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Beneath the Trees (Cristy Burne, Fremantle Press)
Released February 2021
Cam and her little sister Sophie have travelled halfway across Australia to see some platypuses in the wild, and even their mum forcing them to wear bright yellow emergency ponchos... Read more
Coming of Age in the War on Terror (Randa Abdel-Fattah, NewSouth)
Released February 2021
‘I’ve always had this almost pre-conceived guilt attached to who I was.’ — Jena (18, Lebanese–Australian, South West Sydney) On September 11 2001, two planes smashed into the World Trade... Read more
Iceberg (Claire Saxby, illus by Jess Racklyeft, A&U)
Released February 2021
There is no absolutely question as to why Claire Saxby and Jess Racklyeft are both multi-award-winning creators, and this book is a perfect partnership, eliciting the very best from both... Read more
Honey Blood (Kirsty Everett, HarperCollins)
Released February 2021
I learned a lot about cancer treatment from Kirsty Everett’s memoir Honey Blood: that chemotherapy can make you very sensitive to smells, that jellybeans are helpful for the taste of... Read more
Lola Online: #TheSecretUpstairsFanClubParty (Shannan & Tayla Stedman, Omnibus)
Released February 2021
Sisters Shannan and Tayla Stedman, children’s entertainers turned authors, try their hands at junior fiction with Lola Online, which comes after the 2018 release of their picture book Harlow and... Read more
The Second Son (Loraine Peck, Text)
Released February 2021
In Sydney’s western suburbs, the summer air thick enough to slice with a switchblade, Johnny Novak’s family reels from the murder of Ivan, his older brother. Their father, a notorious... Read more
Growing Up Disabled in Australia (ed by Carly Findlay, Black Inc.)
Released February 2021
Growing up Disabled in Australia, edited by Carly Findlay, is the latest anthology in Black Inc.’s ‘Growing Up’ series. Like the previous anthologies, it features both emerging and established writers.... Read more
Float or Sink? (Kylie Covark, illus by Andrew Plant, Ford St)
Released February 2021
Kylie Covark’s Float or Sink? quickly develops (after an opening that doesn’t quite nail the meter/rhyme structure to come) into a lively, playful story and preschool children will undoubtedly relish... Read more
The Imitator (Rebecca Starford, A&U)
Released February 2021
Rebecca Starford’s debut novel is a beautifully written espionage thriller that bookends the world-changing period of WWII. Its meticulously researched narrative draws the reader into the early life of Evelyn... Read more
Tiger Daughter (Rebecca Lim, A&U)
Released February 2021
From Rebecca Lim, author and co-editor of the Meet Me at the Intersection YA anthology, this coming-of-age tale is about finding your own voice as a young girl in a... Read more
Little Gem (Anna Zobel, Puffin)
Released January 2021
Little Gem is a witch-in-training who has the best intentions but doesn’t always get things quite right. When a travelling spell goes wrong Gem finds herself in the unusual village... Read more
The Women and the Girls (Laura Bloom, A&U)
Released January 2021
The Women and the Girls follows three mothers as they walk away from their unhappy marriages and move their children into a share house in Sydney. Against a backdrop of... Read more
Dingo Bold: The life and death of K’gari dingoes (Rowena Lennox, Sydney University Press)
Released January 2021
In Dingo Bold, Rowena Lennox wrestles with the emotionally laden subject of the human–wild divide through the lens of the policies managing the dingoes on K’gari (Fraser Island). Along the... Read more
Repentance (Alison Gibbs, Scribe)
Released January 2021
It’s 1976, a time of change and cultural shifts. The town of Repentance perches on the edge of the Great Dividing Range: the old families cut timber and the new... Read more
Shelter (Catherine Jinks, Text)
Released January 2021
Meg has taken in three strangers—Nerine and her two small daughters—in a bid to hide them from Nerine’s abusive ex-husband. The house is secluded, safe, but Nerine can’t shake the... Read more
Fire, Flood, Plague: Australian writers respond to 2020 (ed by Sophie Cunningham, Vintage)
Released December 2020
This deeply unsettling book bravely attempts to interpret, chronicle and reflect on the nightmarish events of this year. While I relished the opportunity to try to make sense of 2020,... Read more
Let’s Go, Little Roo (Renée Treml, Puffin)
Released January 2021
Prolific author Renée Treml says she wrote Let's Go, Little Roo from experience with her own shy child, and Little Roo’s stubborn emotions and thought processes are certainly recognisable. (Though... Read more
The Carbon-Neutral Adventures of the Indefatigable EnviroTeens (First Dog on the Moon, A&U)
Released December 2020
Political cartoonist First Dog on the Moon’s debut book for children is a delightfully absurd metatextual picture book/graphic novel hybrid starring a genius wombat inventor, a superhero social media celebrity... Read more
An Amazing Australian Road Trip (Jackie Hosking, illus by Lesley Vamos, Walker Books)
Released January 2021
This cheerful picture book employs a lively rhyming narrative alongside factual snippets, creating a unique reading experience that is sure to appeal to fans of both fiction and nonfiction. The... Read more
The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman (Julietta Henderson, Bantam)
Released January 2021
Norman Foreman isn’t your average 12-year-old: he’s obsessed with classic British comedy, he’s got raging psoriasis, and he and his best mate Jax have a five-year plan to perform stand-up... Read more
