Allen & Unwin, 2025. ISBN: 9781761180279. (Age:14+) Highly recommended.
Blood moon brides are the young girls who at the age of 16 are taken to Show Day to be matched with the highest bidders to become their brides. It’s a kind of slave market. But now, suddenly, the age has been lowered to fifteen by Governor Kira eager to have more progeny with whom to build his army of soldiers in the ongoing wars at his borders. Rehya realises that time has run out for her to escape, and she will be among the girls delivered prematurely into a life she abhors.
This is the setting for Demet Divaroren’s latest novel, a departure from the gritty realism of Living on Hope Street (2017) or the earlier co-edited Growing up Muslim in Australia (2014). Blood moon bride is a magical fantasy, but it deals with issues relevant to current times: child marriage, demonisation of the 'other', dictatorships, lies and fake news, and the need for connection with the natural world. The fantasy world of Governor Kira’s regime, with his manipulation of his subjects, annihilation of people who are different, and the brain-washing of anyone who questions or rebels, is presented in a way that young readers can explore safely through the world of imagination.
It is an exciting story, with believable characters, and, unusually for the genre, without a thread of romance. The emphasis is on friendship and collaboration, uniting together to stand against what is inherently wrong. On her website, Divaroren writes that ‘Storytelling . . . is an invitation to build empathy and challenge our misconceptions and the negative vitriol of 'the other' that is fuelled by the media.’ Blood moon bride is an excellent example of this.
The Bookshop on Lemon Tree Lane by Mike Lucas. Illus. by Sofya Karmazina
Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing, 2025. ISBN: 9781760506988. (Age:3+) Highly recommended.
The Bookshop on Lemon Tree Lane is the second picture book written by award-winning South Australian children’s author Mike Lucas and illustrated by the very talented Sofya Karmazina. This delightful story will evoke warm and exciting memories of visits to bookshops, as well as special times spent with a grandparent. With skilful rhyming text accompanied by striking full colour highly detailed illustrations, this will be a book to share over and over again.
From the clever endpapers displaying the bookshop floor before and after, the double title page spread showing the young child and grandpa on the train, and with Holly the bookshop dog making cameo appearances, this captivating story will engage readers of all ages.
The old shop has crannies.
The old shop has nooks,
and places to hide in while looking at books.
There’s a rickety staircase
and lamps on the walls,
and a bell that goes DING!
when a customer calls.
The Bookshop on Lemon Tree Lane also shares an important message about change. Sometimes change can cause anxiety and disappointment, especially for young children, and when the bookshop closes for renovations, the young child is unhappy and worried.
The trips aren’t the same now
for Grandpa and me.
That old shop is gone…there is nothing to see,
and Lemon Tree Lane feels so empty and grey.
They have taken our fun and adventure away.
And will the new bookshop be as special as the old one and worth the long wait? Only time will tell.
In the final pages, author Mike Lucas, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Grandpa, shares an important author’s note about reflecting on the journey he personally has experienced with his own bookshop. He has enthusiastically embraced the changes each time and treasures the memories from the past.
The Legendary Scarlett & Browne: Being an account of their final exploits & gallant deeds continues the story of Outlaws Scarlett & Browne: being an account of their daring exploits and audacious crimes and Notorious Scarlett & Browne: being an account of the fearless outlaws and their infamous deeds, bringing to an end this wonderful trilogy set in dystopian Britain. It is a showcase of fantastic writing, memorable plots and engaging characters. In this thrilling conclusion, we see Albert and Scarlett trying to finalise their searches: Scarlett’s quest to find her brother Thomas who was separated from her many years before and Albert’s need to visit Stonemoor and find out where he came from and how he ended up a product of terrible experiments. As they continue their searches, they free slaves and battle against the Faith Houses who want to use young White Hats to subdue the population with their cruel weapons from the past.
What a roller coaster ride this is! Many readers will revel in Scarlett and Browne’s explosive adventures, following their daring attempts to relieve banks of their gold and their exploits fighting the evil Faith Houses, fending off attacks by fanatics wielding deadly weapons forged long ago and avoiding devastating explosions. However I was most engaged with their searches to come to grips with their past traumas. I was desperately wanted Scarlett to find her little brother and eagerly followed the sections that described what had happened to him. Meanwhile Mallory, their old Nemesis, has turned up with information and finally Albert may be able to find the laboratory where he was imprisoned and hopefully uncover some of its secrets.
