Review search
Torched (Kimberley Starr, Pantera)
Released May 2020
In Torched, the town of Brunton, Victoria is devastated by a bushfire with the force and malevolence of Black Saturday, and in turn Phoebe Wharton’s life is destroyed by the... Read more
Almost a Mirror (Kirsten Krauth, Transit Lounge)
Released April 2020
Kirsten Krauth’s Almost a Mirror is about the relationship between music and memory, and the unexpected directions that family and romantic life can take. Mona is in her late 30s... Read more
Fourteen (Shannon Molloy, S&S)
Released April 2020
Fourteen is the factual account of one year in the life of a gay high-schooler in the small central Queensland town of Yeppoon. Journalist Shannon Molloy uses clear, concise language... Read more
The Brisbane Line (J P Powell, Xoum)
Released April 2020
J P Powell’s debut novel—named for an alleged WWII-era government plan to abandon Northern Australia in the event of a Japanese invasion—is an exploration of tension and corruption amid the... Read more
After the Count: The death of Davey Browne (Stephanie Convery, Viking)
Released March 2020
When young and fit professional boxer Davey Browne died in the ring, pummelled to death in front of his family and friends, it was the result of a perfect storm... Read more
Beautiful Eggs (Alice Lindstrom, Scribble)
Released March 2020
In this board book, Melbourne-based artist and illustrator Alice Lindstrom uses her stunning cut-paper style of illustration to introduce the tradition of egg decoration across a number of cultures around... Read more
Desire Lines (Felicity Volk, Hachette)
Released March 2020
Desire Lines is a heartrending love story between a man struggling to overcome the struggles of a deeply traumatic childhood and a woman who, frankly, deserves better. At a market... Read more
All Bodies are Good Bodies (Charlotte Barkla, Little Hare)
Released January 2019
All Bodies Are Good Bodies is a rhyming picture book that champions bodies of all shapes and sizes. Charlotte Barkla’s words are written to be read out loud as one... Read more
The Long Distance Playlist (Tara Eglington, HarperCollins)
Released January 2020
Tara Eglington’s The Long Distance Playlist is a touching depiction of a long-distance friendship and blossoming romance. Taylor is an ex-snowboarding prodigy slowly coming to terms with his recent amputation,... Read more
Beetle and Boo (Caitlin Murray, Puffin)
Released February 2020
Beetle is not scared of anything. Monsters? Ghosts? Bad dreams? Wild storms and cracking thunder and lightning? Nope. Uh-uh. Not ever. Caitlin Murray’s Beetle and Boo is a story of... Read more
The Girl with the Gold Bikini (Lisa Walker, Wakefield)
Released February 2020
Lisa Walker’s second YA novel gives us a fun new spin on Nancy Drew and ‘girl detectives’. It will absolutely appeal to readers who love the mystery genre, with a... Read more
A New Kind of Everything (Richard Yaxley, Scholastic)
Released February 2020
A New Kind of Everything picks up the story of the Gallagher family after the loss of patriarch Barney, his spectre still looming large over his wife Allison and their... Read more
Euphoria Kids (Alison Evans, Echo)
Released February 2020
Euphoria Kids is a tender, contemporary fairytale about magic, friendship and gender identity. A departure from the horror elements of Alison Evans’ previous novels, this book focuses on the wonder... Read more
Coming Home to Country (Bronwyn Bancroft, Little Hare)
Released February 2020
This picture book is bathed in a ‘palette of leaf green, red rust, yellow ochre, deep blue and crimson’ as the unnamed narrator returns home, back to Country. Bronwyn Bancroft’s... Read more
Morphing Murphy (Robert Favretto, illus by Tull Suwannakit, Ford Street)
Released February 2019
Murphy is a happy tadpole, quite content with his life eating algae and rotting water plants all day. So happy that he wouldn’t change a thing … until he slowly... Read more
Jelly-Boy (Nicole Godwin, illus by Christopher Nielsen, Walker Books)
Released February 2020
In this deceptively simple story, a jellyfish falls in love with a plastic bag, having assumed that it’s a fellow jellyfish. The book’s aim is to teach children about the... Read more
Evie and Pog: Take Off! (Tania McCartney, HarperCollins)
Released February 2019
Six-year-old Evie and her best friend Pog the pug live in a treehouse next to obsessively tidy Granny Gladys’ house. Evie is accident-prone, wildly enthusiastic about the world, and enjoys... Read more
Emergency Rescue Angel (Cate Whittle, Scholastic)
Released February 2019
Mitch is rudderless and lonely after the death of his dad and the upheaval of his best mate across the country. Max is a goth angel—an Emergency Rescue Angel, to... Read more
Me and My Boots (Penny Harrison, illus by Evie Barrow, Little Hare)
Released February 2020
Author Penny Harrison exemplifies the beauty in nature and the power of self-expression through her books, which include The Art Garden, Dance with Me and Emily Green’s Garden. Her latest... Read more
A Year in the Mud and the Toast and the Tears: My (semi) rural kind of life (Georgie Brooks, Bad Apple Press)
Released February 2020
In the middle of another stifling summer in suburbia and in desperate need of a ‘tree change’ Georgie Brooks and her young family decide to make the bold move to... Read more
