Graeme Base is one of Australia and the world’s foremost picture book creators, renowned for Animalia and The Waterhole, amongst other treasures. His new book, The Tree (Puffin Books) is a fable. It begins timelessly, “This is the story of …” The tale is perfectly formed and elegantly illustrated to show the tree as a […]
Read More The Tree by Graeme BaseFLY: Financially Literate Youth (Penguin) is such a good idea for a book for high school students and those who have left school. It is a comprehensive and well set-out handbook that will help people make informed decisions about their financial future and also prevent them from falling into potholes. Thank you for speaking to […]
Read More FLY: Financially Literate Youth by Marlies & Jai Hobbs“Yes. I can almost hear the thoughts of every single girl in my year level. We’re all scared, of almost everything.” (The Gaps) Leanne Hall is such a star writer. If her debut YA novel, This is Shyness, was her only book, she would still go into the annals of Australian YA literature. But […]
Read More The Gaps by Leanne Hall“I am your mother and I want to make your life less painful in any way I can. Your journey will ebb and flow, like a river searching for the sea. You will not, I know, be dragged under. Like any journey, it will begin with the first step. You will meet your guides along […]
Read More The Forest of Moon and Sword by Amy Raphael“Do I look like a fool-fool country gal? Is that because I’m only fifteen? Or because I’ve left school without finishing? Because I’m not doing a skilled job? Or is it just because I’m from Jamaica? (Louisa in The Enigma Game) I knew The Enigma Game by Elizabeth Wein (Bloomsbury, 2020) was going to be […]
Read More The Enigma Game by Elizabeth WeinI was first aware of Ian Trevaskis’s writing through his picture book Edge of the World (illustrated by Wayne Harris). This is a superb work. Ian’s new novel for young people, Of Boys and Boats (Ford St) is a very special book based on the author’s own early years in Geelong. Set in 1956 during […]
Read More Of Boys and Boats by Ian TrevaskisInside the CBCA Shortlist Russell Prize for Humour Writing for Young People “For several years – decades actually – Spellbinders have been worried about the oceans.” (The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst) It is such a pleasure to return to Spindrift in the Kingdom of Storms in Jaclyn Moriarty’s new book, The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst […]
Read More The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst by Jaclyn Moriarty“We’re like one of those fairy stories Mum used to read us at bedtime, Ashleigh. A princess and her prince brother in our beautiful tower… But we know nothing about the world out there … The real world.” (Catch Me If I Fall) Some of Barry Jonsberg’s early YA novels, The Whole Business with […]
Read More Catch Me If I Fall by Barry Jonsberg“Be brave. Take risks. We’ll heal the bruises with love.” (Zoe, Max and the Bicycle Bus) Steven Herrick is a much-loved Australian writer. He is particularly well known for his verse novels for children and young adults and, although all his books are superb, his verse novel The Spangled Drongo is one of my […]
Read More Zoe, Max and the Bicycle Bus by Steven Herrick“Despite the heat she shivered. This wasn’t … foreboding anymore – the nervous feeling that warned her of trouble. It was the sense that she had already made a wrong turn somewhere, and was in deep trouble already.” (The Grandest Bookshop in the World) Amelia Mellor is an impressive new talent. Her first middle-fiction […]
Read More The Grandest Bookshop in the World by Amelia Mellor
