DEEVES, Pauline Midnight Burial NLA Pub, 2014 80pp $14.99 pbk ISBN 9780642278500 SCIS 1656081 This book is narrated by several people through diaries and letters. It is set on a remote country station in 1868. It covers six months in the lives of the Williamson family and their sheep station. The main narrator is ten-year-old Florence, who keeps a diary of all the happenings in her life. The story starts with the death of Florence’s older sister Lizzie from a fever. The family try to keep things together after this tragedy, and keep on with their everyday lives – organising…
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DARLISON, Aleesah Ash Rover: Keeper of the Phoenix Walker, 2014 268pp $14.95 pbk ISBN 9781922179029 SCIS 1647853 Ash Rover lives in a tiny hamlet called Icamore. Most of its menfolk have been called away to war and the only males left are boys. Ash helps his mother keep their smallholding going while they wait for news from the front but time is slipping away and life without his father and brother is tough. One day while sleeping on the job of minding the cows, Ash is hit on the head by what he thinks is a falling rock – but…
A number of popular Older Reader series have recent new additions…. Scholastic The Last Thirteen 8 & 7 & 6 & 5 James Phelan ($14.99 pbk); Tom Gates A Tiny Bit Lucky L. Pichon ($15.99 pbk); My Australian Story Convict Girl Chrissie Michaels ($16.99 pbk); Spinoff from the Shiver trilogy is the story of Cole St Clair Sinner Maggie Stiefvater ($24.99) Allen & Unwin Reboot 2 & finale Rebel Amy Tintera ($17.99 pbk); #2 Every Breath Ellie Marney ($18.99 pbk); Through My Eyes 4 Emilio Sophie Masson ($15.99 pbk); Ship Kings 3 The War of the Four Isles Andrew McGahan ($22.99); plus #2 The Voyage of the Unquiet Ice reissued with a new jacket in August ($14.99 pbk) Text A Jack Mason Adventure Book II The…
MORGAN, Sally (foreword) Various (text) Remembered by Heart Fremantle Press, 2014 172pp $17.99 pbk ISBN 9781922089779 SCIS 1659673 Imagine having to hide at a moments notice; running to a special hiding place your mum has set up with provisions in case ‘they’ have come to get you. Your heart beating in your chest, adrenaline coursing through your veins until ‘they’ have gone and your mum comes to get you. This is one of the themes running through the collection of these moving stories of loss, fear and forgiveness, which include first-hand experiences of the Stolen Generation. In heart-breaking detail they…
COKAL, Susann The Kingdom of Little Wounds Candlewick, 2013 557pp $24.95 ISBN 9780763666941 SCIS 1647884 This historical fantasy is set in Scandanavia in 1572. The world is believable and the atmosphere within the Palace and outside its walls is convincingly portrayed. Life is hard for everyone, with constant threat of war, disease and intrigue. The reader follows the lives of three women – an aging Queen, a young seamstress and a mute royal nursemaid. Events which befall them are brutal and terribly unfair. The plot is complicated to reflect the political intrigue. Beneath it all is the thread of witchcraft…
Suzy ZAIL Alexander Altmann A10567 Black Dog, 2014 281pp $18.95 pbk ISBN 9781922179999 SCIS 1657933 Set in Auschwitz, although this is a novel, its authenticity and vivid, but sometimes sickening, detail make an indelible impression. The author met survivor Fred Steiner A10567 in Melbourne. Parts of the fictionalised story are drawn from his life and memories. At fourteen Alexander Altmann, raised on a farm in Hungary, found himself herded and surrounded by guards who had heavy boots and whips, who could put a gun to his head, or send his little sister to the gas, and there was no way to…
WALSH, Jennifer Crooked Leg Road Allan & Unwin, 2014 208pp $14.99 pbk ISBN 9781743316931 SCIS 1657176 An adventure story, Crooked Leg Road, has a good sense of suspense and mystery. Four friends become involved in what appears to be a planned kidnap and, when one of them seems to have disappeared, the worst fears of his friends seem to have been realised. The plot is not quite as straightforward as that, however. But when they find that overseas problems can intrude into a peaceful Australian summer, the friends are called on to show courage and initiative. They learn that people…
THOMAS, Jared Calypso Summer Magabala, 2013 222pp $19.95 pbk ISBN 9781922142122 SCIS 1657259 Winner of the 2013 Black&Write Prize. Set in a coastal township in the blistering South Australian summer, Jared Thomas’s coming-of-age novel deals with issues of identity, culture, racism, peer pressure and is sweetened by first love. Kyle, a young Nukunu man, usually known as Calypso, because of his devotion to cricket, and his Rasta image, which he uses in an attempt to disguise his Aboriginality, is just out of high school. Taking his own initiative, he has managed to find a job, not his preferred one in…
SWEENEY, Diana The Minnow Text Pub, 2014 263pp A$19.99 NZ$26.00 pbk ISBN 9781922182012 SCIS 1660643 Tom has lost her family in a flood that has devastated her little town. As her community tries to heal, its citizens do the best they can to support each other. It’s seen as a kind gesture when Bill takes in Tom but his eventual abuse of her reveals a dark side that frightens Tom. Now pregnant, she moves in with her gentle friend Jonah. With support from Jonah and his grandfather, her spry and loving Nana in residential care, and even the concerned local…
STRAHAN, Clare Cracked Allen & Unwin, 2014 308pp $15.99 pbk ISBN 9781743316030 SCIS 1661296 Clover Jones narrates this delightful work of fiction. She is fifteen, smart, a reader who is going steadily through the favourite novels of her mother’s youth, and just awakening to the way romance can enter into the experience of friendship. She has a foul mouth and a strong temper when she feels her rights are being trampled on or her dignity is not being respected. Clover cannot decide whether she is a follower of the Jocks brigade (Rob, a major attraction) or the BMX crew who…