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A Curry for Murray (Kate Hunter, illus by Lucia Masciullo, UQP)

Released May 2015

Molly lives next door to Murray and Maureen. When Maureen has to go to hospital, the piggy-tailed little girl decides to look after Murray, who is home alone. With the... Read more

Fish Jam (Kylie Howarth, Five Mile Press)

Released April 2015

Jonah and the Whale has got nothing on this book! Toot is a fish who likes to make noise and he loves nothing better than making music. But the rest... Read more

Too Much for Turtle (Cat Rabbit & Isobel Knowles, Thames & Hudson)

Released April 2015

With their beautifully delicate handmade felt and cardboard scenes, Cat Rabbit and Isobel Knowles have created another delightful book following their bestseller Owl Know How. In Too Much for Turtle,... Read more

Alice’s Food A-Z (Alice Zaslavsky, illus by Kat Chadwick, Walker Books)

Released April 2015

Too often children’s cookbooks are just bad collections of cheap, cheesy content and recipes for happy-face pizzas, which makes finding a good cookbook for primary school kids or your own... Read more

Prince of Afghanistan (Louis Nowra, A&U)

Released April 2015

When a hostage rescue mission in a remote region of Afghanistan suddenly goes wrong, 18-year-old Corporal Mark Hollis and an army sniffer dog, Prince, are the only survivors—and now they... Read more

The Hush (Skye Melki-Wegner, Random House)

Released March 2015

In a world where Music is the fabric of reality, none but those trained by the elite Conservatorium are allowed to touch the Song (the life force of everything). Travelling... Read more

Lifespan of Starlight (Thalia Kalkipsakis, Hardie Grant Egmont)

Released April 2015

Similar to a lot of recent YA fiction, this book is set in a dystopian future. It’s pretty well thought out, though. There’s a rigid class system, computer monitoring, and... Read more

Frankie and Joely (Nova Weetman, UQP)

Released May 2015

Escaping to relatives in the country with best friend Frankie in tow seemed like a wonderful idea to Joely at the time. But now they have arrived, she’s learning that... Read more

‘Lily the Elf’ series: The Precious Ring and The Midnight Owl (Anna Branford, illus by Lisa Coutts, Walker Books)

Released May 2015

Stand aside princesses and ballet dancers, elves could be the next big thing if the ‘Lily the Elf’ series is anything to go by. Anna Bradford, author of the ‘Violet... Read more

Farm Rescue: Pup Patrol Book One (Darrel & Sally Odgers, Scholastic)

Released March 2015

Farm Rescue is the first book in a new series for junior readers by Darrel and Sally Odgers, two names many readers will already be familiar with. Barnaby Station Stamp... Read more

Anyone but Ivy Pocket (Caleb Krisp, Bloomsbury)

Released May 2015

In a similar vein to Lemony Snicket comes Ivy Pocket, an orphaned maid and the terrifically unreliable narrator of this story. After being let go from her current position, Ivy... Read more

‘The Gateway’ series: The Four Fingered Man and The Warriors of Brin-Hask (Cerberus Jones, Hardie Grant Egmont)

Released April 2015

The brilliantly named Cerberus Jones is actually a pseudonym for three authors, Chris Morphew, Rowan McAuley and David Harding, who are already bestsellers in the middle-grade market. So when they... Read more

Dropping In (Geoff Havel, Fremantle Press)

Released April 2015

Stick and Ranga are best mates who love skateboarding, PlayStation and dunking arrowroot biscuits into steaming mugs of Milo. Their friendship duo unexpectedly becomes a trio with the arrival of... Read more

A Single Stone (Meg McKinlay, Walker Books)

Released May 2015

In almost all cases, shortness of breath is not a great feeling. In this instance, though, it was merely a symptom of good writing, and it happened as I read... Read more

The Flywheel (Erin Gough, Hardie Grant Egmont)

Released February 2015

Between running her father’s struggling café while he takes a well-earned holiday, dodging mean girls at school and helping her best friend with his girl dramas, Del is seriously in... Read more

A Man Made Entirely of Bats (Patrick Lenton, Spineless Wonders)

Released March 2015

In this collection of short stories and flash fiction, Patrick Lenton careens wildly across genres and draws on elements of surrealism, horror, fairytale, stand-up comedy and pulp fiction to generate... Read more

Clade (James Bradley, Hamish Hamilton)

Released February 2015

In his first novel in 10 years, James Bradley writes about the members of an extended family in a soft-dystopian near-future, where violent climate events have brought rapid changes to... Read more

The Anchoress (Robyn Cadwallader, HarperCollins)

Released March 2015

A small, dark cell in 13th-century England is the setting for the majority of Robyn Cadwallader’s debut novel, which arrives with some anticipation after being sold at auction into multiple... Read more

Anchor Point (Alice Robinson, Affirm Press)

Released March 2015

When Laura and Vik are children, their eccentric mother disappears during a flash flood on the family’s struggling property in rural Victorian. Though just a girl herself, Laura is forced... Read more

The Ash Burner (Kári Gíslason, UQP)

Released March 2015

Kári Gíslason’s first book, The Promise of Iceland, was a memoir about his search for his absent Icelandic father and a heartfelt exploration of the importance of home, place and... Read more