Meltdown (Lauren Novak, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 9 December 2025
Meltdown is a heavily researched yet highly accessible examination of “mum rage”, the gendered term the book uses to describe anger experienced in motherhood, exploring why it happens and how...
Red Star Rebels (Amie Kaufman, A&U Children’s)
Tuesday, 9 December 2025
Amie Kaufman is a well-known name in young adult speculative fiction, particularly for the bestselling Starbound and Illuminae Files series (co-authored with Megan Spooner and Jay Kristoff respectively). Red Star...
Romeo v Juliet (RA Spratt, Penguin)
Tuesday, 9 December 2025
Bestselling author RA Spratt’s Romeo v Juliet is a light-hearted time-travelling comedy that will appeal to older middle-grade and younger YA audiences aged 12 and up. When 16-year-old Selby, a...
My Brother Otto (Ingrid Laguna, Text)
Tuesday, 9 December 2025
In My Brother Otto, Ingrid Laguna (Edie Tells a Lie) explores the emotional upheaval of welcoming and losing a new sibling. Quinn is 11 years old and happy being an...
The World from Here (Cassy Polimeni, illus Mel Armstrong, CSIRO Publishing)
Tuesday, 9 December 2025
Cassy Polimeni, whose junior fiction novel Ella and the Amazing Frog Orchestra won the Wilderness Society’s Environment Award, brings her gift for accessible science to The World from Here. In...
Saving Shark Pup: The Incredible True Story (Sharon Dalgleish, illus Amandine Thomas, A&U Children’s)
Tuesday, 9 December 2025
Saving Shark Pup: The Incredible True Story is an intriguing and emotive retelling of a great white shark pup’s dramatic rescue from Manly Beach, sure to captivate readers aged 4...
Two Tongues (Maria van Neerven, UQP)
Tuesday, 9 December 2025
Two Tongues is a memoir of language and memory told through poetry. Mununjali woman from the Yugambeh nation Maria van Neerven structures the collection in three chronological parts, tracing her...
A Time of Living Graciously: Reflections on Growing Older (Brigid Lowry, Fremantle)
Tuesday, 9 December 2025
In a culture obsessed with youth and productivity, it’s easy to forget that rest is not laziness, aging is not failure and our worth is not measured by output. Brigid...
Bugger (Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Hachette)
Tuesday, 9 December 2025
Bugger by Michael Mohammed Ahmad (The Lebs, The Tribe) is a heart-wrenching investigation into child sex abuse. Its protagonist, Hamoodi, is an isolated 10-year-old who adores Power Rangers and lives...
The Sisterhood Rules (Kathy Lette, Aria)
Tuesday, 9 December 2025
Bawdy, cheeky and resoundingly “punny”, Kathy Lette’s latest romp, The Sisterhood Rules, is 100% on brand. Twin sisters Isabel and Verity have been estranged for five years, ever since Verity...
How to Make Friends and Go Viral by Accident (YK Willemse, Rhiza Edge)
Tuesday, 2 December 2025
The novella How to Make Friends and Go Viral by Accident by YK Willemse (Jerry’s Window) follows 13-year-old Hayden Connor as he struggles with a speech impediment and the anxiety...
How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates (Shailee Thompson, Atria Australia)
Tuesday, 2 December 2025
Shailee Thompson’s debut, How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates, is a genre-blending good time that captures the zeitgeist with its mélange of romantic comedy and horror, movie quotes...
Bush Tukka Guide for Kids (Samantha Martin, Hardie Grant Explore)
Tuesday, 2 December 2025
Bush Tukka Guide for Kids by Samantha Martin, a descendant of the Jaru people, is an exceptional book about so much more than food. Known as the “Bush Tukka Woman”,...
Muttonfish Magic (Ruth Simms & Lucy Robertson, illus Jasmine Seymour, Magabala)
Tuesday, 2 December 2025
Muttonfish Magic honours the Kameragyl and Bidjigal people, the traditional custodians of the land around Kamay (Botany Bay) and Guriwal (La Perouse). With sensory lyricism, Bidjigal Elder Ruth Simms and...
My Sister, the Todzilla (Jacinta Froud, illus Matt Shanks, Affirm)
Tuesday, 2 December 2025
Many parents and older siblings of toddlers will relate to the premise of Jacinta Froud’s My Sister, the Todzilla – a hilarious and entirely recognisable take on toddler tantrums, presented...
