After a mistaken identity the real King Arthur has taken over the rule of the Kingdom and optimism spreads throughout Camelot. However Brat and Blot have other plans.
SUITABLE AGES:
8 to 12
PUBLISHED:
2010
PUBLISHER:
Random House Australia
ISBN:
781741663822
SERIES:
The dragons ; 2
GENRE:
fantasy
CATEGORY:
Novel
THEMES:
Arthur, King (Legendary character)
Humour
Read aloud
Great Britain - History - 449-1066, Anglo-Saxon period
When Canzhen Temple is destroyed and its warrior monks killed, the grandmaster instructs his five youngest pupils to seek out the secrets of their past.
SUITABLE AGES:
11 to 14
PUBLISHED:
2007
PUBLISHER:
Hodder Children's
ISBN:
9780340932155
SERIES:
The five ancestors ; 1
GENRE:
mystery and suspense
CATEGORY:
Novel
THEMES:
Kung-fu
Asia
Animal-human relationships
Orphans and orphanages
Martial arts
Forman, Gayle
Where she went
2011
9780857530288
TITLE:
Where she went
AUTHOR:
Forman, Gayle
Recommendation:
Highly recommended
When Adam is in New York and discovers that Mia is about to perform in a concert, he can't resist the urge to attend. He finally gets the chance to see her again and together they revisit the past.
SUITABLE AGES:
14 to 18
PUBLISHED:
2011
PUBLISHER:
Doubleday
ISBN:
9780857530288
GENRE:
issues
CATEGORY:
Novel
THEMES:
Rock musicians
Grief
New York (N.Y.)
Death
Music
Sad stories
Romance
Reluctant readers
AWARDS:
Silver Inky shortlist 2011, Best Fiction for Young Adults 2012, Teens' Top Ten 2012
When Wahoo's father is asked to provide animals for the TV show Expedition Survival Wahoo has to keep an eye on his father and Tuna the girl who is hiding from an abusive father.
Savannah Delano is devastated when her boyfriend Hunter dumps her for her clever sister Jane just before the prom. However Chrissy, her fair godmother (a student fairy godmother), comes to the rescue with disastrous results as Savannah is sent back to the Middle Ages, first as Cinderella and then as Snow White.
Ellie captures all the excruciating and funny details of a dreaded camping trip with her crazy relatives by illustrating her sketchbook with her observations.
Lisette is desperately trying to help Luc forget the torment of losing his family and farm. She persuades him to migrate to Tasmania which she estimates will have a climate conducive for lavender growing.
Toward the end of the eighteenth century, two young Germans set out to measure the world. One of them, the Prussian aristocrat Alexander von Humboldt, negotiates savanna and jungle, travels down the Orinoco, tastes poisons, climbs the highest mountain known to man, counts head lice, and explores every hole in the ground. The other, the barely socialized mathematician and astronomer Carl Friedrich Gauss, does not even need to leave his home in Gottingen to prove that space is curved. (Book jacket)
SUITABLE AGES:
15 to 18
PUBLISHED:
2007
PUBLISHER:
Quercus
GENRE:
historical
CATEGORY:
Novel
THEMES:
Humboldt, Alexander von, 1769-1859
Gauss, Carl Friedrich, 1777-1855
Discovery
Germany - History -1740-1806
Martin, Helen
ABC book of seasons
2014
9780733331954
TITLE:
ABC book of seasons
AUTHOR:
Martin, Helen
Each season has its own group of pages that show a range of familiar sights, colours and activities and concludes with a question that draws the child into sharing their own ideas and experiences.
17 year-old Bianca Piper finds out that she is referred as a Duff - Designated Ugly Fat Friend, and starts to confront her problems head on.
SUITABLE AGES:
15 to 18
PUBLISHED:
2015
PUBLISHER:
Hodder Children's Books
ISBN:
9781444927986
GENRE:
issues
CATEGORY:
Novel
THEMES:
School
Family relations
Adolescent psychology
Self-perception
Personal identity
Fillm of the book
SIMILAR BOOKS:
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E.Lockhart, The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler, The Art of Lainey (2014), by Paula Stokes
Francisco Ortiz is excited to be leaving Spanish Harlem in New York on a scholarship to an elite boarding school. His future seems promising. But his new classmates assume the worst and he makes a terrible decision.
FORMAT:
paperback
SUITABLE AGES:
to 18
PUBLISHED:
2015
PUBLISHER:
Square Fish
ISBN:
9781250057013
GENRE:
issues
CATEGORY:
Novel
THEMES:
Boarding schools
Scholarships
Self-perception
Personal identity
Wild, Margaret
This little piggy went dancing
2013
9781760113438
TITLE:
This little piggy went dancing
AUTHOR:
Wild, Margaret
Recommendation:
Recommended
A playful take on the rhyme This little piggy went to market, with the market trip and the roast beef being substituted by all sorts of activities and meals.
When Penguin hears Whale singing the blues, he decides to investigate. Each four page sees something which troubles Whale, and a friend coming to his aid. The illustrations will cause a ripple of laughs from the readers as they spy the absurdity of Whale's concerns under the sea.
Samson is an extraordinary dog. He can not only talk and walk on his hind legs, and dress in a suit, but holds down the CEO position at a major company in the city. Each morning he is chauffeured to work, where he is greeted by his staff and given a cup of coffee. He and his staff work very hard; he loves to chew things over, and throw ideas around. His well trained staff bring his paper in each morning and sit when he says to sit.
Binny Cornwallis has lost some money. Money that wasn't really hers in the first place. With her best enemy Gareth and her beloved dog Max she turns detective to track it down, but the Cornwallis family are anything but helpful.