Snappy dialogue, intense action and vivid descriptions make this a memorable series, which I can highly recommend. Readers may also like to pursue other enjoyable series, Lockwood & Co. and The Bartimaeus trilogy, by Stroud.
Text Publishing, 2025. ISBN: 9781922790767. (Age:14+) Highly recommended.
It is 2018 and zombies have taken most of the adults in the world. 17-year-old Sunny and Toby are on the run, trying desperately to stay alive. Cut to 2034 and Sunny is attempting to escape from an underground facility where she has been held prisoner for years. The reader is immediately faced with some haunting questions. What has caused the outbreak of the virus and why has Sunny stayed alive although infected? Will Toby and baby Veronica make it unscathed?
I was grabbed by the first chapter opening, where Sunny discusses how she and her parents would kill each other rather than being taken by the zombies and from then on, I was hooked. Bowe effortlessly took me across the dual timelines of 2018 and 2034, vividly describing the zombie invasion in 2018 and then the incarceration of Sunny in an underground facility. Her escape and subsequent trip from Sydney to the Gold Coast is thrilling, with action galore.
Some big themes are explored too. The importance of loyalty to family, biological and found, is explored and the reader will relate to Toby’s courage in caring for baby Veronica. There are also questions about the ethics of a totalitarian government keeping people underground and whether a virus was used to create the zombies.
What makes Sunny at the end of the world so memorable is that the manuscript was found on Steph Bowe’s computer after she tragically passed away at the age of 25. It is at once thought provoking and funny with wonderful characters and a mind-blowing plot. It is not to be missed.
Mandy Beaumont, a Stella Prize longlisted author, has written a compelling and dark story, a fictionalized version of the notorious Granny killings in Sydney between 1989 and 1990. Written in dual voices, it explores the motivation of a killer, and the feelings of a young woman whose beloved, zany grandmother, Marlowe Kerr, was murdered, her killer never found. Emmerson has been a young child in 1977 when she found her grandmother dead and in 1989, she is still trying to work out what happened to her. When she hears that an 84-year-old woman has been found dead in Syndey’s North Shore, her body arranged just as Marlowe’s has been, she is determined to investigate what happened.
This is a taut, grim story, one that I had to read in short bursts as the brutality of the murders was awful and the mind of the killer very difficult to handle. The police had been inept when examining the murder scene of Marlowe Kerr, and Emmerson and Kevin, the groundsman for her family home, are not convinced that they will be even better when probing the deaths of more women. Older women have been advised strongly to stay in their homes and not venture out alone, restricting their lives and living in fear.
Beaumont explores the attitude of society, the police and the press towards older women, dubbed Grannies, omitting their achievements, ambitions and substance. One paragraph stood out for me where Emmerson states that she is “not going to stand by and allow her, or any woman, to diminished and dismissed….“(pg. 91-91).
Readers who are drawn to true crime stories will find this fictionalized crime story riveting, while those who read cosy mysteries for escapism from real life, may find reading about the real crimes it was based on difficult but unforgettable.
Themes Murder, Police, Older women.
Pat Pledger
The English soul: Faith of a nation by Peter Ackroyd
Peter Ackroyd CBE, FRSL is a renowned Yale-educated English biographer, novelist and critic with a specialist interest in the history and culture of London (Wikipedia). In The english soul: Faith of a nation, Ackroyd takes the reader on a chronological journey of Christianity in England from The Venerable Bede (673-735) to contemporary belief and practice.
