Catching Teller Crow (Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina, A&U)
Thursday, 5 July 2018
Siblings Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina have teamed up again on this distinctly Australian hybrid YA novel that blends thriller, crime and ghost story elements. Set in contemporary times, the book...
Leaf Stone Beetle (Ursula Dubosarsky, illus by Gaye Chapman, Dirt Lane Press)
Thursday, 7 June 2018
This gentle fable presents a delicate perspective on the cyclical patterns of life in the natural world, where seasons and the weather can both offer adventure and prompt quiet philosophical...
Off the Track (Cristy Burne, illus by Amanda Burnett, Fremantle Press)
Thursday, 7 June 2018
Cristy Burne’s latest work of adventure fiction takes us off the beaten track and deep into the Australian bush. Harry isn’t thrilled about spending a weekend hiking with his mum,...
The Dog with Seven Names (Dianne Wolfer, Penguin)
Thursday, 7 June 2018
This book for middle readers uses the experiences of a dog with many owners to tell stories of Australia during wartime. While her family watches the running of the 1939...
World class: Jeremy Lachlan on ‘Jane Doe and the Cradle of All Worlds’
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Jeremy Lachlan’s middle-grade adventure Jane Doe and the Cradle of All Worlds (Hardie Grant Egmont, August) is ‘a thrilling story set in a universe made up of multiple worlds’ that features...
Kaleidoscopic views: Emily Gale on ‘I Am Out with Lanterns’
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Emily Gale’s I Am Out with Lanterns (Random House, August) intertwines the points of view of several teenagers to create a story that is ‘nuanced, complex and thoroughly devourable’, writes Jordi...
I Am Out with Lanterns (Emily Gale, Random House)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
I Am Out with Lanterns is nuanced, complex and thoroughly readable. Told from multiple perspectives, it follows a kaleidoscope of characters as it explores community, connections, and the desire to...
After the Lights Go Out (Lili Wilkinson, A&U)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Emergency drills, bug-out bags, a secret underground bunker with a year’s supply of food—life’s a little different when your dad’s a doomsday prepper. Seventeen-year-old Pru Palmer and her two younger...
Zeroes and Ones (Cristy Burne, Xoum)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Zeroes and Ones is a history of the most exciting milestones in computing, with a focus on individual inventors and innovators. It spans from Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine and Ada...
A Song Only I Can Hear (Barry Jonsberg, A&U)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Rob Fitzgerald is 13 years old, painfully shy, prone to panic attacks, and desperately, disgustingly in love for the very first time. Rob begins receiving texts from an unknown phone...
Jane Doe and the Cradle of All Worlds (Jeremy Lachlan, Hardie Grant Egmont)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Immediately exciting and inventive, this is a thrilling story set in a universe made up of multiple worlds. Twelve years ago, Jane and her father arrived at the island of...
Wisp: A Story of Hope (Zana Fraillon, illus by Grahame Baker Smith, Lothian)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
There have been some beautiful, compassionate picture books that feature the plight of refugees and their search for a peaceful life away from war and poverty. Joining these is this...
Sonam and the Silence (Eddie Ayres, illus by Ronak Taher, A&U)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
A fable about a young girl in Kabul during the Taliban occupation hardly sounds like the stuff of picture books so Sonam and the Silence was warily approached. However, fear...
Maya and Cat (Caroline Magerl, Walker Books)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Caroline Magerl has a very distinctive style of illustration and this book does not disappoint. It’s full of cats. ‘On a roof, as wet as a seal, as grey as...
How Did I Get Here? (Philip Bunting, Scholastic)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
At some point the little kid in your life will venture to ask the question feared by most adults: ‘How did I get here?’ The history of life is a...
Backyard (Ananda Braxton-Smith, illus by Lizzy Newcomb, Black Dog Books)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Backyard is a gentle reminder that to experience nature, you don’t need to venture much further than out the back door. Set in a city ‘that is like other cities’,...
