A New Kind of Everything (Richard Yaxley, Scholastic)
8 November 2019
A New Kind of Everything picks up the story of the Gallagher family after the loss of patriarch Barney, his spectre still looming large over his wife Allison and their...
Euphoria Kids (Alison Evans, Echo)
8 November 2019
Euphoria Kids is a tender, contemporary fairytale about magic, friendship and gender identity. A departure from the horror elements of Alison Evans’ previous novels, this book focuses on the wonder...
Coming Home to Country (Bronwyn Bancroft, Little Hare)
8 November 2019
This picture book is bathed in a ‘palette of leaf green, red rust, yellow ochre, deep blue and crimson’ as the unnamed narrator returns home, back to Country. Bronwyn Bancroft’s...
Morphing Murphy (Robert Favretto, illus by Tull Suwannakit, Ford Street)
8 November 2019
Murphy is a happy tadpole, quite content with his life eating algae and rotting water plants all day. So happy that he wouldn’t change a thing … until he slowly...
Jelly-Boy (Nicole Godwin, illus by Christopher Nielsen, Walker Books)
8 November 2019
In this deceptively simple story, a jellyfish falls in love with a plastic bag, having assumed that it’s a fellow jellyfish. The book’s aim is to teach children about the...
Evie and Pog: Take Off! (Tania McCartney, HarperCollins)
8 November 2019
Six-year-old Evie and her best friend Pog the pug live in a treehouse next to obsessively tidy Granny Gladys’ house. Evie is accident-prone, wildly enthusiastic about the world, and enjoys...
Emergency Rescue Angel (Cate Whittle, Scholastic)
8 November 2019
Mitch is rudderless and lonely after the death of his dad and the upheaval of his best mate across the country. Max is a goth angel—an Emergency Rescue Angel, to...
Me and My Boots (Penny Harrison, illus by Evie Barrow, Little Hare)
8 November 2019
Author Penny Harrison exemplifies the beauty in nature and the power of self-expression through her books, which include The Art Garden, Dance with Me and Emily Green’s Garden. Her latest...
Extraordinary! (Penny Harrison, illus by Katie Wilson, New Frontier)
15 October 2019
What a magical book this is! In Extraordinary! Penny Harrison, author of Emily Green’s Garden and Dance With Me, and New Zealand-based illustrator Katie Wilson take the reader on a...
The Threads of Magic (Alison Croggon, Walker)
15 October 2019
This first foray by Alison Croggon—best known for her ‘Pellinor’ fantasy series—into middle-grade is a sophisticated story of power, friendship and magic. The city of Clavel is in a medieval-style...
Ready, Set, Code! (Heather Catchpole & Nicola O’Brien, CSIRO Publishing)
15 October 2019
Ready, Set, Code! teaches computer programming skills to kids aged 8–12 using the open source Scratch language created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This book presents introductory programming concepts...
The Secrets of Magnolia Moon (Edwina Wyatt, illus by Katherine Quinn, Walker)
3 October 2019
The Secrets of Magnolia Moon is the first middle-grade novel from Edwina Wyatt, who has been twice listed as a CBCA notable author for her work in picture books. Magnolia...
No Place for an Octopus (Claire Zorn, UQP)
3 October 2019
This is Claire Zorn’s first picture book and it comes as rather a surprise—she is well known as an author of novels for young adults, for which she has won...
Paddy T and the Time-travelling Trampoline (Adam France, illus by Zahra Zainal, A&U)
3 October 2019
Paddy’s just an average 12-year-old. He lives with his mum and dad, his older sister Nina, brother Troy and baby sister Bella. His best mate at school is Marty. He’s...
Three (Stephen Michael King, Scholastic)
3 October 2019
Stephen Michael King is an accomplished picture book writer and illustrator, with award-winning books such as Rainbow Bear, Mutt Dog! and Leaf just a selection of his publications. This book...
Antarctica (Moira Court, Fremantle Press)
3 October 2019
This picture book by artist and author Moira Court has a distinctive visual style that makes it stand out from other books for readers aged three to five. Exploring the...
Nop (Caroline Magerl, Walker)
3 October 2019
Nop is a teddy bear who is ‘not plush in places’. He waits patiently to be bought from Oddmint’s Dumporeum, a magical sort of toy shop, but to no avail....
Invisible Boys (Holden Sheppard, Fremantle Press)
5 September 2019
In the coastal town of Geraldton, several young men struggle with the restrictions placed on them by culture, parental expectations and peer pressure. With the threat of violence a constant,...
My Folks Grew Up in the ’80s (Robin Feiner, illus by Beck Feiner, ABC Books)
5 September 2019
From the first glance of this picture book, those of us (particularly Generation Xers) who grew up in the 80s know we’re in for a treat. There, on the cover,...
Ghost Bird (Lisa Fuller, UQP)
5 September 2019
Lisa Fuller was the recipient of the 2017 David Unaipon Award for an Unpublished Indigenous Writer for Ghost Bird. In this young adult novel, Stacey Thomson’s twin sister, Laney, is...
Windcatcher (Diane Jackson Hill, illus by Craig Smith, CSIRO Publishing)
5 September 2019
Windcatcher is the story of the migration of the short-tailed shearwater. In particular, the solo offspring of bird number 625. Her mother was tagged with a metal leg band so...
The Lost Stone of SkyCity (H M Waugh, Fremantle Press)
5 September 2019
When the princess of the terrifying, fabled Ice-People kidnaps Danam, claiming him as her prophesied protector, his friend Sunaya knows she’s the only one who can rescue him. But it’s...
Summer Time (Hilary Bell, illus by Antonia Pesenti, NewSouth)
1 August 2019
Summer Time, Hilary Bell and Antonia Pesenti’s third picture book collaboration, explores ideas of time within the grand nostalgic mythology of Australian summer. On each double-page spread, a chapter-like stanza...
The Man in the Water (David Burton, UQP)
1 August 2019
Four years after his award-winning YA memoir How to be Happy, David Burton returns with The Man in the Water, a coming-of-age mystery novel with an undercurrent of grief and...
Angel Mage (Garth Nix, A&U)
1 August 2019
Recently in fantasy there has been a move away from medieval Europe settings. One of the most popular examples of this is the 17th-century-Europe-inspired ‘Flintlock Fantasy’, though it owes as...
All of the Factors of Why I Love Tractors (Davina Bell, illus by Jenny Løvlie, Little Hare)
1 August 2019
A little boy called Frankie, accompanied by his mother, visits the library and borrows his favourite book about tractors. He is already well versed in all the characteristics and functions...
Super Nova (Krys Saclier, illus by Rebecca Timmis, Ford St)
1 August 2019
Super Nova is the story of the protagonist and his sister Nova, who he believes is getting up to all sorts of mischief. 'Nova always gets away with it,' says...
Ask Hercules Quick (Ursula Dubosarsky, illus by Andrew Joyner, A&U)
1 August 2019
Hercules lives with his alligator aunt in a building full of quirky characters. On a trip to the shops his imagination is captured by a magic box, but how will...
How to Make a Movie in 12 Days (Fiona Hardy, Affirm Kids)
4 July 2019
Hayley, 11, has one mission in life: to make a movie. Ever since Grandma—who was going to make it with her—died, the need is much greater than before, especially since...
The Secret Science Society’s Spectacular Experiment (Kathy Hoopmann & Josie Montano, illus by Ann-Marie Finn, Wombat Books)
4 July 2019
Since Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls, the trend for kids’ books celebrating perseverance, creativity and innovation has seeped from nonfiction into fiction. Kathy Hoopmann and Josie Montano’s chapter book for...
