Countdown to Yesterday (Shirley Marr, Puffin)
5 December 2023
Shirley Marr’s latest novel, Countdown to Yesterday, takes young readers on a heartwarming journey through time, memories, and the complexities of family and friendship. This enchanting tale is a delightful...
Ladybirds Do Not Go to Day Care (Ali Rutstein, illus Niña Nill, Bright Light)
10 October 2023
Ladybirds Do Not Go to Daycare is the story of Ravi, a young boy who loves dressing up as his favourite insect—a ladybird. He loves brushing his teeth (or mandibles)...
Penguin Oh Penguin (Gladys Milroy, illus Helen Milroy, Magabala)
19 September 2023
Penguin Oh Penguin is a mother/daughter collaboration between Palyku women Gladys and Helen Milroy, and a charming picture book for early childhood. Gladys Milroy, author of Silver Leaves, wrote this...
Kimmi: Queen of the dingoes (Favel Parrett, illus Astred Hicks, Lothian)
12 September 2023
For young readers who enjoyed Favel Parrett’s alpine dingo tale in Wandi (2021), Kimmi follows a real-life tropical dingo who, like Wandi, now lives at the Dingo Discovery Sanctuary and...
Edenglassie (Melissa Lucashenko, UQP)
15 August 2023
Melissa Lucashenko’s Edenglassie is a literary epic that skilfully weaves between the present day, where Grannie Eddie is looked after by her feisty granddaughter Winona and Dr Johnny, and mid-1850s Brisbane, where...
Body Friend (Katherine Brabon, Ultimo)
25 July 2023
Katherine Brabon distinguished herself with her first novels, The Memory Artist and The Shut Ins, but she has surpassed these and reached an early career pinnacle with her enigmatically titled novel, Body Friend. If a...
Borderland (Graham Akhurst, UWA Publishing)
25 July 2023
Jono is a young Indigenous man who has little connection to Country and community. While his best friend, Jenny, seems to know exactly who she is, Jono struggles with his...
Every Night at Midnight (Peter Cheong, Affirm)
18 July 2023
Up-and-coming author-illustrator Peter Cheong casts a magnificent glow with Every Night at Midnight, his heart-warming picture book about finding friendship in unexpected places. With the repetitive refrain, ‘Every night at...
Let’s Never Speak of This Again (Megan Williams, Text)
4 July 2023
Sixteen-year-old Abby’s life may not be perfect, but it is manageable. With a best friend like Ella, it doesn’t matter that there’s tension between Abby and her mum, or that...
Tamarra: A story of termites on Gurindji Country (Violet Wadrill, Topsy Dodd Ngarnjal & Leah Leaman, Hardie Grant Explore)
30 May 2023
Tamarra is a nonfiction picture book that explains the relationship between the Gurindji people and termites. With gorgeous illustrations, the text not only provides information about termites—explaining their life cycles...
The House With All The Lights On (Jessica Kirkness, A&U)
23 May 2023
Jessica Kirkness weaves each page of her memoir The House With All The Lights On with care, offering a deeply personal glimpse into growing up as a hearing child with...
Picasso and the Greatest Show on Earth (Anna Fienberg, A&U Children’s)
16 May 2023
Anna Fienberg has had a long and illustrious career in children’s writing, with over 40 books and a swag of awards under her belt. Her latest, Picasso and the Greatest...
Wifedom (Anna Funder, Hamish Hamilton)
9 May 2023
When researching a new book on George Orwell, powerhouse writer Anna Funder noticed an interesting omission—Eileen Orwell, George’s first wife, was curiously absent. The basis of Wifedom is six newly...
Endo Days (Libby Trainor Parker, Wakefield)
25 April 2023
Libby Trainor Parker has written the perfect book adaptation of the cabaret show she performed in her PJs about endometriosis. The vibe? Women have been in pain, and ignored, forever....
Feast (Emily O’Grady, A&U)
18 April 2023
Like her Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award-winning debut The Yellow House, Emily O’Grady’s Feast is a compelling but often uncomfortable work of literary fiction. In a secluded manor house in the Scottish...
