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Run (Sarah Armstrong, HGCP)
Released August 2025
Sarah Armstrong’s latest middle-grade novel, Run, is a fast-paced survival tale that explores themes of trust, resilience and complicated families. It follows Armstrong’s previous titles for younger readers, Big Magic and Magic Awry, and her... Read more
How to Train a Dad (Sally Barns, illus Noémie Gionet Landry, Affirm)
Released August 2025
How to Train a Dad, written by Sally Barns and illustrated by Noémie Gionet Landry, is a funny and imaginative picture book that presents itself as a manual for kids... Read more
Plastic Budgie (Olivia De Zilva, Pink Shorts Press)
Released August 2025
Olivia De Zilva’s autofiction debut Plastic Budgie is a sharply funny, sad and sentimental reflection on the people, places and cultural forces that shape us as we grow up. In the novel,... Read more
The Ghost Walk (Karen Herbert, Fremantle)
Released August 2025
Ruby Rose Gillespie lives with cystic fibrosis and is admitted to the hospital for a fever on the same day the body of Dr Gabriel Beaufort – her high school... Read more
Yilkari (Nicolas Rothwell & Alison Nampitjinpa Anderson, Text)
Released August 2025
Yilkari is a book that resists easy categorisation – it’s part character study, part travel narrative, part history lesson and part meditation on the connection between people and place. This... Read more
A Gift from the Birds (Caroline Stills, Text)
Released August 2025
A Gift from the Birds is the first middle-grade novel by picture book author Caroline Stills. Winner of the 2024 Text Prize – and the final recipient before the prize... Read more
The Giant (Sophie Masson, illus Lorena Carrington, MidnightSun)
Released August 2025
The award-winning duo of author Sophie Masson and illustrator Lorena Carrington reunite for The Giant. Their previous title, Satin, was a 2024 CBCA Notable book. In this mystical and poignant... Read more
The Golden Sister (Suzanne Do, Macmillan)
Released August 2025
The Golden Sister is a fast-paced mystery set in a small fictional NSW coastal town, exploring complex and dysfunctional family dynamics and the impact of grief. Suzanne Do’s prose is... Read more
Death at Booroomba (AL Booth, Ventura Press)
Released August 2025
On the eve of his deployment to the Western Front in 1915, Jack O’Rourke has a chance encounter with an elderly Russian man, Samuel Lomond, that will profoundly impact his... Read more
Where the River Runs Free (Vikki Conley, illus Jedda Robaard, Windy Hollow)
Released July 2025
Where the River Runs Free is a celebration of time spent outdoors by multi-award-winning author Vikki Conley (Where the Lyrebird Lives) and illustrator Jedda Robaard (The Littlest Penguin and the... Read more
Cure (Katherine Brabon, Ultimo)
Released July 2025
Katherine Brabon’s Cure is a natural extension and companion to her novel Body Friend; both are introspective literary works centred on women living with autoimmune diseases – conditions Brabon herself... Read more
CHAOS! Which way will YOU choose? (Andrew Cranna, Walker Books)
Released July 2025
An eccentric grandfather, a talking pet pig, a rat, a toad and a baby alligator are just some of the characters in Andrew Cranna’s interactive middle-grade adventure, CHAOS! Which way... Read more
Deep History: Country and Sovereignty (ed by Ann McGrath & Jackie Huggins, UNSW Press)
Released July 2025
Deep History: Country and Sovereignty is a layered and collaborative work that challenges dominant narratives and asks whose voices are heard in telling history. Edited by Jackie Huggins, a Bidjara... Read more
Be a good girl, Valerie (Marcia van Zeller, Ventura Press)
Released July 2025
Be a good girl, Valerie by Marcia van Zeller is a quietly absorbing novel set predominantly in 2018 Perth with flashbacks to 1974 Toronto and 1978 London. It explores enduring... Read more
Dead Ends (Samantha Byres, UQP)
Released July 2025
Is closure possible, or is it just a convenient fiction? This is the central question explored in Dead Ends, the meditative debut novel by Aotearoa New Zealand–born Naarm/Melbourne-based writer Samantha... Read more
Love Overdue (Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus, A&U)
Released July 2025
Love Overdue, the new novel by Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus (Fancy Meeting You Here), is an uneven but ultimately charming contemporary romance for readers who enjoy Jodi McAlister (An... Read more
What Kept You? (Raaza Jamshed, Giramondo)
Released July 2025
Raaza Jamshed’s debut novel, What Kept You?, is a dazzling, poignant tale of defiance and metamorphosis in an ever-changing world. Whipping between the past and present, we first meet Jahan... Read more
Modern Australian Baking (Christopher Thé, Hardie Grant)
Released July 2025
Christopher Thé’s Modern Australian Baking is visually arresting, thoughtfully structured and creatively ambitious. Best known as the founder of Black Star Pastry and creator of the viral Strawberry Watermelon Cake,... Read more
Edie Tells a Lie (Ingrid Laguna, Text)
Released July 2025
Ingrid Laguna’s Edie Tells a Lie is a gentle story of friendship and family. After the loss of her father, Edie mourns the large family she wishes she had. Edie’s... Read more
Nock Loose (Patrick Marlborough, Fremantle)
Released July 2025
Patrick Marlborough’s Nock Loose is a wryly postmodern and cynically satirical novel that hits the ground running and never lets up. Marlborough scorns the ‘dire humourlessness’ of Australian literature in... Read more
