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Growing Up Disabled in Australia (ed by Carly Findlay, Black Inc.)
Released February 2021
Growing up Disabled in Australia, edited by Carly Findlay, is the latest anthology in Black Inc.’s ‘Growing Up’ series. Like the previous anthologies, it features both emerging and established writers.... Read more
Float or Sink? (Kylie Covark, illus by Andrew Plant, Ford St)
Released February 2021
Kylie Covark’s Float or Sink? quickly develops (after an opening that doesn’t quite nail the meter/rhyme structure to come) into a lively, playful story and preschool children will undoubtedly relish... Read more
The Imitator (Rebecca Starford, A&U)
Released February 2021
Rebecca Starford’s debut novel is a beautifully written espionage thriller that bookends the world-changing period of WWII. Its meticulously researched narrative draws the reader into the early life of Evelyn... Read more
Tiger Daughter (Rebecca Lim, A&U)
Released February 2021
From Rebecca Lim, author and co-editor of the Meet Me at the Intersection YA anthology, this coming-of-age tale is about finding your own voice as a young girl in a... Read more
Little Gem (Anna Zobel, Puffin)
Released January 2021
Little Gem is a witch-in-training who has the best intentions but doesn’t always get things quite right. When a travelling spell goes wrong Gem finds herself in the unusual village... Read more
The Women and the Girls (Laura Bloom, A&U)
Released January 2021
The Women and the Girls follows three mothers as they walk away from their unhappy marriages and move their children into a share house in Sydney. Against a backdrop of... Read more
Dingo Bold: The life and death of K’gari dingoes (Rowena Lennox, Sydney University Press)
Released January 2021
In Dingo Bold, Rowena Lennox wrestles with the emotionally laden subject of the human–wild divide through the lens of the policies managing the dingoes on K’gari (Fraser Island). Along the... Read more
Repentance (Alison Gibbs, Scribe)
Released January 2021
It’s 1976, a time of change and cultural shifts. The town of Repentance perches on the edge of the Great Dividing Range: the old families cut timber and the new... Read more
Shelter (Catherine Jinks, Text)
Released January 2021
Meg has taken in three strangers—Nerine and her two small daughters—in a bid to hide them from Nerine’s abusive ex-husband. The house is secluded, safe, but Nerine can’t shake the... Read more
Fire, Flood, Plague: Australian writers respond to 2020 (ed by Sophie Cunningham, Vintage)
Released December 2020
This deeply unsettling book bravely attempts to interpret, chronicle and reflect on the nightmarish events of this year. While I relished the opportunity to try to make sense of 2020,... Read more
Let’s Go, Little Roo (Renée Treml, Puffin)
Released January 2021
Prolific author Renée Treml says she wrote Let's Go, Little Roo from experience with her own shy child, and Little Roo’s stubborn emotions and thought processes are certainly recognisable. (Though... Read more
The Carbon-Neutral Adventures of the Indefatigable EnviroTeens (First Dog on the Moon, A&U)
Released December 2020
Political cartoonist First Dog on the Moon’s debut book for children is a delightfully absurd metatextual picture book/graphic novel hybrid starring a genius wombat inventor, a superhero social media celebrity... Read more
An Amazing Australian Road Trip (Jackie Hosking, illus by Lesley Vamos, Walker Books)
Released January 2021
This cheerful picture book employs a lively rhyming narrative alongside factual snippets, creating a unique reading experience that is sure to appeal to fans of both fiction and nonfiction. The... Read more
The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman (Julietta Henderson, Bantam)
Released January 2021
Norman Foreman isn’t your average 12-year-old: he’s obsessed with classic British comedy, he’s got raging psoriasis, and he and his best mate Jax have a five-year plan to perform stand-up... Read more
Black Summer (ed by Michael Rowland, ABC Books)
Released January 2021
This excellent anthology won’t be the final word on the 2019–20 Black Summer fires but it contains some of the very best words you can read on the subject. From... Read more
The Odds (Matt Stanton, ABC Books)
Released November 2020
The lack of locally produced graphic novels for young Australians has been noted for some time now, but middle-grade and children’s author Matt Stanton has a new book to appease... Read more
Give Me Some Space! (Philip Bunting, Omnibus)
Released December 2020
Una is a singular girl on a mission: leave boring old Earth behind for greener pastures—or in this case, planets. Smart, determined and ingenious, she crafts herself a homespun spacesuit... Read more
I Want to be a Superhero (Breanna Humes, illus by Ambelin Kwaymullina, Magabala)
Released November 2020
A little girl in a homemade blanket cape wants to be a superhero, and not just any superhero, she wants to fly! Breanna, the girl in question, is a younger... Read more
Boy on Fire: The young Nick Cave (Mark Mordue, Fourth Estate)
Released November 2020
After 35 years of communication with Nick Cave, 10 of them actively spent researching a biography which eventually grew to Moby Dick proportions, Mark Mordue has fashioned this expertly detailed... Read more
Dog (Shaun Tan, A&U)
Released November 2020
This is Shaun Tan doing what he does best. Carrying an elegant tension between joy and sadness, Dog left me in a puddle of emotion. The prose poetry traces the... Read more
