Our latest reviews

Monument by Bonny Cassidy

Reviewed by Joe Murray

Have you ever felt lost in your family history? Have you ever trawled deep into your complicated and often fraught past, finding stories that bewilder and fascinate in equal parts? In many ways, Bonny Cassidy’s Monument is that experience in…

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Servo: Tales from the Graveyard Shift by David Goodwin

Reviewed by Joe Murray

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had? Maybe a dead-end retail role, or a nightmare stint in hospitality? For David Goodwin, that answer is as clear as the glass on a pair of automatic doors. Fresh out of high school…

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Minka and Curdy: The Enchanting Story of a Writer and Her Cats by Antonia White

Reviewed by Alexa Dretzke

Antonia White first published this delightful children’s classic in 1957, and it is as appealing now as it was then. As a cat owner, she knows the ‘real’ owner is the cat, and as a human she must do their…

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Losing the Plot by Annaleise Byrd

Reviewed by Celeste Perry

Terry doesn’t much like reading. Basil loves reading, but he doesn’t much like Terry. Usually, they don’t have a lot to do with one another, and that arrangement works just fine, until Basil is told he will be tutoring Terry…

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Outlaw Girls by Emily Gale & Nova Weetman

Reviewed by Kate McIntosh

Ruby is a modern day hellraiser, a bored teenager with little direction in life and a chip on her shoulder. Kate is the sister of Australia’s most famous bushranger, determined to do whatever it takes to protect her family. When…

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11 Ruby Road: 1900 by Charlotte Barkla

Reviewed by Alexa Dretzke

The ‘olden days’ hasn’t featured often in Australian middle-grade fiction in the last few years.

Except for Jackie French’s recent books, the Our Australian Girl series, and Katrina Nannestad’s wonderful Silver Linings at the end of last year, it has…

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The Grimmelings by Rachael King

Reviewed by Angela Crocombe

This debut novel places the Scottish mythological creature of the Kelpie within a contemporary, realistic setting in New Zealand. When 13-year-old Ella curses a boy who is bullying her on the school bus, she can’t help but think it’s her…

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Wongutha Tales: Bawoo Stories & Badudu Stories by May L. O’Brien

Reviewed by Kealy Siryj

Compiling her beloved stories for the first time, Wongutha Tales by May L. O’Brien is an exciting new collection of classic tales. The Bawoo Stories and Badudu Stories were first published individually in 1992 and have since become favourites in…

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Saturday is Pancake Day by Bernadette Green & Daniel Gray-Barnett

Reviewed by Kim Gruschow

When Dada Henry doesn’t get out of bed for Saturday morning pancakes with their family, Papa Milo is worried. Perhaps Henry doesn’t want pancakes today? Milo and the kids – Lily, Lena, and Gwendolyn – get creative in the kitchen…

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Anne of Greenville by Mariko Tamaki

Reviewed by Lucie Dess

Anne Shirley is a disco-loving, queer, Japanese-American teen whose artistic talents and fun-loving attitude is constantly misunderstood. When she moves to the small town of Greenville with her two adoptive mothers, she knows it’s going to be hard to fit…

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