Anam (André Dao, Hamish Hamilton)
4 April 2023
Winner of the 2021 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, Anam is a remarkable debut novel exploring memory, family, colonialism and displacement. The narrator, a young Vietnamese-Australian man...
We Could Be Something (Will Kostakis, A&U Children’s)
21 March 2023
Will Kostakis’s first novel Loathing Lola was published when he was 19 years old. This uncommon experience inspires his latest book, a semi-autobiographical YA novel for readers aged 14–17. We...
The Sideways Orbit of Evie Hart (Samera Kamaleddine, HarperCollins)
14 March 2023
When 12-year-old Evie’s mum and stepdad Lee announce their separation, it feels like her whole world has been turned upside down. What’s more, Lee—the only father Evie has ever known—is...
Obsession (Nicole Madigan, Pantera)
7 March 2023
When journalist Nicole Madigan starts dating single dad Adam, it seems like the beginning of an exciting new chapter for her and her children. But as the relationship progresses, something...
Hunger of Thorns (Lili Wilkinson, A&U Children’s)
28 February 2023
Lili Wilkinson’s new YA novel is a dark and twisting tale that draws on a history of persecution and celebrates the power of women, even as it interrogates society’s fear...
Quiet Time with My Seeya (Dinalie Dabarera, A&U Children’s)
14 February 2023
Quiet Time with My Seeya is the debut solo picture book by Dinalie Dabarera, whose previous illustrations in The Cat With The Coloured Tail were nominated for the CBCA Award...
Thirst for Salt (Madelaine Lucas, A&U)
7 February 2023
Madelaine Lucas’s debut novel opens with the unnamed female narrator, now 37 years old, recalling a past lover. Twenty-four years old at the time and holidaying with her mother, the...
Philomella and the Impossible Forest (Doris Brett, HGCP)
7 February 2023
Philomella is having a perfectly ordinary terrible day when she stumbles across a door that shouldn’t be there that leads to a library which is, frankly, impossible. Sick of being...
Country Tells Us When… (Tsheena Cooper, Mary Dann, Dalisa Pigram-Ross & Sheree Ford, ILF)
7 February 2023
Country Tells Us When… follows the feelings, smells, sights, tastes and sounds of Yawuru Country changing with each season, written and illustrated by educators Tsheena Cooper, Mary Dann, Dalisa Pigram-Ross,...
The Anniversary (Stephanie Bishop, Hachette)
7 February 2023
The Anniversary is a book that’s hard to describe: the writing is quiet, meandering, full of thoughts on art and the act of creative expression. And yet, it is also...
Love & Autism (Kay Kerr, Macmillan)
31 January 2023
Apart from the obvious audience—fans of the award-winning TV series Love on the Spectrum—Love & Autism by CBCA nominee Kay Kerr will also appeal to readers who like to be...
The Quiet and the Loud (Helena Fox, Pan)
31 January 2023
Helena Fox, author of award-winning debut How It Feels to Float, returns with another powerful, heart-tugging YA novel. Nine years after her dad disappeared under the lake, 18-year-old George is...
Glass Houses (Anne Coombs, Upswell)
31 January 2023
Glass Houses is Anne Coombs’s (Sex and Anarchy: The life and death of the Sydney Push) posthumous final novel. Perched on a ‘neglected hillside’ near the fictional town of Glaston...
Fed to Red Birds (Rijn Collins, S&S)
24 January 2023
Rijn Collins’s novel Fed to Red Birds is beguiling and moody. Our heroine, Elva, is an Australian–Icelandic woman in her mid-20s. She’s living in Reykjavik to learn Icelandic, connect with...
Nightbirds (Kate J Armstrong, A&U Children’s)
24 January 2023
Magic is illegal in Simta, punishable by death, but that does not mean it does not exist. Matilde, Æsa, and Sayer are nightbirds: privileged girls who have the ability to...
