The Weekend (Charlotte Wood, A&U)
Thursday, 25 July 2019
After Sylvie’s sudden death, her three closest friends—former restaurateur Jude, public intellectual Wendy and actress Adele—must renegotiate the boundaries of their lifelong foursome. As they retreat to Sylvie’s isolated beach...
Being Black ’N Chicken, & Chips (Matt Okine, Hachette)
Thursday, 25 July 2019
It’s 1998. Mike Amon is almost 13 and about to start high school. All he wants is to be good enough at athletics to be chosen for the Dobson Dash,...
Speech Pathology Book Awards shortlist announced
Thursday, 18 July 2019
The shortlists for the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards have been announced. The books are judged on their ‘appeal to children, interactive quality and ability to assist...
Allen & Unwin launches children’s imprint; Blabey series tops ‘NYT’ chart
Thursday, 18 July 2019
Allen & Unwin has created a new children’s imprint called Albert Street Books, which will have a ‘strong commercial focus’. The publisher says its aim is to publish books for...
Five Mile sells UK, US and Canadian rights to ‘Love Your Body’
Thursday, 18 July 2019
Five Mile has sold UK, US and Canadian rights to Jessica Sanders’ picture book Love Your Body (illus by Carol Rossetti) to the Quarto Group, with the book now sold...
‘The Big Bad Wolf’ tops Australian children’s fiction bestsellers chart
Thursday, 18 July 2019
Aaron Blabey is having an exceptional month, with The Big Bad Wolf: The Bad Guys Episode Nine leading the Australian children’s fiction bestsellers chart in June and ‘The Bad Guys’...
‘Boy Swallows Universe’ and ‘The Barefoot Investor’ top Australian charts
Thursday, 11 July 2019
Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe and Heather Morris’ The Tattooist of Auschwitz continue to hold on to the first and second spots in the Australian fiction bestsellers chart in June,...
Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist announced
Thursday, 11 July 2019
Five titles have been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award ahead of the winner’s announcement on 30 July. They are: The Lebs (Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Hachette), A Sand Archive (Gregory Day, Picador), A Stolen Season (Rodney...
Boochani to headline Ubud; new ventures in Australian publishing
Thursday, 11 July 2019
Author, journalist and Iranian refugee Behrouz Boochani, whose memoir No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison (Picador) has won several Australian literary awards and been sold into nine...
Krien’s debut novel ‘Act of Grace’ sold to UK
Thursday, 11 July 2019
Black Inc. has sold UK and Commonwealth rights (ex ANZ and Canada) to accomplished nonfiction author Anna Krien’s forthcoming debut novel Act of Grace to Serpent’s Tail. Acquiring editor Hannah...
How to Make a Movie in 12 Days (Fiona Hardy, Affirm Kids)
Thursday, 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)
Thursday, 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...
Ollie and Augustus (Gabriel Evans, Walker)
Thursday, 4 July 2019
When Ollie (‘small—like a pickling jar or a shoe box’) starts school, he worries that his beloved pet Augustus (‘large—like a fridge or a table’; a vast creature of indeterminate...
The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling (Wai Chim, A&U)
Thursday, 4 July 2019
Sixteen-year-old Anna comes from a relatively traditional Chinese-Australian family. Originally from Hong Kong, her father owns a restaurant while her mother stays at home to look after the children. Anna...
Grace’s Secrets (Louise Park, Berbay)
Thursday, 4 July 2019
Having relocated to a Scottish castle with her mother, Grace discovers a way into the past and promptly sets about helping her predecessors, even as her actual life seems to...
Kulinmaya! Keep Listening, Everybody! (Mumu Mike Williams, A&U)
Thursday, 4 July 2019
Pitjantjatjara artist and activist Mumu Mike Williams, aka Kunmanara, sought to hold the government to account on Indigenous issues through his subversive artwork, which repurposed Australia Post mailbags into painted...
The Gift (Michael Speechley, Picture Puffin)
Thursday, 4 July 2019
Rosie is a lonely little girl who misses her mum. Across the street from Rosie’s place is a scary and neglected-looking house. Rosie has never seen the person who lives...
I Am Change (Suzy Zail, Black Dog)
Thursday, 4 July 2019
Suzy Zail's latest novel tells the story of young Lilian, who wants nothing more than to go to school. However, poverty, outdated traditions and the simple fact she was born...
The Lords of Melody (Phillip Gwynne, Puffin)
Thursday, 4 July 2019
Suzi Lord lives on a street full of mansions in an old weatherboard house bought by her ex-rock star parents while they were at the height of their fame with...
Growing Up Queer in Australia (ed by Benjamin Law, Black Inc.)
Thursday, 27 June 2019
Mapped across a spectrum of ages and eras, sexualities and ethnicities, Growing Up Queer in Australia captures the resilience and strength of queer people coming of age in Australia. Edited...
A River with a City Problem: A history of Brisbane floods (Margaret Cook, UQP)
Thursday, 27 June 2019
Who can forget the image of a disheveled Premier Anna Bligh, in the midst of the devastating 2011 Brisbane floods, making her ‘We are Queenslanders’ speech? In the aptly titled...
Lucky Ticket (Joey Bui, Text)
Thursday, 27 June 2019
Lucky Ticket is the debut short story collection from Joey Bui, runner-up in Overland’s 2017 Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize for ‘Hot Days’, which features in this collection. ‘Lucky Ticket’,...
The Trespassers (Meg Mundell, UQP)
Thursday, 27 June 2019
Meg Mundell’s second novel has been hotly anticipated since her debut, Black Glass, showed her to be a writer of extraordinary imaginative prowess, with a commitment to exploring themes of...
The Wooleen Way: Renewing an Australian resource (David Pollock, Scribe)
Thursday, 27 June 2019
David Pollock, a second-generation pastoralist from Western Australia, describes a wicked environmental problem in his memoir The Wooleen Way. Animals produced for food—beef in particular—eat native grasses and plants, degrading...
Sand Talk: How Indigenous thinking can save the world (Tyson Yunkaporta, Text)
Thursday, 27 June 2019
Tyson Yunkaporta is a researcher, academic and arts critic. With ties to the Apalech clan in Far North Queensland, Yunkaporta combines his lived experiences and academic interests in this innovative...
Here Until August (Josephine Rowe, Black Inc.)
Thursday, 27 June 2019
A man reflects on a life-changing act his brother committed many years ago; a cab driver in America picks up a mysterious passenger who wants to be driven over the...
YA debut ‘What I Like About Me’ sold to US and France
Thursday, 20 June 2019
US and Canadian rights and French-language rights have been sold to Jenna Guillaume’s YA debut What I Like About Me (Pan) to Peachtree Publishing and Pocket Jeunesse, respectively. What I Like About...
YA books shortlisted for Readings Prize
Thursday, 20 June 2019
The shortlist has been announced for the Readings Young Adult Prize, presented by the Australian independent bookseller for debut or second YA books. The shortlisted titles are: Highway Bodies (Alison...
Landmark Aboriginal Australian history gets a young readers edition
Thursday, 20 June 2019
First published in 2014, Bruce Pascoe’s landmark history of Aboriginal Australians pre-European colonisation, Dark Emu, will now reach a younger readership with the release of a young readers edition, Young...
‘Alpacas with Maracas’ tops Australian picture book bestsellers chart
Thursday, 20 June 2019
Over one million children in schools, libraries and bookshops across Australia participated in this year’s National Simultaneous Storytime on 22 May, so it was no surprise to see the chosen...
