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The Solar System (Charles Hope, Wild Dog)
Released January 1970
Space is a perennially popular topic with younger readers. Over the past two decades, robotic probe space missions have hugely expanded our knowledge of nearby planets, and the images they’ve... Read more
The Journey: An Interactive Guide to the Pole of Inaccessibility (Coral Tulloch, Walker Books)
Released November 2013
The subtitle is a bit of a mouthful but Coral Tulloch’s book begins with a sense of intrigue that hooks you in: ‘This is the story of a journey. A... Read more
Rod Laver: A Memoir (Rod Laver, Pan Macmillan)
Released November 2013
Rod Laver is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time; he is the only player to win the Grand Slam twice and holds the record... Read more
Walking on Trampolines (Frances Whiting, Pan Macmillan)
Released October 2013
I was expecting another story of a life turned upside down, and then fixed, in very predictable ways, but this book was wonderful and surprising! Lulu’s story weaves back and... Read more
Plenty (John Dale, Xoum)
Released November 2013
Isolated coastal town Plenty isn’t an easy place to make a living or build a future, but for Jed White, it’s the only home he’s ever known. But everything changes... Read more
Bittersweet (Colleen McCullough, HarperCollins)
Released October 2013
Pitched as a return to form for Colleen McCullough, Bittersweet is a family saga (although to describe it as ‘sweeping’ might be pushing it) set in depression-era rural New South... Read more
The Following (Roger McDonald, Vintage)
Released September 2013
Roger McDonald is a great wordsmith. Having enjoyed both Mr Darwin’s Shooter and The Ballad of Desmond Kale, I was looking forward to reading his new book. The Following is... Read more
Happy Eva After (Chris Harrison, Arena)
Released November 2013
Sebastian Pink, perennial underachiever and ESL teacher at The Future Perfect, bites off more than he can chew with a new arrival at the school. Struggling to conceive with work-obsessed... Read more
Barracuda (Christos Tsiolkas, A&U)
Released November 2013
After the success of 2008’s The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas could be excused for feeling he had nothing more to prove. Perhaps though it was that completely unexpected good fortune that... Read more
Stop Press: The Last Days of Newspapers (Rachel Buchanan, Scribe)
Released October 2013
From her first job as a junior reporter at a local paper in New Zealand to her time as a subeditor at the Age in the early 1990s, Rachel Buchanan... Read more
The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Richard Flanagan, Vintage)
Released October 2013
In Tasmania, a new book by Richard Flanagan is a much-anticipated event. He is, after all, a local hero. But he is much more than that, and with each book... Read more
Without Me? (Kayleen West, Wombat Books)
Released October 2013
The desire to run away from home is fairly common among young children who have yet to learn how to control their emotions when things don’t quite go their way.... Read more
Esther’s Rainbow (Kim Kane & Sara Acton, A&U)
Released October 2013
There is something about a rainbow that appeals to kids of all ages (and no doubt, to adults too): its large arc across the sky, the way it appears almost... Read more
Accidental Adventurer: Ava Anna Appleton Book One (Wendy Harmer, Scholastic)
Released September 2013
Wendy Harmer has had great success with her ‘Pearlie in the Park’ stories. Her latest book is the first in a new series for girls aged seven and up. It’s... Read more
On the Trail of Genghis Khan (Tim Cope, Bloomsbury)
Released September 2013
What a tale this is! Adventurer, author and filmmaker Tim Cope gives us an awe-inspiring account of his three-year trek on horseback from Karakorum, the ancient capital of Mongolia, to... Read more
The Swan Book (Alexis Wright, Giramondo)
Released August 2013
Author and Indigenous academic Alexis Wright’s haunting third novel is hard to capture in simple terms as, similar to her previous fiction, it operates largely through abstraction and metaphor. Wright’s... Read more
A Cautionary Tail (Erica Harrison, illus by Simon Rippingale, Viking)
Released September 2013
In A Cautionary Tail we follow the life of a little girl who is born with a special difference—she has a tail. Initially, her tail is seen as a positive... Read more
The Four Seasons of Lucy McKenzie (Kirsty Murray, A&U)
Released August 2013
The latest book from Kirsty Murray is a ‘time-slip adventure’ in the tradition of books such as Ruth Park’s Playing Beatie Bow and Jackie French’s Somewhere around the Corner. Set... Read more
The Great Blood Bank Robbery: The Bloodhound Boys Book 1 (Andrew Cranna, Walker Books)
Released October 2013
The Great Blood Bank Robbery follows the adventures of two monster children, werewolf Rocky and vampire Vince, as they navigate boring school subjects such as biting and transformation. When a... Read more
Jump: Twinmaker Book 1 (Sean Williams, A&U)
Released November 2013
The world has been revolutionised by ‘d-mat’—fabrication technology that can build any object instantly, atom by atom. Clothes, food and even human beings can be faithfully created, replicated and teleported... Read more
