Gail Jones, Hannah Kent, Sophie Laguna & Book Reviews for ArtsHub

My book reviews for ArtsHub The Name of the Sister by Gail Jones (Text Publishing) https://www.artshub.com.au/news/reviews/book-review-the-name-of-the-sister-gail-jones-2801217/ My other book reviews for ArtsHub Always Home, Always Homesick by Hannah Kent Hannah Kent’s new book is Always Home, Always Homesick. It a memoir about her time living in Iceland and the writing of Burial Rites. (Pan Macmillan […]

Laughter is the Best Ending by Maryam Master, illustrated by Astred Hicks

Laughter is the Best Ending by Maryam Master illustrated by Astred Hicks Author/illustrator Interview at PaperbarkWords ‘You’re not supposed to laugh at funerals. That’s the number-one rule of funerals. Everybody knows that. Even my pea-brain pet chihuahua, Jox, knows it. But I can’t help it. Tears (of the laughter variety) are rolling down my face. […]

One Song by A.J. Betts

One Song by A.J. Betts (published Pan MacMillan) Author Interview with A.J. Betts about her YA novel One Song for Joy in Books at PaperbarkWords blog I think that One Song is original and highly memorable. Why do you think this is so? One Song is unlike anything I’ve written before, or anything I’ve read. […]

No Words by Maryam Master

No Words by Maryam Master “Words have power.” (No Words by Maryam Master) Maryam Master’s debut children’s novel Exit Through the Gift Shop (illustrated by Astred Hicks) is shortlisted for the 2022 CBCA Book of the Year: Younger Readers category. No Words, her new children’s /middle-fiction novel is equally important and powerful. Not a memoir […]

How to Spell Catastrophe by Fiona Wood

How to Spell Catastrophe by Fiona Wood “Our word of the week is participation. More like ‘exclusion’ for me, not that anyone seems to care.” (How to Spell Catastrophe) Fiona Wood is one of Australia’s best contemporary writers of YA literature, evinced by the many awards her books have won. In fact, her three most […]

Our Stories ed. Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah

Our Stories ed. Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah The new Our Stories series of junior chapter books has a clear purpose and is engaging, character-driven and well-written. Ideal for children, the books feature large print, plenty of illustrations and even humour. When Granny Came to Stay by Alice Pung, illustrated by Sally Soweol Han, celebrates Pangzi’s Chinese […]

Girls in Boys’ Cars by Felicity Castagna

Inside the 2022 CBCA Shortlist Author Interview “Girls don’t go out into the world and take whatever they want. Girls have to compromise. Or maybe they don’t. I guess I didn’t in the end.” (Girls in Boys’ Cars) I can only write superlatives about Felicity Castagna’s second YA novel Girls in Boys’ Cars. It […]

self/less by AVIVA

self/less by AVIVA self/less is multidisciplinary artist and musician AVIVA’s debut novel. It is published by Pan Macmillan Australia. In this YA dystopia, 17-year-old Teddy lives a privileged life in Metropolis where creativity is a crime. Following her desire for freedom and change, she turns her world upside down. AVIVA writes about self/less: At its […]

The Airways by Jennifer Mills

The Airways by Jennifer Mills, published by Picador, Pan Macmillan Australia Literary Fiction, Author Interview “He closed his eyes and concentrated. He inhabited for a time that liminal space between consciousness and unconsciousness, where the mind began to believe it might wander free of the body. He thought of experiences that he could not quite […]

Exit Through the Gift Shop by Maryam Master

Exit Through the Gift Shop by Maryam Master, illustrated by Astred Hicks Inside the 2022 CBCA Shortlist Exit Through the Gift Shop is a stand-out middle-fiction novel for mature children in upper primary and for readers in junior secondary school. The combined title and cover are eye-catching. The voice of 12-year-old Ana is striking, memorable […]