Who Gets to be Smart (Bri Lee, A&U)
Nonfiction
Released June 2021, reviewed by Kim Thomson.
Who Gets to be Smart opens with a walking tour of Oxford. Author Bri Lee is at the university to...
Kunyi (Kunyi June Anne McInerney, Magabala)
Children’s picture book
Released June 2021, reviewed by Anica Boulanger-Mashberg.
Kunyi, an illustrated memoir of Kunyi June Anne McInerney’s childhood, collects snapshot moments and stories of her life, told in...
100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze (Clayton Zane Comber, HarperCollins)
Young adult
Released June 2021, reviewed by Michael Earp.
Xander Maze’s best friend is his Nanna. When she is diagnosed with stage four cancer and asks him to write...
A Pair of Pears and an Orange (Anna McGregor, Scribble)
Children’s picture book
Released June 2021, reviewed by Ellen Cregan.
A pair of pears are good friends who like to spend their days together, playing games that are just right...
One Hundred Days (Alice Pung, Black Inc.)
Fiction
Released June 2021, reviewed by Marina Sano.
Is there a right way to love? Karuna feels suffocated by her mother—and her entrapment multiplies when her dad leaves...
A Paper Inheritance (Dymphna Stella Rees, UQP)
Nonfiction
Released June 2021, reviewed by Julia Taylor.
Leslie Rees and Coralie Clarke Rees were a literary partnership, contemporaneous with two more famous Australian literary couples of the...
Marlow Brown, Magician in the Making (Kesta Fleming, illus by Marjory Gardner, Celapene Press)
Younger readers
Released June 2021, reviewed by Annie Waters.
Kesta Fleming has written stories and poems for junior readers for many years, making her publishing debut with the Marlow Brown...
Echolalia (Briohny Doyle, Vintage)
Fiction
Released June 2021, reviewed by Jack Rowland.
Echolalia, Briohny Doyle's skilful second novel, concerns a family on the verge of disintegration. Skipping elegantly between chapters set before...
Gunk Baby (Jamie Marina Lau, Hachette)
Fiction
Released May 2021, reviewed by Elizabeth Flux.
Leen has opened up a massage and ear cleaning studio in the suburban wastelands of Par Mars. Her shop is...
Dear Ibis (Kate Liston-Mills, Spineless Wonders)
Fiction
Released June 2021, reviewed by Georgia Brough.
From the author of The Waterfowl Are Drunk! comes an elegant and moving collection of short fiction set principally in...
A Glasshouse of Stars (Shirley Marr, Puffin)
Younger readers
Released May 2021, reviewed by Erin Wamala.
Meixing and her family have recently arrived in the New Land with hopes of a better life. Everything is different...
Frizzle and Me (Ellie Royce, illus by Andrew McLean, Ford St)
Children’s picture book
Released June 2021, reviewed by Anica Boulanger-Mashberg.
Frizzle and Me jumps on board a current—and vital—trend for books celebrating diversity, and makes a respectable contribution to the...
Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (River of Dreams) (Anita Heiss, S&S)
Fiction
Released May 2021, reviewed by Joanne Shiells.
Exploring themes of family, belonging, courage, equality and heartache, this important new historical novel from Anita Heiss raises awareness of...
As Beautiful As Any Other (Kaya Wilson, Picador)
Nonfiction
Released May 2021, reviewed by Marie Matteson.
As Beautiful As Any Other is a joyous and thoughtful memoir–travelogue covering the terrains of both the body and the...
Why Do Tigers Have Whiskers? (ed by Sunanda Creagh, Thames & Hudson)
Children’s picture book
Released May 2021, reviewed by Angela Crocombe.
Curated from the Curious Kids section of the academic-authored news website The Conversation, this book is compiled as a series...
A Human for Kingsley (Gabriel Evans, Little Hare)
Children’s picture book
Released May 2021, reviewed by Romi Sharp.
Kingsley, a dog who has decided to own a human, sets off on a journey to find just the right...
Monster (Ashleigh Synnott, Puncher & Wattmann)
Fiction
Released May 2021, reviewed by Brad Jefferies.
Monster is a collection of dark, finely written short stories by debut author Ashleigh Synnott. The stories are peopled with...
Elsewhere Girls (Emily Gale & Nova Weetman, Text)
Younger readers
Released May 2021, reviewed by Jacqui Davies.
Acclaimed authors Emily Gale and Nova Weetman have teamed up to write this beautifully rendered time-slip narrative that delves into...
Before You Knew My Name (Jacqueline Bublitz, A&U)
Fiction
Released May 2021, reviewed by Fiona Hardy.
We know the phrase from books, from crime shows, from the news: ‘The body was found by a jogger.’ Someone...
Bear and Rat (Christopher Cheng, illus by Stephen Michael King, Puffin)
Children’s picture book
Released May 2021, reviewed by Romi Sharp.
This picture book is a heartwarming, tender tale of the loving relationship between two friends. The elegantly simple story in...
