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Summer of Monsters (Tony Thompson, Walker Books)
Released September 2014
One summer, a young Mary Godwin was challenged to create a scary story by her companions—her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley and his fellow poet Lord Byron. It resulted in one... Read more
Caro Was Here (Elizabeth Farrelly, Walker Books)
Released September 2014
Think 80s cult movie The Breakfast Club crossed with 80s TV stalwart MacGyver, played by a group of middle-class kids in Sydney. A day of wagging school for this oddly... Read more
The Book of Days (K A Barker, Pan)
Released September 2014
Tuesday has been suspended in time in Madame Marisol’s Unreality House for 10 years when she is brought back to life by a dashing stranger, Quintalion. Tuesday has no idea... Read more
How to Save the Universe in Ten Easy Steps (Allison Rushby, A&U)
Released September 2014
If Arthur Dent from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a 10-year-old boy with an annoying twin sister, then this might be his story. Connor discovers his grouchy twin... Read more
Mothers Grimm (Danielle Wood, A&U)
Released September 2014
In this quartet of modern-day Grimm’s fairytales, Danielle Wood (The Alphabet of Light and Dark, Rosie Little’s Cautionary Tales for Girls) picks up on women’s fears to do with being... Read more
Confessions of a People Smuggler (Dawood Amiri, Scribe)
Released September 2014
Dawood Amiri fled Afghanistan with his family when he was a boy and settled in Quetta, Pakistan. He had hoped to establish a career as an accountant, but the rise... Read more
The Family Men (Catherine Harris, Black Inc.)
Released September 2014
A month after a post-season celebration, footballer Harry Furey still can’t remember what actually happened at the team’s men-only Sportsman’s Night—but he knows it was bad. Harry comes from an... Read more
When the Night Comes (Favel Parrett, Hachette)
Released September 2014
Isla, 11 years old, has recently moved from Victoria to Hobart with her brother and mother following her parents’ separation. In Hobart in the late 1980s, the family struggles quietly... Read more
Mothers and Daughters (Kylie Ladd, A&U)
Released September 2014
Mothers and Daughters begins brashly with a deluge of noisy characters and dialogue (not to mention the kind of language that might offend the more genteel-minded). However, it’s worth persevering,... Read more
The Break (Deb Fitzpatrick, Fremantle Press)
Released September 2014
The Break is the first adult novel from West Australian author Deb Fitzpatrick, whose young-adult titles include 90 Packets of Instant Noodles and Have you Seen Ally Queen? It centres... Read more
Warning: The Story of Cyclone Tracy (Sophie Cunningham, Text)
Released August 2014
Sophie Cunningham has a novelist’s eye for action and ear for dialogue, and she brings both to the story of Darwin’s devastation by Cyclone Tracy. Cunningham draws on a range... Read more
Tiger Stone (Deryn Mansell, Walker Books)
Released August 2014
Tiger Stone is set in the 14th century in a small Indonesian village on the Prambanan Plain in central Java. Kancil and her mother must escape to the village after... Read more
Tottie and Dot (Tania McCartney, illus by Tina Snerling, EK Books)
Released August 2014
Two girls live side by side, in similar houses that look rather French. They live in relative peace and do the same things every day. Then, one day, their neighbourly... Read more
Hasel and Rose (Caroline Magerl, Viking)
Released August 2014
Rose and her family move to a new town, and she is lonely. When the unpacking is done and Rose is alone in her room, she wishes for something to... Read more
The Wonders (Paddy O’Reilly, Affirm)
Released August 2014
After a failed heart transplant, Leon is the world’s first recipient of an entirely mechanical heart, engineered and implanted in secret. He is recruited by a Texan entrepreneur to join... Read more
Golden Boys (Sonya Hartnett, Penguin, September)
Released August 2014
Golden Boys is not a departure for Sonya Hartnett, but it’s a continuation of her craft that shows why she is one of Australia’s best writers, for adults as well... Read more
Deeper Water (Jessie Cole, Fourth Estate)
Released August 2014
The premise of Jessie Cole’s second novel is reminiscent of her acclaimed debut novel Darkness on the Edge of Town: a car accident brings a stranger into the lives of... Read more
The President’s Desk (Shaun Micallef, Hardie Grant)
Released August 2014
The President’s Desk is exactly what you would hope for in a book about the history of America by Shaun Micallef. It’s the perfect topic for him; as mad as... Read more
South in the World (Lisa Jacobson, UWA Publishing)
Released August 2014
Recalling the fate of Icarus, the opening poem in Lisa Jacobson’s South in the World lists ‘Several Ways to Fall out of the Sky’. The last way, she offers as... Read more
Demons (Wayne Macauley, Text)
Released August 2014
Seven middle-aged, well-off Melburnians and the sulky teenage daughter of one of them gather in a holiday house overlooking the Great Ocean Road for a winter weekend. It’s meant to... Read more