Girltopia (Hilary Rogers, Scholastic)
Friday, 4 May 2018
Twelve-year-old Clara wakes up one day to a city where all the men and boys are afflicted by a mystery illness that leaves them unconscious and unresponsive but thankfully still...
Mercy Point (Anna Snoekstra, HarperCollins)
Friday, 4 May 2018
Five teenagers living in a small town become anonymous online friends, without realising they hate each other in real life. The common thread they share is that they all believe...
A quiet place: Katrina Lehman on ‘Wren’
Friday, 4 May 2018
Katrina Lehman’s picture book Wren (illus by Sophie Beer, Scribble, July) is filled with ‘fluid, rhythmic prose’ that ‘rolls off the tongue’, alongside ‘gloriously colourful’ illustrations, writes reviewer Bronte Coates....
Hive (A J Betts, Pan)
Friday, 4 May 2018
Hayley is a beekeeper, content with her place in her small, rigid, underwater world ruled over by a shadowy council. But while her friend Celia dreams of marrying a ‘netter...
Wren (Katrina Lehman, illus by Sophie Beer, Scribble)
Friday, 4 May 2018
Wren longs for peace and quiet but, alas, his rambunctious family create havoc as naturally as they breathe. When a noisy baby sister joins the clan, Wren puts his foot...
Cicada (Shaun Tan, Lothian)
Friday, 4 May 2018
Shaun Tan has done it again. Cicada is excellent. Although more distinctly a narrative picture book than some of his others, Cicada’s darkness breeds a rich subtext that will serve...
Ottilie Colter and the Narroway Hunt (Rhiannon Williams, Hardie Grant Egmont)
Friday, 4 May 2018
The Colter siblings have learned to look after each other in the dangerous Brakkerswamp, so when Ottilie’s brother Gully is kidnapped under mysterious circumstances, it falls to her to save...
Duck! (Meg McKinlay, illus by Nathaniel Eckstrom, Walker Books)
Friday, 4 May 2018
Duck!, from award-winning writer Meg McKinlay, is perhaps the most delightful picture book to feature a drawn-out play on a single word. The clues, laid out expertly in Nathaniel Eckstrom’s...
Memory trick: Margot McGovern on ‘Neverland’
Friday, 13 April 2018
Debut author Margot McGovern was inspired by her favourite childhood reads to create Neverland (Random House, April), ‘a dark and compelling examination of memory, self-determination and the dangers of romanticising...
The Orchard Underground (Mat Larkin, Hardie Grant Egmont)
Friday, 13 April 2018
The Orchard Underground is a funny and intriguing debut that’s mercifully free of a ‘tween’ sensibility but never patronising to its upper-primary readers. The story is fresh and strange: the...
Bab Sharkey and the Animal Mummies: The Weird Beard (Andrew Hansen & Jessica Roberts, Walker Books)
Friday, 13 April 2018
Parents will likely be familiar with The Chaser’s Andrew Hansen, but this wacky new series is a departure from his satirical brand of humour. The book opens with the Unpharaoh:...
Red House, Blue House, Green House, Tree House! (Jane Godwin, illus by Jane Reiseger, Affirm Press)
Friday, 13 April 2018
Young children love listening to rhyming text. Even though they may not understand rhyming, they enjoy the sounds of the rhymes and the rhythm of the words. These kinds of...
Whisper (Lynette Noni, Pantera Press)
Friday, 13 April 2018
Subject Six-Eight-Four (aka Jane Doe) has been locked up in an underground facility and experimented on for over two and a half years as part of a mysterious ‘program’. In...
Benny Bungarra’s Big Bush Clean-up (Sally Morgan, illus by Ambelin Kwaymullina, Magabala Books)
Friday, 13 April 2018
Benny Bungarra’s Big Bush Clean-up is an animal tale with a strong environmental message. When Benny Bungarra investigates some strange noises in the bush, he comes across different animals that...
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