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Our favourite June new releases for teens
From secret prisons to a modern-day Othello, here are the June YA releases we’re most excited about.
Young Adult Book of the Month
One Would Think The Deep by Claire Zorn
It’s 1997, and after the sudden loss of his mother, seventeen year old Sam finds himself alone in the world. His father is long gone, and the only other family he has is the aunt he cut ties with years ago. But desperate times call for desperate measures…
Our favourite June new releases for kids
From magical umbrellas to missing ballet teachers, here are our favourite children’s books in June!
Kids’ Book of the Month
The Other Side of Summer by Emily Gale
Summer is struggling to cope after the death of her beloved brother Floyd, and when her father announces he’s moving the family to Australia, her life falls further into disarray. In the midst of her grief, Summer picks up her brother’s guitar and continues with the lessons he was giving her before…
Q&A with Ben Pobjie
When I read Error Australis I thought… This is a history book but not as we know it. This is a book that could be used in schools, but it’s not like the textbooks we had in the 1980s. This is a book that shows irony is not lost on us as Australians. And I wondered, what was your intention in writing the book? Was it to help readers learn more about history, or was it to make people laugh…
Four booksellers on why you should read The Secret Place by Tana French
We’ve found your perfect new winter crime read…
‘This is one of those twisty, addictive mysteries that had me staying up far too late in the night to learn what happened.
The book’s premise is simple. One year after the murder of a teenage boy at a prestigious girl’s boarding school, a note is found pinned to a board that reads: ‘I know who killed him’. Two detectives come in to investigate – each with their own agenda – and…
Our children's and YA top ten bestsellers of the week
The Other Side of Summer by Emily Gale
In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek and Christine Roussey
Tom Gates: Super Good Skills (Almost!) by Liz Pichon and Christine Roussey
The Bad Guys: Episode 1 by Aaron Blabey
The Stars at Oktober Bend by Glenda Millard
Circle by Jeannie Baker
The Last Star by Rick Yancey
The Bad Guys: Episode 2 by Aaron Blabey
Pax by Sara Pennypacker and Jon Klassen
The World’s Worst Children by David…
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
Chasing Asylum by Eva Orner
The Dry by Jane Harper
Reckoning: A Memoir by Magda Szubanski
Everywhere I Look by Helen Garner
The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood
The Last Painting of Sara De Vos by Dominic Smith
An Economy is Not a Society by Dennis Glover
Out of the Ice by Ann Turner
I Am Here: Stories From a Cancer Ward by Johannes Klabbers
The Music that Maton Made by Andrew McUtchen, Jeff Jenkins, and Barry Divola
…
The Kibble and Dobbie Literary Awards shortlists 2016
Congratulations to all the authors shortlisted for this year’s Kibble and Dobbie Literary Awards. These Awards are open to Australian women writers who have published a book of fiction or nonfiction classifiable as ‘life writing’.
The shortlisted titles for the $30,000 Kibble Literary Award (recognising the work of an established Australian woman writer) are:
A Few Days in the Country: And Other Stories by Elizabeth Harrower
Second Half First by Drusilla Modjeska
Small Acts of Disappearance by Fiona Wright
The…
What we're reading: Jane Harper, Ann Turner and Helen Oyeyemi
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films we’re watching, the television shows we’re hooked on or the music we’re loving.
Stella Charls is reading The Dry by Jane Harper
I’ve always thought of myself as a slow reader, until I picked up The Dry. It’s a cliché, but I mean it when I say I could not put this book down. For two days my copy seemed glued to my hands, and…
Children's and YA authors on reading, writing and confidence
This year the Stella Prize is launching Girls Write Up – a one-day wordfest for teenagers in Melbourne and Sydney in June that ‘teaches empowerment through writing and sharing stories’.
We asked some children’s and young adult authors whether reading and writing had played a role in building their own confidence as young people. Here are their responses.
“When I was in primary school I somehow summoned the bravery to enter our local library’s writing competition. I was a regular…
Mark's Say, June 2016
I’ve just been to a book nerd’s paradise, a bookshop called Fang Suo Commune in Chengdu in Sichuan Province, China. Founded by Mao Jihong, owner of high-end fashion label Exception de Mixmind (China’s first lady is dressed by Mr Mao), Fang Suo is a giant space of 3800 square metres in the basement of an up-market shopping centre. It is a spectacularly beautiful and dramatic space with over 70,000 volumes, mostly in Chinese. I’d been invited to address the Chengdu…
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