Books+Publishing magazine Issue 3 2015

Books+Publishing magazine’s third issue for 2015 is out now! Inside you’ll find 30 reviews of adult and children’s books publishing in September, October and November.

Just one adult book scored five stars in this issue: Miles Allinson’s debut novel Fever of Animals (Scribe, September), which won the 2014 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. Reviewer Veronica Sullivan describes it as an ‘unsettling and deeply impressive debut’. She interviews the author here. 

Charlotte Wood’s The Natural Way of Things (A&U, October)—‘a powerful story of misogyny and corporate control’—scored four-and-a-half stars from reviewer Portia Lindsay, while many more titles received four stars.

Among the features in this issue we preview books for Father’s Day and Christmas; Vicki Stegink reports on the trajectory of publishing job ads; and David M Henley ponders the question: why is fantasy trumping science-fiction on the shelves? Career Co-op bookseller Karen Russell shares her bookseller’s diary and several booksellers tell us whether they support universal cover design.

» Junior Term 3 

Danny Best: Full On (ABC Books, October), the first book in Jen Storer and Mitch Vane’s new series for younger readers, scored five stars from reviewer Dani Solomon. ‘I was thoroughly entertained and will enjoy recommending it to boys aged seven and up, especially ones with mischievous twinkles in their eyes!’ writes Solomon. She interviews Storer here. 

Lucy Estela’s debut picture book Suri’s Wall (illus by Matt Ottley, Viking) scored four-and-a-half stars. ‘This imaginative story explores the strength of the human spirit in the face of isolation and destruction, and is inspired by the author’s own struggle with difference and the issues around young people in detention centres,’ writes reviewer Romi Sharp.

Fiona Wood’s new YA novel Cloudwish (Pan Macmillan)—‘about bullying, friendship, first love, family drama and Jane Eyre’—also scored four-and-a-half stars from reviewer Meg Whelan, who writes that ‘there isn’t a single person who is or was a teenager who won’t be able to identify with this beautiful, powerful new book’.

This issue also contains feature articles on two children’s publishing trends—illustrated children nonfiction and books by vloggers—as well as interviews with authors Michael Wagner and Emily Rodda, and a glimpse into the career of teacher-librarian Susan La Marca.

All these reviews, interviews and stories, and many more, can be found at our website: www.booksandpublishing.com.au

Category: In the magazine