Tuesday, 13 February 2024
John Richards’s The Gorgon Flower is a collection of six short stories (and the title novella), for fans of the macabre and peculiar. This is a collection both classic and...

Tuesday, 13 February 2024
Pidge’s Poppies by Jan Andrews, illustrated by Timothy Ide (Medieval Monsters and Other Creatures), is a charming lesson on the role of carrier pigeons during war, encouraging young readers to...

Tuesday, 13 February 2024
Signal Erased is the latest YA near-science-fiction novel by Adele Jones. The story follows Anna Faraday, a high schooler with a remarkable singing voice and a traumatic past. While occupied with...

Tuesday, 13 February 2024
Annie de Monchaux’s debut novel, Audrey’s Gone AWOL, is a beautifully crafted and witty coming-of-middle-age tale that explores womanhood, motherhood, life, death, marriage and betrayal. Audrey has devoted her life...

Tuesday, 13 February 2024
Anders Sparring’s The Pinchers and the Diamond Heist is a first-in-series chapter book that ticks many boxes young primary school children love: comedy, crime, and fun family connections. Opening with...

Tuesday, 6 February 2024
In Victor Kelleher’s upper-middle-grade prehistoric adventure novel The Cave, young Irian—one of the few survivors after the Beast (a sabre-toothed tiger) attacks the cave where he lives—is traumatised into muteness...

Tuesday, 6 February 2024
The contents of Anna Jacobson’s memoir How to Knit a Human are the stuff of nightmares: a young, award-winning artist and poet has a psychotic break, is involuntarily hospitalised and...

Tuesday, 6 February 2024
With one in five children living with eczema, Mitchell Itches will be a valuable resource for those looking to better understand and manage this common condition. Written by nurse and preschool...

Tuesday, 6 February 2024
Roarsome is the first book in a new illustrated junior fiction series by TV comedy writer Joel Slack-Smith. Like many kids, Walter wants the latest tech for his birthday—a nitro-powered...

Tuesday, 30 January 2024
Gus Green is his injured mother’s primary carer after she was involved in a car accident; he is also gay and overweight. A true crime fanatic with aspirations of one...

Tuesday, 30 January 2024
Neurodiversity commentary often references the double empathy problem, the concept that (put simply) neurodivergent–neurotypical communication can be more challenging than communication between people with the same neurotype. A related concept—neurodivergent...

Tuesday, 30 January 2024
My Heart by Katrina McKelvey is a picture book about a loving mother–child relationship. The mother character reflects on her feelings while pregnant, after birth and as she watches her...

Tuesday, 30 January 2024
The Kelly family was always skirting trouble. When 17-year-old Sabine Kelly’s mum and sister die with seven other people in a mysterious caravan park fire, Sabine confesses to the crime...

Tuesday, 23 January 2024
Look Me in the Eye is the latest young adult novel by award-winning author Jane Godwin. The story centres around Bella, a 13-year-old girl who leads quite a wholesome, drama-free...

Tuesday, 23 January 2024
Circles of Life is a picture book in verse that shares the tradition, beauty and importance of Thank You Circles, or Gabayindah Guroos. These artworks are painted in layers to...

Tuesday, 23 January 2024
Come a Saturday morning, the line for Beatrix Bakes, a cult North Melbourne café and bakery, would snake down the street. Its closure in 2022—a personal tragedy for this reviewer—even...