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Thai-no-mite! (Oliver Phommavanh, Puffin)

Released October 2012

Thai-riffic! introduced readers to Albert ‘Lengy’ Lengviriyakul, a Thai-Australian boy whose parents run a Thai restaurant. Unfortunately, Lengy doesn’t particularly like Thai food and would much rather scoff down a... Read more

Riggs Crossing (Michelle Heeter, Ford Street)

Released September 2012

A girl is found in a car wreck, injured and suffering from amnesia. Nearby lie signs of a violent and bloody altercation. When questioned by the authorities, the girl becomes... Read more

Miss Understood (James Roy, Woolshed Press)

Released September 2012

Ten-year-old Lizzie doesn’t mean to cause trouble, and always has the best intentions. So why is she being homeschooled by her mother after being expelled from school for setting her... Read more

Creepy & Maud (Dianne Touchell, Fremantle Press)

Released October 2012

Creepy & Maud is the story of an unusual romance conducted through glass. Creepy, the eloquent boy next door, leaves notes stuck to his window for Maud, the girl whose bedroom... Read more

Clementine-Rose and the Surprise Visitor (Jacqueline Harvey, Random House)

Released September 2012

Clementine Rose is just a baby when she is delivered to Lady Clarissa Appleby of Penberthy House in a breadbasket full of warm buns. Welcomed with delight by Lady Clarissa,... Read more

The Coast (Chris Hammer, MUP)

Released September 2012

Many readers will recall The River, Chris Hammer’s award-winning study of the Murray-Darling river system. This new work is much larger in scope, encompassing a journey down the coast of... Read more

Whisky Charlie Foxtrot (Annabel Smith, Fremantle Press)

Released November 2012

Charlie Ferns has grown up in the shadow of his identical twin brother William, or Whisky, as he is known after a childhood game of walkie-talkies. We meet the brothers... Read more

The Voyage (Murray Bail, Text)

Released October 2012

Murray Bail has been masterfully reinventing his writing for more than 30 years in short fiction, novels, criticism and art history. In The Voyage, his first novel in three years,... Read more

Las Vegas for Vegans (A S Patric, Transit Lounge)

Released October 2012

This is the second collection of short stories from Melbourne writer (and bookseller) A S Patric, following last year’s The Rattler and Other Stories. In Las Vegas for Vegans, Patric... Read more

In Falling Snow (Mary-Rose MacColl, A&U)

Released October 2012

When Iris, an elderly widow, receives an invitation to a reunion in France, where she worked as a nurse during the First World War, she’s determined to go. But Iris’... Read more

The Happiness Show (Catherine Deveny, Black Inc.)

Released November 2012

In The Happiness Show, Australian comedian and writer Catherine Deveny turns her hand to fiction for the first time. The result is a lively, if a little predictable, blend of... Read more

Velocity (Steve Worland, Michael Joseph)

Released September 2012

Judd Bell is a NASA astronaut who has lost his mojo. Ever since his best friend was killed in a shuttle disaster, he’s been doubting himself, and the strain is... Read more

Red Dirt Talking (Jacqueline Wright, Fremantle Press)

Released October 2012

Jacqueline Wright won the TAG Hungerford Award for most promising unpublished manuscript in 2010 and Red Dirt Talking is the result. The main protagonist, Annie, is a 40-year-old woman embarking... Read more

Beneath the Darkening Sky (Majok Tulba, Hamish Hamilton)

Released July 2012

South Sudanese refugee Majok Tulba’s brutal, poetic debut views the monstrousness of war through the innocent eyes of a young boy. Beneath the Darkening Sky tells the harrowing tale of... Read more

The Swarm (Andy Kissane, Puncher & Wattmann)

Released August 2012

The characters who inhabit Andy Kissane’s engaging short stories are recognisably Australian and contemporary, as are the situations they find themselves in. A musician rediscovers music after a bereavement in... Read more

The Brain Sucker (Glenn Wood, Walker Books)

Released September 2012

Callum is stoked with the fancy new wheelchair that his gran Rose has bought him for his birthday. He’s even more stoked when his best friend Sophie, who’s a bit... Read more

A Hare, a Hound and Shy Mousey Brown (Julia Hubery, illus by Jonathan Bentley, Little Hare)

Released August 2012

Love never runs smoothly, as we all know, and love is blind. Shy Mousey Brown is in love, but his beloved doesn’t even notice him. She’s an exuberant female and... Read more

Into That Forest (Louis Nowra, A&U)

Released September 2012

Louis Nowra’s young-adult novel recreates a captivating time in Tasmanian history through the eyes of a unique narrator—a girl quite literally raised by animals. Lost and alone in the bush,... Read more

Peggy (Anna Walker, Scholastic)

Released September 2012

Peggy is an endearing character. When she finds herself far from home and overwhelmed by unfamiliar surroundings, she is not daunted. She picks herself up and goes exploring, eventually following... Read more

City (James Roy, UQP)

Released September 2012

In any move to a new city, familiarity takes time. The links between people and places aren’t always immediately apparent, and although one day you might find yourself strolling the... Read more