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The Innocent Reader: Reflections on reading and writing (Debra Adelaide, Picador)
Released October 2019
Debra Adelaide’s biblio-memoir is more of a collection of essays than a cohesive story of a literary life, and reading it as such can help mitigate some of the internal... Read more
The Weekend (Charlotte Wood, A&U)
Released October 2019
After Sylvie’s sudden death, her three closest friends—former restaurateur Jude, public intellectual Wendy and actress Adele—must renegotiate the boundaries of their lifelong foursome. As they retreat to Sylvie’s isolated beach... Read more
Being Black ’N Chicken, & Chips (Matt Okine, Hachette)
Released October 2019
It’s 1998. Mike Amon is almost 13 and about to start high school. All he wants is to be good enough at athletics to be chosen for the Dobson Dash,... Read more
Hide (S J Morgan, MidnightSun)
Released October 2019
Hide opens in the Australian outback in the 1980s. A hitchhiker, Alec, is picked up by a man who has his own intentions for the passenger. When the driver reveals... Read more
The Tiniest House of Time (Sreedhevi Iyer, Wild Dingo)
Released February 2020
The Tiniest House of Time is the well-researched debut novel by Sreedhevi Iyer, an Indian-Malaysian-Australian author. Matriarch Susheela Sastri is dying. Her granddaughter, Sandhya, born on the same date as... Read more
Silver (Chris Hammer, A&U)
Released October 2019
Silver is Chris Hammer’s follow-up to his bestselling debut Scrublands. In Hammer’s second novel, journalist Martin Scarsden, fresh from turning the events of Scrublands into a book, follows his new... Read more
How to Make a Movie in 12 Days (Fiona Hardy, Affirm Kids)
Released September 2019
Hayley, 11, has one mission in life: to make a movie. Ever since Grandma—who was going to make it with her—died, the need is much greater than before, especially since... Read more
The Secret Science Society’s Spectacular Experiment (Kathy Hoopmann & Josie Montano, illus by Ann-Marie Finn, Wombat Books)
Released August 2019
Since Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls, the trend for kids’ books celebrating perseverance, creativity and innovation has seeped from nonfiction into fiction. Kathy Hoopmann and Josie Montano’s chapter book for... Read more
Monuments (Will Kostakis, Lothian)
Released September 2019
Award-winning young adult author Will Kostakis makes his first foray into urban fantasy with Monuments, book one in a duology that has a massive scope but a local setting. Sixteen-year-old... Read more
Ollie and Augustus (Gabriel Evans, Walker)
Released September 2019
When Ollie (‘small—like a pickling jar or a shoe box’) starts school, he worries that his beloved pet Augustus (‘large—like a fridge or a table’; a vast creature of indeterminate... Read more
The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling (Wai Chim, A&U)
Released August 2019
Sixteen-year-old Anna comes from a relatively traditional Chinese-Australian family. Originally from Hong Kong, her father owns a restaurant while her mother stays at home to look after the children. Anna... Read more
Grace’s Secrets (Louise Park, Berbay)
Released September 2019
Having relocated to a Scottish castle with her mother, Grace discovers a way into the past and promptly sets about helping her predecessors, even as her actual life seems to... Read more
Kulinmaya! Keep Listening, Everybody! (Mumu Mike Williams, A&U)
Released August 2019
Pitjantjatjara artist and activist Mumu Mike Williams, aka Kunmanara, sought to hold the government to account on Indigenous issues through his subversive artwork, which repurposed Australia Post mailbags into painted... Read more
Cryptosight (Nean McKenzie, MidnightSun)
Released October 2019
Cryptosight is a fun romp through regional Victoria, following Raff and his younger sister as they try to track down their missing monster-tracking father, while out-swerving the baddies at every... Read more
The Gift (Michael Speechley, Picture Puffin)
Released September 2019
Rosie is a lonely little girl who misses her mum. Across the street from Rosie’s place is a scary and neglected-looking house. Rosie has never seen the person who lives... Read more
I Am Change (Suzy Zail, Black Dog)
Released August 2019
Suzy Zail's latest novel tells the story of young Lilian, who wants nothing more than to go to school. However, poverty, outdated traditions and the simple fact she was born... Read more
Jinxed!: The Curious Curse of Cora Bell (Rebecca McRitchie, illus by Sharon O’Connor, HarperCollins)
Released September 2019
Rebecca McRitchie follows the success of her ‘Whimsy and Woe’ duology with a new middle-grade fantasy series, of which Jinxed! is the first instalment. Cora lives in the tumbledown city... Read more
The Lords of Melody (Phillip Gwynne, Puffin)
Released September 2019
Suzi Lord lives on a street full of mansions in an old weatherboard house bought by her ex-rock star parents while they were at the height of their fame with... Read more
Growing Up Queer in Australia (ed by Benjamin Law, Black Inc.)
Released August 2019
Mapped across a spectrum of ages and eras, sexualities and ethnicities, Growing Up Queer in Australia captures the resilience and strength of queer people coming of age in Australia. Edited... Read more
A River with a City Problem: A history of Brisbane floods (Margaret Cook, UQP)
Released September 2019
Who can forget the image of a disheveled Premier Anna Bligh, in the midst of the devastating 2011 Brisbane floods, making her ‘We are Queenslanders’ speech? In the aptly titled... Read more
