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Eloise and the Bucket of Stars (Janeen Brian, Walker Books)
Released June 2020
For nearly 13 years Eloise Pail has dreamed of a family and life outside the orphanage. But year after year Eloise is left under the watchful gaze of Sister Hortense,... Read more
Change Starts with Us (Sophie Beer, Little Hare)
Released June 2020
This brightly coloured and accessible book sets out to empower young children and familiarise them with ways in which even the littlest of us can have an impact our world.... Read more
What Zola did on Monday (Melina Marchetta, illus by Deb Hudson, Puffin)
Released June 2020
Melina Marchetta is a novelist we normally associate with award-winning young adult fiction, and more recently her adult novels Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil and The Place on Dalhousie.... Read more
The Trials of Portnoy: How Penguin brought down Australia’s censorship system (Patrick Mullins, Scribe)
Released June 2020
Starting even before Federation and lasting until the early 1970s, the Australian government controlled what Australians could read. Yet today, as Patrick Mullins recounts in this scintillating account of the rise and fall of Australian... Read more
Father of the Lost Boys (Yuot A Alaak, Fremantle Press)
Released June 2020
This shocking story should be better known: the attempt of more than 20,000 orphaned boys and thousands more refugee followers to survive amid the terrifying atrocities of the Second Sudanse... Read more
The Rain Heron (Robbie Arnott, Text)
Released June 2020
Ren has retreated from the world. After the country is torn apart by a coup, she hides herself away on a mountain, barely seeing another living soul beyond the animals... Read more
Sticks and Stones (Katherine Firkin, Bantam)
Released June 2020
Detective senior constable Emmett Corban works for Missing Persons, a department under threat of downsizing: most of the people they’re looking for don’t want to be found. When a man... Read more
Rise & Shine (Patrick Allington, Scribe)
Released June 2020
Patrick Allington’s second novel takes place in an allegorical dystopia following an ambiguous apocalypse. The cities of Rise and Shine have emerged from these ashes thanks to the efforts of... Read more
Respect (Aunty Fay Muir & Sue Lawson, illus by Lisa Kennedy, Magabala)
Released May 2020
Dream team Aunty Fay Muir and Sue Lawson, who previously brought us the excellent Nganga: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander words and phrases, have collaborated with artist Lisa Kennedy to... Read more
Rocky and Louie (Phil Walleystack, Raewyn Caisley & Dub Leffler, Puffin)
Released May 2020
Siblings Rocky and Louie are as close as can be. Louie loves playing footy with his big brother and learning all about the Country they call home. Rocky shows Louie... Read more
The Year the Maps Changed (Danielle Binks, Lothian)
Released May 2020
The Year the Maps Changed is Melbourne-based writer Danielle Binks’ debut novel. The year is 1999 and in small-town Sorrento, Victoria, 11-year-old Fred is lost within the complexity of a... Read more
Tiger & Cat (Allira Tee, Berbay)
Released July 2020
In this appealing debut picture book from Melbourne illustrator Allira Tee, two animals recognise the value of their close friendship. Tiger and Cat do everything together—exploring, dancing, eating delicious pink... Read more
Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal (Anna Whateley, A&U)
Released May 2020
Peta Lyre is an atypical girl living in a typical world. Her best mate says she has so many letters that they almost make up the alphabet—ADHD, ASD, SPD. Fiercely... Read more
Sometimes Cake (Edwina Wyatt, illus by Tamsin Ainslie, Walker)
Released May 2020
Audrey meets a lion carrying a purple balloon and asks him if it’s his birthday. ‘Sometimes,’ he responds, ‘but not today’. But considering that Audrey happens to like birthdays, she... Read more
When it Drops (Alex Dyson, Hardie Grant Egmont)
Released May 2020
Former triple j breakfast presenter Alex Dyson’s debut YA novel draws on his considerable knowledge of the Australian music industry—he has said that this book was inspired by the school-aged... Read more
Please Don’t Hug Me (Kay Kerr, Text)
Released May 2020
At the suggestion of her psychologist, Erin writes letters to her absent older brother, Rudy. Erin is 17 years old, behind on her savings for Schoolies and freshly unemployed. There... Read more
Broken Rules and Other Stories (Barry Lee Thompson, Transit Lounge)
Released September 2020
In this accomplished debut, Barry Lee Thompson makes delicate inquiries into the passage of time through a series of loosely linked, often coming-of-age stories. Several stories cast back to lucid... Read more
The Drop-Off (Fiona Harris & Mike McLeish, Echo)
Released May 2020
The Drop-Off is a cheerful depiction of parenting culture, told through the alternating points-of-view of three parents and set in a middle-class primary school in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne.... Read more
Fathoms: The world in the whale (Rebecca Giggs, Scribe)
Released May 2020
Rebecca Giggs’ nonfiction debut is a lyrical, wide-ranging meditation on whales and their complex relationship with humanity. Meticulously researched and full of fascinating information, Fathoms is not just limited to... Read more
Mammoth (Chris Flynn, UQP)
Released May 2020
Chris Flynn’s third novel is an ambitious adventure back in time that recounts the folly of humanity—as told by the fossil of a 13,000-year-old mammoth. It sounds like it could... Read more
