Review search
Diggers, Dozers, and Dumpers (Ole Könnecke, Gecko)
Released May 2025
Picture books about machinery are always a hit, but they don’t always deliver an engaging narrative – this one does, seamlessly blending fiction with nonfiction. Diggers, Dozers, and Dumpers, written... Read more
The Bearcat (Georgia Rose Phillips, Picador)
Released May 2025
Based on true events, The Bearcat is an ambitious, mesmeric and deeply affecting debut novel that imagines the inner life of Anne Hamilton-Byrne, a rare female cult leader who founded... Read more
The Remarkable Truths of Alfie Bains (Sarah Clutton, A&U)
Released May 2025
Sarah Clutton’s The Remarkable Truths of Alfie Bains is a richly woven novel that explores family dynamics, small-town life and long-buried secrets. The story follows Penny, a widowed farmer whose... Read more
This Dream Will Devour Us (Emma Clancey, A&U Children’s)
Released May 2025
What if humanity developed a drug that could manipulate the elements – essentially perform magic? In This Dream Will Devour Us, debut author Emma Clancey builds a world where the... Read more
He Would Never (Holly Wainwright, Macmillan)
Released May 2025
Holly Wainwright’s fifth novel, He Would Never, is pacy, compelling and character-driven, and will hook readers from the startling first sentence. The story follows five families on their annual summer... Read more
The Girl and the Ghost (Jacqueline Harvey, Penguin)
Released May 2025
Jacqueline Harvey, author of the best-selling Alice-Miranda and Kensy and Max books, returns with The Girl and the Ghost, the first instalment in a new fantasy-mystery middle-grade series. When 12-year-old... Read more
Letters to Our Robot Son (Cadance Bell, Ultimo)
Released May 2025
Letters to Our Robot Son is the fiction debut of memoirist Cadance Bell (The All of It: A Bogan Rhapsody), a mercurial science fiction novel about a robot who awakens... Read more
Little World (Josephine Rowe, Black Inc.)
Released May 2025
Josephine Rowe’s Little World is a compact, lyrical read that feels both mythic and frighteningly current. When the perfectly preserved body of a child is brought to Western Australia, it... Read more
The Surface Trials (HM Waugh, A&U Children’s)
Released May 2025
Starquest Academy is an elite school for exceptional students from around the galaxy. Notoriously difficult to enter, Starquest requires prospects to undergo a three-day televised challenge on an unknown planet.... Read more
The Opposite of Lonely (Hilde Hinton, Hachette)
Released May 2025
For the past few years, Rose has felt disassociated from her own life, struggling to come to terms with the passing of her cherished father and the collapse of her... Read more
Wandering Wild (Lynette Noni, Penguin)
Released May 2025
Wandering Wild, the latest novel from Lynette Noni (The Prison Healer), is the perfect cosy romance read. The dual-perspective narrative follows Zander, a Hollywood ‘bad boy’ desperate to rebuild his... Read more
Painting Portraits of Everyone I’ve Ever Dated (Joseph Earp, Pantera)
Released May 2025
Painting Portraits of Everyone I’ve Ever Dated is both surprisingly tender and hilariously acerbic, with Joseph Earp’s writing effortlessly drawing the reader in. The novel follows Ellie Robertson, an artist... Read more
I Am Not an Owl (Rhonda Ooi, illus Mel Corrigan, Woodslane)
Released May 2025
A small child who does not want to have a nap is a challenge. In this charming picture book for children aged 4 and up, Alexander turns the tables on... Read more
Super Sweet! (Kenneth & Queenie #1) (Raymond McGrath, Affirm)
Released May 2025
The first book in Raymond McGrath’s whimsical new junior graphic novel series, Kenneth & Queenie: Super Sweet! lives up to its name and includes three stories in one volume. Kenneth,... Read more
Grandmother from the East, Grandmother from the West (Jacinta Liu, illus Freda Chiu, Lothian)
Released April 2025
Jacinta Liu’s debut picture book is a comforting story about a young girl reflecting on the individual personalities, traits and experiences of her two grandmothers while looking at photos of... Read more
Goodnight Sheep (Sally Barton, illus Cherie Dignam, Fremantle)
Released April 2025
For some parents and carers, nothing is more anxiety-inducing than bedtime. Sally Barton’s Goodnight Sheep, illustrated by Cherie Dignam (The Pen series), embraces this universal challenge, inviting readers to find... Read more
Orpheus Nine (Chris Flynn, Hachette)
Released April 2025
When a boys’ soccer game in the regional town of Gattan is interrupted by a grotesque supernatural event that ushers in a new world order, residents of the town –... Read more
The Sex Lives of Married Women (Saman Shad, Penguin)
Released April 2025
Meet Rani, Sophie and Meena – three Sydney women in their late 30s who are confronted with the realisation that their lives aren’t what they had hoped for. Saman Shad’s... Read more
The Colt from Old Regret (Dianne Wolfer, illus Erica Wagner, NLA)
Released April 2025
Dianne Wolfer (Soaring with the Sugarbird Lady) decentres the human perspective of Banjo Paterson’s ‘The Man from Snowy River’ in The Colt from Old Regret, recounting the escaped colt’s experience... Read more
I Ate the Whole World to Find You (Rachel Ang, Scribe)
Released April 2025
While the world is in flux, the emotional realities remain firm in Rachel Ang’s collection of graphic short stories, I Ate the Whole World to Find You. Across five tales... Read more
