Zeroes and Ones (Cristy Burne, Xoum)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Zeroes and Ones is a history of the most exciting milestones in computing, with a focus on individual inventors and innovators. It spans from Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine and Ada...
Jane Doe and the Cradle of All Worlds (Jeremy Lachlan, Hardie Grant Egmont)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Immediately exciting and inventive, this is a thrilling story set in a universe made up of multiple worlds. Twelve years ago, Jane and her father arrived at the island of...
Wisp: A Story of Hope (Zana Fraillon, illus by Grahame Baker Smith, Lothian)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
There have been some beautiful, compassionate picture books that feature the plight of refugees and their search for a peaceful life away from war and poverty. Joining these is this...
Sonam and the Silence (Eddie Ayres, illus by Ronak Taher, A&U)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
A fable about a young girl in Kabul during the Taliban occupation hardly sounds like the stuff of picture books so Sonam and the Silence was warily approached. However, fear...
Maya and Cat (Caroline Magerl, Walker Books)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Caroline Magerl has a very distinctive style of illustration and this book does not disappoint. It’s full of cats. ‘On a roof, as wet as a seal, as grey as...
How Did I Get Here? (Philip Bunting, Scholastic)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
At some point the little kid in your life will venture to ask the question feared by most adults: ‘How did I get here?’ The history of life is a...
Backyard (Ananda Braxton-Smith, illus by Lizzy Newcomb, Black Dog Books)
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Backyard is a gentle reminder that to experience nature, you don’t need to venture much further than out the back door. Set in a city ‘that is like other cities’,...
Girltopia (Hilary Rogers, Scholastic)
Friday, 4 May 2018
Twelve-year-old Clara wakes up one day to a city where all the men and boys are afflicted by a mystery illness that leaves them unconscious and unresponsive but thankfully still...
Mercy Point (Anna Snoekstra, HarperCollins)
Friday, 4 May 2018
Five teenagers living in a small town become anonymous online friends, without realising they hate each other in real life. The common thread they share is that they all believe...
Hive (A J Betts, Pan)
Friday, 4 May 2018
Hayley is a beekeeper, content with her place in her small, rigid, underwater world ruled over by a shadowy council. But while her friend Celia dreams of marrying a ‘netter...
Wren (Katrina Lehman, illus by Sophie Beer, Scribble)
Friday, 4 May 2018
Wren longs for peace and quiet but, alas, his rambunctious family create havoc as naturally as they breathe. When a noisy baby sister joins the clan, Wren puts his foot...
Ottilie Colter and the Narroway Hunt (Rhiannon Williams, Hardie Grant Egmont)
Friday, 4 May 2018
The Colter siblings have learned to look after each other in the dangerous Brakkerswamp, so when Ottilie’s brother Gully is kidnapped under mysterious circumstances, it falls to her to save...
Duck! (Meg McKinlay, illus by Nathaniel Eckstrom, Walker Books)
Friday, 4 May 2018
Duck!, from award-winning writer Meg McKinlay, is perhaps the most delightful picture book to feature a drawn-out play on a single word. The clues, laid out expertly in Nathaniel Eckstrom’s...
The Orchard Underground (Mat Larkin, Hardie Grant Egmont)
Friday, 13 April 2018
The Orchard Underground is a funny and intriguing debut that’s mercifully free of a ‘tween’ sensibility but never patronising to its upper-primary readers. The story is fresh and strange: the...
Bab Sharkey and the Animal Mummies: The Weird Beard (Andrew Hansen & Jessica Roberts, Walker Books)
Friday, 13 April 2018
Parents will likely be familiar with The Chaser’s Andrew Hansen, but this wacky new series is a departure from his satirical brand of humour. The book opens with the Unpharaoh:...
Red House, Blue House, Green House, Tree House! (Jane Godwin, illus by Jane Reiseger, Affirm Press)
Friday, 13 April 2018
Young children love listening to rhyming text. Even though they may not understand rhyming, they enjoy the sounds of the rhymes and the rhythm of the words. These kinds of...