Wurnan: Sharing on Ngarinyin Country (Wilinggin Aboriginal Corporation, Magabala)
Tuesday, 2 December 2025
Wurnan: Sharing on Ngarinyin Country, created by the Wilinggin Aboriginal Corporation, is a powerful cultural record that documents the people, artists, stories, traditions and artefacts of Ngarinyin Country in the...
The Break Up (It’s a Twin Thing! #1) (Kristin Darell, illus A Yi, Penguin)
Tuesday, 2 December 2025
Kristin Darell’s The Break Up, the first in a new series illustrated by A Yi, is a middle-grade novel that explores the complexities of primary school friendships with drama, humour...
Plotting the Oceans: Stories of Powerful Maps and Their Makers (Sarah Hamylton, Monash University Publishing)
Tuesday, 2 December 2025
In Plotting the Oceans: Stories of Powerful Maps and Their Makers, Sarah Hamylton reveals how maps chart landscapes and shape how we understand and connect with the world around us....
The Duke’s Secret (Sue Williams, A&U)
Tuesday, 2 December 2025
In The Duke’s Secret, the latest historical fiction by Sue Williams (The Governor, His Wife and His Mistress), journalist Ava Washington sets out to verify a family legend. According to...
In a Common Hour (Sita Walker, Ultimo)
Tuesday, 2 December 2025
Dedicated to the Queensland state school teachers she works alongside, Sita Walker’s debut novel, In a Common Hour, offers readers a story with universal school politics. Over the course of...
The Watchmaker’s War (Danny Ben-Moshe, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 25 November 2025
In Danny Ben-Moshe’s debut novel, The Watchmaker’s War, Yakov Holtzman, a former Lithuanian underground resistance commander, hopes to leave the trauma of World War II behind him as he makes...
AI for Business: A Guide to AI Adoption (Jon Whittle, CSIRO Publishing)
Tuesday, 25 November 2025
As artificial intelligence becomes the latest business buzzword, many people equate it solely with generative tools like ChatGPT. In AI for Business: A Guide to AI Adoption, director of CSIRO’s...
The Last Resort (Amanda Hewitt, Echo)
Tuesday, 25 November 2025
Amanda Hewitt’s debut, The Last Resort, opens with Abbey, newly divorced and reeling from the end of her marriage, as she seeks solace in the Maldives. During a late-night swim,...
Yet She Lives: Fierce and Fantastical Women of Norse Mythology (Lisa Hannett, T&H)
Tuesday, 25 November 2025
In Yet She Lives: Fierce and Fantastical Women of Norse Mythology, Lisa Hannett brings giantesses, witches and warriors from the ancient world to life. Building on the work of her...
The Other Child (Susi Fox, Penguin)
Tuesday, 18 November 2025
Susi Fox’s The Other Child opens with obstetrician Lauren De Vale returning to work after the birth of her second child, Charlotte, and finding it harder than she expected. Lauren...
A Brain That Breathes: Essential Habits for an Overwhelming World (Jodi Wilson, Murdoch)
Tuesday, 18 November 2025
Amid the frantic pace of modern life and the wellness industry’s constant stream of coping strategies, yoga instructor and blogger Jodi Wilson’s A Brain That Breathes offers a gentler alternative....
Dreamwives (Claire Novak, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 18 November 2025
Claire Novak’s Dreamwives is a hearty and entertaining contemporary “mum-com” novel that pays tribute to and shines a light on women's invisible labour. Katrina and Michelle are no strangers to...
How to Get Home (Deborah Frenkel, illus Karen Blair, Affirm)
Tuesday, 11 November 2025
How to Get Home is a charming collaboration between author Deborah Frenkel (The Truck Cat) and illustrator Karen Blair (When I’m BIG, Train Party) that revels in the everyday words surrounding...
Might Cry Later (Kay Kerr, Macmillan)
Tuesday, 11 November 2025
In Kay Kerr’s adult fiction debut, Might Cry Later, Nora Byrne is burnt out and struggling to reclaim herself after blowing up her life in Melbourne. By Christmas, she’s back...
Dark Desert Road (Tim Ayliffe, Echo)
Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Tim Ayliffe’s Dark Desert Road follows identical twins Kit and Billie, who grew up under their father’s violent rule – a man scarred by his trauma from serving in Afghanistan....