The english soul: Faith of a nation, like the other books in Ackroyd's prodigious volume of work, is meticulously researched and written by one who lives and breathes and has made a lifetime's study of English history and culture; by someone who is deeply immersed in the study of "the English soul" and "the faith of the nation." Ackroyd's biographies and narratives including but definitely not limited to London;The biography, Foundation: The history of England from its earliest beginnings to the Tudors, Tudors:The history of England from Henry V111 to Elizabeth 1, Rebellon: The history of England from James1 to the glorious revolution, Shakespeare: The biography and Dickens have been thoroughly researched. Due to a lifetime of immersion in London and in academia, Ackroyd's grasp of the subject matter is broad and deep with natural and spontaneous connections being made across disciplines of knowledge particularly History and Theology. The english soul: Faith of a nation is firmly rooted in place (England) and stretches across time. The book tracks the major movements and great persons through English history that have contributed to the development of religion over time. Invariably each person is rooted in a particular place and time - assimilating, building upon or rejecting and opposing influence from the past and contributing towards the contemporary English soul. This is largely (but not totally) the process of the understanding of the English soul that Ackroyd depicts - a soul that assimilates and rejects other ideas from outside, that is rooted in place, that remains for the most part pragmatic, that is fluid enough to gather up what works from many widely differing movements and is born of history and tradition, of scripture, of reason and experience. Being less reliant on dogma than other "souls" or "faiths" the possibility in contemporary times is that the English soul will, having survived for so long because of its "via media", be swallowed by external religions and movements and/or collapse from internal unrest and schism. Ackroyd states in the Author's Note, "This study is an account of the Christian English soul, which accepts the fact that Christianity has been the anchoring and defining doctrine of England."
Each of the twenty-three chapters look at religion in a different light and focuses on a representative theologian, or poet, or movement. Thus commencing with one Religion as History: The Venerable Bede, Ackroyd continues with Religion as Revelation, as Reform, as Reformation, as Orthodoxy, as Opposition, as Sermon, as Scripture, as Poetry, as Order, as Sect, as Transformation, as Experience, as Revival, as Individual, as Established, as Battle, as Thought, as Evangelical, as Argument, as Contemporay, as Theology etc. Each approach is married with its leading figures including, Julian of Norwich, Wyclif, Tyndale, Cranmer, Foxe, Hooker, Cartwright, Browne, Barrow, Andrewes, Herbert, Blake, Laud, Bunyan, Dawkins, Spurgeon etc, etc.
At all times, Ackroyd remains with the reader. Far from dryly reciting events and facts, he actively engages. For example... (on Wyclif and his promotion of an English faith separate from Rome with the monarch at its head and reliance upon scripture and individual Christian devotion)..."It is a compelling theme that, as we shall observe, resounded through the centuries." This kind of inclusion of the reader continues throughout with the freqent use of "we". Many, many extracts could be quoted. One such that goes to the core is the battle between Travers and Hooker in the 1580s... referring to the battle of the pulpits between Geneva and Canterbury as being..." the battle for the English soul. It was not concluded then, and still exists now." Delving deep into sermons and materials from the past, Ackroyd finds and quotes from Andrewes "Spital sermon"..."every dunce took upon him to usurp the pulpit...throwing forth headlong their incoherent, misshapen and evil-smelling crudities...the very church is infested with as many fooleries of discourse as are commonly in the places where they shear sheep." The King James Bible, published in 1611 has been described as "the most influential version of the most influential book in the world" and "the most important book in English religion and culture". Ackroyd states that it ..."is impossible to use the English language without being influenced by its cadence and vocabulary...It is significant, too that (it) was produced out of compromise and conciliation...It might even act as a mirror of Englishness itself, and by extension of the English soul."
Ackroyd acknowledges his two research assistants, Thomas Wright and Murrough O'Brien and indeed, the quality and range of research, being so extensive would seem to require much assistance. Illustrative material has been sought from a range of acknowledged resources, the index is extensive and the book structure is such that information is easily retrievable. Ranging far and wide, with satisfying depth and engaging narrative, The english soul: Faith of a nation is a treasure trove of information, historical research and contemporary commentary. Highly recommended for those interested in English History, Theology and Christianity, this book is a must for theological colleges and university libraries.
Themes Theology, English History, Christianity.
Wendy Jeffrey
Noisy, noisy city by Andrew Kelly and Helene Magisson
Wild Dog Books, 2025. ISBN: 9781742036755. (Age:3+) Recommended.
A joyous look at a busy, busy city full of noise from the roads and the sky, from police cars and fire engines; children will love listening to this cheerful look at living in a city, as it is read aloud, joining in with the sounds the vehicles make. What fun.
Hilarious illustrations cover each page showing lots of things which make a lot of noise and then a series of bulbous cars bumper to bumper, tooting at each other in their rush to get somewhere else.
