Wirrawoorliny/Whirlwind (Kim Scott, Cass Lynch & Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project, illus Monique Farmer, UWA Publishing)
Tuesday, 23 September 2025
Wirrawoorliny/Whirlwind sweeps readers onto Noongar Country, where a boy is eaten by a djanak (devil) and later put back together by a mysterious whirlwind. It is ‘an old story retold’...
Collision (Kelvin Templeton, Wilkinson Publishing)
Tuesday, 23 September 2025
Kevin Templeton’s debut novel, Collision, transports readers to Melbourne during the 1970s and 1980s and into the world of 20-year-old Joshua Shamrock, whose life revolves around football, sex and booze. Raised in...
Mega! Australia’s Megafauna (Laura Holloway, illus by Liz Duthie, Wild Dog)
Tuesday, 23 September 2025
Move over, dinosaurs – Australia’s megafauna are stomping in with Laura Holloway’s Mega! Australia’s Megafauna. In this engaging and appealing nonfiction picture book, giant echidnas, kangaroos, pythons and many more...
The Hiding Place (Kate Mildenhall, Scribner)
Tuesday, 16 September 2025
No stranger to the literary scene, Kate Mildenhall (The Mother Fault, Skylarking, The Hummingbird Effect) returns with The Hiding Place, an eminently readable and vividly imagined novel. Four families seeking...
Yes, No, Maybe (Ursula Dubosarsky, illus Andrew Joyner, Little Book Press)
Tuesday, 16 September 2025
Children are inquisitive – they wonder, observe and ask questions. In Yes, No, Maybe, acclaimed collaborators Ursula Dubosarsky and Andrew Joyner (The Terrible Plop, Too Many Elephants in This House)...
Escape from Sherwood (Beattie Alvarez, illus David Allan, Christmas Press)
Tuesday, 16 September 2025
Something lurks just beyond the screen in Beattie Alvarez’s Escape from Sherwood, as Michael enters into a retro-style video game alongside his sister, his best friend, and a girl who...
Not Quite White in the Head (Melissa Lucashenko, UQP)
Tuesday, 16 September 2025
Melissa Lucashenko’s Not Quite White in the Head shines a light on the beauty and pain that exist simultaneously in Australia as a colonised nation. Spanning 20 pieces, the book...
Outback Country: A Collection of Short Stories from Cunnamulla (Kids from Cunnamulla, ILF)
Tuesday, 16 September 2025
Outback Country by Kids from Cunnamulla is a spirited collection of short stories that capture life in the town through children’s eyes. Produced through the Indigenous Literacy Foundation’s Community Publishing...
Mary Penfold (Grantlee Kieza, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 9 September 2025
Grantlee Kieza’s Mary Penfold is an intriguing biography of the Englishwoman who embraced her husband’s vision, made it her own, and turned their vineyard into one of Australia’s most enduring...
Frances Bloom (Frances Bloom #1) (Katrina Nannestad, illus Marina Zlatanova, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 9 September 2025
Children’s literature powerhouse Katrina Nannestad (All the Beautiful Things) returns with Frances Bloom, a delightful beginning to a new series. Eight-year-old Frances has posted her parents to the South Sandwich...
Chosen Family (Madeleine Gray, Summit Books)
Tuesday, 9 September 2025
Warning: Clear your schedule for the all-consuming read that is Madeleine Gray’s second novel, Chosen Family. Set over 18 years, the novel follows Sydney friends Eve and Nell from high...
Stories about Fire, Wind, the Moon and other Dreamings: Warinypa wariny Mangunyjajamuwarr wirlarrapa wangalpa wika (Solomon Cocky, ed Barbara Hale & Inge Kral, UWA Publishing)
Tuesday, 9 September 2025
Stories about Fire, Wind, the Moon and other Dreamings: Warinypa wariny Mangunyjaja muwarr wirlarrapa wangalpa wika is a newly edited collection of Nyangumarta narratives by Solomon Cocky and his father....
Eros: Queer Myths for Lovers (Zoe Terakes, Hachette)
Tuesday, 9 September 2025
Zoe Terakes’ debut, Eros: Queer Myths for Lovers, retells five ancient Greek myths, drawing on the richness of their Cretan heritage to celebrate the long lineage of queer storytelling. Some stories...
A Murder is Going Down (Kate Emery, A&U Children’s)
Tuesday, 9 September 2025
Kate Emery (My Family and Other Suspects, The Not So Chosen One) returns with a mystery within a mystery in A Murder is Going Down, while remaining true to her...
