Cedar Valley (Holly Throsby, A&U)
Thursday, 26 July 2018
On the first day of summer in 1993, Benny Miller arrives in Cedar Valley. She’s been invited, following the death of her mother, to stay at a cottage owned by...
The Valley (Steve Hawke, Fremantle Press)
Wednesday, 25 July 2018
Steve Hawke’s first foray into adult fiction, The Valley, is a tender and sensitive novel set in the Kimberley, a place the author lived and worked for many years and knows well....
Waiting for Chicken Smith (David Mackintosh, Little Hare)
Thursday, 5 July 2018
The nameless narrator of this story has been coming to the same beach with his family for summer holidays for many years. He’s there this year with his sister and...
The Institute of Fantastical Inventions: Book One (Dave Leys, illus by Shane Ogilvie, Harbour Publishing)
Thursday, 5 July 2018
Brilliant super-scientist Leo McGuffin works at the Institute of Fantastical Inventions, a laboratory that delivers creative, high-concept solutions to realising people’s fantasies. Be it a desire to fly, play underwater...
I Had Such Friends (Meg Gatland-Veness, Pantera Press)
Thursday, 5 July 2018
Hamish is a nobody. Less than a nobody. A poor year 12 farm boy with one friend—who is an even bigger loser. But his world is suddenly turned upside down...
Grumpy Bear, Grouchy Bear (Lynn Ward, illus by Monty Lee, Yellow Brick Books)
Thursday, 5 July 2018
Bear is desperately hungry and searching everywhere for food. No matter how hard he tries, he can’t catch anything to eat. A series of accidents distracts him from his hunt...
Maddie’s First Day (Penny Matthews, illus by Liz Anelli, Walker Books)
Thursday, 5 July 2018
Written for preschoolers who may be feeling nervous about their next educational chapter, Penny Matthews’ picture book takes us through the exhilarating journey of a little girl’s first day at...
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...
No Place Like Home: Repairing Australia’s Housing Crisis (Peter Mares, Text)
Thursday, 28 June 2018
Why are Australia’s property prices so high? Is it a shortage of supply? The tax system rewarding speculation? In No Place Like Home, writer and journalist Peter Mares gives a...
The Helpline (Katherine Collette, Text)
Thursday, 28 June 2018
Germaine Johnson is an insurance probability outcomes mathematician with a burning passion for Sudoku championships. More comfortable with calculus and polynomials than people, the only job she can get post-retrenchment...
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...
The Rapids: Ways of Looking at Mania (Sam Twyford-Moore, NewSouth)
Friday, 1 June 2018
Sam Twyford-Moore’s The Rapids is a fascinating exploration of the fragility of the mind, states of mania and how mental ill-health is treated in art and popular culture. Having been...
The Eastern Curlew (Harry Saddler, Affirm Press)
Friday, 1 June 2018
All birds are miracles, but migratory shorebirds are perhaps the most wondrous of all. Author Harry Saddler is fascinated by the Eastern Curlews that chase summer across the hemispheres, breeding...
No-Country Woman: A Memoir of Not Belonging (Zoya Patel, Hachette)
Friday, 1 June 2018
In her razor-sharp debut, No-Country Woman: A Memoir of Not Belonging, Fijian-Indian-Australian writer Zoya Patel charts the chasm that results from juggling three cultures at once, never completely belonging to...
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’,...
Trace (Rachael Brown, Scribe)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Journalist Rachael Brown’s ABC podcast Trace, which earned comparisons to the global sensation Serial, investigated the cold-case murder of Melbourne bookshop owner Maria James. The 38-year-old single mother was stabbed...
Teacher (Gabbie Stroud, A&U)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Gabbie Stroud always wanted to be a teacher. Her childhood teachers changed her life, and she wanted to do the same for others. This memoir weaves together a broader look...
Happy Never After (Jill Stark, Scribe)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Picking up where her debut bestseller High Sobriety left off, journalist and author Jill Stark’s Happy Never After charts the period from her breakdown in October 2014 to her ensuing...
Always Another Country (Sisonke Msimang, Text)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
A coming-of-age memoir brimming with no-holds-barred honesty, Always Another Country is a story about love, survival, politics and home. Sisonke Msimang charts various stages of her life, observing her surroundings...