The endpapers show a spaghetti of roadways introducing the reader to those things which criss cross our cities.
Starting with the ding ding of the tram, over the page is the chop chop of a helicopter, then the rat tat of a jackhammer, the beep beep of a reversing truck, then the vroom vroom of a car. From then on we see more and more cars coming into the story, blaming on their radios, toot tooting at each other, or honk honking. A police car whaaa is heard through the crowd, a fire engine and an ambulance each make their own distinctive noise.
Kids will love calling out the various noises as they read, predicting the noise each makes, then joining in with the others as they recognise the noise and what machine it belongs to.
The city is absolutely full of noise, and this is shown through the fun of this book. The comic illustrations will grab the reader’s attention seeing the overlooking buildings, almost bending over the roads, watching what is happening. The few people seen in the illustrations points to the idea of the car as king in our cities. Faces peer out of the apartment buildings, a few people manage to wander the streets, and the faces of some of the drivers tell a story in themselves.
Themes Cars, Traffic, Cities, Road rage, Humour.
Fran Knight
Stories from Magic Beach by Alison Lester
Allen & Unwin, 2025. ISBN: 9781761181559. (Age:7+) Highly recommended.
Stories from Magic Beach is a beautiful celebration of imagination, adventure and the timeless joy of childhood. Based on the film by acclaimed director Robert Connolly and inspired by Alison Lester’s cherished picture book Magic Beach, this stunning adaptation brings the classic to life in an exciting new way. With the original verses and illustrations from Lester’s book woven throughout, the story is expanded into a vivid, photographical and cinematic experience; celebrating the beauty of our natural world and the wonders of our imagination.
Featuring the talents of eleven world-class animators and captivating live-action stills, this book captures the magic of the film while staying true to the spirit of the original text. Each animator’s creativity ensures the story’s scene has its own distinct style and mood; creating new interest and intrigue.
The ten stories follow a different child as they explore the wonders of the beach - not just as a place of sand and sea, but as a springboard into the realms of total fantasy. From discovering hidden caves to building towering sandcastles, swimming with mythical sea creatures and sailing with pirates, every story is filled with the endless power of imagination and inspires creativity, freedom and the unlimited possibilities of play.
The book honours the continuing charm of Magic Beach, which has captivated readers for over 35 years, and also introduces a new layer of visual storytelling that makes a perfect keepsake for families, educators and art lovers alike. The blend of classic illustrations and modern animation stills creates a rich visual experience that invites both nostalgia and new curiosities; reminding us how the beach is a portal to magic - where the only limits are those of our imagination!
Themes Imagination, Creativity, Art, Film..
Michelle O'Connell
Millie and Stella best friends forever: The lost ponies by Josephine Moon
Millie and Stella are firm friends with similar interests. Stella is good at supporting Millie when life gets too loud and stressful. But their mutual partnership includes their connection over their ponies, particularly because their home fields have limited feed, and a solution must be found. While applying at school to be student leaders of the new caravan library, they must cope with a classmate who is extremely competitive. These two stories collide in a stressful way when the girl’s ponies make an escape from their agistment field. Where have the ponies gone and who unlocked the gate?
This is a gentle friendship tale with the addition of one character learning to cope with her neurodivergence. The story will resonate with young female readers aged 8-11. They will enjoy the twists and turns and the horse-riding interests of Millie and Stella, but the interpersonal challenges of coping with emotions is also child-friendly. Family are important and the school the girls attend is quirkily alternative - well-suited to the neuro-divergent Millie. This is the kind of book that is one step up from easy chapter books, but will be appealing for young able readers, and older readers who need something that is not too challenging.
Australian author Diana Reid has taken the pervasive trauma narrative, where a character’s actions are explained by an uncovered past trauma, and has given it a decided twist. In Signs of damage, Cass suffers from the onset of sudden seizures, possibly epilepsy, or possibly a functional neurological disorder, ‘all in the mind’. As a 13 year-old on holiday with friend Anika and her family in their villa in France, an incident occurs in the dark room of the icehouse, an ancient structure in the garden. This sets in motion a train of events that involves all the family and their guests.
Reid has created complex characters, each with their own back story; in fact each has experienced some kind of traumatic event that lingers in their memory. Trauma is not offered as a simplistic explanation for actions but does colour their relationships and responses. Each has a different perception of their holiday together.