Whisper (Lynette Noni, Pantera Press)
Friday, 13 April 2018
Subject Six-Eight-Four (aka Jane Doe) has been locked up in an underground facility and experimented on for over two and a half years as part of a mysterious ‘program’. In...
Benny Bungarra’s Big Bush Clean-up (Sally Morgan, illus by Ambelin Kwaymullina, Magabala Books)
Friday, 13 April 2018
Benny Bungarra’s Big Bush Clean-up is an animal tale with a strong environmental message. When Benny Bungarra investigates some strange noises in the bush, he comes across different animals that...
Under My Bed (John Dickson, illus by Guridi, Berbay)
Friday, 13 April 2018
Most people will remember the spine-tingling feeling of lying in bed at night and imagining there are monsters in their bedroom—and the comfort of realising that they’re safely snuggled up...
Bonesland (Brendan Lawley, Text)
Friday, 13 April 2018
Sixteen-year-old Bones Carter has a lot going on. With his obsessive-compulsive tendencies, anxiety, germ-phobia, separated parents and regular harassment at the hands of his older brother Trav and school bully...
The Singing Seal (Merv Lamington, illus by Allison Langton, Affirm Press)
Friday, 13 April 2018
The first book in Affirm Press’ new ‘True Animal Tales’ series is an amiable and accessible glimpse into the cheeky imagined world of the real-life New Zealand fur seal who...
It’s Hard to Love a Tiger (Anna Pignataro, Scholastic)
Thursday, 12 April 2018
Kittens and cats are so passé; how much more fun would it be to have a pet tiger instead? The cover—with its smiley little blonde girl trying to affix a...
The Peacock Detectives (Carly Nugent, Text)
Thursday, 12 April 2018
Eleven-year-old Cassie Anderson, Peacock Detective, like all great detectives, is good at noticing things. She notices the scratches in the corner of the cage when the peacocks William Shakespeare and...
The Learning Curves of Vanessa Partridge (Clare Strahan, A&U)
Thursday, 12 April 2018
Vanessa Partridge is a clever, talented and awkward teen facing her final year of high school in the midst of hormonal adolescence. She’s full of thoughts about kissing and sex...
Stone Girl (Eleni Hale, Penguin)
Thursday, 12 April 2018
Sophie grows up saddled with a missing dad and an unreliable alcoholic mother. At the tender age of 12, she finds her mother dead and blames herself. As there is...
Neverland (Margot McGovern, Random House)
Thursday, 12 April 2018
Like Alice through the looking glass, Dorothy in Oz and Wendy in Neverland, Kit Learmonth’s childhood was full of fantastical adventures: pirates, witches, fairies and battles with terrible monsters. But...
Small Spaces (Sarah Epstein, Walker Books)
Thursday, 1 March 2018
As a child, Tash Carmody witnessed the kidnapping of Mallory Fisher. Yet nobody would believe her account of the event—that Mallory was abducted by Tash’s imaginary friend Sparrow. Nine years...
Amelia Westlake (Erin Gough, Hardie Grant Egmont)
Thursday, 1 March 2018
After her Ampersand Prize-winning debut The Flywheel, Erin Gough’s second novel has been eagerly anticipated. Amelia Westlake has been worth the wait. This is a brilliant social satire with a...
The Poppa Platoon in World War Chew (Danny Katz, illus by Mitch Vane, Scholastic)
Thursday, 1 March 2018
‘Little Lunch’ creators Danny Katz and Mitch Vane have teamed up again in ‘The Poppa Platoon’ series, beginning with The Poppa Platoon in World War Chew. The ‘chew’ in the...
The Long Class Goodnight (Sammy J, Five Mile)
Thursday, 1 March 2018
Comedian Sammy J is a natural storyteller, and his debut children’s novel is a testament to his ability to craft an entertaining tale. This first title in a planned series...
