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Growing up African in Australia (ed by Maxine Beneba Clarke, Black Inc.)

Released April 2019

Growing up African in Australia is a new anthology edited by Maxine Beneba Clarke with Ahmed Yussef and Magan Magan. The anthology is a mixture of experienced and emerging writers’... Read more

Let Me Sleep, Sheep (Meg McKinlay, illus by Leila Rudge, Walker Books)

Released March 2019

The award-winning duo behind the animal adventure picture books No Bears and Once upon a Small Rhinoceros are back with a new book that tells the story of young sleep-deprived... Read more

Baz & Benz (Heidi McKinnon, A&U)

Released March 2019

The titular Baz and Benz are a pair of owls: a small blue one and a larger green one. At the start of the book, they agree wholeheartedly that they... Read more

52 Mondays (Anna Ciddor, A&U)

Released March 2019

52 Mondays is the latest middle-grade novel from Anna Ciddor, written in the same classic storytelling tradition as her previous work, The Family with Two Front Doors. A fictionalised account... Read more

Ivanhoe Swift Left Home at Six (Jane Godwin, illus by A Yi, A&U)

Released March 2019

Despite his parents’ concerns, Ivanhoe Swift leaves home at the age of six to see the world for himself. And so begins a dreamlike journey of self-discovery and gaining independence.... Read more

Catch a Falling Star (Meg McKinlay, Walker Books)

Released March 2019

It’s the late 1970s in rural Western Australia, and 12-year-old Frankie’s life isn’t always easy. Her mother works all the time, so Frankie looks after her very smart but not... Read more

You Must Be Layla (Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Penguin)

Released March 2019

Thirteen-year-old Layla has landed a scholarship at a prestigious private school where no one looks like her. She’s a creative kid who loves singing and making jewellery, but many of... Read more

Underdog: #LoveOzYA Short Stories (ed by Tobias Madden, Nero)

Released March 2019

Following the success of its predecessor Begin, End, Begin: A #LoveOzYA Anthology, new anthology Underdog celebrates up-and-coming writers of Australian young adult fiction, with submissions received via an open call-out.... Read more

Exploded View (Carrie Tiffany, Text)

Released March 2019

The name of Carrie Tiffany’s third book, Exploded View, refers to the type of diagram found in technical manuals that shows the spaces between each individual part and how they... Read more

Hare’s Fur (Trevor Shearston, Scribe)

Released March 2019

Russell Bass is a professional potter in his seventies, leading a quiet and solitary life in the Blue Mountains following the death of his wife. While gathering basalt for his... Read more

Black is the New White (Nakkiah Lui, A&U)

Released February 2019

Black is the New White is the play script of a contemporary romantic comedy written for the stage by Gamillaroi and Torres Strait Islander woman Nakkiah Lui. Young couple Charlotte... Read more

Stranger Country (Monica Tan, A&U)

Released March 2019

At first it’s hard to know how to interpret Monica Tan’s intention to discover ‘the Australia lying beyond her hometown’ and to ‘learn about Aboriginal Australia’ as she travels on... Read more

Islands (Peggy Frew, A&U)

Released March 2019

Peggy Frew shows her trademark flair for bringing complex domestic lives to the fore in her latest novel Islands. At first the book seems to have more in common with... Read more

Unlike the Heart: A Memoir of Brain and Mind (Nicola Redhouse, UQP)

Released March 2019

Unlike the Heart is a quest to understand a mind, from the mind governing it, and offers much to appeal to different interests. Nicola Redhouse relates her troubled pregnancies and... Read more

The Van Apfel Girls are Gone (Felicity McLean, Fourth Estate)

Released March 2019

Felicity McLean’s debut novel The Van Apfel Girls are Gone opens with the arrival of a ghost, ‘summoned by the death rattle of Cornflakes in their box’. It is an... Read more

Ozzie Goes to School (Jocelyn Crabb, illus by Danny Snell, Working Title)

Released February 2019

Ozzie Goes to School is a gentle picture book about one of life’s great milestones. Ozzie loves living with his dad in their shipping container on the beach. Safe in... Read more

Dippy’s Big Day Out (Jackie French, illus by Bruce Whatley & Ben Smith Whatley, HarperCollins)

Released January 2019

The creators of the much-loved picture book Diary of a Wombat, are back with a new book that is set centuries back in time. Dippy, short for Diprotodon, is the... Read more

Highway Bodies (Alison Evans, Echo)

Released February 2019

Alison Evans follows up their award-winning debut Ida with a refreshingly Australian zombie apocalypse story suitable for older teens. Sprawling across both rural and urban Victoria, Highway Bodies thrusts readers... Read more

Into the Fire (Sonia Orchard, Affirm Press)

Released February 2019

Sonia Orchard’s second work of literary fiction, Into the Fire, is a distinctly Australian novel. Descriptions of smoky blue-green gums that paint a vivid picture of rural Victoria are balanced... Read more

Driving into the Sun (Marcella Polain, Fremantle Press)

Released February 2019

At the centre of Marcella Polain’s second novel is 11-year-old Orla, whose flawed-yet-beloved father, a man with his own thwarted hopes and dreams, is a figure with whom she is... Read more