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,...
My Real Friend (David Hunt, illus by Lucinda Masciullo, ABC Books)
Thursday, 4 April 2019
David Hunt returns with his second offering for children following 2016’s The Nose Pixies. Taking the story of an imaginary friend and telling it from the other side, we hear...
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...
Daughter of Bad Times (Rohan Wilson, A&U)
Wednesday, 27 March 2019
Vogel Award-winning novelist Rohan Wilson is back with another gripping page-turner, this time in the form of a dystopian tale set 50 years in the future. Sea levels have risen,...
Room for a Stranger (Melanie Cheng, Text)
Wednesday, 27 March 2019
After an attempted home invasion leaves her feeling unsafe, elderly Meg signs on with a homeshare agency: Andy, an international student from Hong Kong who’s come to Melbourne to study...
The Lost Arabs (Omar Sakr, UQP)
Wednesday, 27 March 2019
Omar Sakr’s second poetry collection is an assured and vibrant exploration of doubt and faith. Following on from his Kenneth Slessor Prize-nominated debut These Wild Houses, this collection explores the...
‘Ninja Switch!’ tops Australian children’s fiction bestsellers chart
Thursday, 21 March 2019
It’s no surprise that Allen & Unwin has snapped up the rights to three new children’s book series by Anh Do. The bestselling children’s author—who first came to the attention...
Big Sky Publishing lands 17-book US deal
Thursday, 21 March 2019
Big Sky Publishing has sold North American and US territories rights to 17 children’s books to independent educational publishing house Rosen Publishing. The deal includes the picture book Cat Spies...
Australian couple wins at France’s Prix Sorcières
Thursday, 21 March 2019
The picture book Petit Soldat (Editions du Seuil) by Australia-based couple Pierre Jacques Ober and Jules Ober has won the Prix Carrement Beau Maxi (for most beautiful book in the...
Big Sky Publishing’s newest rights opportunities
Thursday, 21 March 2019
New and upcoming titles from Big Sky Publishing include gripping YA historical fiction Hadamar: The House of Shudders, in which true-crime author and historian Jason Foster brings to light little-known...
Local voices on a global stage
Thursday, 21 March 2019
Two recent international rights successes for children’s books by Indigenous authors—Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina’s YA novel Catching Teller Crow (Allen & Unwin) selling into the UK and US, and a...
‘The Rosie Result’ and ‘The Barefoot Investor’ top Australian charts
Friday, 15 March 2019
Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Result—the final instalment in the internationally bestselling Rosie trilogy—has debuted at the top of the Australian fiction bestsellers chart for February. Other new entries in the...
NewSouth Books’ newest rights opportunities
Friday, 15 March 2019
New and upcoming titles from NewSouth include The Thinking Woman, in which Julienne van Loon engages with the work of six leading contemporary thinkers and writers to discover what it...
Oz crime debut sold to UK publisher in two-book deal
Friday, 15 March 2019
Australian crime-fiction continues its globetrotting ways. UK publisher Verve Books has recently acquired world rights to the Debut Dagger-shortlisted crime novel Trust Me, I’m Dead and a second novel by...
Small presses dominate Stella Prize shortlist
Friday, 15 March 2019
The shortlist for the Stella Prize for Australian women’s writing was announced on International Women’s Day last week. Four of the six titles are published by small, independent presses—Jamie Marina...
Helen Garner wins Lifetime Achievement award
Friday, 15 March 2019
Helen Garner has won the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature. Garner is the author of more than 14 books of fiction and nonfiction, including Monkey Grip, The...
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...
Horse Warrior (Meredith Jaffé, Harbour Publishing)
Thursday, 7 March 2019
In this medieval fantasy for middle-grade readers, 11-year-old Maia is desperate to compete in the annual Tournament of Avenal, a showcase of riding and shooting skills. But girls are not...
Sherlock Bones and the Natural History Mystery (Renée Treml, A&U)
Thursday, 7 March 2019
Middle primary readers seem to have an unquenchable thirst for illustrated, funny novels, with kids devouring series after series of the ‘Treehouse’ books, ‘The Bad Guys’, and ‘Dog Man’. Renée...
Rebellion at Eureka (Alan Tucker, Scholastic)
Thursday, 7 March 2019
It’s 1854, and now that Alf is 13 years old and finally done with school, he wants some independence. But his mum has other ideas, moving their general store business...
The Honeyman and the Hunter (Neil Grant, A&U)
Thursday, 7 March 2019
When 16-year-old Rudra’s estranged grandmother arrives from India to reunite with her only daughter, it unlocks a side of Rudra’s family and culture that he never knew; born and raised...
One Tree (Christopher Cheng, illus by Bruce Whatley, Puffin)
Thursday, 7 March 2019
Grandfather used to live happily on a farm, nearest the tallest tree on a mountain. Now he lives with his family in a small apartment in a crowded city and...
The Secret Runners of New York (Matthew Reilly, Macmillan)
Thursday, 7 March 2019
A school for the children of the wealthy elite is not where you would expect a book about the end of the world to be set, but that's what Matthew...
Fled (Meg Keneally, Echo)
Thursday, 28 February 2019
Having co-written the ‘Monsarrat’ historical fiction series with her father, Meg Keneally makes her solo debut with the gripping tale of one extraordinary woman’s life-long battle for survival. Following an...
River of Salt (Dave Warner, Fremantle Press)
Thursday, 28 February 2019
After fronting a rock band in the late 1970s and later writing for film and TV, Dave Warner now taps a rich seam of character-driven crime novels. His 2015 book...
