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A Trip to the Hospital (Freda Chiu, A&U Children)
Released September 2021
Freda Chiu’s first picture book, aimed at children aged three to seven, provides a friendly introduction to the idea of hospitals and what might happen in them. Largely informational rather... Read more
An Insider’s Plague Year (Peter Doherty, MUP)
Released August 2021
Laureate Professor Peter Doherty is one of the most well placed individuals to write a walk-through of the past year and a half of pandemic life. A Nobel Prize-winning immunologist... Read more
The School for Talking Pets (Kelli Anne Hawkins, illus by Beth Harvey, HarperCollins)
Released September 2021
With her debut middle grade novel, The School for Talking Pets, Kelli Anne Hawkins brings us a delightful tale that is reminiscent of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Mysterious Benedict Society. Rusty Mulligan is... Read more
Half My Luck (Samera Kamaleddine, HarperCollins)
Released August 2021
The first winner of HarperCollins’ Matilda Children’s Literature Prize is a warm-hearted and authentic coming-of-age story about the impact of race and place on our sense of self and belonging.... Read more
Dark as Last Night (Tony Birch, UQP)
Released August 2021
It’s a deceptively simple premise: two young brothers bond over a newfound love of bike riding. But as ‘Bicycle Thieves’ unfolds, a sweet yet dark and sorrowful undercurrent starts to... Read more
Recipe for a Kinder Life (Annie Smithers, Thames & Hudson)
Released August 2021
If you’ve had the good fortune to dine at Trentham’s du Fermier, where much of the food served is grown on chef/owner Annie Smithers’s own property, Babbington Park, in the... Read more
Grandma’s Prickly Secret (Trudie Trewin, illus by Nelli Suneli, Larrikin House)
Released August 2021
When the child in this picture book barges in on their grandma in the bathroom attempting to pluck out two prominent chin hairs, they proceed to list all the ways... Read more
Nostalgia Has Ruined My Life (Zarah Butcher-McCunnigle, Giramondo)
Released August 2021
‘I’m shopping local this year and I’m single,’ says the narrator of this novella. ‘I keep thinking “please kill me” and “back to basics.”’ Written in a fragmentary form reminiscent... Read more
Imaginative Possession: Learning to live in the Antipodes (Belinda Probert, Upswell)
Released August 2021
Thirty-five years after migrating to Australia from London, educator and social scientist Belinda Probert is still struggling to feel at home in a country that is so ancient and so... Read more
The Airways (Jennifer Mills, Picador)
Released August 2021
Jennifer Mills’s The Airways unsettles the boundaries between consciousness, self and the physical world, deep-diving into the parallels between the workings of the human body and the cities we navigate.... Read more
Underground: Marsupial outlaws and other rebels of Australia’s war in Vietnam (Mirranda Burton, A&U)
Released August 2021
Mirranda Burton’s graphic novel presents an overview of Australia during the Vietnam War by following three main characters: anti-war activist Jean McLean, Vietnam veteran Bill Cantwell and refugee Mai Ho.... Read more
The Overthinkers (Lisa Portolan & Ben Cheong, Big Sky Publishing)
Released August 2021
Four gen Zs in Sydney grapple with status, socialising and self-acceptance in the The Overthinkers by Lisa Portolan and Ben Cheong. First we are introduced to Leo, a self-deprecating gay... Read more
Devils in Danger (Samantha Wheeler, UQP)
Released August 2021
When strange things start happening around 11-year-old Killarney’s house—missing clothes, screaming in the night—she becomes determined to solve the mystery. Killarney soon discovers that the culprit is a wild Tasmanian... Read more
The Spectacular Suit (Kat Patrick, illus by Hayley Wells, Scribble)
Released August 2021
Parties can be extremely important for children. Especially for Frankie, the protagonist of The Spectacular Suit, who has never asked for a party before. With everyone in her class coming,... Read more
The First Time I Thought I Was Dying (Sarah Walker, UQP)
Released August 2021
This is an essay collection in which the most difficult and abject parts of being a human in a body are examined with full and unflinching frankness, from our unacknowledged... Read more
Sugar Town Queens (Malla Nunn, A&U)
Released August 2021
Sugar Town Queens is a young adult coming-of-age novel by Malla Nunn, author of When the Ground is Hard. Her latest book follows 15-year-old Amandla, who is mixed-raced and growing... Read more
Small Joys of Real Life (Allee Richards, Hachette)
Released August 2021
Small Joys of Real Life begins at a house party in Northcote, Melbourne, where the narrator, actress Eva McMillan, meets a cute guy, Pat. Two weeks later, they meet again... Read more
Muddy People (Sara El Sayed, Black Inc.)
Released August 2021
With elegant lyricism, compelling urgency and a dark sense of humour, Muddy People by Sara El Sayed is an impressive debut memoir from the young Egyptian–Australian writer. El Sayed’s work... Read more
Albert Namatjira (Vincent Namatjira, Magabala)
Released August 2021
In his picture book biography Albert Namatjira, Vincent Namatjira paints a stoic and quietly devastating portrait of his great-grandfather Albert, one of the most iconic figures in Australian painting. An... Read more
Girls in Boys’ Cars (Felicity Castagna, Pan)
Released August 2021
Felicity Castagna’s Girls in Boys’ Cars is not dissimilar to her Prime Minister’s Literary Award–winning young adult novel The Incredible Here and Now, which centres on a 15-year-old coming of... Read more
