July is a cold wintry month, so it’s appropriate that there’s a plethora of YA thrillers, dystopias, and dark subject matter currently on our shelves. You can find some of our best kids reads of the month here. YA BOOK OF THE MONTH Hive by A.J. Betts

Zac and Mia author Betts follows up her bestselling work with the atmospheric and intimate dystopia, Hive.

Nature-loving innocent Hayley …

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The Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize is awarded annually to the book which most successfully reflects the ethos of renowned nature writer Alfred Wainwright’s work, to inspire readers to explore the outdoors and to nurture a respect for the natural world. Congratulations to the authors shortlisted in 2018!

Here is the full 2018 shortlist:

The Last Wilderness by Neil Ansell Hidden Nature by Aly…

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There’s a balanced diet of kids books this month. We’ve got the new Shaun Tan picture book, naughty nanas, crime-fighting pigeons and some heartfelt and thought-provoking middle grade fiction. You can find some of our best teen reads of the month here. KIDS BOOK OF THE MONTH Cicada by Shaun Tan

Office worker Cicada trudges through a grim existence in a drab grey building, unappreciated …

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CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH The Nowhere Child by Christian White

One rainy Melbourne evening, photography teacher Kim Leamy is approached in the cafeteria by a man who has news that will knock Kim right out of her orbit: he believes that she is not Kim Leamy, but in fact Sammy Went, who disappeared twenty-eight years earlier from her home in Manson, Kentucky. Two-year-old Sammy’s disappearance …

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This month, our food and gardening columnist Chris Gordon recommends two cookbooks that celebrate the versatility of cauliflower and nachos, as well as a gorgeous new edition of a classic. The Margaret Fulton Cookbook: 50th Anniversary Edition by Margaret Fulton

Our Margaret once said that she thought her recipes were so popular because ‘part of the thing that women liked about my recipes w…

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Between Us is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Young Adult Book Prize.

I lift my right foot off the ground, and place it on the lowest step of the bus. My nerves are an electric lightning storm inside me, fraught and fiery. The officer waves for me to get on. Her voice cracks with impatience. ‘Hurry up!’

– Clare Atkins, Between Us

Here’s what the judges said…

‘Jono …

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Cicada by Shaun Tan Stories for Boys Who Dare to be Different by Ben Brooks & Quinton Winter The World’s Worst Children 3 by David Walliams & Tony Ross Tiger’s Roar by Alex Rance & Shane McG Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli & Francesca Cavallo The Mystery of the Magic Stones (Polly and Buster Book 2) by Sally Rippin Claris: The Chicest Mouse in Paris by Megan Hess The Wayward …

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Teacher: One Woman’s Struggle to Keep the Heart in Teaching by Gabbie Stroud is a powerful new memoir about Australia’s education system and what it is really like to work within it. You can read an edited extract from the book here.

By this time in my career, I had come to understand that staff meetings were a special kind of torture. Without a judicious Principal or Assistant Principal or mi…

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The Nowhere Child by Christian White The Power of Hope by Kon Karapanagiotidis Open House Melbourne Weekend: 2018 program (available 27 June) Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman Marcia Langton: Welcome to Country by Marcia Langton Less by Andrew Sean Greer Dead Right (Quarterly Essay 70) by Richard Denniss Teacher by Gabbie Stroud Eggshell Skull by Bri L…

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The Wilderness Society has announced the shortlist for the 2018 Environment Award for Children’s Literature.

This award is presented annually to fiction and nonfiction books that ‘foster a love of wild places and wildlife in young Australians’ and ‘encourage a sense of responsibility for our natural world’.

Here are the shortlisted books for each category…

Picture fiction Can You Find Me? by…

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