1. Young Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe
2. Rabbit’s Hop by Alex Rance
3. All the Ways to Be Smart by Davina Bell & Allison Colpoys
4. The Search for the Silver Witch (Polly and Buster, Book 3) by Sally Rippin
5. The Peacock Detectives by Carly Nugent
6. Funny Kid: Slapstick! by Matt Stanton
7. Sick Bay by Nova Weetman
8. Dev1at3 by Jay Kristoff
9. Land of Fences by Mark Smith
10. Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

The hunger for a truer understanding of Australia’s history is all around us, and we can see this reflected in Bruce Pascoe’s Young Dark Emu continuing week on week to top our children’s and YA bestsellers. This timely and fascinating account of how First Nations people cultivated and cared for this land before European colonisation will spark curiosity and a fire to find out more in every child.

Picture books round out the top three, with Rabbit’s Hop, Richmond Tigers’ Alex Rance’s funny story of resilience (and bunnies!), jumping straight into the second spot in our top 10, followed by the perennially relevant and inspiring All the Ways to Be Smart.

The breadth of junior and middle-fiction is ever-growing and nowhere is this more evident in the books that are proving popular with our customers. There’s Sally Rippin’s heartfelt and magical The Search for the Silver Witch: Polly and Buster (Book 3) alongside Carly Nugent’s sensitive family drama The Peacock Detectives; Matt Stanton’s hilarious Funny Kid: Slapstick! standing shoulder to shoulder with Nova Weetman’s emotionally astute portrait of the precipice between primary and secondary school, Sick Bay.

Finally, it’s wonderful to see that not only are big action-packed YA stories being devoured by teen readers, but that Australian stories are at the top of the heap. Jay Kristoff continues to be a YA sci-fi phenomenon with not one but two books in the bestsellers: self-penned Dev1at3 and co-authored Aurora Rising (with Amie Kaufman). And sandwiched between is Mark Smith’s heart-pounding conclusion to his Winter series, Land of Fences.