The Naughtiest Pixie in Disguise (Ailsa Wild, illus by Saoirse Lou, Hardie Grant Egmont)
Thursday, 6 June 2019
The Naughtiest Pixie in Disguise is the first book in a second series by Ailsa Wild, following her hugely successful Squishy Taylor series. Naughty, charming young pixie Jenifry Star lives...
A Boy Called Bob: Becomes an AFL footballer (Bob Murphy & Tony Wilson, Piccolo Nero)
Thursday, 6 June 2019
Bob is a boy from country Victoria who grew up loving footy. His first oval was actually a gravel-covered rectangle, but he dreamed of one day playing on the green...
Fashionista (Maxine Beneba Clarke, Lothian)
Thursday, 6 June 2019
The ever-versatile Maxine Beneba Clarke has worked within a number of genres (nonfiction, fiction, poetry, essays and children’s books) and now she is back with another picture book. The point...
Horatio Squeak (Karen Foxlee, illus by Evie Barrow, Walker)
Thursday, 6 June 2019
Horatio, the smallest and shyest in a large family of mice, lives in a very big house on a very grand street. One day he is invited to a party...
Argh! There’s a Skeleton Inside You! (Idan Ben-Barak & Julian Frost, A&U)
Thursday, 6 June 2019
Quog and Oort are two aliens. Quog is blobby and green; Oort is a pink gas cloud with three eyes. While on their way to a mate’s birthday their purple...
Promise (Alexandra Alt, Omnibus)
Thursday, 6 June 2019
Fifteen-year-old Lene wishes only to live a peaceful and happy life in Berlin with her family and neighbour Ludwig. But all around her World War II is raging: bombs are...
My Name is Not Peaseblossom (Jackie French, HarperCollins)
Thursday, 6 June 2019
Much-loved children’s author Jackie French brings us a new addition to her Shakespeare series with My Name is Not Peaseblossom. French has previously reinterpreted Shakespeare’s work, giving it a 21st-century...
Vincent and the Grandest Hotel on Earth (Lisa Nicol, Puffin)
Thursday, 6 June 2019
Not 10 pages after inheriting his grandfather’s ostensibly magical shoeshine kit, Vincent is scouted to shine shoes at the Grandest Hotel on Earth—a job that entails far more than it...
100 Ways to Fly (Michelle Taylor, UQP)
Thursday, 6 June 2019
100 Ways to Fly is Michelle Taylor’s third poetry collection for children. She is also a published poet for adults. This book contains a generous number of poems, usually one...
The Brilliant Ideas of Lily Green (Lisa Siberry, Hardie Grant Egmont)
Thursday, 6 June 2019
This debut middle-grade novel, which won Hardie Grant Egmont’s Ampersand Prize, ticks many familiar boxes. The main character: a 12-year-old on the cusp of maturity. The challenges: friendships, enemies, family,...
Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories (ed by Michael Earp, Walker)
Thursday, 16 May 2019
Among the boon of recent #LoveOzYA anthologies (Begin, End, Begin; Meet Me at the Intersection; Underdog), Kindred takes the unique position of being entirely devoted to stories by and about...
Fox & Bird (Edwina Wyatt, illus by Alice Lindstrom, Little Hare)
Thursday, 2 May 2019
Edwina Wyatt’s picture book is about testing the bonds of new friendship. Fox’s loneliness lends him to do strange things. He tries to befriend a bird but she has a...
One Careless Night (Christina Booth, Black Dog)
Thursday, 2 May 2019
Christina Booth is an award-winning author and illustrator who has previously collaborated with well-known Australian authors such as Colin Thiele and Jackie French. In One Careless Night, Booth recreates the...
Lights Out, Leonard (Josh Pyke, illus by Chris Nixon, Puffin)
Thursday, 2 May 2019
This book has a perennial theme—a child who’s scared of the dark—but with a really original twist: parents who write a manual on how to scare monsters. Chris Nixon’s illustrations...
So She Did: The Story of May Wirth (Simi Genziuk, illus by Renée Treml, Affirm)
Thursday, 2 May 2019
Born in Bundaberg in 1984, May Wirth showed an unusual knack for acrobatics at an early age. So much so that she was adopted by an equestrienne from the famous...
