Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager, meets his septuagenarian Aunt Augusta for the first time in over fifty years at what he supposes to be his mother's funeral. Soon after, she persuades Henry to abandon Southwood, his dahlias and the Major next door to travel her way, Brighton, Paris, Istanbul, Paraguay.
A little boy lives in a barren, war torn area behind a tall barbed wire fence. One day he finds a tiny green shoot and waters and nurtures it until it grows to cover the fence.
A wide range of well-known Australian poems, complimented by Gregory Roger's illustrations, are included in this collection.
SUITABLE AGES:
5 to 10
PUBLISHED:
2003
PUBLISHER:
Random
ISBN:
0759320276
CATEGORY:
Non fiction
THEMES:
Australian poetry
Poetry
Mercer, Sienna
Fangtastic!
2009
9781405243704
TITLE:
Fangtastic!
AUTHOR:
Mercer, Sienna
SUITABLE AGES:
PUBLISHED:
2009
PUBLISHER:
Egmont
ISBN:
9781405243704
SERIES:
My sister the vampire bk 4
CATEGORY:
Novel
THEMES:
Vampires
Brothers and sisters
Twins
Reporters and reporting
Journalists
Wilcock, Lizzie
Give me four reasons
2011
9781921541827
TITLE:
Give me four reasons
AUTHOR:
Wilcock, Lizzie
Recommendation:
Highly recommended
Paige is a quiet, shy girl who never attracts much attention. On the last day of school, she discovers no one has written in her yearbook apart from her three best friends, and as a result she starts to feel lonely and invisible to everyone.
Times are difficult for Jim and his mother. The wheat crop is ready to be harvested, but the harvester is broken and a plague of locusts is on the way.
There are strange and dangerous apparitions around the streets of her school and Rory has to put her new-found ghost hunting skills to the test before ghosts appear from the old grounds of Bedlam.
The Topp Twins perform a version of the well-known song 'She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain', featuring a little girl as the female coming round the mountain, and various farm animals playing instruments and preparing for her arrival. (Publisher)
Laurel Daneau, having lost her mother, grandmother, and home in Hurricane Katrina, thinks things are going well with her new life until she is introduced to meth.
The Inheritance, set in an English country manor, is the story of Edith Adelon, an Italian orphan brought to England by Lord Hamilton as a companion for his children. With a charm reminiscent of Jane Austen's novels, Alcott's plot sets love and courtesy against depravity and dishonour - and with the help of a secret inheritance, allows virtue to prevail. - Cover
SUITABLE AGES:
12 to 18
SIMILAR AUTHORS:
L.M. Montgomery, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jane Austen
PUBLISHED:
1998
PUBLISHER:
Penguin
ISBN:
9780140436662
GENRE:
romance
CATEGORY:
Novel
THEMES:
Family relations
Classics
Film of the book
Orphans and orphanages
Great Britain - Social life and customs
Books for girls
Oranges and sunshine
2010
FILM TITLE:
Oranges and sunshine
Up to 150,000 children had been deported from children's homes in Britain and shipped off to a 'new life' in distant parts of the Empire - the last as recently as 1967. Many were told that their parents were dead, and parents often believed that their children had been adopted in Britain. Margaret Humphreys' mission was to reunite these innocent and unwilling exiles with their families in Britain, by founding the Child Migrants Trust. (Publisher).
SUITABLE AGES:
M
PUBLISHED:
2010
PUBLISHER:
Little Gaddesden Productions
GENRE:
issues
CATEGORY:
Film
THEMES:
Australia - Immigration and emigration - Policy
Great Britain - Immigration and emigration - Policy
Sylvia Snail loves gardener Simon Greens' vegetable patch where she can munch on mushrooms, chomp on cabbages and indulge in luscious lettuce leaves. Unfortunately, keen organic gardener Simon has reached the limits of his patience, his carefully tended vegetables are being eaten by Sylvia.
In rhyming stanzas Blabey describes the dog, Pig, as it gathers all its toys to itself, its blazing eyes daring poor old Trevor to come any closer. Trevor the sausage dog has had the temerity to suggest that Pig share his toys, but rather than do that, Pig builds a tower of his toys, eventually making one so tall that it topples over and he falls from the open window.
SUITABLE AGES:
5 to 7
SIMILAR AUTHORS:
PUBLISHED:
2014
PUBLISHER:
Scholastic Press
ISBN:
9781743624777
GENRE:
issues
CATEGORY:
Picture book
THEMES:
Sharing
Cooperation
Dogs
Read aloud
Pug dogs
Verse stories
AWARDS:
Young Australians' Best Book Awards 2015, Early Childhood Book of the Year Award shortlist 2015
Gene, the daughter of a noble family, runs away from the decadence of court to R.H. Ragona's circus of magic, where she meets runaway Micah, whose blood could unlock the mysteries of the world of Ellada.
SUITABLE AGES:
to 18
PUBLISHED:
2013
PUBLISHER:
Strange Chemistry
ISBN:
9781908844361
GENRE:
fantasy
CATEGORY:
Novel
THEMES:
Circuses
Runaways
Romance
Honey, Elizabeth
Hop up! Wriggle over
2015
9781743319987
TITLE:
Hop up! Wriggle over
AUTHOR:
Honey, Elizabeth
Recommendation:
Recommended
Nine bouncing baby Australian animals roll across each of the pages in this enchanting look at the activities a family undertakes during a day. From getting up with parents, kangaroo and koala tugged awake by their hungry offspring, to bed time where all sleep the sleep of the exhausted after a fun packed day children will scream with delight recognising the things they do with their own families.