The cat wants custard, and when called to the kitchen for his tea, runs through the possibilities of what the woman will give him. He rejects many offerings: chicken and gravy, beef, pigs' ears, sardines, and thinks just about custard. He tries to tell the woman how much he wants custard by miming the word, thinking about it so that she will think about it too, and spelling out the words with his body.
SUITABLE AGES:
5 to 7
PUBLISHED:
2016
PUBLISHER:
Scholastic Australia
ISBN:
9781760155780
GENRE:
humour
CATEGORY:
Novel
THEMES:
Cats
Hunger
Communciation
Read aloud
AWARDS:
Early Childhood Book of the Year Award Notable Books 2017
Tao the dragonkeeper (who has power to summon the life-force from the invertebrate world and the ability to see visions into the future) is called upon again to rescue the dragons and their hope for the future - their dragon stones.
Otto, an ordinary German living in a shabby apartment block, tries to stay out of trouble under Nazi rule. But when he discovers his only son has been killed fighting at the front he's shocked into an extraordinary act of resistance, and starts to drop anonymous postcards attacking Hitler across the city.
SUITABLE AGES:
M
PUBLISHED:
2016
GENRE:
historical
CATEGORY:
Novel
THEMES:
Dissent
World War, 1939-1945 - Germany
Berlin (Germany) - History
Resistance
Gestapo
Film of the book
Thomson, Sarah L.
Eureka Key
2017
9781681190617
TITLE:
Eureka Key
AUTHOR:
Thomson, Sarah L.
Recommendation:
Highly recommended
When middle school puzzle master Sam and history wiz Martina win a contest for a summer trip across the US, they discover they've been drafted into something vastly more extraordinary. Joining another kid on the trip, Theo, a descendant of George Washington himself, they must follow clues to find seven keys left behind by the Founding Fathers.
Tom has retired from the priesthood, a vocation he entered at sixteen, and has now come to live in the town where Frankie, another boy in his seminary, lived. But Frankie disappeared twelve months into their training, and although Tom loved this boy, he has not looked for him until now.
Thirteen-year-old gymnast Ellie happily lives in Cornwall with her ship-builder father, artist mother and younger sister Lucy. Her dream however is to be an Olympic gymnast like her aunt. With help from Fran, her local coach, Ellie wins a scholarship to the prestigious London Gymnastics Academy.
Mattheew's OCD behaviour has made it impossible for him to attend school or join in any family activities. He records all the actions of the people who live in his small street in notebooks. They are all everyday occurrences until toddler Teddy disappears from his grandad's front garden. Who has taken him and can Matthew solve the puzzle?
Master of Stillness illuminates the vision of the most celebrated of Australian expatriate artists, from his beginnings in Adelaide until his last major composition painted in Italy.
Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a real princess? How many thrones you'd need to sit on and how many hands you'd have to shake? Not to mention how many frogs you're supposed to kiss?! Bleurgh. Perhaps being a real girl is better after all.
Friend. Lover. Victim. Betrayer. When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Sixteen-year-old friends Red, Leo, Naima and Rose are like anyone their age: figuring out who they are and trying to navigate the minefield of school and relationships. Life isn't perfect, but they're united by their love of music and excited about what the future holds for their band.
In this utterly remarkable novel Karl Ove Knausgaard writes with painful honesty about his childhood and teenage years, his infatuation with rock music, his relationship with his loving yet almost invisible mother and his distant and unpredictable father, and his bewilderment and grief on his father's death. (Book cover)
SUITABLE AGES:
15 to 18
PUBLISHED:
2013
PUBLISHER:
Vintage Books
ISBN:
9780099555162
SERIES:
My struggle ; book 1
CATEGORY:
Novel
THEMES:
Authors, Norwegian
Autobiography
Family
Grief
Writers
Autobiographies
Morgan, Kass
Light years
2018
9781473663398
TITLE:
Light years
AUTHOR:
Morgan, Kass
Recommendation:
Highly recommended
After centuries of exclusivity, the Quatra Fleet Academy finally accepts students from the settler planets, forcing four teenagers from different backgrounds, with different ambitions, motives, and missions, to work together to outmaneuver a mysterious alien enemy.
Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee; their middle daughter, a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes and her father's jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. When Lydia's body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together tumbles into chaos.
Rebecca is one of the world's top war photographers. She must weather a major emotional storm when her husband refuses to put up with her dangerous life any longer.
Henry would like to find a friend at school, but for a boy on the autism spectrum, making friends can be difficult, as his efforts are sometimes misinterpreted, or things just go wrong, but Henry keeps trying, and in the end he finds a friend he can play with.
When Kelsey's agoraphobic mother disappears after years of claiming the kidnappers she escaped from were coming back for her, Kelsey quickly discovers that her mother isn't who she thought she was - and she's not the abductor's only target.
Introduces readers to sixty unusual and engaging collective nouns ranging from a flamboyance of flamingos to a mischief of mice. Includes a note about the origin of the collective nouns featured in the book
In Kyrkarta, magic - known as maz - was once a freely available natural resource. Then an earthquake released a magical plague, killing thousands and opening the door for a greedy corporation to make maz a commodity that's tightly controlled-and, of course, outrageously expensive. Which is why Diz and her three best friends run a highly lucrative, highly illegal maz siphoning gig on the side.
Half-witch, half-mortal sixteen-year-old Sabrina Spellman has made her choice: she's embraced her dark side and her witchy roots. Now her power is growing daily but will it come at too high a price?
