Review search
Liars (James O’Loghlin, Echo)
Released August 2024
In James O’Loghlin’s murder mystery Liars, every character has secrets to hide. The novel is set in the fictitious Bullford Point, a coastal town on NSW’s Northern Beaches, untouched by... Read more
Captured: How neoliberalism transformed the Australian state (ed by Philip Toner & Michael Rafferty, SUP)
Released August 2024
Privatisation, deregulation and fiscal restraint are some of the major hallmarks of neoliberalism. Each is an intervention taken by governments in economics and public policy to privilege free markets and... Read more
Stickboy (Rebecca Young, illus Matt Ottley, Scholastic)
Released August 2024
From the multi-award-winning creators of Teacup comes a lyrical new picture book about a young boy’s hope and determination in the face of adversity. In a dry and barren land... Read more
How to Break a World Record and Survive Grade Five (Carla Fitzgerald, UQP)
Released August 2024
How to Break a World Record and Survive Grade Five is the new novel from Carla Fitzgerald, author of the popular middle-grade title How to Be Prime Minister and Survive... Read more
Voyagers: Our journey into the Anthropocene (Lauren Fuge, Text)
Released August 2024
The Anthropocene—the geological period dominated by humanity’s activity on the planet—is increasingly seen by scientists and academics as an era of devastation wrought by overconsumption and insatiable industrialisation. In Voyagers,... Read more
Bernie Thinks in Boxes (Jess Horn, illus Zoe Bennett, Affirm)
Released August 2024
This charming story by debut author Jess Horn features a child, Bernie, who likes to classify her world into different categories (portrayed as boxes) in her head. When Bernie is... Read more
Love Unleashed (Melanie Saward, Michael Joseph)
Released August 2024
Melanie Saward’s Love Unleashed is a bingeable, warm and soulful romantic comedy. Saward (whose debut novel, Burn, was released in 2023) draws on her own experience in New York to... Read more
Sky Country (Aunty Patsy Cameron & Lisa Kennedy, Magabala)
Released August 2024
Grandmother takes her young grandchildren on a walk up a mountain in Trouwerner (Tasmania). As they walk together, Grandmother retells an ancient story of creation, sky, and the First Peoples... Read more
Winter of the Wolf (Amanda Willimott, Viking)
Released August 2024
Winter of the Wolf is Amanda Willimott’s debut novel, inspired by the real-life trial of Gilles Garnier, who was convicted of being a werewolf in 1573. When Sidonie Montot travels... Read more
Yarn Quest 1: The Search for the Story Realm (Brooke Scobie, illus Jade Goodwin, Penguin)
Released August 2024
Brooke Scobie’s debut series, Yarn Quest, begins with The Search for the Story Realm (with the next two books in the series releasing concurrently) and introduces friends Sibyl and Tane... Read more
Slick: Australia’s toxic relationship with Big Oil (Royce Kurmelovs, UQP)
Released August 2024
As citizens of the global West, we are learning that sitting with discomfort is necessary to create change. Slick, by journalist Royce Kurmelovs (Just Money, The Death of Holden), is... Read more
The Youngest Son (John Byrnes, Macmillan)
Released August 2024
John Byrnes’s The Youngest Son follows the fortunes of three siblings from a working-class Sydney family in the 1930s and 40s. Bob, the titular youngest, naturally gets the largest share... Read more
Hi from Outer Space (Fiona Katauskas, A&U Children’s)
Released August 2024
Cartoonist and illustrator Fiona Katauskas’s debut middle-grade novel, Hi from Outer Space, is a wonderfully wacky sci-fi/comedy that will appeal to readers of Nat Amoore, Morris Gleitzman and Eve L... Read more
Hester Hitchins and the Falling Stars (Catherine Norton, HarperCollins)
Released August 2024
The year is 1866, and 11-year-old Hester’s life looks like something out of A Series of Unfortunate Events: her father is lost at sea, her mother dies giving birth to... Read more
Woo Woo (Ella Baxter, A&U)
Released August 2024
In Woo Woo, Ella Baxter’s raucous second novel after New Animal, art is terrible, a living spell, a parasite, a trick, and all there is. ‘Art is life,’ writes protagonist... Read more
Six Figures While You Sleep (Kate Toon, Major Street)
Released August 2024
Following the success of her first book, Six Figures in School Hours, copywriter, podcaster and self-made millionaire Kate Toon returns with Six Figures While You Sleep, a practical, no-nonsense guide to creating... Read more
Shades of Me (Mel Brown, Rockpool)
Released July 2024
Melinda Brown’s Shades of Me challenges the saying ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ by taking us through Brown’s ‘many lives through many Dreamings’, including her careers as a... Read more
Djinang Bonar: Seeing Seasons (Ebony Froome, illus by Leanne Zilm, Fremantle)
Released August 2024
Written by Wardandi Noongar woman Ebony Froome, Djinang Bonar: Seeing Seasons is a lyrical picture book describing the six seasons on Noongar country in Western Australia. It cleverly incorporates Noongar... Read more
Catherine Wheel (Liz Evans, Ultimo)
Released August 2024
Kate is starting over in the small town of Bridgewell after a bad break-up with Max. She works as a yoga instructor and volunteers at the local library, living in... Read more
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Tooth Fairy (and some things you didn’t) (Briony Stewart, Lothian)
Released August 2024
If you know a young person who has questions about the tooth fairy, then Briony Stewart’s latest picture book might just be perfect for you. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know... Read more
