Borderlands: Riding the Slipstream

Borderlands: Riding the Slipstream edited by Paul Collins Ford St Publishing Borderlands: Riding the Slipstream is the successor to Ford Street’s popular and well-regarded anthology Rich & Rare. Both are books of short stories, poems and more. They share distinctive, otherworldly covers by Shaun Tan. Australian fantasy writer Isobelle Carmody has written a fascinating foreword […]

Paradise Sands: A Story of Enchantment by Levi Pinfold

Paradise Sands: A Story of Enchantment by Levi Pinfold (Published by Walker Books) Book review and suggested activities by Joy Lawn (Joy in Books) at PaperbarkWords blog ‘White roses we follow, towards Teller’s Hollow Dead earth to a spring, the house of a King A sip from the chalice, we enter his palace Break bread […]

We Love You, Magoo by Briony Stewart

Inside the 2021 CBCA Shortlist We Love You, Magoo is written and illustrated by much-loved author-illustrator Briony Stewart. It is shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year: Early Childhood awards and is published by Penguin Random House Australia. Thank you for speaking to PaperbarkWords, Briony. No worries! My Pleasure! I have loved and promoted […]

Catch Me If I Fall by Barry Jonsberg

“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 […]

Worse Things by Sally Murphy, illustrated by Sarah Davis

Inside the CBCA Shortlist “We have no words for her today but we are here to show her she is not alone.” (Worse Things) A new verse from Sally Murphy is a special occasion. Sally has written three great verse novels for children – Pearl Verses the World, Toppling and Roses are Blue – and […]

The Dam by David Almond & Levi Pinfold

The Dam is written by Carnegie and multi awarded medallist David Almond who wrote Skellig, Clay, Slog’s Dad and other renowned books. It is illustrated by Queensland-based artist Levi Pinfold who previously won the Greenaway Medal for Black Dog. Levi Pinfold has now been shortlisted for The Dam in what is probably the world’s most […]

Cicada by Shaun Tan

Inside the CBCA Shortlist Shaun Tan has won major Australian and international awards, including the Astrid Lindgren Award and an Academy Award for The Lost Thing. Australian authors and illustrators are breaking ground on the world stage in their portrayal of refugees and the displaced. (I have written about some of these books in Raising […]