Cheeky Dogs: To Lake Nash and Back (Dion Beasley & Johanna Bell, A&U)
Thursday, 2 May 2019
Dion Beasley’s illustrated memoir details his early life moving between a couple of remote communities in the Northern Territory before settling at Tennant Creek. Both profoundly deaf and suffering muscular...
My Book (Not Yours) (Ben Sanders, Lothian)
Thursday, 2 May 2019
This is the first in what is slated to be a series of picture books featuring Lento (a sloth) and Fox (a fox). It joins the growing trend of books...
Secrets of a Schoolyard Millionaire (Nat Amoore, Puffin)
Thursday, 2 May 2019
In her first children’s book, Nat Amoore has created such a likeable heroine in Tess Heckleton, entrepreneur and life advice-giver, that her unlikely adventures and somewhat unlikely personality are entirely...
Mindcull (K H Canobi, Ford Street)
Thursday, 2 May 2019
Eila, a rising social media star, is shortlisted to become the new face of Pearl, a virtual reality tech company. She is invited to spend three days in England trying...
My Culture and Me (Gregg Dreise, Puffin)
Thursday, 4 April 2019
This beautiful picture book presents the voice of an Indigenous child relating the importance of knowing and living your culture. Beginning with an expression of love for Country and family,...
Arthur and the Tiger (Sophie Beer, Puffin)
Thursday, 4 April 2019
Sophie Beer has a knack for creating books that simultaneously feel contemporary and vintage, which is sure to make them modern classics. In Arthur and the Tiger, Arthur is the son of...
Sophia and the Corner Park Clubhouse (Davina Bell, Hardie Grant Egmont)
Thursday, 4 April 2019
Davina Bell is one of Australia’s most highly regarded authors for young people, and the first book in her new series for middle-grade readers cements her reputation as one of...
Devil’s Ballast (Meg Caddy, Text)
Thursday, 4 April 2019
After escaping her violently abusive husband, Anne Bonny disguises herself as a boy and joins her lover, pirate captain Calico Jack Rackham, on his ship the Ranger. Anne fits in...
How it Feels to Float (Helena Fox, Pan)
Thursday, 4 April 2019
How do you find the will to live when you can’t even feel the ground anymore? Elizabeth Martin Grey—Biz—doesn’t know. All she knows is that she’s got one foot in...
Shauna’s Great Expectations (Kathleen Loughnan, A&U)
Thursday, 4 April 2019
Seventeen-year-old Shauna is the recipient of an Indigenous scholarship to an elite Sydney girls’ school. The expectations placed on her could be no higher than those she places on herself,...
Alex and the Alpacas Save the World (Kathryn Lefroy, Fremantle Press)
Thursday, 4 April 2019
Alex and the Alpacas Save the World is Kathryn Lefroy’s first novel. Part fantasy, part adventure, it reinvigorates the familiar good-versus-evil narrative with an original (if somewhat offbeat) setting and...
How it feels to write: Helena Fox on ‘How it Feels to Float’
Tuesday, 19 March 2019
Helena Fox’s YA debut How it Feels to Float (Pan, May) is a ‘perfect, surreal exploration of mental illness and grief’, writes reviewer Bec Kavanagh. She spoke to the author....
Sky (Ondine Sherman, Pantera)
Thursday, 7 March 2019
Fifteen-year-old animal lover Sky has had her world turned upside down. Her mum has died, she is sent to live with Aunt Paula (a virtual stranger who cries constantly and...
Our Little Inventor (Sher Rill Ng, A&U)
Thursday, 7 March 2019
Little Nell has been furiously working away at her desk, her room cloaked in gloom. But she’s finally finished her invention. Despite her younger brother’s scoffing, Nell is adamant that...
Wilam: A Birrarung Story (Aunty Joy Murphy & Andrew Kelly, illus by Lisa Kennedy, Black Dog)
Thursday, 7 March 2019
Wilam is an illustrated children’s book about Birrarung (the Yarra River) and some of the native animals that live nearby. Aunty Joy Murphy, a Wurundjeri Elder, is the author of...
