Sally Rippin Australian Children’s Laureate

Sally Rippin Australian Children’s Laureate 2024-2025 Enormous congratulations to Sally Rippin who is the new Australian Children’s Laureate for 2024-2025. This is a mighty and well-deserved achievement and Sally will be an inspirational Laureate. I promoted many of Sally’s books, amongst them Billie B Brown, Hey Jack! and the Polly and Buster series, as a […]

Smoke & Mirrors by Barry Jonsberg

Smoke & Mirrors by Barry Jonsberg Author Interview at PaperbarkWords “ ‘I want to be a magician,’ I said. ‘That’s what I want to be. It’s all I want to be. I don’t know if I can earn a living from it. Maybe I can’t. But when I think about the future, that’s what I […]

All You Can Be by Angela Casabene, ill. Michelle Conn

All You Can Be by Angela Casabene, illustrated by Michelle Conn Published by Affirm Press Angela Casabene shares why she wrote her lovely, affirming picture book, All You Can Be, at PaperbarkWords blog I have often said this about my two girls: My first born is like an extension of my soul. And although I […]

The Crying Room by Gretchen Shirm

The Crying Room by Gretchen Shirm Author Interview at PaperbarkWords Gretchen Shirm is a writer’s writer. Her new novel The Crying Room is a masterclass in writing. It’s an immersive story about women (mainly) and their relationships but it’s inimitable quality, in my opinion, is the writing, which adeptly moves from introspection to pathos, pain […]

DEEP IN THE FOREST by Erina Reddan

Deep in the Forest by Erina Reddan Author Interview for Joy in Books at PaperbarkWords “I know I’ve spent too much time lost in the river runs of these pages, making notes on the last things to be done before the binding. The moment when all the words, the ideas, the song of it come […]

The Impossible Secret of Lillian Velvet by Jaclyn Moriarty

The Impossible Secret of Lillian Velvet by Jaclyn Moriarty (Allen & Unwin) “ ‘And what is this world?’ I asked. ‘It’s called the Kingdoms and Empires. It’s like our world, only more old-fashioned. Plus they have magic. The main thing to remember is that Shadow Mages are good and Spellbinders can bind Shadow Magic. Genies […]

Open Your Heart to Country wins PM Children’s Literature Award

Jessica Au & Cold Enough for Snow

The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead & Wendy Mass

The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead & Wendy Mass ‘ “All of life is a mystery, in a way. And that makes every single one of us a detective.” … Evan sat there for a few seconds, looking at his desk. He was trying to solve a mystery, he realized: the mystery of the little […]

Borderland by Graham Akhurst

Borderland by Graham Akhurst Borderland by Graham Akhurst (UWA Publishing $22.99) “I thought of songlines and creation story pathways. I wondered what ancient knowledges, Laws, and songs lay across that land. ‘And this is where they will be mining?’ I asked”. (Borderland) It seems as though everyone is reading Graham Akhurst’s debut Borderland, an atmospheric YA […]