious family create havoc as naturally as they breathe. When a noisy baby sister joins the clan, Wren puts his foot...

Friday, 4 May 2018
The Colter siblings have learned to look after each other in the dangerous Brakkerswamp, so when Ottilie’s brother Gully is kidnapped under mysterious circumstances, it falls to her to save...

Friday, 4 May 2018
Duck!, from award-winning writer Meg McKinlay, is perhaps the most delightful picture book to feature a drawn-out play on a single word. The clues, laid out expertly in Nathaniel Eckstrom’s...

Friday, 13 April 2018
The Orchard Underground is a funny and intriguing debut that’s mercifully free of a ‘tween’ sensibility but never patronising to its upper-primary readers. The story is fresh and strange: the...

Friday, 13 April 2018
Most people will remember the spine-tingling feeling of lying in bed at night and imagining there are monsters in their bedroom—and the comfort of realising that they’re safely snuggled up...

Friday, 13 April 2018
Sixteen-year-old Bones Carter has a lot going on. With his obsessive-compulsive tendencies, anxiety, germ-phobia, separated parents and regular harassment at the hands of his older brother Trav and school bully...

Thursday, 12 April 2018
Kittens and cats are so passé; how much more fun would it be to have a pet tiger instead? The cover—with its smiley little blonde girl trying to affix a...

Thursday, 12 April 2018
Eleven-year-old Cassie Anderson, Peacock Detective, like all great detectives, is good at noticing things. She notices the scratches in the corner of the cage when the peacocks William Shakespeare and...

Thursday, 12 April 2018
Sophie grows up saddled with a missing dad and an unreliable alcoholic mother. At the tender age of 12, she finds her mother dead and blames herself. As there is...

Thursday, 12 April 2018
Like Alice through the looking glass, Dorothy in Oz and Wendy in Neverland, Kit Learmonth’s childhood was full of fantastical adventures: pirates, witches, fairies and battles with terrible monsters. But...

Thursday, 1 March 2018
As a child, Tash Carmody witnessed the kidnapping of Mallory Fisher. Yet nobody would believe her account of the event—that Mallory was abducted by Tash’s imaginary friend Sparrow. Nine years...

Thursday, 1 March 2018
After her Ampersand Prize-winning debut The Flywheel, Erin Gough’s second novel has been eagerly anticipated. Amelia Westlake has been worth the wait. This is a brilliant social satire with a...

Thursday, 1 March 2018
Comedian Sammy J is a natural storyteller, and his debut children’s novel is a testament to his ability to craft an entertaining tale. This first title in a planned series...