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We Are Wolves (Katrina Nannestad, ABC Books)
Released November 2020
In We Are Wolves, middle-grade author Katrina Nannestad, creator of the 'Olive of Groves' and 'Girl, the Dog and the Writer' series, moves confidently into more sombre territory with the... Read more
Dog (Shaun Tan, A&U)
Released November 2020
This is Shaun Tan doing what he does best. Carrying an elegant tension between joy and sadness, Dog left me in a puddle of emotion. The prose poetry traces the... Read more
One Day I’ll Remember This: Diaries 1987–1995 (Helen Garner, Text)
Released November 2020
The second volume of Helen Garner’s diaries picks up right where the first left off. It’s 1987 and her daughter, having graduated high school, is leaving home—or rather, Garner is... Read more
I Want to be a Superhero (Breanna Humes, illus by Ambelin Kwaymullina, Magabala)
Released November 2020
A little girl in a homemade blanket cape wants to be a superhero, and not just any superhero, she wants to fly! Breanna, the girl in question, is a younger... Read more
The Odds (Matt Stanton, ABC Books)
Released November 2020
The lack of locally produced graphic novels for young Australians has been noted for some time now, but middle-grade and children’s author Matt Stanton has a new book to appease... Read more
The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars (Shivaun Plozza, Puffin)
Released October 2020
Young readers with an insatiable hunger for adventure will love The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars, a timeless new novel from Shivaun Plozza. A departure from her writing for... Read more
This One is Ours (Kate O’Donnell, UQP)
Released October 2020
In her second novel, Kate O’Donnell, author of Untidy Towns, delivers an insightful and earnest coming-of-age story brimming with humanity. This One is Ours takes readers on a romantic overseas... Read more
Death Leaves the Station (Alexander Thorpe, Fremantle Press)
Released October 2020
In 1927 at Halfwell Station in regional WA, the station owner’s daughter, Ana, discovers a body in the nearby desert. At around the same time, a nameless friar arrives at... Read more
How to Make a Bird (Meg McKinlay, illus by Matt Ottley, Walker Books)
Released October 2020
For those children who revel in the natural environment, particularly fossils and bones, How to Make a Bird is a delight. According to the young girl protagonist, you will need... Read more
The Tunnel of Dreams (Bernard Beckett, Text)
Released October 2020
The Tunnel of Dreams is a charmingly breezy middle fiction fantasy novel about identical twins Arlo and Stefan, and their adventure in a parallel, magic-filled world. Author Bernard Beckett wastes... Read more
Wolfred (Nick Bland, Hardie Grant Egmont)
Released October 2020
Toddlers and preschoolers will enjoy the engaging rhymes, quirky illustration and straightforward messaging of this new tale from popular picture book author Nick Bland. When aspiring writer Wolfred McFlea is... Read more
Bindi (Kirli Saunders, illus by Dub Leffler, Magabala)
Released October 2020
Multi–award winning author and poet Kirli Saunders turns her talent to junior fiction with this wonderfully engaging verse novel, which won the inaugural WA Premier’s Daisy Utemorrah Award. Eleven-year-old Bindi... Read more
Soar: A life freed by dance (David McAllister, Thames & Hudson)
Released October 2020
As both a star principal dancer and tenured artistic director, David McAllister is a reliable chronicler of Australia’s recent ballet history. In his memoir Soar, McAllister records his early years... Read more
It’s Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake (Claire Christian, Text)
Released October 2020
Claire Christian’s first adult novel is billed as a contemporary romantic comedy and while there is a delicious romance plot, the true love story is between the eponymous protagonist and... Read more
All Our Shimmering Skies (Trent Dalton, HarperCollins)
Released October 2020
Backdropped by the 1942 bombing of Darwin, Trent Dalton’s All Our Shimmering Skies is a macabre, dreamlike fable interrogating greed and intergenerational trauma. At the age of seven, gravedigger girl... Read more
Piper Picks the Perfect Pet (Caroline Tuohey, illus by Nicky Johnston, Ford St)
Released October 2020
From the alliterative title alone, you know this picture book must be read out loud to the little ones. Piper Picks the Perfect Pet even rhymes, which will add to... Read more
Loss Adjustment (Linda Collins, Awa Press)
Released October 2020
The unimaginable horror of losing a beloved only child to suicide concentrated Linda Collins’ mind, producing this extraordinary book. The pain of her loss suffuses every page, but she writes... Read more
Rural Dreams (Margaret Hickey, MidnightSun)
Released October 2020
Rural Dreams, like its name implies, is a short story collection deeply rooted in country Australia. Reading it you can practically smell the dry grass, eucalyptus and stale pub carpet.... Read more
Future Girl (Asphyxia, A&U)
Released October 2020
The events of Future Girl play out in a future Melbourne that is eerily plausible. Food has been largely replaced by recon, an all-in-one food replacement that is marketed as... Read more
A Letter to Layla: Travels to our deep past and near future (Ramona Koval, Text)
Released October 2020
Ramona Koval’s latest book is really a quest story: in it she sets out to find how humanity got to where we are now, and where we are going. In... Read more