The novel is bookended by a prologue and an epilogue written from Cass’s point of view, but the main section is told by the omniscient author providing different character perspectives, and alternates between the present and the French holiday 16 years prior, both periods of a week. Each chapter adds another element, like pieces of a jigsaw the reader tries to assemble.
While Cass is the main character, and the mystery centres on trying to understand what actually happened and why she has the seizures, I found the character of Anika the troubled young friend equally absorbing. Reid has created a complex story of misunderstandings and confusions. It is very clever. Each person is at the centre of their own story, and their actions have impact on the people around them, in a way that reflects the tangled threads of real life.
This is Reid’s third novel and is utterly absorbing, keeping the reader turning the pages. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and returned to a number of chapters to read them again. It made me want to seek out her earlier novels, as well as anything she writes next.
Yildaan: Our dreaming track by Uncle Bud Marshall with Yandaarra
Allen & Unwin, 2025. ISBN: 9781761181382. (Age:7+) Highly recommended.
Yildaan: Our dreaming track is a breathtaking and deeply meaningful picture book created by Uncle Bud Marshall, a respected Gumbaynggirr Elder, in collaboration with Yandaarra. With stunning artwork and photographs by Hannah Smith and Elaine Carmady, the book beautifully captures the spirit and stories of Gumbaynggirr Country, particularly around Nambucca Heads.
More than just a book, Yildaan: Our dreaming track is a cultural offering - a path for readers to walk alongside the Gumbaynggirr people and their Dreaming. Uncle Bud gently invites readers to listen carefully to Country, to feel the presence of ancestors and to understand that the land is not just something to use, but something to honour and live in harmony with.
One of the heart-warming stories shared is about Uncle Benjie and Aunty Bryne and their connection to buluunggal - a way of being that focuses on listening, observing and working with nature in a respectful, sustainable way. Their story, like much of the book, shows how traditional knowledge offers valuable insights into how we can live well and care for the Earth.
The book weaves together story, culture and place, encouraging readers of all ages to value Indigenous knowledge and the importance of community, cooperation and care for the environment. The combination of language, storytelling, art and photography makes Yildaan Our Dreaming Track not only informative but also inspiring.
Perfect for classrooms, libraries and families, Yildaan: Our dreaming track is an invitation to slow down, listen and learn from the wisdom of the land and its people. It’s a powerful celebration of Gumbaynggirr culture and a gentle call to walk together with respect and understanding.
All the ways to pray by Kathleen Kelly and Anne Ryan
Wild Dog Books, 2025. ISBN: 9781742036878. (Age:2-5) Recommended.
In a very simple way this charming book outlines all the uncomplicated ways that a child might pray. (Note: there are no references to a particular deity or religion in the book, it is very general in its focus.) With an adult leading the way, this book could be used in families, preschools and schools that are faith-based to introduce the youngest children to the ways and the places where they might pray and the topics that might inform their prayers. Text never exceeds a couple of sentences on a page so there is not a lot of listening required, and the images are important. The illustrations by Anne Ryan are simple and show scenarios that children will recognise from their own pre-school lives, and various cultures or backgrounds are implied in the depictions of children. Empathy, gratitude and hope are part of the prayer focus for an audience aged 2-5 years.
Themes Prayers, Young children, Empathy, Gratitude.
Author and poet, Gregory Day, has gathered into one volume, poetry he has written over a period of twenty years, a collection that reflects in many ways the themes of his last novel The bell of the world : ideas of natural beauty, peace and harmony in the natural environment, a nurturing retreat from the disruption of the modern world.
The poetry is exquisite, words placed together to conjure breathtaking images in the mind.
The wind beats and harries slanty rain etching trees, danking webs that drape charred trunks making a gauze of the hills.
It is a pleasure to delve into, appreciate and meditate on the scenes and ideas they bring forth.
The natural world is contrasted with the distractions of glassy screens; the calm rhythm of life often forgotten. The ‘visitors’ intrude, the cow, fox, goat etc. too readily replacing the thump of the wallaby and the cry of the cockatoos. And there are frequent reminders of the original inhabitants:
. . . I wonder aloud what the Gulidjan thought as the clovers were hoofed the river sheepshitted up, the yam-tonics exchanged for a liver-searing swill.
