Peter Carnavas, Leo and Ralph, University of Queensland Press, February, 2024, 276 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780702266218 Leo feels like a square peg in a round hole; he never seemed to fit neatly into the jigsaw puzzle of other kids. At Prep school, he keeps to himself, finding the games the other kids play confusing and frightening. Leo loves space: as in outer space and all things to do with planets, stars, UFOs and aliens. When he tries to talk to his peers at school, they don’t have the patience to listen to his awkward speech and run away to…
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Charlotte Barkla, 11 Ruby Road: 1900, Walker Books Australia, March 2024, 192 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760657949 11 Ruby Road: 1900 is the first in a new series following the history of the house at 11 Ruby Road and the families who live in it. The prologue is set in 1860 when the bare block of land in South Brisbane is chosen by Millie’s mother after Millie discovers an enormous Moreton Bay fig tree growing there. The novel then starts forty years later in 1900 when Great Aunt Mildred asks Dorothy’s parents to take over the running over her…
Violet Wadrill, Topsy Dodd Ngarnjal, Leah Leaman, Cecelia Edwards, Cassandra Algy, Felicity Meakins, Briony Barr, Gregory Crocetti (text), and Karungkarni Art and Culture (illustrator) along with artists below, Tamarra: A Story of Termites on Gurindji Country, Hardie Grant Explore, July 2023, 80 pp., RRP $29.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781741178302 ARTWORK AND PHOTOGRAPHY Topsy Dodd Ngarnjal Mary Smiler Sophia Donnelly-Patterson Violet Wadrill Rosie Smiler Tara Long Rosemary Johnson Joanne Stevens Merrilyn Frith Serena Donald Rachel Rennie Narelle Morris Leah Leaman Lucy Tanami Theresa Yibwoin Pauline Ryan Cassandra Algy Brenda L Croft Margaret Winbye Caroline Jimmy Briony Barr Magdalene Winbye Martina Mandijerry Penny Smith…
Jackie French, Secret Sparrow, Angus & Robertson, November 2023, 256 pp., RRP $17.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781460760468 Burrangong, 1978: young Arjun is rescued from a surging river in flood by a motorbike rider. They ride to higher ground, where the rider is revealed to be Mrs Jean McLain, who was ‘old, far older than Arjun had realised’. They are stranded on an isolated lookout, and as they wait for rescue, Jean recounts her time as a signaller in France during the First World War. Butterwood, April 1917: Jean works at the local post office. When she wins a national Morse code competition,…
M.G. Leonard, Feather (The Twitchers #4), Walker Books, February 2024, 306 pp., ISBN 9781529506112 Feather is the fourth and last book in the award-winning Twitchers series about bird watching enthusiast, Twitch, and his friendship group of birdwatching detectives, called the Twitchers. Ava is on a school museum visit, when she discovers that drawers of invaluable bird of paradise skins (with their colourful feathers attached) have been stolen from the famous Alfred Wallace Collection. Ava wastes no time in collecting clues and contacting the other Twitchers to work on solving the mystery together. The irreplaceable skins must be found and promptly…
Hayley Lawrence, What They Told Me, Scholastic Australia, February 2024, 360 pp., RRP $18.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781761291708 Elliot Gillespie is a girl who thinks she’s the luckiest in the world and that her family is also very lucky. She lives in a remote homestead with her mother, father and little brother, Lachy. The Crooked River that runs through the Gillespie property provides a place to swim as well as a means of getting across to her friend’s house. However, the world and family she thought were idyllic are shattered when her mother announces she is leaving as she hasn’t been…
Liz Ledden (text) and Makoto Koji (illustrator), Everyone Wants an Octopus Book (We all Belong in Stories), Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing, March 2024, 24 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781761210846 Hey Inky! What are you looking for? Hi Quack. A book. But I can’t find any characters like me. When I scan the children’s bookshelves in my local bookshops or library, I check to see if there truly is a lack of octopuses in picture books. After all, we share this planet with millions of octopuses. What I discovered are many children’s books featuring dogs, cats, chickens, whales, horses, pigeons…
Book of the Year Older Readers Entries in this category may be fiction, drama or poetry and should be appropriate in style and content for readers in their secondary years of schooling. Ages 13 – 18 years. Note: Books in this category are for mature readers and some may deal with particularly challenging themes including violence and suicide. Parental guidance is recommended. A Hunger of Thorns by Lili Wilkinson (Allen & Unwin) Grace Notes by Karen Comer (Hachette Australia) Inkflower by Suzy Zail (Walker Books Australia) Let’s Never Speak of this Again by Megan Williams (Text Publishing) The Quiet and the Loud by…
Brendan Ritchie, Eta Draconis, UWA Publishing, May 2023, 250 pp., RRP $32.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760802615 This dystopic end-of-world science fiction novel for teenage readers won the 2022 Dorothy Hewett award as a manuscript. It is an engaging account of two sisters manoeuvring their ways out of their childhoods and out of their families. The attentive and detailed exploration of their relationship and their differently-taken steps towards maturity are depicted against the background of a decade-long phenomenon of meteor showers that have caused havoc across the planet. The novel is set in Western Australia, mainly on a road trip between Esperance…
Victor Steffensen (text) and Sandra Steffensen (illustrator), The Trees: Learning Tree Knowledge with Uncle Kuu, Hardie Grant Explore, December 2023, RRP $26.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781741178876 While journeying through different terrains with Uncle Kuu, readers are taken on a cultural and educational journey which highlights the importance of trees for our planet, and the relationship between trees, animals, the land, and people – including the impacts of humans on natural environments. The overarching message throughout is the importance of respect, which Aboriginal People have shown trees for so long. Uncle Kuu’s sharing of knowledge and culture provides Aboriginal perspective and history,…