Last One Out (Jane Harper, Macmillan)
Tuesday, 2 September 2025
When 21-year-old Sam Crowley disappears in Carralon Ridge, his footprints are found scattered around three abandoned houses. Five years later, his mother, Ro, returns to town for the annual memorial...
Confetti and the Rainbow Garden (Shane Jenek, illus Dylan Finney, Pantera)
Tuesday, 2 September 2025
Confetti and the Rainbow Garden is a heartwarming debut picture book written by drag artist and LGBTQI+ advocate Shane Jenek, also known as Courtney Act, and illustrated by Dylan Finney....
Eggshell (Olivia De Zilva, Espresso)
Tuesday, 2 September 2025
Tender yet unsparing, Olivia De Zilva’s debut young adult novella, Eggshell, is a piercing meditation on adolescence, grief and belonging. Set in Adelaide’s working-class suburbs, Eggshell centres Kira, a mixed-race...
What Have They Done to Liza McLean? (Amy Doak, Penguin)
Tuesday, 2 September 2025
Set in an elite private school with dark secrets, What Have They Done to Liza McLean? is a fast-paced murder mystery by Amy Doak (Eleanor Jones Is Not a Murderer)....
Gravity Let Me Go (Trent Dalton, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 2 September 2025
Gravity Let Me Go is Trent Dalton’s fourth work of fiction, and it doesn’t disappoint, once again drawing readers deep into a raw and chaotic world that is both unsettling...
The Long Night (Christian White, Affirm)
Tuesday, 2 September 2025
Christian White’s The Long Night is a tense psychological thriller driven by a chilling kidnapping premise. Nineteen-year-old Em is abducted in a moment of vulnerability following what should have been...
The Australian Wars (ed by Rachel Perkins, Stephen Gapps, Mina Murray & Henry Reynolds, A&U)
Tuesday, 2 September 2025
The Australian Wars is a collection of essays edited by Rachel Perkins, Stephen Gapps, Mina Murray and Henry Reynolds that outlines the horrific frontier wars between 1788 and 1930. The...
Between (Anna Walker, Scribble)
Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Between by Anna Walker, CBCA Award–winning creator of Lottie and Walter and Florette, is a beautiful and meditative picture book that invites readers to pause, observe and imagine. Told with...
A Smart Girl’s Guide to Second Chances (Steph Vizard, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Steph Vizard’s A Smart Girl’s Guide to Second Chances is a fun, perfectly executed romcom that plays cleverly with the idea of missed connections and what-ifs. When Rebecca is offered...
Silence Is My Habitat: Ecobiographical Essays (Jessica White, Upswell)
Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Silence Is My Habitat by Jessica White (A Curious Intimacy) is a collection of ecobiographical essays – stories that trace a life not through chronology alone, but also through a...
The Lucky Sisters (Rachael Johns, Penguin)
Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Rachael Johns (The Patterson Girls, The Greatest Gift) delivers one of her most heartfelt and emotionally layered novels yet in The Lucky Sisters, a story marking a confident shift beyond...
Here Come the Cousins (Maggie Hutchings, illus Sarah Zweck, T&H)
Tuesday, 26 August 2025
In Here Come the Cousins, a young child eagerly awaits the arrival of their seven cousins at Pop’s seaside home. After hellos and measuring who has grown the most over...
Last Chance Joey (Meredith Resce, Rhiza Edge)
Tuesday, 26 August 2025
In Meredith Resce’s debut YA novel, Last Chance Joey, 17-year-old Joey Walton – who is struggling with dyslexia, toxic social circles and a troubled home life – is sent to live in the...
Mad Mabel (Sally Hepworth, Macmillan)
Tuesday, 19 August 2025
Few people suspect an elderly woman or a little girl of murder, which is what makes Mad Mabel such a deliciously enjoyable read. Sally Hepworth’s latest novel begins with a...
For No Mortal Creature (Keshe Chow, Penguin)
Tuesday, 19 August 2025
For No Mortal Creature by Keshe Chow (The Girl with No Reflection) is a romantic fantasy inspired by Inception and Wuthering Heights, but the story it tells is unique and...
Left Behind (Martine Kropkowski, Ultimo)
Tuesday, 19 August 2025
Martine Kropkowski’s Left Behind is a stunning depiction of the remote, wild and isolated beauty of K’gari, paired with a taut and insidious suspense that grabs you from the opening lines....
