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Prometheus High: How to make a monster (Stuart Wilson, Puffin)
Released April 2022
Stuart Wilson’s debut middle-grade novel, the first in a series, will appeal to 8–12-year-olds looking for an adventure tale with a macabre edge. Athena Strange, an intelligent yet unruly young... Read more
Dinner with the Schnabels (Toni Jordan, Hachette)
Released April 2022
In this timely new novel, Toni Jordan lends her signature wit to the story of a dysfunctional yet loving family group. Simon Larsen has lost his business and his home... Read more
Uncanny Angles (Sean Williams, Wakefield)
Released March 2022
Since the late 90s Sean Williams has been a prolific contributor to Australian speculative fiction; he’s written award-winning science fiction, post-collapse and young adult books. Part retrospective, part confession, Uncanny... Read more
Unlimited Futures (ed by Rafeif Ismail & Ellen van Neerven, Fremantle Press)
Released March 2022
Unlimited Futures is a YA anthology of sci-fi and speculative fiction edited by Rafeif Ismail and Ellen van Neerven. What makes it so different from other collections like it is... Read more
Orphan Rock (Dominique Wilson, Transit Lounge)
Released March 2022
Five-year-old Bessie is removed from an extended stay at the Protestant Orphan School and returned home to her unstable mother: a woman she doesn’t remember and who is anything but... Read more
Australiana (Yumna Kassab, Ultimo)
Released March 2022
The heart of Australiana is an examination of settler Australia, disrupting the conception of town and rural settings so common in the nation's literary imagination. First Nations writers have significantly... Read more
The Imagineer (Christopher Cheng, illus by Lucia Masciullo, NLA Publishing)
Released April 2022
In the vein of Andrea Beaty’s delightful Rosie Revere and friends, Christopher Cheng and Lucia Masciullo’s The Imagineer introduces us to a resourceful, inquisitive and (obviously) imaginative child who is... Read more
Remember Me (Charity Norman, A&U)
Released March 2022
Remember Me begins with a call in the middle of the night, when illustrator Emily is awakened in her London flat. Her father’s health is failing and Emily is the... Read more
The Love That Grew (Sarah Ayoub, illus by Mimi Purnell, HarperCollins)
Released March 2022
In the vein of Sam McBratney’s You’re All My Favourites comes a picture book that captures the idea that a mother’s love is unlimited when it comes to her children,... Read more
Hovering (Rhett Davis, Hachette)
Released March 2022
Alice returns to the fictional Australian city of Fraser after 16 years away. The city itself has changed—and continues to change—beyond recognition. Streets, houses and other buildings literally shift and... Read more
Growing Up in Flames (Zach Jones, Text)
Released March 2022
Zach Jones’s debut novel Growing Up in Flames is as gritty as bushfire ash. Written for a doctorate in creative writing at the University of the Sunshine Coast, the novel’s... Read more
Son of Sin (Omar Sakr, Affirm)
Released March 2022
Son of Sin by Omar Sakr tells the story of growing up queer and Muslim in a constant state of dispossession. The story begins with Jamal as a 14-year-old boy,... Read more
Triple Helix (Lauren Burns, UQP)
Released March 2022
Lauren Burns received a fork inscribed with the word ‘agitator’ as a present from her boyfriend while trekking through the extreme wilderness of Utah. Burns’s journey as a donor-conceived person... Read more
That Cat (Jacqueline Harvey, illus by Kate Isobel Scott, Puffin)
Released March 2022
Cat lovers and nonsense lovers, this is the book for you. Jaqueline Harvey, bestselling author for children, plays on words that rhyme with ‘cat’ in order to make a list... Read more
Pearly and Pig and the Great Hairy Beast (Sue Whiting, Walker Books)
Released March 2022
Pearly Woe is not your average 10-year-old. She can speak 27 languages, talk to and understand most animals and, in this tale, travels to Antarctica. However, this is no holiday.... Read more
The Sorrow Stone (Kári Gíslason, UQP)
Released March 2022
In the wintery and unforgiving wilds of pre-medieval Iceland, a widow named Disa and her young son are running in fear of their lives. Disa has committed a bloody act... Read more
Sadvertising (Ennis Ćehić, Vintage)
Released March 2022
In this debut collection of short stories, Ennis Ćehić uses deeply flawed characters to cleverly reflect the absurdity of late-stage capitalism. Sadvertising identifies obsession, narcissism and neuroses as reasonable responses... Read more
When You’re Older (Sofie Laguna, illus by Judy Watson, A&U Children)
Released March 2022
There are many picture books that look at life with a new sibling from the perspective of a young child, probably because these books are regularly requested in bookshops and... Read more
Moth in a Fancy Cardigan (Charlotte Lance, illus by David Booth, Berbay)
Released March 2022
This illustrated middle-grade novel is a cute and quirky story about self-expression and the courage to be seen, told from the perspectives of a shy moth and a popular butterfly.... Read more
This is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch (Tabitha Carvan, HarperCollins)
Released March 2022
When Tabitha Carvan suddenly falls in love with the actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who she has never met, she doesn’t know what to make of it. Her growing obsession simultaneously puzzles,... Read more
