Pamela Rushby, Those girls, Walker Books Australia, April 2024, 336 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760657840 On the farms and in the dairies, on the outback station runs, Those girls with grit are needed, Just as much as men with guns. (Poem written by Sergeant S. Clark) It’s 1942 in Brisbane, and sixteen year old Hilly is still at school, while her older brother Graham has left to fight in the war. When Hilly sees a poster for the Women’s Land Army she jumps at the chance to get away from home and contribute to the war effort. Hilly finds herself…
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Niña Nill, We’re Moving Away, Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing, August 2023, 24 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781761212321 This book was recently notabled in the 2024 CBCA Early Childhood Book of the Year category. A debut picture book from artist and author, Niña Nill, it’s a gentle depiction of a child and their family moving overseas. A particular feature that is likely to get children talking are the spreads where individual items are illustrated – a list of things to bring and things to leave, and later, a list of things to unpack and new things needed. Even for children…
Briony Stewart, Gymnastica Fantastica!, Lothian Children’s Books, November 2023, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780734421852 A perfect picture book for pre-schoolers, this book has just been shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s 2024 Early Childhood Book of the Year award. Joyful illustrations and sublime wordplay, captures that ‘look-at-me’ time in a child’s life where every moment offers an impromptu opportunity to perform. The child in this book performs for their nonplussed shaggy dog. And while we see the child in fluid movement, with several different moves to a page, they remain delightfully unconcerned about whether they’re performing…
Lili Wilkinson, A Hunger of Thorns, Allen & Unwin, April 2023, 409 pp., RRP $24.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760526948 The prolific and richly imaginative Lili Wilkinson is on top of her game for this fantasy novel about magic, infatuation, bravery and grief. Maude, whose deceased mother was a rogue witch, has been raised by her Nan and her Nan’s partner, Halmoni. Nan too is a witch, but she keeps her magic within the strict laws that govern such things. Maude was once magically gifted too, but once she reached puberty the magic disappeared. Or did it? Maude’s enduring gift is storytelling,…
Anthony Horrowitz (text), Clement Lefevre (illustrator) and Rosie Eyre (translator), Groosham Grange: The Graphic Novel, Walker Books Australia, March 2024, 72 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781529509502 The graphic version of Groosham Grange is a beautifully illustrated adaptation of Horowitz’s gothic novel. After David Elliot is expelled from his posh boarding school, a mysterious letter arrives in their house offering David a place in Groosham Grange, a school that is sure to ‘lick their son into place’. He sets off by train to the secluded school where he discovers the teachers are supernatural – and so is he! If the…
Deb Fitzpatrick, Maddy McAllister: Shipwreck Detective (Aussie STEM Stars), Wild Dingo Press, February 2024, 151 pp., RRP $15.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781925893823 This is one of a series of biographies sketching the lives of of women who have become, in turn, an outstanding archaeologist, plastic surgeon, reptile biologist, green engineer or primate scientist. There are lives of men too who have taken on unusual careers, such as a Fossil hunter, or one who has become a ‘superstar maths teacher’. This book in the series follows the life of Maddy McAllister as she moved home several times with her mum after a…
Ashleigh Barton (text) and Blithe Fielden (illustrator), Dinosaur in My Pocket, Lothian Children’s Books, March 2024, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780734422668 Lots of children like James can recite the name of every dinosaur ever recorded. Others, also like James, may love miniature toys. When his class visits the museum shop and he sees shelves of miniature dinosaurs, temptation overcomes him and he takes one. The story then moves into a fantasy with a warning about the consequences of not being honest. His parents’ solution is to encourage him to earn some pocket money so that he can purchase…
Just Write For Kids Australia and Friends, Our Australian HeArt : An Illustrated Anthology, Daisy Lane Publishing, November 2023, 36 pp., RRP $32.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780645842722 Each double-page spread of this landscape-oriented book has been created by a different Australian author-illustrator giving the reader a new perspective with every page turn. Each page is the response by that artist to their part of Australia, celebrating the great diversity of our environment. None of them is well-known but they have created some beautiful visual effects, ranging from monochrome to brilliantly hued, combined with a wide variety of language. Some have chosen…
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…
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…