Outrider (Mark Wales, Macmillan)
Tuesday, 30 April 2024
In Mark Wales’s debut novel, Outrider, China invades Australia, and the state of Victoria is now in the hands of enemy forces. With many fight-hungry locals turned traitors, The Hill—the once...
Wild About Book Week (Sarah Speedie, illus Kruti Desai, Larrikin House)
Tuesday, 30 April 2024
Wild About Book Week is a meta-tale of sorts, which celebrates what has become an annual tradition for many families: dressing up for Book Week. The protagonist, a pigtailed child,...
Always Was, Always Will Be (Aunty Fay Muir & Sue Lawson, Magabala)
Tuesday, 30 April 2024
Always Was, Always Will Be is set to be an indispensable resource for young people looking to understand First Nations resistance in Australia. Aunty Fay Muir and Sue Lawson, whose collaboration began...
Blossom: Practical and creative ways to find wonder in the floral world (Adriana Picker, Hardie Grant Books)
Tuesday, 23 April 2024
Blossom goes beyond merely showcasing the beauty of flowers, offering wonderful and practical ideas for using flowers through the seasons. In her latest book, botanical illustrator Adriana Picker shares her...
Father of the Lost Boys: The Mecak Ajang Alaak story (Yuot A Alaak, Fremantle)
Tuesday, 23 April 2024
In Father of the Lost Boys, former child refugee Yuot A Alaak immortalises the hero who rescued 20,000 boys from the brink of death—his father, Mecak Ajang Alaak. Affectionately embraced as...
The Skeleton House (Katherine Allum, Fremantle)
Tuesday, 23 April 2024
The Skeleton House is a powerful and riveting literary debut, delving into themes of motherhood, coercive control, and life within a remote and rigid society. Meg’s life, like that of...
Detective Beans and the Case of the Missing Hat (Li Chen, Penguin)
Tuesday, 16 April 2024
From the creator of the beloved ExtraOrdinary Comics, Detective Beans and the Case of the Missing Hat is the debut graphic novel from Aotearoa New Zealand comic artist Li Chen. For...
Lights Out, Little Dragon (Debra Tidball, illus Rae Tan, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 9 April 2024
Lights Out, Little Dragon is an interactive bedtime book for toddlers aged 3+ and their caregivers, with a cute and relatable character that is just too busy to go to...
What’s Murder Between Friends (Meg Gatland-Veness, Pantera)
Tuesday, 9 April 2024
Hallie has always dreamed of being an actor. Thanks to her drama teacher, Ms Lovelace, the school is finally putting on its first show. When Hallie’s class stumbles upon Ms...
Love from Scratch (Amy Hutton, S&S)
Tuesday, 9 April 2024
Amy Hutton’s new romance, Love from Scratch, reunites readers with the gorgeous actor Ethan from her previous book, Sit, Stay, Love. Ethan, once terribly fearful of dogs, is now filming...
Drop into the Ocean (Karen Wasson, illus Marta Tesoro, Hardie Grant Explore)
Tuesday, 2 April 2024
Drop into the Ocean: A tour of the world’s oceans and seas is exciting, colourful, entertaining and insightful. Packed with fun facts and well-researched information, it’s the type of book...
Dear Mutzi (Tess Scholfield-Peters, NLA)
Tuesday, 2 April 2024
Tess Scholfield-Peters’ debut book, Dear Mutzi, is a narrative nonfiction account of her grandfather's experience in Nazi Germany. It powerfully describes how 18-year-old Hermann Pollnow fled Nazi Germany for rural...
Heartsease (Kate Kruimink, Picador)
Tuesday, 2 April 2024
Ellen 'Nelly' and Charlotte 'Lot' are as unalike as sisters come, yet they were once inseparable despite this. Lot is Nelly’s elder by eight years—an employment lawyer and single mother...
The Lost Letters of Rose Carey (Julie Bennett, S&S)
Tuesday, 26 March 2024
Inspired by the life of the Australian swimmer and film icon Annette Kellerman, The Lost Letters of Rose Carey follows two heroines: Emma Quinn, in the present time, and Rose Carey, in...