FORMAT:
paperback
SUITABLE AGES:
3 to 5
PUBLISHED:
2015
PUBLISHER:
Allen & Unwin
ISBN:
9781743319987
GENRE:
family
CATEGORY:
Picture book
THEMES:
Australian poetry
Animals
Australia
Bed time
Daily activites
AWARDS:
Early Childhood Book of the Year Award Notable Books 2016
Jessica has never had a friend like Francis before. Not just because he's someone to laugh with every day - but because he's the first person who has ever been able to see her.
Previously published in Canada and the United States as: Sidewalk flowers. On a walk with her father, a little girl gathers a bunch of wild flowers found hidden in the places people usually don't look. Then, in small, loving gestures, the little girl transforms the world around her by giving each one away. (Book cover)
SUITABLE AGES:
5 to 7 8
PUBLISHED:
2015
PUBLISHER:
Walker Books
ISBN:
9781406362084
GENRE:
wordless
CATEGORY:
Picture book
THEMES:
Wild flowers
Gifts
Girls
Fathers
Parent and child
Graphic novels
Gentleness
AWARDS:
NYT Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2015, Greenaway Medal shortlist 2016
To keep Carla from going to prison, away from her three-year-old daughter, Sadie takes the rap, thinking she'll get community service but ends up in a juvenile corrections facility for six months.
SUITABLE AGES:
14 to 18
PUBLISHED:
2015
PUBLISHER:
Walker Books
ISBN:
9781406358629
GENRE:
issues
CATEGORY:
Novel
THEMES:
Brothers and sisters
Juvenile courts
Siblings
Reluctant readers
AWARDS:
Top Ten Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers 2015
Migliardo, Emiliano
Seek and find dinosaurs
2016
9781408867532
TITLE:
Seek and find dinosaurs
AUTHOR:
Migliardo, Emiliano
Recommendation:
Highly recommended
This brightly coloured activity book welcomes the young child into the world of dinosaurs.
Etta was 'Classical Music's Best Kept Secret.' She is an eighteen year old violinist set to make her debut on the concert scene. On the night of her debut her life knocked off track through an act of violence and revenge and Etta is transported to 1770.
MEEP is a story about a baby peacock who gives away his feathers to help his friends feel better about the way they look.
SUITABLE AGES:
5 to 7
PUBLISHED:
2015
PUBLISHER:
Tiny Owl Workshop,
ISBN:
9780992288723
GENRE:
animal
CATEGORY:
Picture book
THEMES:
Peacocks
Kindness
Friendship
Birds
Gentleness
AWARDS:
Early Childhood Book of the Year Award Notable Books 2016
Hunt, Steven Masciullo, Lucia
Nose pixies
2016
9781460705988
TITLE:
Nose pixies
AUTHOR:
Hunt, Steven Masciullo, Lucia
Oliver has a very nasty habit, that of picking his nose and planting the pickings in his mouth. He tells his hands to behave but without thinking those fingers sneak back into his nose. One night Dad tells him a very strange story, that of the nose pickers whose job it is to mine noses.
Barney Saltzberg's Hug this Book is a delightful rhyming story, which celebrates the joy of reading. The enjoyment of receiving a new book, the smell, the adventure, the tickling pages and the warmth of a story wrapping you inside all provide pleasurable sensory experiences.
Eleven-year-old Ebony's lonely life is filled with school, chores, minding her little sisters and treading carefully around her father. Her dad is the tiger, an alcoholic gambler who rules his family through physical and emotional abuse.
Halloween can be a fun time but when you are half zombie things can be a bit different. Ben hopes that being half zombie will help him get extra candy this Halloween.
Plunged into a world of different possibilities we are told that, through magic, things can be changed - and sometimes revenge can be exacted on those who have hurt others.
SUITABLE AGES:
15 to 18
SIMILAR AUTHORS:
Elizabeth Berg, Janette Turner Hospital, Sue Monk Kidd, Alison Lurie, Carol Shields, Anne Tyler
In this satire of how contemporary war is waged and sold to the American public, we follow one day in the life of Billy Lynn, a 19-year-old soldier who is on a "victory tour" of America during the time of the Iraq war, a tour that the government is using to drum up support for the war.
SUITABLE AGES:
15 to 18
PUBLISHED:
2013
PUBLISHER:
Canongate
ISBN:
9780857864406
GENRE:
humour
CATEGORY:
Novel
THEMES:
Veterans
Iraq War, 2003-2010
Propaganda
Soldiers
War veterans
Army soldiers
Satire
Comparative texts
SIMILAR BOOKS:
American sniper (film), The yellow birds by Kevin Powers
Williamson, Lisa
All about Mia
2018
9781910989111
TITLE:
All about Mia
AUTHOR:
Williamson, Lisa
Mia Campbell-Richardson, 16, is ballsy, gorgeous and kind of a disaster. Unlike her brilliant sisters, academic Grace (19) and champion swimmer Audrey (13), middle child Mia has no idea what she wants to do with her life and is convinced of her status as the black sheep of the family. Struggling at school and unable to deal with her parents easy acceptance of perfect sister Grace's fall from grace - Mia goes into a tailspin, misguidedly seducing a man in his 40s and putting herself at risk on several occasions by drinking herself into oblivion. It is only the disappearance of her quiet and loving baby sister that is eventually able to bring Mia and Grace back together and help Mia see at last that she doesn't need it all to be about Mia to be happy.
SUITABLE AGES:
15 to 18
SIMILAR AUTHORS:
Karen Gregory
PUBLISHED:
2018
PUBLISHER:
David Fickling Books
ISBN:
9781910989111
GENRE:
issues
CATEGORY:
Novel
THEMES:
Brothers and sisters
Family relations
Pregnancy and adolescents
Siblings
Family relationship
Teenage pregnancy
Child 44
2015
FILM TITLE:
Child 44
Set in Stalinist Russia, where children are being killed and mutilated by a serial killer.