Day reflects on the connection that is being lost; he urges people to people to ‘know a river’, ‘watch the bee buzzing round’, ‘keep the swan in your heart’.
There are other poems, more humorous, that tell stories. As a past keeper of chickens, I smiled at the story of the preening heritage chickens that didn’t lay eggs, until one day they did, and there is a ‘clean and curving arc of shell’, ‘the sunlit face of a new planet in the leaf litter’.
Southsightedness presents a variety of pictures and ideas to contemplate; open a page and read, or follow the arc through the three sections of the collection that reflects the ‘eternal impulse to sing and say’.
The remarkable truths of Alfie Bains by Sarah Clutton
Allen and Unwin, 2025. ISBN: 9781761471476. (Age:16+) Highly recommended.
A young boy rings the bell at an elderly woman’s house and in a serious tone tells her that he is her grandson, is in need of a family, and that once she gets over the shock she will probably like him, because he is a very interesting person. This is the beginning of Alfie’s quest to find out about a family he never knew existed. Overcoming his disappointment on realising that his mother has lied to him and his father is not an anonymous sperm donor with a PhD in astrophysics, but could actually be alive somewhere, his detective skills swing into action as ‘Operation Tadpole’, and he determines to solve the mystery.
Alfie Bains is a unique character; he is clearly neurodivergent, highly intelligent, and fascinated by science. He constantly astounds adults with his logical thinking and adult vocabulary. This makes for many amusing scenes, one of the most memorable being the child-friendly doctor doing a Donald Duck imitation only to be met with perplexed puzzlement by his more mature young patient.
Clutton writes some chapters from Alfie’s point of view, whilst others present the perspectives of various adults involved in the web of deception, and weaves a mix of episodes from the past and the present. Despite the young protagonist, this is not a YA novel; Clutton explores issues of control, deception, domestic violence, depression and regret, though not in a way that is overwhelming or disheartening. It is basically a mystery story; the pieces gradually coming together in a satisfying way, and with a lot of laughs along the way. Highly recommended.
In 1863, in Melbourne, there are not many options for a woman to make a living: servant, washerwoman, butcher’s assistant . . . as long as there is no NINA notice, 'No Irish Need Apply'. Women in the slums of the Little Lon district live in poverty often resorting to theft to survive. So when young Irish woman Johanna is offered work at Madame Laurent’s brothel Papillon, it is the chance to leave the grimy world of drudgery and enter a place of silks and satins, and laughter.
Madeleine Cleary has thoroughly researched the lives of people in the brothel district between Lonsdale Street and Little Lonsdale Street, after discovering a ‘notorious’ Cleary in her ancestry. Her novel revolves around three women, of different station: Catherine Laurent, the brothel owner, Johanna, a ‘dressed lady’, and Harriett, an aspiring journalist and sister to the magistrate William Gardiner. Their lives intersect as a killer roams the district.
Cleary’s novel is a murder mystery; the Butcher of Melbourne is reminiscent of Jack the Ripper of London, a serial killer who preyed on the prostitutes of the Whitechapel area. The Butcher, so named because of his skill with the knife, is accompanied by a clicking sound, and leaves his victims clean and well gowned, apart from the slash across their necks.
Our suspicions are aroused as to the killer’s identity early in the piece, but uncertainty keeps the reader absorbed as the chapters alternate between the stories of the three women. There is another marvellous woman, Mary, a woman who dons her husband’s constable uniform and patrols the dark backstreets. If you think this too far-fetched, amazingly truth is stranger than fiction, for Cleary discovered in the archives there actually was a woman dressed in her husband’s uniform, policing his beat. It is Mary who watches over the community and comes closest to discovering the murderer.
Having recently read Outrageous Fortunes (2025) a non-fiction account of a writer and female journalist of this period, the story of Harriett Gardiner also has the ring of authenticity, as a woman trying to carve a career in journalism, daring to write about the underworld of Melbourne society.
Madeleine Cleary is to be commended for bringing her research of the period and crafting a gripping tale that is situated in a historical reality that may be unfamiliar to many. It’s a thriller, and an informative insight into life in early Melbourne.
Themes Serial killer, Murder, Prostitution, Women, Melbourne.
