Funny Fairytales (Tim Harris, illus Christopher Nielsen, Penguin)
Younger readers
Released July 2026, reviewed by Erin Wamala.
Funny Fairytales by Tim Harris, illustrated by Christopher Nielsen, sees the creator of the Mr Bambuckle’s Remarkables series turn his...
Rat Daniels (Alex Sawyer, Hachette)
Fiction
Released July 2026, reviewed by Sophie Helfgott.
Rat Daniels, the debut novel by Alex Sawyer and winner of the 2023 Richell Prize, is a coming-of-age story of...
Parramatta: A Dictionary of Place and Memory (Yumna Kassab, Giramondo)
Nonfiction
Released July 2026, reviewed by Sonia Nair.
Written during her time as the inaugural Parramatta Laureate in Literature, Yumna Kassab (Politica, The Lovers) turns her eye to...
Neighbours: Australia and the Pacific (Joanne Wallis & Jack Corbett, La Trobe)
Nonfiction
Released July 2026, reviewed by Jess Lomas.
Neighbours: Australia and the Pacific by Joanne Wallis (Girt by Sea) and Jack Corbett examines Australia’s relationship with the Pacific...
Tight Lines (Allee Richards, Summit)
Fiction
Released July 2026, reviewed by Chloe Cook.
Set in a small coastal town in regional Victoria, Allee Richards’s Tight Lines is a literary coming-of-age novel steeped in...
My Dad Makes the World Go Around and Around (Maddy Mara, illus Andrew Joyner, HarperCollins)
Children’s picture book
Released July 2026, reviewed by Abbey Taylor.
My Dad Makes the World Go Around and Around by Maddy Mara – the pen name for Hilary Rogers and...
I Wrote My Own Eulogy: The Art of Appreciating Your Own Life (Bradley Dryburgh, S&S)
Nonfiction
Released July 2026, reviewed by Becca Whitehead.
Bradley Dryburgh has done more than write his own eulogy: he has created a memento mori – a reminder of...
Joey and the Junjardy (Allison Rocca, illus Brenton E McKenna, UQP)
Younger readers
Released July 2026, reviewed by Charlotte Callander.
Wakka Wakka and Kaanju author Allison Rocca’s debut middle-grade novel, Joey and the Junjardy, is a fast-moving, vibrant comedy-drama. Joey...
Lovesick (Lillian Telford, HQ Fiction)
Fiction
Released July 2026, reviewed by Nikki Taylor.
Lillian Telford’s debut novel, Lovesick, explores love, obsession, abandonment, addiction and heartbreak, exposing the emotional fractures of characters shaped by...
An Ocean and a Day (Hannah Richell, 4th Estate)
Nonfiction
Released July 2026, reviewed by Kate Frawley.
Hannah Richell’s profoundly moving memoir, An Ocean and a Day, is both a tender love letter and a study of...
The Mortons (Scott Westerfeld & Justine Larbalestier, Penguin)
Fiction
Released July 2026, reviewed by Lisandra Linde.
Justine Larbalestier (My Sister Rosa) and Scott Westerfeld (the Leviathan series) join forces for the crime-family thriller The Mortons, which...
I Made This Just for You (Chris Ames, Ultimo)
Fiction
Released July 2026, reviewed by Sonia Nair.
Chris Ames’s short story collection, I Made This Just for You, is an astonishing debut and a highly anticipated one after...
The Mushroom and the Flower (Sally Soweol Han, T&H)
Children’s picture book
Released July 2026, reviewed by Merril Darling.
In The Mushroom and the Flower, written and illustrated by Sally Soweol Han (The Colours of Home), a small forest...
Fish Don’t Hop (JoJo Leslie, Woodslane Press)
Children’s picture book
Released July 2026, reviewed by Abbey Taylor.
Fish Don’t Hop! by JoJo Leslie is a heartwarming story that takes children on a journey of discovery through nature...
A Short History of Longans (Mirandi Riwoe, UQP)
Fiction
Released July 2026, reviewed by Chloe Cooper.
Mirandi Riwoe’s A Short History of Longans follows 4 members of the same family across 2 centuries, moving backwards through...
The Rebound (Fiona Harris, A&U Children’s)
Younger readers
Released July 2026, reviewed by Kirsten Barich.
The Rebound, by award-winning author Fiona Harris (The Embarrassing Confessions of Gracie Sparks), is a topical, reflective middle-grade novel about...
The End of Romance (Maria Takolander, Text)
Fiction
Released July 2026, reviewed by Nadia Heisler.
In her debut novel, The End of Romance, Maria Takolander presents a dystopian world in which all boys are conscripted...
Don’t Forget to Smile (Ariane Beeston, Black Inc.)
Young adult
Released July 2026, reviewed by Angela Crocombe.
Don’t Forget to Smile by Ariane Beeston is a rare Australian young adult novel set in the world of dance,...
Neighbourhood Watch (Lauren Williams, Affirm)
Fiction
Released July 2026, reviewed by Kate Frawley.
Lauren Williams’s debut novel, Neighbourhood Watch, is a compulsive crime thriller that opens with a bang and delivers a series...
Being: Why It’s Harder to Be Human Than a Hamster or a Herring (Rachel E Menzies & Ross G Menzies, A&U)
Nonfiction
Released July 2026, reviewed by Ellie Pope.
In Being: Why It’s Harder to Be Human Than a Hamster or a Herring, daughter–father writing team Rachel E Menzies...