Boots (Elizabeth Pulsford, illus Krista Brennan, Wombat Books)
Tuesday, 26 March 2024
The idea of walking in someone else’s shoes to evoke understanding and empathy is not a new concept, but Elizabeth Pulsford takes it further in her debut picture book, Boots,...
Ghost Cities (Siang Lu, UQP)
Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Recently fired from his translating job at the Chinese Consulate in Sydney for lying about his translation skills and using Google Translate to do his job, Xiang Lu is a...
Ultra Violet: Down to Business (Cristy Burne, illus Rebel Challenger, Larrikin House)
Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Ultra Violet: Down to Business is the first in a new junior graphic novel series with a hilarious—but very scientific—premise. Violet (a science genius who wears a lab coat) and...
Cora Seen and Heard (Zanni Louise, Walker)
Tuesday, 12 March 2024
When Cora’s family moves to Tasmania to renovate a decrepit theatre, Cora, 12, is thrilled at the opportunity to reinvent herself as Cora 2.0: more confident, admired, and interesting. But...
Circadia (Judith Bishop, UQP)
Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Judith Bishop’s Circadia is a collection of neatly formed, intelligent poems in which you can discover something new with each read. Bishop is in conversation with a chorus of voices and introduces...
To Sing of War (Catherine McKinnon, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 12 March 2024
From Miles Franklin–shortlisted author Catherine McKinnon (Storyland), To Sing of War confronts the interconnectedness that binds humanity. Against the backdrop of WWII, we find ourselves immersed in the jungles of...
Saltblood (Francesca de Tores, Bloomsbury)
Tuesday, 5 March 2024
Saltblood is an engrossing, deeply felt historical novel by Melbourne poet, author and academic Francesca de Tores (with previous works published as Francesca Haig), fictionalising the life of pirate Mary...
Country (Aunty Fay Muir & Sue Lawson, illus Cheryl Davison, Wild Dog)
Tuesday, 5 March 2024
Country is a celebration of earth and sky, sun, moon and stars—central to First Nations Culture. Through intricate, warm and entrancing artwork by renowned artist and Walbunja, Ngarigo woman Cheryl...
The Work (Bri Lee, A&U)
Tuesday, 27 February 2024
Having tackled power, privilege and sexual politics in her nonfiction books, Eggshell Skull, Beauty and Who Gets to Be Smart, Bri Lee brings the same shrewd scrutiny to her debut novel,...
Tree (Claire Saxby, illus Jess Racklyeft, A&U Children’s)
Tuesday, 27 February 2024
Tree, by multi-award-winning picture book creators Claire Saxby and Jess Racklyeft, explores the life of a mighty mountain ash, the tallest in a forest of tall trees. Similar to their...
Deep Water (James Bradley, Hamish Hamilton)
Tuesday, 27 February 2024
The first chapter of Deep Water is named ‘The Word for World Is Water’, a reference to science fiction writer Ursula K Le Guin’s novella The Word for World Is...
Italian Coastal (Amber Guinness, T&H)
Tuesday, 20 February 2024
Amber Guinness’s Italian Coastal: Recipes and stories from where the land meets the sea takes readers on a tour of the seven Italian regions that sit on the Tyrrhenian Sea—places...
Happy All Over (Emma Quay, ABC Books)
Tuesday, 20 February 2024
Happy All Over is exactly that. Emma Quay’s capacity to capture miniatures of joy, through both word and image, will bring a smile to even the most careworn and cynical...
Black Silk & Sympathy (Deborah Challinor, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 20 February 2024
Deborah Challinor’s latest offering, Black Silk & Sympathy, sweeps readers away to the intriguing world of Victorian funeral customs in 1860s Sydney. In this expertly crafted novel, Challinor delivers a...
No Church in the Wild (Murray Middleton, Picador)
Tuesday, 13 February 2024
Stereotypes and bad press about the commission towers of Melbourne’s inner west are easy to come by, but Vogel winner Murray Middleton’s deeply researched and complex portrayal of this community...
Alice™: The biggest untold story in the history of money (Stuart Kells, MUP)
Tuesday, 13 February 2024
An Australian inventor patented the future of world finance. An Australian journalist saw what finance had become and told the world. Business and finance writer Stuart Kells (The Library: A...
