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,...
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...
It Sounded Better in My Head (Nina Kenwood, Text)
Thursday, 6 June 2019
Natalie is caught in-between: between year 12 exams and uni results, between her parents’ slow-motion divorce, between her two best friends, Zach and Lucy, who have been dating for a...
Bitsy (Nicki Greenberg, Affirm Kids)
Thursday, 6 June 2019
We all know that bats are nocturnal creatures, but writer/illustrator Nicki Greenberg’s latest picture book takes this fact and subverts it: her bat, Bitsy, dares to behave differently from its...
All That Impossible Space (Anna Morgan, Lothian)
Thursday, 6 June 2019
Lara Laylor just wants to get through year 10 without too much drama, but between a controlling best friend and the shadow of an older sister with a much bigger...
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...
